It's such a good feeling...

You guys all remember this guy, right?

He's one of those rare humans.  I don't think anyone ever said a bad thing about him.  He was kind.  He genuinely cared about people.  He wore sweaters hand knit by his mother.  He created the epitome of wholesome television.   He was a little bit of a dork, but didn't everyone want him to be their neighbor?  Remember that the basics of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood included trips with the trolley to the Land of Make Believe and in the Land of Make Believe lived many characters including Daniel Striped Tiger.

We recently discovered that there are tons of episodes of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on Hulu.  While I enjoyed watching Mr. Roger's interviewing Eric Carle, they just didn't capture Scout's attention.  Frankly, even Sesame Street has had to change its format to be more interactive and faster paced.  Some smart people took all of Mr. Roger's characters and created a new animated show called, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  I think it premiered last fall.

Daniel Tiger is supposedly the 4 year old son of the original Daniel Striped Tiger (who is also in the show) and they live in the Land of Make Believe with their friends, Katerina Kittycat, O the Owl, Price Wednesday and others.

Scout doesn't watch a lot of tv, and now that it's nice outside she watches even less.*  In fact, she doesn't even know about Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel.  I don't even know where to find them on the dial.  And that's fine by me.  Most of her screen time is on the iPad or my phone where she watches a little Barney, Sesame Street, Sid the Science Kid or her current favorite, Daniel Tiger.  On mornings when she is home with Rykert, they watch a little PBS Kids while they get ready.

As toddler television goes, I find Daniel Tiger palatable.  It's fairly interactive and the content is age appropriate for the 2-4 year old set, and each episode includes these catchy little sing-songy ditty that get stuck in my head endlessly.  Sometimes when we're driving in the car or waiting somewhere I'll let her watch Daniel Tiger on my phone (there's a really good app for that).  Rykert suggested that we get her a stuffed Daniel Tiger.  But it's a fairly new show, so there really isn't much tie-in merchandise available. A Google search indicates that they've made a deal with a toy company, so it's inevitably coming.  So I took on the challenge of making a homemade version of Daniel.

It started with Rykert and I spending more time than we'd like to admit looking at pictures online and trying to pick the right yarn colors.  We seriously over analyzed this.  I got to work knitting using the closest pattern I could find.  I adjusted the pattern to knit it in the round, stuffing as I went.  I reversed the head to knit the face first, which allowed me to finish the eyes and nose before stuffing.  I couldn't get a mouth to look right, so I just left it off for now.

Finally, I knit a little read hoodie and shoes.  We don't understand why Daniel Tiger doesn't wear pants.

Uggamugga

It's not perfect, but it was pretty immediately recognized as Daniel thanks, largely, to the red sweater.  If I was knitting it again, I'd make the head larger, as I think that would help make him a little more Daniel-like.  And I'd redo the face completely.  I think his eyes look a wee bit possessed.

*I really don't think there's anything wrong with age appropriate tv.  I watched a ton of tv growing up** and I'm guessing that Rykert did too since he knows the theme song to EVERY 80s sitcom.  We turned out pretty much ok.  And this winter, when she was sick, we watched more than I'd like to admit.  But the studies have been pretty convincing about limiting screen time.  Plus I don't really want to spend my time with her while she's zoned out in front of a screen.

** Do you guys remember the show Today's Special?  Loved that show.

Play Doh

I have, in the past, extolled the virtues of Kool Aid as an all purpose, non-toxic dye.  In my early days of blogging, I dyed yarn.  This past Christmas, I dyed play silks.  When I was a teenager, it was en vogue to dye your hair with it, but I never did.  Basically, Kool Aid is a pretty cheap source of dye.

This time around, inspired by Pinterest,  I decided to give it a go with play dough.  When I was a kid, my grandma made play doh.  But the texture just wasn't the same as the store bought stuff and the colors were faint and limited.  I wanted to make something smoother and brighter.  I started with this recipe.  The only deviation I made was to just use the full amount of water (2/3 cup) and then add extra flour until it was a nice, non-sticky consistency. After stirring, I kneaded it with a little extra flour as well, like you'd do with any kind of dough.

In the name of science, I tried almost all of the current colors of Kool Aid I could find.

A true red eluded me, as was the case with my other Kool Aid attempts, so I stopped myself from trying a few other "red" flavors.  The Lemonade made more of an off-white than a true yellow.  And the Grape turned into a gritty color though the texture of the dough was fine.  I did get a little of the concentrated color on my hands during the making stage, but I didn't notice any dye coming off on hands as we played.  And we've played with it a lot in the last week.

Rykert helped me package it up into the little condiment cups, and the next day we gave it a try.  It had a really nice silky texture.  The bonus is that it smells really good too.  Luckily, my sister had a stockpile of Play Doh toys in her closet (actually 2 sets of Play Doh toys) so we could try it out.

I'm watching to see how long it lasts.  So far, so good.  We're basically a week in and it continues to hold up.  I used olive oil, and I'm not sure how long that will take to go rancid if I keep it air tight.  But the texture held up surprisingly well as we played with it.

Not unlike real Play Doh, it tastes horrible and salty, or at least I imagine it does.  And not unlike real Play Doh, the 2 year old decided she needed to taste it for herself, despite my continuous please to not eat it.

Last night she picked up this bit of green and announced, "It's a DINOSAUR."

I think I might have had more fun playing with it than she did...

 

Next time armed with knowledge, I think I will make fewer colors.  Our favorites:

• Watermelon Pink (smelled yummy)
• Strawberry
• Orange
• Peach Mango
• Lemonade (close enough to white)
• Lemon Lime
• Berry Blue
• Grape

Last year I tried a different recipe that uses Jello to color the dough.  It also resulted in a nice texture, but the process of cooking the dough made it a little more time consuming  - not to mention I tried to knead it too soon and ended up with surface burns on my hands.  So, in the future, I'll still to this Kool Aid method.  If only there was brown and black?

Gray Polka Dot Dress

At some point in the last few months I saw a picture online of a little girl in a gray dress with bright yellow accents.  I made the gray polka dot dress (actually 2 of them, one was a gift) awhile ago, but not surprising my little model has been uninterested in modelling.  The weather was not cooperative either, and the model refused to wear the shoes I selected.

Child runs away from me when I get the camera out.

The dress is made from the same pattern I used to make her birthday dress, the Geranium Dress.  I really can't stress how much I like this pattern.  It's pretty simple to put together, and it leaves lots of room for creativity through the fabric.  I already have a few more versions planned.

I think we may have to have a do-over on this photo shoot.  Maybe I can get her into the bright yellow patent leather sandals I found on super clearance last summer.  But I'm not holding my breath.

The designer of the pattern offers a commercial license for this pattern.  I've toyed with the idea of purchasing it and making a few of these dresses in fun fabrics available for purchase, somewhere.  But I'm not sure I have the stay-with-it-ness that would require.

Rattle Rattle

On Wednesday, I drove my normal route to work and back.  This route includes a few miles on a very busy stretch of the interstate.  Mid-day I drove on the same interstate to a doctor's appointment and back.  I noticed that my car was making a weird rattling noise, but pretty much dismissed it thinking it was probably the roller skates in the back.

Well, it turns out I was taking something for a drive...

I think I'm the only person who finds this amazing.

Tuesday night we were playing in the driveway (among the bugs) and Rykert set his water glass on top of my car and forgot about it.  I didn't see it, and so it rode around on my car for 24 hours and never moved.  And it didn't break.

Little Birds

A couple of weeks ago, Nola was sniffing around and going crazy under a small evergreen tree next to our front porch.  When I went to investigate, I found the most perfect robin's nest and 3 bright blue eggs.

The tree is right by our front door, so I kept watch and captured the action.

A few days later Scout and I came home after a couple of days away and two baby birds had appeared.

By Day 2, they were hungry...

We tried not to peek too much, because it made Mama Robin very nervous.  She would sit in the tree overhead and watch us carefully.  Nola was now on limited front yard access.  Scout loved to check on the baby birds a couple of times a day and would leave the Mama bread crumbs and crackers.  We had some nasty storms and I worried about them, but Mama Robin clearly knew what she was doing.

Not unlike human babies, they slept all.the.time.

Day 5

Pretty soon they started to look less alien, and more like tiny birds with feather.

Day 9

Day 10

On Day 11 (or maybe 12, I lost count), much to my chagrin, Rykert texted me to let me know that they had left the nest.  When Scout went to check on them in the morning one was already gone, and right before their eyes, the second hopped out of the nest and across the yard.

By the time I got home from work, one was still sitting next to the house.

Mama Robin was still in the tree nearby squawking at us, so I assume she was still feeding her littles.  I debated what we should do, but after scouring the interwebs, I decided that it was best to leave it be as much as possible.  We made sure the lil' birdie was in a safe place away from the neighbor's lawn mower and our lovely dog, who has a natural appetite for birds.  We haven't seen them since.

All that was left was a nearly empty nest.

Do you see how clean the nest is?  It turns out that the robin parents collect and remove any waste from their little ones.  Sadly, the third egg never hatched.  So my niece took it home.

I learned that a robin can have up to 12 eggs in a given nesting season in multiple clutches, but she's very lucky if even 5 survive to flight.

Scout asked again this morning to see the baby birds.   I'm hoping that we'll see another clutch of eggs in this nest.  The nest is a pretty amazing feat of engineering and it has weathered some pretty significant storms over the past couple of weeks.  But the interwebs tell me that it's unlikely for a bird to reuse a nest (other than large birds like eagles.)

Summa' Time

Over Memorial Day we had a nice long weekend, except for the part where it rained for 3 days straight.  And I'm not being hyperbolic.  It rained for three days.  It was relaxing, but by Monday afternoon we were a little stir crazy.  But summer is here.

Last summer, I made a list of all the things I'd like to do.  And it was, generally speaking, successful.  It prompted  us to do something instead of just sitting around the house.  It's not a to-do list, but just a list of ideas. So I'm doing it again...

1. Zoo.  We went to the zoo in New Orleans during our Thanksgiving visit, and I don't think I ever articulated the ridiculousness of the entire experience.  It was just too much.   Not a complete disaster, but close.  But I think a smaller zoo would be better and less overwhelming, so it's back on the list this summer.
2. Picnic.  I think I've shared my thoughts on eating outside.  Basically, I have a very narrow Goldilocks zone for eating outside (temperature, wind speed, bugs).  But we'll try to have at least one picnic at the park or lake.  As an aside, this is going to have to wait, because the rain and impending flooding has brought crazy walls of bugs.
3. Splashpad.  My sister and nieces took Scout to the local splash pad last summer, but we never made it back.   Now that she's more mobile than last summer, I think it stays on the list.
4. Pools.  Last summer we managed to hit all of our local pools, but I don't think we went nearly enough.  I'm hoping we can sneak in some after-work, evening swimming too.
5. Outdoor Movie.   Drive in movies start so late, so I'm not sure how Scout would fare.  But I think it would be worth a try.  There's a drive-in less than an hour from here or one halfway between here and my parent's house.  If we don't make it all the way to the drive-in, we may settle for a free outdoor movie downtown Iowa City.  Maybe for Monster's Inc.?
6. Water Balloons and Sprinklers.  I'm not sure if Scout would like a sprinkler, and I'm confident that it will drive Nola crazy.  But nothing screams summer like wet skin covered in grass.  Also a Cozy Coupe Car Wash.
7. Tie Dye.  We used to do this almost every summer.  It's a messy project, but the dye wears off your skin eventually.  Perhaps my nieces and I will tackle this during Scout's naptime.
8. Baseball Game.  Or at least a part of one.  Rykert is not a baseball fan.  And admittedly the games can get long, but I think minor league games are fun.  So I'm putting it on the list.
9. Farmer's Market.  We've already been once this year, but it was a cool and very windy morning.  I like to go on Saturday mornings and buy everything we need to make dinner.
10. Make Homemade Ice Cream.  Because yum.  I think I'll make these to go with.
11. Outdoor Concert.  Every Friday and Saturday night there's a free outdoor concert downtown Iowa City.  It's one of our favorite summer activities.  We can go out to dinner, now that the students have gone home and the restaurants are less crowded, and Scout can play on the playground.  We went for the first time last Friday, and had a great time eating a progressive dinner with my nieces - bar for dinner, ice cream shop for some, frozen yogurt for others, etc... Another aside, what is with the influx of frozen yogurt places - they are everywhere!  The bottom is sure to fall outta that market soon.  Hopefully, because there's nothing wrong with regular ice cream. 
12. Beach.  We are, sadly, landlocked.  But we should have plenty of opportunities to play in the sand at the lake.
13. Sidewalk Paint.  Last summer I taught Rykert and Scout about the joys of painting with water and real paintbrushes on  the sidewalk, driveway, and deck.  My grandma used to entertain us for hours "painting" her big deck with water in the summer.  Painting with water is very low on the mess scale, so why not mess it up a bit with homemade sidewalk paint.
14. Lightning Bugs.  Scout's usually exhausted and ready for bed before it's even dark out.  But at least once this summer, we'll try to stay up late enough to see and catch some lightning bugs.
15. Children's Museum.  Our rainy Memorial Day outing was a visit to the Children's Museum.  The Iowa Children's Museum is located in the mall very close to our house and situated close to Target.  As we were paying our admission fee I did the math, and realized that we didn't have to come very often to make an annual membership pay for itself.  It's definitely a better cold weather activity, but I'm hoping we can make it there a couple times this summer.

Other summer goals...

• Keep the weeds in the garden under control.
• Rykert will be teaching my nieces to water ski.  They received new life jackets and lesson vouchers for their birthday.
• Plan and cook dinner every weeknight.
• Watch the 4th of July parade and stay up late enough for fireworks.

So what am I missing...

Lucky.

We've been spending almost all of our waking time at home outside.  Warm weather has set in, and Scout seems to have inherited her dad's high heat tolerance.

Our garden is nearly planted, but our yard is a mess of dandelions and other weeds.  We're debating whether this is the year that we will break down and spray.  I don't want to use chemicals because Scout rolls in the grass and Nola uses the yard as her personal salad bar.  My general philosophy is that if it's green, then it can stay.  This is why there's a lot of clover (which also attracts the deer in our backyard.)

Anyway, last night, I found this... A five leaf clover.

We analyzed it carefully to see whether one leaf had split, and confirmed that it does, in fact, have 5 leaves.   I'm pretty sure it means I'm either super lucky or that I just spent all my luck in finding this and another 4 leaf clover.