Highlights

Our friend Lauryssa spent the week at our place. We burned the midnight oil several nights in a row, talking and sewing, sewing and talking. She made this skirt. She didn't have a shirt to match so she added some fabric scraps to tie the look together. :)





While she worked on the skirt, I worked on a red corduroy jacket for Indigo. I saw this mini boden jacket and was determined to copy it. Using this Oliver + S pattern, this jacket was an absolute dream to sew. Much easier than my last jacket, which wasn't necessarily difficult.








I added two pockets to the inside lining, because my girl loves pockets.



One thing I've found having three kids my kids' ages is I have to be so much more mindful, and actually downright vigilant, about taking care of myself and keeping my cup full. Even though I had a blast sewing late into the night, I could feel I was less patient the next day because I wasn't as well rested. Since we had company, I didn't do my regular evening walking routine. I haven't been keeping up with my formal mediation practice since before we went to WI. The point is I was feeling kinda frazzled so I was actually excited when it came time to do the hand sewing on this jacket. There was quite a bit of handsewing. I felt like I needed that time. The time to sit in a chair, and do nothing but the task at hand. To slow down.  To unitask, not multi-task.

Jude came over and asked me to take a picture of him with his two favorite animals, Little Donkey and Ruffy-Ruff. Seeing my big boy, who's only weeks away from starting kindergarten, so innocently loving his animals melted my heart. One highlight of my week to be sure.



But the absolute highlight of the week - the thing that didn't just melt my heart, but turned it into a big gooey mess of molten lava involved Evangeline. Evie is going through a stage where she is frustrated a lot. She only recently got walking down and is still not communicating much verbally. Being she can't communicate her needs, she has a lot of tantrums. Big tantrums. Like 5s on the hurricane scale.

As an adoptive parent, I'm trying to sort out how much of this is age-related and how much is adoption related. It's different than what we experienced with our other two kids. So here comes the big story - The OT was here working with Evie. Evie was playing with her baby, with the OT observing. She picked up the baby, cuddled it into her chest and then started singing to the baby. She doesn't know a single word, yet she grasped the concept of singing to a baby. I just about burst into a puddle of tears right then and there. To see this child, who refused to be comforted by us initially, who would not allow us to rock her unless she was being fed, now not only accepts affection from us, but is passing it along to her baby. Wow. All in six months time. My heart was just so full of love for her. Such an amazing girl.