Teddy with a Story

This curious little teddy bear you see in the picture above is as precious to us as a teddy can ever be. Her name is 'Teddy' and no, it is not a typo, it is a 'she', not a 'he'. 

She was a gift for my son from a friend of mine when he was first born but he has never been a big fan of soft toys, of course except for his 'storm friend'. Also, these days, he enjoys watching TV with Snoopy the dog (about the size of our 4yo daughter) at times but no other soft toys have been much of an interest to him. Therefore, teddy was left lonely up until Miss Junior was born and was close to the age of one, I believe.

Out of all those dolls and other soft toys that we had at home at the time, she chose her, Teddy, to be the most precious and even share her bed with. When she was approximately 2 years old, when we said that it was a boy, she was totally upset with our misinterpretation and incorrect assumption. Luckily, she had the intelligence and patience to explain to us (and others who called her a boy or 'he' a few times over the years) that it was a girl, just wearing her brother's pyjamas! To that explanation, there was no other word we could argue or add. That was it. It -now- is a female teddy wearing her hand-me-down jimjams of her elder brother. 

Now, Teddy has a family of her own. Her mother is the 'Brown Teddy' and father is 'Snoopy'. She also likes to call her 'her baby' which qualifies her as a second mother. Don't be fooled with the word 'second', she is no less than the first in any way. 

Normally, she is too precious to leave home in case she gets damaged or lost. Only when we go on extended trips or holidays she comes with us, The last time we went overseas for a break, we kept checking our passports and Teddy each time, to make sure there was no trouble awaiting us. 

Teddy has claimed the doll stroller and the doll highchair at home, of course. Even though my daughter has recently started to pay a bit more attention to dolls, no doll can compete with Teddy at this stage in her life. She even asked me to put away some of her 'now-small- clothes' for Teddy. She uses her unused nappies that were left over from when she used them for her, she sleeps with her in bed, and each time we have a meal, she places Teddy in the highchair and puts the highchair next to hers at the table. She doesn't feed her or anything but she really enjoys the 'pretend' games and this is a great opportunity for her. 

Recently, she has told me that she is tired of washing Teddy's clothes and there are so many food stains on her clothes and she really needs some bibs. She also told me that 'she likes the sky, and the moon, and red'. Then she went to my fabric stash and picked out this fabric in the picture saying that 'she likes stars too and Teddy said OK to pink'. She is quite a decisive person. She just looked at the stash and easily and very decisively told me which fabric was to be used for the bib I was to make for her. Don't I wish sometimes my customers over at MADE BY Y  were as decisive?

The same day, she went to bed for a nap and I started making the bib for Teddy. I also added a little teddy bear applique to the bib to surprise her as well. She seemed to be quite happy and Teddy seemed to be quite curious about her little friend. Now, Miss Junior puts Teddy's bib on her during meal times and then takes it off when she remembers or when she takes her off the highchair. Appearantly, Teddy is getting cold and now needs a pair of shoes too but I am yet to decide how to come up with a pattern for her tiny feet. I may have to crochet a pair instead of sewing but that still is up in the air. Until then, a pair of Miss Junior's socks on her should do.

Does your child have a precious toy too? Have you ever needed to make anything for it?

Lunch Ideas for School Kids (2)

I have been longing to make this post for such a long time now but it looks like today had to be the day. I seriously am one busy woman! (Who isn't, ha?)

I had shared four lunch ideas/recipes with you here previously. I prepare lunch for my son on a daily basis, and Miss Junior now has lunch at school a few days a week as well, so, do expect many more to come in time but for now, enjoy the ones below:

1. Lunch and Snack:

• (Homemade organic) bread and spreadable cheese with chia
• Avocado slices
• (Homegrown) cherry tomatoes
• (Organic) cranberries
• Pineapple slices

2. Vegetable and cheese kebabs:

• Red capsicum, 
• cucumber, 
• mozzarella cheese

3. Lunch: 

• Carrots
• Raw fresh garden peas
• Slice bread
• Cheese slice

Snack: Fruit Salad

• Blueberries
• Kiwi
• Strawberries
• Nectarin

4a. Lunch and Snack for Mr. Junior

• Homemade roast beef - cold cut.
• Baby spinach and fetta cheese salad
• Flat bread chips
• Cucumber, yoghurt and mint dip (tzatziki)
• Fruit salad with melon, kiwi and strawberries

4b. Lunch and Snack for Miss Junior

• See 4a for content.

All for a Special Person

Recently, we have celebrated a special day of a very special person in our family, our little daughter's 4th birthday. This year, her birthday fell on a day during the term break, only a few days before Term 2 started. She attends a Montessori school and they have a particular way of celebrating birthdays, which embeds a lot of learning about the solar system into the celebration. They use a globe that represents the planet we live on, and a round yellow candle to represent the Sun. The candle is lit and is placed in the middle of a circle (they have a particular mat that marks a circle - or rather an oval, really - and the children sit around it, just behind the line); the birthday child holds the globe and walks around the circle as many times as the number of their new age. For instance, if the child turns 3 on the day, the child turns around the circle three times, which represents the fact that since the child was born, the Earth has circled the Sun 3 times, once a year. The child's family also provides a photo for each year of the child and the children in class get to see the photos in the order starting from birth to understand the evolution of the child in time.

We don't normally have birthday parties or do traditional birthday celebrations at home, but we make every effort to make sure that the birthday person feels 'extra special' on the day (or perhaps the week!) just to make sure that they understand, once again, how special they are to the rest of the family. We all try very hard to spend the day (or the closest convenient day) together, spoil the person with a special breakfast (it is pretty much the same for our children as the request comes from them and it has not changed much so far: some homemade pancakes with lots of berries and fruit and some honey, maple syrup or berry sauce), do things that the birthday person enjoys doing the most or that has put in a request for. We also aim to do some donations on behalf of the birthday person.

This year, I asked my daughter just before the term break whether she wanted to have a Montessori celebration at school as well or not and she said yes. Therefore, the teacher marked the first day of school in Term 2 for her birthday celebration (half an hour of the day). The school's procedure is that every child that celebrates birthday at school is to bring in photos of themselves (one per year since birth) and a fruit platter.

 At the end of the day, every child gets a little gift from the birthday child, which is totally optional. Our little princess wanted some finger puppets for her friends and we worked on it throughout the holidays. Even my son made his own finger puppets for a few of his friends, all on his own!

My daughter actually asked for 3 puppets for each of her friends but luckily, I was able to negotiate with her and we settled for two. We also packaged them together at the end. I now have one happy class-full of 3-5year olds. We still keep getting compliments from the school and the families about the puppets. Just today a mum was telling me how her 3year old son's puppets are also a favourite at home for her 14month old daughter too. They even play together! I surely had quite a few late-nights to make all those puppets but it was well worth it!

 

DID YOU KNOW ...? (79)

Click here for source

Here is an interesting fact about the wingless insects, fleas. According to a source, they are able to jump 150 times and another source 110 times their hight. They can jump approximately 18cm (7inches) vertically and 33cm (13inches) horizontally. If compared to humans, it is equivalent of a 180cm tall human being jumping about two football fields high!

ANNOUNCEMENT: A New Blog

I have been working on a brand new project, a new blog, for a while and it is now ready to go public (Well, mostly. There is still some fine tuning to do but it will happen in time). 

The new blog is very different to this blog here. It is called ENGLISH IN COMFORT and aims to teach English to the speakers of Turkish language using comparisons of both languages, explanations, examples, work sheets, songs, research results and everything else that you can imagine that helps in learning/teaching a new language. 

You can click here to have a look it and if relevant, follow to be posted on a regular basis. 

DUYURU:

Yepyeni bir blog ile yine karşınızdayım. Ancak, yeni blogum burada olandan çok daha farklı bir konuda ve Türkce okur-yazarlara hitap ediyor. ENGLISH IN COMFORT adını verdiğim bu yeni blogda, çogunlukla Türkçe dilini kullanarak İngilizce öğretiyor olacağım. Dilin kuralları, Türkçe ve İngilizce dil yapısının anlamayı kolaylaştıracak karşılaştırmaları, örnekler, açıklamalar, alıştırmalar,  kendiniz için ya da İngilizce'yi çocuğunuza öğretebilmeniz için gereken her türlü paylaşımda bulunuyor olacağım. 

Buraya tıklayarak yeni blogumu ziyaret edebilir ve hatta takibe alabilirsiniz. 

Harmony Day

A solo voice was singing

quite a pretty little song

Another voice who knew the tune

joined in and sang along

The duet sang in unison

their voices side by side

One bass voice one soprano

on the same melodic ride

Another singer joined them

Counter pointed to their sound

As this voice descended theirs would climb

and the other way around

The tune got woven, twisted, plaited

in a tapestry to hear

Building to a pretty picture

that grabbed people by the ear

Now each singer had to listen

to the other singers' part

to stay in time and stay in tune

With all fellow singers' hearts

They had to work with common purpose

If they all would get along

and welcome other different voices

to build the richest fullest song.

All the voices joined together

had the audience entranced

Folk were swaying to the rhythm

while some other people danced

And they sang about community

but with a common ground

where each one had a part to play

so that harmony was found.

(Harmony, by Paul Walker.)

(Harmony Day: This year on the 21st of March, 2015, Australia will be celebrating the 15th Harmony Day. It is a day that reminds and celebrates diversity, respect and inclusiveness... Harmony Day coincides with the United Nation's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.)

Guest Post: Make the Most of the Small Bathroom

About the Author: 

Diana Smith is a full time mom of two beautiful girls interested in topics related to home improvement, DIY and interior design. In her free time she enjoys reading and preparing healthy meals for her family. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianaSmith82; 
E-mail: dianasmith.dany@gmail.com; G+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116091795770131287107/posts

Guest blogger: Diana Smith

While bathroom is a really important part of your home, it doesn’t mean that it needs to be big in order to be beautiful and functional. Truth be told, small bathroom leaves a lot to be desired from this space, but if you make an effort to make it functional and compact, you can make it look bigger than it is and you can really make up for its lack of size. At least, visually, your bathroom can be more spacious, but you just need to think through its design a little bit. Here are some of the ways you can do it and some of the ideas to make the most of the small bathroom place.

 Click here for image source

Use the Vertical Space

Small space usually seems even smaller if you allow for the furniture and details to come into your way and break it into areas. This happens when you have a lot of stuff that you need in that space and little space to store it. Also, if you cannot move around freely without bumping something over, the space is dysfunctional and seems pretty small and cramped up. What owners of small bathrooms usually forget is that they can use the vertical space as well. Be creative about it and use those walls to make the storage space for all the things that will free up the space around you.

Tie the Room Together

When you tie the room together you achieve the effect of unity of the space which makes it seem like it is one big space rather than several areas in one. You can achieve this by tiling. Use the same tiles for the floors and then use them for the lower part of the walls and tile over the bathtub and all the things you can up until the certain level. Visually, this will make the space look much bigger.

Furniture That Goes with the Space

In order to make sure that the space is properly used up, you will need some furniture that will go with the space and that will take up as little space as possible. This means that some of it may even be custom made to fit into the corners and don’t interrupt the line of the space so that it blends in with the walls. This will make the space look more opened up and uninterrupted, so it will appear to be bigger.

Click here for image source

Toilets and Showers

A much better solution for the small bathroom, than a bathtub, is a walk in shower or even the wet bathroom. Walk in shower has no obvious separating from the rest of the room so it doesn’t shrink it up. Wet bathroom makes it even easier to save space, but it cancels out the possibility to freely use walls for storage as the stuff might get wet. However, this can be taken care of with careful choice of storage shelves. Toilets that are perfect for small bathrooms are built in toilets that have the free space beneath them. Sinks as well. However, this means that you will have to call the plumber for every case of blocked drains as it will be difficult for you to take care of it.

Clutter

All the things you do to make the bathroom more spacious will be in vain if you clutter it up with unnecessary details. Small bathroom needs to be filled only with the necessities and all the things like empty bottles, too much details, ornaments and home chemistry should not be stored there. In reality, they will not take up too much space, but visually, it will seem like they do. Entire side of the bathroom where these things are stored will look used up and this automatically shrinks the entire space.

These are just some of the things that you can do to make your bathroom space look bigger than it already is. Giving it a lot of light and making sure that the colors used in it are bright and light, will definitely make it look larger. Also, when it comes to colors, one wall can be painted or tiled in a deep blue shade as it will add another dimension to the entire space.