Happy Easter!!

I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

(I just had to get the above picture before church this morning.  Our third girl is allergic to latex, and thankfully, most Nikes are free of natural rubber latex.  So she gets to wear her Nikes with her fancy Easter dress.  I wish I could wear my Nikes with my fancy dresses and look just as cute!!)

Making Toddler Pants from an Old T-Shirt

This was one of my simplest projects EVER!!  I got the idea one time from somewhere, but I can't remember where.  So sorry I can't give credit where credit is due.

My 2-year-old is severely allergic to latex, so I can't use any pants or shorts on her that have latex-containing elastic in the waistband (or spandex throughout).  So I decided to make her some pants and shorts, using latex-free elastic.  Didn't these come out cute (if you ignore all the wrinkles!!)?

They were super fast and easy to make, using a t-shirt my hubby had given me that he no longer wears (in the picture above, I used the white t-shirt below).

There's no hemming or anything for these pants, because the t-shirt is already hemmed for you!  

Ok, I had typed out instructions for this, but I hadn't taken pictures of all the steps.  To make things a LOT easier for you, I found the following video on How to Make:

How to Make Baby Pants from a T-Shirt

Go make some easy pants!!!  =)

Allergen-Free School Supplies and Toys

If you're able to buy your kids whatever crayons, paints, toys, etc you want to, I am soooooooo happy for you!  For many of us, it can be a nightmare.  Having to call or email companies to find out if a certain type of tape has latex, if their putty has gluten or wheat, if their crayons have been handled by someone wearing latex gloves, etc.

For instance, you're at home, wrapping a present for your daughter's birthday--your daughter who is deathly allergic to latex.  Then you run out of tape.  You need to go to the store anyway, so you head out  to get some.  Once at the store in front of the tape, you realize that you forgot to write down the brand you bought last time--the one brand that you already found out was latex-free.  So you call your hubby at home and ask him what brand it was.  Only, he already threw away the empty dispenser you so rudely left in the middle of the floor, took it outside, and the garbage truck has already come.  You call the 1-800 numbers listed on several tape packages, and they all say they'll speak with their "whatever-it-is" department and get back with you, may they please have your name and number, they'll call you back in 5-7 business days.

So you write down several brand names and head back home tapeless, but on a mission.  Once home, you get online and write e-mails to all the companies, asking if their tape is latex-free.  You try to be civil, even though you feel like telling them how idiotic it is to use such a highly allergic material in anything anyway.  They all write back a week later, asking for specific product names, numbers, colors, manufacturing date, and all of the other information you didn't write down from all of those packages.  So you go back to the store, write down everything, head back home, and e-mail all the information in.  They then write back a month later, just to tell you that all of their tapes contain latex, and they hope your pleased with their products, and they hope they can be of more service to you in the future.

Meanwhile, your daughter's birthday passed two weeks previous, and you eventually just threw the half-wrapped gift into a gift bag.

I recently heard about an awesome website, Discount School Supply.  On their site, you can actually look only at products that are free of specific allergens!  You can search based on gluten, dairy/casein, peanuts/treenuts, eggs, soy, and yes, latex.  They even have latex-free, regulation-sized footballs, basketballs, etc.  And the prices are great!!

No, they didn't ask me to advertise for them--they don't know who I am or that I'm even blogging about them.  I was just excited that someone actually took the time to make it easy to find safe products without jumping through hoops.  I thought this might help some of you out, too!

Bandanna Skirts and Hair Clips

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this tutorial for how to make "The Handkerchief Hem Bandana Skirt" on Designed by Dawn Nicole.  I fell in love with it immediately and knew that I had to make some for my Little Love #5.  So I ran out (well, at that time I was 9 months pregnant, so I waddled out) to the craft store and bought some bandannas.

So, these skirts really are super simple to make.  Somehow, I managed to royally mess up my math and ended up with way too large of holes in the centers of the bandannas (and, of course, I cut all 4 before opening one up to look at it), but they still managed to turn out fine.  But, as the old adage says, make sure you measure twice and cut once.  I made these with a couple-of-days-old-baby in the house, so I'll blame sleep deprivation.  =)  This one will be perfect for Valentine's Day.

I then had the circles I had cut out of the centers of the bandannas, so I used those to make matching hair clips following this tutorial on Fabric Bows and More.  I pinked the edges of the black-and-white ones and frayed the edges of the heart ones.

Anyway, this project was super cheap, super fast, and super easy.  I used latex-free elastic, and the bandannas are 100% cotton, so my daughter can wear them with no problems.  I love how it all turned out!

Green Smoothies

I few times recently, I have had people ask me what my favorite green smoothie recipes are.  While I know that there are wonderful recipes out there, I don't use any recipes for ours!  We buy whatever fruits and veggies are in season or on sale, and we throw whatever we have into our smoothies.

I typically start with an apple, pear, or both.  We also typically throw in a very generous handful of spinach.  From there, it can vary greatly.  For example, yesterday's smoothie had an apple and a pear, a large handful of fresh cranberries, carrots, frozen strawberries, several leaves of cabbage, 1/2 a cucumber, frozen broccoli, and some romaine lettuce (we're actually out of spinach).  I may mix it up today by using an orange, green leaf lettuce, grapes, peppers, etc.  No matter what mix I use, my kids guzzle it down!

I do also add water to help thin it down some.  Otherwise, it's pretty thick.  My Little Love #5 is severely allergic to dairy, so I don't use any kind of dairy base like milk, yogurt, etc.  I also can't use bananas, avocados, or various other tropical fruits because of her allergies.  But my kids have never complained.  Any time the smoothie seems a bit too tart or bitter to me, I'll either add a large dollop of Polaner All Fruit or local raw honey.  But this is a rare occurrence.

So grab some fruits and veggies, grab your blender, don't worry about specific recipes, and enjoy your fresh fruit-and-veggie smoothies!!

No Poinsettias for Me!

I've always liked poinsettias.  Something about the vibrant red and green just put that holiday feel in the air.  Poinsettias have never liked me, however.  I don't have the time to put in the effort to give it the darkness it needs every day to stay in bloom.  And for some reason, I can't seem to keep them from losing all of their petals.  And their leaves.  So I start with a gorgeous flower and end up with a stem.  Not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong.

But, all of that doesn't matter any more.  Many of you may know that my Little Love #5 is severely allergic to latex.  Severely, as in she goes into anaphylaxis if she's in the same room as a balloon.  Those poinsettias that are doomed when in my care?  They're in the same family as the rubber tree.  That white, sticky, sap stuff you see when you accidentally break a stem?  That's latex.

Many people who are airborne allergic to latex are airborne allergic to poinsettias.  I'm not sure if LL#5 is or not.  I haven't gotten her close enough to one to find out.  It makes this time of year tricky.  Poinsettias are common Christmas decorations.  They're sold in the stores, on the counters in doctors' offices, in people's homes, in churches, nearly everywhere you go.  Our family members refrain from having poinsettias in their houses for my daughter's sake.  Our church changed their many-decade tradition of poinsettias and now use a different flower to decorate with.  Fake poinsettias are also a good option.

It's amazing how life can change when there are life-threatening allergies involved.  Things that once were attractions, now repel.  But that's ok.  I'd just kill them anyway.  =)

Candy Corn Costume

Ok, before you accuse me of being a total procrastinator, let me remind you that there are still 3 days until Halloween!!  But I finally sat down today and made Little Love #5's costume!!

I got the tutorial from the blog of Chica and Jo  (get the tutorial here).  I originally considered posting a tutorial of my own, but they did such a good job, so why reinvent the wheel?  I did change a few things, however, so I'll explain what I did differently and give some other tips.

First of all, I purposefully made the costume big.  For those of you who don't know, LL#5 is severely allergic to latex.  Most store-bought costumes have spandex, elastic, etc.  So, rather than trying to find a costume that would be safe for her, I opted to make one.  Since she's so young, I made it large enough to fit her at least 2 years.  One of the joys of having little ones is that they don't care about stuff like that.  =)

Second, I put the colors in the right order.  =)  You can see that yellow should be on the bottom, orange in the middle.  So keep an eye out for that if you choose to follow this tutorial.

 

Third, in the original tutorial, they made three fairly even stripes on the dress and on the hat.  If you look at the image above, the orange stripe is wider than the rest on real candy corn.  So I made the orange stripe wider.  I also chose to make the white part of the dress pretty small, and I made the entire hat white--that way, it's the tip of one, giant candy corn.

This was one of the simplest sewing projects I've ever done.  Fleece is so easy to work with.  It doesn't fray, so no need to hem.  You don't need special needles or anything else.  One thing I did do was to buy it back in July.  No one (but me) buys fleece in July, so I got it like 30% off.

I've been loving seeing all of the other costumes online.  What a super-fun time of year!!

This post is linked up with:  Serenity Now, One Artsy Mama, Tatertots and Jello, Bear Rabbit Bear, Young and Crafty, Kojo Designs, Designer Garden, and Six Sisters' Stuff.

Latex Allergy Awareness Week!

I can't believe that I almost forgot to mention that it's Latex Allergy Awareness Week!!

There are so many dangers of latex all around you, that most people simply aren't aware of.  While traveling home from vacation, we stopped at a fast-food restaurant to grab some food for my hubby and I (I brought food along for the kiddos).  I ran in, and they had bouquets of balloons.  Had I taken Little Love #5 in there, she could have gone anaphylactic.  Even me just walking in, some of the dust from the balloons could land on my clothes and still give her a reaction.

One of my favorite restaurants to eat at is Applebee's.  I was thrilled to find that our local one no longer has balloons in the lobby.  However, they use latex gloves when preparing food in the kitchen.  That means that everybody who eats there is eating latex.  I had an allergic reaction there recently, while eating with some friends (that's how I learned about them using latex in the kitchen).  I'm not 100% sure what caused it, but I'm worried that it was the latex.  Not only is it dangerous for people eating there, but it's highly likely that one or more of their employees will develop the allergy from wearing the gloves daily.  But Applebee's is not interested in changing their corporate policy for their customers or their own people.

Lately, I've seen a lot of people doing lots of things with latex balloons:  wreaths, science experiments, etc.  People don't think twice about it, and I can't blame them.  I never did, either.  But now I can't look at a balloon without thinking of the fact that it could take my daughter's life in an instant.

Check out the American Latex Allergy Association site for all sorts of facts about latex allergy.  Educate yourself and limit the exposure of you and your family so that you don't develop this horrible and life-threatening allergy.

Have a wonderful and safe latex-free week!!

MedicAlert Bracelet Fix

Little Love #5 has to wear a medical ID bracelet 24/7.  If something ever happened that we were in a car accident and we were unable to speak, or if she were with a babysitter, or any other kind of weird situation, emergency medical personnel need to know her allergies.  This bracelet lists her reactive airway disease, her anaphylactic reactions to latex and avocados, her contact allergy to dairy, mango, and aloe, and then says "others."  It also has the 1-800 number for MedicAlert and her own, personal ID#.  Any emergency personnel can call that phone number and give them her ID number, and they'll get a list of her other allergies, her medications, her emergency contact information, her medical insurance information, etc.

Well, she's had that bracelet for several months now, and kids grow so quickly!  So it was getting a bit snug.  I don't want to have a whole new bracelet engraved, so I took her in to the jeweler today to have a couple of links added.  But the jeweler had a brilliant idea.

He had a stainless steel necklace chain with links similar in size to the bracelet we had.  He sold the entire chain to me for $8.  He took a short length of that chain and replaced the chain on her bracelet.  I brought the rest of the chain home.  Next time we need it lengthened, I can just take the long chain I bought, and he can add more links from it.  As long as we don't need to change the actual wording on her bracelet, we can continue to add parts from this chain indefinitely!  Here you can see the original bracelet chain on top.  On bottom is the chain I just bought, minus the part he used to make her bracelet today.

So now we can make sure her bracelet fits her as she grows, and it cost me a total of $8 and change!  (He didn't charge me anything for labor.)  She's happy that her bracelet is no longer too snug, and it can easily be flipped over to read the back--but she can't get it off.   What an easy fix!

Anyway, I thought this might help out other parents out there in the same situation!

Upcoming Projects

I have so many projects in the air, I don't know where to start!

My Mr. Man decided to go through his closet and cull out the clothes he doesn't wear anymore.  So now I have this wonderful pile of nice t-shirts, men's shirts, and even wool sweaters!

Oh, the ideas going through my mind are so numerous!  Wool diaper covers for the new baby (we found out it's going to be another girl!  So we'll have 4 girls and 2 boys.  Lots of estrogen in the house.), dresses for the girls, boxers for the boys, latex-free pants and dresses for Little Love #5...

Speaking of latex and LL#5, I need to get her Halloween costume made.  We have tons of hand-me-down costumes from older cousins, but have you ever seen a store-bought costume with no elastic?  Nope.  So I'm making hers.  Here's the fleece for it.  I bet you can guess what she's going to be?  Tutorial coming soon...

I also finally bought some chalkboard paint!  I have one awesome idea in mind to do with it (tutorial on that coming later this week), but I'll still have a lot left over.  So I'm eyeing all sorts of things in my house, but haven't had anything jump out at me screaming that it just NEEDS to be painted with chalkboard paint!

I also have some Halloween hair clips to make right away, school to teach to my kids, and I need to make time to get outside in the glorious fall weather!!  So lots of fun things coming up, stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you all had a full can of chalkboard paint, what would you do with it?

The First Day of School that Wasn't...

Yesterday was supposed to be our first day of school.  I had the textbooks all organized and ready to go...

...the pencils all sharpened...

...(yes, I tend to panic at the sight of pink erasers, but the packaging on these assured me that they're latex-free)...

...the lesson plans all done up...

...and the classroom organized and just waiting for us to begin (obviously this room is not one of the ones that we have redone in the house.  It still needs a lot of work.  Those yellow floors are awful!).

Who doesn't LOVE new school supplies?  I get all giddy and crazy when school supplies appear in the store.  Those freshly-sharpened real-wood pencils, don't they just give you goose bumps?  I was raring to go.

Then my 8-year-old came out of bed in the morning, tossed her pillow onto the couch, laid down on it, and said, "I don't feel good."  I thought, ok, she's just all nervous about starting school today (yes, homeschooled kids get that way, too).  But no, by late morning her temperature was up to 100*.  She spent all day laying on the couch watching videos.  So much for the first day of 4th grade.

Then, my 6-year-old (who does most of his core classes right along with his 8-year-old sister) said, "Well, if we can't do Bible, History, Science, and Health, can I not start today, either?"  So much for the first day of 2nd grade.  (Today he has started the sore throat that's the first symptom of this illness.)

Then, after nap time, my 4-year-old started complaining of a sore throat, and she felt warm to the touch.  So much for the first day of Kindergarten.  (Today she has a 103* fever.)

This is one of the benefits of homeschooling, though.  We can pause the school year (or postpone it) instead of the kids just getting farther and farther behind.  We typically do school Tuesday through Saturday, but we can add extra days in on Mondays if we need to.  And the kids aren't worried about having to make up a bunch of work or missing out on something fun.  They can just have movie days and focus on getting better.

Meanwhile, I keep staring at my empty classroom with all of it's fresh, new notebooks just beckoning me to write on one of the stark, clean pages.  But I doubt anyone will be up for school tomorrow.  

Would it be too weird to start school on a Friday?  I really, really want to use one of those pencils...

How was the first day of school for your kids?

Cute Kids' Underwear Revisited

I'm all done!!  I finally got the time made the time to finish Little Love # 5's latex-free underwear!!

For those of you who missed the first post about Little Fishies Undies by Fishsticks Designs, you can catch it here.  No, I'm not getting any kind of monetary compensation (or compensation of any kind, for that matter) for mentioning these, but I really, really love this pattern and I really, really love how these turned out.

I had one yard each of the blue, pink, and yellow, and I had half a yard of the print.  I was able to get a dozen pairs.  Had I planned ahead before cutting and figured out the best pattern layout, etc, I maybe could have gotten another pair or two out of my fabric.  But I got too eager to get started to take the time to plan like that, so an even dozen it is.

It took me two days to get them cut out, pinned, and sewn--of course, that's with about 500 interruptions from the kids.  Something about needing to eat and potty and other such trifles.  Seriously, don't they understand anything about priorities?  =)

Anyway, the skivvies are so bright and fun and cute, and she keeps trying to put them on and bringing them to me to put on her.  I took a break from cloth diapering recently to try to get caught up on my other laundry, and now she refuses to wear cloth diapers again.  So it looks like we'll be potty training sooner, rather than later.  I may actually have a few months completely diaper-free before the new baby comes--I haven't had that in more than 8 years!!  WOO HOO!!!

Any potty training tips for a toddler under two years old?

Star Wars Bracelet

I'm a geek, my husband's a geek, and our kids are all geeks.  My poor kids certainly aren't "normal", but neither are my husband or I.  We both majored in sciences, and my kids love science--I homeschool, and we actually do two science curriculums every year, they're so science-hungry.

My sister-in-law asked us last year where she could get us a gift card to as a gift for the family.  Her other sister asked for a gift card to Chuck E. Cheese. (Chuck E. Cheese, with all the balloons, is a death trap for my latex-allergic Little Love #5--not that I mind a great excuse to never take my kids there.)  But when I told my sister-in-law that our whole family would love a gift card to Think Geek, she said that she really worries about my kids.  (By the way, it was way fun for all of us to decide what we wanted from Think Geek.  I LOVE that store!)

Anyway, I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan.  My kids are, too!  We've only let the oldest two watch only Episode I, but they ask a ton of questions.  They can tell you all about the ecology of Dagobah, they know that wookies live on Kashyyk, and they know that Darth Vader is Luke's father and Leia is his sister.  I guess there won't be the element of surprise when they ever get to watch the later movies, but I must admit that it's awfully fun to hear them spouting off facts and playing their Star Wars games "true-to-life," so to speak.

I had a large bin full of all sorts of Star Wars toys, games, etc--all unopened--that I finally decided to divvy up between my kids, nieces, and nephews.  They were all thrilled, and it was kind of nice to not have to store all of that stuff any more.  One thing I still had not given away or opened was an R2-D2 Lego pen.

 I finally opened it today just to find it has a rubber grip--not so good in a house where we try to eliminate all things rubber.

So that went in the garbage, but I still had all of these fun Legos Star Wars beads and an R2-D2.  (You know your pen is a good and fun one when it comes with instructions!)

I'm really big on repurposing things.  I don't like to throw perfectly good and fun stuff away!  So I decided that these beads would make a great bracelet.  Some elastic thread (latex-free, of course), some glass beads, and a drop of hot glue later, and I have this fun bracelet!

My 8-year-old is begging me to let her have it.  No way, Dearie.  This one's mine!  Complete with a bead that even says Star Wars.

Little R2 didn't make the cut for the bracelet.  My kids have been begging for another Legos R2 to play with (I'm suspecting they saw this pen in my bedroom and were just itching to get their little hands on it), so he became theirs to love and enjoy.

And just for fun, here's a drawing my six-year-old son did of Qui-Gon Jinn fighting a battle droid.

Gotta love it!

Best Deodorant Ever!

Ok, some people totally freak out when I tell them that I make my family's deodorant.  But really, what's the big deal?  This stuff works waaaaaaay better than anything you can buy in the store, it's inexpensive, takes about 2 minutes to make, and has none of the nasty and scary ingredients in the store-bought stuff (like aluminum).  This stuff isn't technically an antiperspirant, because it doesn't prevent you from sweating (It's not so good to purposefully clog your pores anyway), but it helps absorb the sweat, so you still stay dry.  My hubby uses it, and still feels and smells great when he's been out working in 100*+ weather all day.

So, ready to make your own?  All you need are 4 basic ingredients:  baking soda, arrowroot powder, coconut oil, and the essential oil(s) of your choice.

***Ok, so in the picture below, I have tapioca starch instead of arrowroot powder.  I accidentally ran out of arrowroot powder, but I found the tapioca starch tucked back in the cabinet, and it works in a pinch.  I don't recommend using a starch, as they can feed yeast.  And nobody wants a yeast infection under their arms.  Also, if you are allergic to latex, DON'T use tapioca.  Tapioca comes from the casava tree, which is in the rubber tree family.  Rubber tree=latex=not good to smear on your body.***

You also need a container to put the deodorant in.  I don't recommend using an empty deodorant container for this recipe.  Coconut oil melts at low temperatures, so this deodorant is often very soft--especially in the summer.  If you keep your house freezing cold all the time, you may be able to get away with it.  I put mine in a tin.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
4 TBSP coconut oil
essential oil (just use however much you want, until it smells how you want it to)

Simply measure out the ingredients into your container and stir.

All done!!

It just doesn't get any simpler than that.  My hubby prefers "manly" scents like patchouli, cedar, etc.  My daughter's favorite is lavender.  Like many other things in life, I get bored with the same thing all the time, so I use whatever excites me at the moment and switch it up the next time.  Let me also say that I do NOT recommend tea tree oil for deodorant, unless you use a very little bit and overpower the smell with a different essential oil.  Tea tree oil is bit stinky anyway, and once you apply it under your arms it seems to immediately smell like body odor.  It's just the smell of the oil itself, but you may want to use a different oil for this.

Unfortunately for me, however, baking soda makes me itch.  I'm not sure why.  But even if I just use plain baking soda, I get itchy.  So I use the following recipe for my own deodorant.  It works great, but it doesn't keep you nice and dry like the above recipe.  But if you have problems like I do with the one above, try this one.  I found it at Crunchy Betty:

1 1/2 TBSP grated beeswax
4 TBSP coconut oil
1 TBSP shea butter
4 tsp bentonite clay
essential oil

You melt the beeswax and coconut oil together (she does it on the stove, I do it in the microwave in short, 10-second bursts).  Add the shea butter until melted, then add the clay and essential oils.  (If you're allergic to latex, do NOT use shea.  The tree shea comes from is closely related to the rubber tree, so you may have problems with shea as well.)

This recipe is a lot more oily-feeling, so I use a small spatula to scoop it out and apply it.

If you don't have a local place to purchase your beeswax, clay, shea butter, and essential oils at a decent price, one of my favorite online stores is Majestic Mountain Sage--good prices, great quality!

So go, make some deodorant, smell good, be healthy, and enjoy!

Tiered Patchwork Skirts

So I was at the fabric store one day and came across some fabulous M'Liss fabrics, 50% off!!  They were like $3-and-change a yard!  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I couldn't pass them up.  The peach and yellow had to-die-for borders (flowers and a gardening scene).

The more I stared at them wondering what to do with them, the more I realized that I couldn't split them up--part of their beauty was all of them together.  So I decided to make my girls tiered, patchwork skirts.

Sorry I didn't take pictures along the way for a tutorial, but I can tell you what I did.  I took their waist measurements and added 4 or 5 inches for the first tier (funny how my 4yo's waist was only 1 inch smaller than her 8yo sister's waist!).  I let the older two girls pick which fabric they wanted for the top tier--I didn't want the bulk of patches on top, so I left the top solid.  I cut that strip 7" wide for the elastic casing.  The squares are all cut 5".  Each tier is approximately 1.5 times the circumference of the tier above.  I sewed the squares in random order into strips, then sewed the ends together to make the complete loop.  I then gathered the top and sewed it to the tier above.  

Once I had as many tiers as I wanted for that skirt, I then hemmed the bottom and encased 1" latex-free elastic in the waist.  I buy my latex-free elastic by the yard from Decent Exposures.  It's not listed on their site, but if you e-mail them, you can buy it at great prices with no other purchase necessary.  Their customer service is great and the prices for latex-free elastic can't be beat!  They have it in many widths and their shipping is super speedy!

For the shirts, I bought simple white shirts with a pocket for the older two, a white onesie for the baby.  I made fabric bows to pin onto each girl's pocket and more fabric bows for their hair.  I made each girl's bows out of the same fabric I used for their first tier on the skirt.

If any of that doesn't make sense, please let me know so I can clarify.  Again, I'm sorry I have no pictures to help demonstrate step-by-step.  I'll try to remember to do that from now on!

Here they are wearing their skirts and looking cute!

I still have a good amount of each fabric leftover, especially the stripes (I bought more of it than of the others).  I'm not sure what I want to do with the remaining fabric.  Any ideas?

Making Ultra-Cute Kids' Underwear

Kids are gross.  Seriously, think about it.  If your dog did some of the stuff your kids do, it would be kicked out the door to never set another paw in the house.  We expect more out of our dogs than out of our kids.  Thankfully, my dog, Darby, is a good, clean, even prissy boy who doesn't even get his paws muddy when it rains.  I LOVE my sweet boy!

Which brings me to potty training.  Little Love #5 does NOT like a dirty diaper.  As soon as she's messed it, she'll come up to you patting her bottom to let you know that she's a mess and needs to be changed.  If you don't jump up and change her immediately, she'll further press her point by reaching into her diaper and pulling out a handful to show you.  Sometimes it has corn in it.  Or raisins.

The other day she decided to forego the dirty diaper feeling completely.  She was in a disposable (I typically use cloth), so she just took it off and pooped on the floor.

So I've been thinking about potty training a LOT.  I've potty-trained all of my kids at 2 years old.  How many months after two has varied with each of them, and some have been easy-breezy, and my last one was horrible.  But even so, two years old has always worked for us.

#5 will be 2 in November.  I'll probably try to potty train her right away after that, which brings us to underwear.

Latex-free underwear is hard to come by.  And at $15+ a pop, it's simply not practical for a 2-year-old potty-trainer.  So I started looking around online for a pattern or tutorial to make underwear for her.  I then happened upon Little Fishies Undies by Fishsticks Designs.  I had never seen anything cuter than these!  So I purchased the pattern.

I'm not typically a pattern person.  I usually prefer to have a general idea of what I want to do--or a good tutorial--and then I just go with it.  But this is one of the simplest patterns ever, and the instructions are excellent.  It literally takes mere minutes to sew them up once everything is cut out and ready to go.  And I don't have a fancy serger or anything (though I really, really want one!).  I just used a zig zag stitch on my very basic machine.  I love how they turned out.

I tried them on her this morning, and they're great!  She looks adorable, and she had fun wearing them.  She keeps bringing them back to me, wanting me to put them back on her (and throwing a fit when I don't), so they must be comfy, too!

I plan to get a bunch more cut out today and then sew them up as I get the opportunity (nap times, bed time...).  They're thick enough to be great for potty training, thin enough to be great for everyday wear.  They feel nice and durable.  I used 100% cotton interlock.

And the best part is the pattern comes with sizes 2-12, so we're set for a long time!  Thank you Fishsticks Designs!!