Monkeying Around

I've got a car seat safety post I've been working on for a while and in it, I go into detail about not using heavy coats in the car seat. It's not safe but my post is still in draft mode, so I'm just going to provide a link to reasons why for now. That's not the point of this post. {Go here to read a post someone else completed while I pretend I've already published that post and move to this next post about solutions.}

For now, we get into the car, remove coats, buckle up and go. We get to our destination, unbuckle, put coats back on, and off we go. A lot of sites recommend car seat ponchos, a thick, fleece 'blanket' of sorts that can be lifted up behind the kiddo to be buckled into the car seat. No need to remove any coat for quick hauls in and out of the car.

Well, last week, I finally decided to give it a shot, after seeing it done on one of my many favorite blogs. {Seriously, the woman writing that blog is amazing. Read her stuff!} I took the kids to Jo-Ann Fabrics and let them each pick out a patterned fleece and a corresponding solid one. Two layers of fleece, plus a sweater that can be used in a car seat. We'll use hats and gloves as well. They should be fine. I hope.

Today I made Bella's poncho. It's adorable. I haven't used a sewing machine since high school so I could have done better but for the first time back in the saddle in about ten or more years, I'm pretty happy with how it came out! There was no specific pattern, I bought a yard of each fabric, took measurements and snipped and sewed away! The measurements I used were finger tip to finger tip with arms spread out, and back of neck to under tushies. For the hoods I pulled out current hoodies they are wearing. It's described much better in the blog I linked to above, where I got my motivation from to begin with!

She clearly was not excited at the prospect of putting down her toys to try it on.

And off she ran.

I did make a mistake when cutting the hood. But I'm pretending this was intentional. And I love how the ears came out.

She was so excited about it. Running around yelling, "Oooh ooh ahh ahhhh!" (monkey sound for anyone that doesn't speak toddler.)

This definitely gives me points towards #6 on my birthday list!!! Not cross-off worthy, but points towards it.

And in other news, we are in the beginning stages of potty training with Bella. With the luck we had with Benny, I feel like I shouldn't talk about it but I will. Take that, luck! For now, she is wearing underwear over her diaper and I take her to the toilet as often as I can, pulling both down at once to make it seem more like just underwear. She is loving it and doing great. I'm going to stay as close to home as possible this week, see where it goes! I bought her some Minnie Mouse (a HUGE current obsession) and Disney Princess underwear and her smile COULD NOT BE BIGGER when she got to choose a pair, Minnie Mouse of course, to put on! 

Fingers crossed. And anything else you can do for good luck. It's gonna be a fun one!