Friday, July 29, 2011

A Future Librarian

My whole little family LOVES going to the library.  We visit,  read books, play on the computer, play with the puzzles, and even attend classes and music programs.  Our little town's library offers so many resources for children and parents.  
Kara, my daughter, has her own library key card and a designated bag (that she picked out herself) to take with us when we go.  The librarians greet Kara by name every time too.  Most of the librarians have known her since she was a few months old.  It feels so good to have such a great rapport with our local library.  
Today's visit was like no other, except that we ran into her grandmother and aunt tutoring a couple of local boys.  Kara was first confused, then happy to have seen them there. 


 Kara has a library routine, so to speak.  
First, we always greet the fish in the fish tank.  Her favorite one is which ever one is the smallest one for the week, so it varies.  Then we go downstairs to the children's section and she picks out her books to read there and then, when she is ready, she picks out the ones she wants to take home.  Now THIS is the part that melts my heart.  She walks over to the children's computer area.  She piles her books, sits down, and picks up the mouse.  She takes the first book, opens it to the barcode and "scans" the book with the mouse.  Once she sees that the red light coming from the bottom of the mouse glows onto the book, she closes the book. Then she proceeds to type some random letters and press the shift key.  She repeats this until all of her books are "checked out" by her.  Finally, we check out, for real this time.  The funny thing is, that the librarian does the same thing, she scans, types something, and then presses the shift button.  She has been paying attention all this time!  She knew exactly what to do!  That truly made my day.  The best part is what she is associating books and reading to.  She loves to read, make up her own stories, and act them out for us.  What can I say? I am such a proud mama!
Here are a few pictures she
 "let" me take today.




Thursday, July 28, 2011

My Knitting Project Wish List

This is a wish list of knitting projects I want to do and HOPEFULLY have the time and skill to do them.  I've been pretty good with figuring things out myself lately but I'm still a hands-on learner and need more one of one time with a real person, not just books and YouTube.  I've only been knitting since February of this year!


Here's my list so far


1. Hallowig
2. Ninja Turtles stuffed toys
3. Baby lace dress

Bandages, Bandages, Bandages

My daughter has recently become allergic to the adhesive and the latex in bandages. So when she gets a boo-boo, we have to wrap her in gauze. After a while, it got a little bit too expensive! There had to be a cheaper, greener way. And there is! Knitted bandages! I'm making her a few kits for home, school, and her traveling bag. So far I've made 3 lengths. One to wrap around once for small boo-boos, one to wrap around twice and one to wrap around three times. I'm also in the process of making some small finger sized bandages.  The best part about these bandages is that they are totally washable so they can be used again and again.


I used size 1 double pointed needles. You can use regular needles as well. I like to use double pointed needles with small width projects because it's easy to take along with me.
At first I used mercerized cotton yarn like some websites suggested when making bandages. I felt that for what I needed them, it was still too thick. So I went with crochet thread instead. It was the perfect thickness that I needed. Here's a picture of it.
I cast on at 27 stitches, garter stitch, which made it about 2 1/2 in width, the typical width of rolled up gauze.  It was the perfect width for a 3 1/2 year old.  
Here is what the final product looks like. 


Here's a close up.



Here it is rolled up.



Here's my little munchkin modeling it for me.



First, I spread antibiotic ointment to the boo-boo area.  Then I put a little piece of gauze on top.  Then I roll the bandage on her and safety pin it.  It's pretty stretchable and breathable too.  
She loves getting all of the extra attention with her special bandages.