the weighted blanket project

What is a weighted blanket and why did I need to make it?
 In our case, Faith is the one who will benefit from this. Everyone processes outside information differently. everything that comes into your brain via your senses is a form of stimulation. In Faith's case, she gets overwhelmed sometimes because her brain just hasn't learned how to deal with all the stimulation coming in. Some things overwhelm her like food textures that she's not used to, too much play time, and new places (to name just a few). On the other side of that, she is calmed by some things and she seeks out certain stimulation for example she likes to have her tongue brushed, she likes her skin brushed, she likes little pressure squeezes, music, and touching soft things. The theory behind the weighted blanket is that it can be really calming and helps a person's brain to reset and figure out all the incoming stimulation. Since Faith is so young it's possible that if we help her in these ways, her brain can figure out how to rewire itself and this won't be an issue later on.
Here's a helpful website that shows all the different ways that this kind of product can help many people, not just people with sensory processing issues. Keep in mind though that they are trying to sell their product so it's a little hyped up in some areas. http://www.weightedblanket.net/benefits.htm
As you can see, this is expensive!
So- I was thinking... I have a sewing machine and a JoAnn's gift card, maybe I could make something.

I started out with a plan to make a traditional quilted weighted blanket. Seems easy enough. When I got to the store I found this amazing fabric that had all sorts of different fabrics and textures in the pattern and that is perfect for us! I got the textured pre-planned blanket fabric which came in the size I needed and I didn't even have to measure out the blanket.

I bought
1 yard of the special fabric,
1 yard of the fuzzy bumpy kind of fabric,
1 yard of some thin polyfil
heavy duty upholstery thread
extra sewing machine needles
2 bags of crushed seashell (1.75 pounds each)

I had
some scrap flannel

I decided to make little pouches of the crushed shell instead of just pouring it right into the blanket.
-The first thing I did was measure out what sizes the pouches should be against the design of the fabric. In this case, I wanted my weights to be in each little elephant. The blanket or weighted clothing should be about 10% of the body weight + 1 pound. my blanket is about 3.5 pounds since she's growing so fast and it's distributed really nicely.

-I decided wash everything so it would shrink BEFORE I sewed it since there were so many different fabrics on the blanket face.

-While the fabric was in the wash, I took my shells and my flannel and made little pouches. I put about the same amount of shell in each one (compensating for size once in a while)

-You can see that I used a diamond stitch because it seemed really strong and was less work than double stitching everything. You should either use a really thick stitch or double stitch because I have a friend who has done one of these and she didn't double stitch it and hers sprung a leak eventually. I'm also hoping that making the pouches will help me avoid a leak.

-For the blanket, I pinned it right sides together and sewed around the edges like you would for a normal blanket.
-Then I sewed around each elephant leaving the top open and then putting the corresponding pouch in and sewing up the top as I went. then I closed it up.

It was a LONG patience-trying process and as I added more pouches it got hard to maneuver.
If I did this again I would have chosen the square quilted pattern in this theme that still had as many fabric textures and I would have just done square pockets for the weight.
I might consider selling these if I have a friends or what not who wanted to buy the supplies but to me, it's not worth the work to makes them and then list them for sale to strangers. I understand why they charge so much for these but with my gift cards, coupons, and manual labor, this project only cost me $2 out of pocket.

Davin's FINAL potty training adventure

I think we're here! I think he's finally decided that it's worth his while to go ahead and potty train. In his time in his way, Davin is joining the rest of the underwear wearing world.
What did we do? Nothing. what did we say? nothing.
It was his decision and I think all the practice and encouragement didn't hurt but in the end he just needed to be ready. He didn't initiate this process though. I told him this week that we were going to buckle down and work on it (like I do every week) and for some reason this week he decided that it would be a good time. It could have something to do with the fact that we're signing the boys up for their spring sports, perhaps it's because we've been talking about sending him to preschool and he knows he can't go unless he's potty trained.
Maybe I finally withheld enough potty treats...

Kids are so random.

With the promise of potty traning and Chuck E Cheese hanging over our heads as a reward I think this may be Davin's LAST potty traning adventure.

BTW- Check E Cheese has all sorts of reward calendars. We used this one with Cole and it's been enough of an incentive for Davin as well. This week We're doing the behavior one with Cole while Davin does his potty training chart so that they both have something to work for and they don't regress. You can check out the reward charts here:
http://www.chuckecheese.com/promotions/rewards-calendars.php

Bountiful Baskets -all you wanted to know (and more)

I recently joined this co-op after finally giving in to the curiosity at the urging of many friends and family members.

So what is Bountiful Baskets? It's a co-op run by volunteers that makes produce available at about 1/2 the price of what you would regularly pay for that quantity.

I got my first basket 2 weeks ago and I was impressed right away! My first basket had 2 bags of grapes, 5 clementines, a bunch of apples, bananas, a couple of pears, a thing of blackberries, 2 heads of romaine, 1 head of spinach, 3 avocados, 1 bunch of radishes, 3 heads of broccoli (can't spell), 3 English cucumbers, and 3 or 4 tomatoes.

I had surgery last week so I didn't order a basket.
This is what my basket looked like this week:

It includes, 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 1 bunch (3 head) of broccoli, 1 head of cauliflower, 5 ears of corn, 8 bananas, 5 tomatoes, 6 pears, 5 kiwi, 2 pomegranates, 4 oranges, a bunch of brussel sprouts, and a 1 bag of apples.

The cost is $15 + $1.50 fee for something = $16.50 total. If it is your first time, count on paying $19.50 because there is a 1 time charge for the sorting baskets that they will use for you. The baskets stay there though and you will need to bring your own container(s) to get your stuff home.

Here are some pros and cons for you to consider:

Pros-

•  affordable
•  variety
•  large quantity
•  good quality
•  Supports local business and small farmers for exotic items
•  Adventurous- You never know what you're going to get! You don't want it to go to waste and it is a good way to try new things that you normally wouldn't pick out :-)
•  a good volunteer opportunity
•  It's fast, you go in your PJs and you pick out your baskets and you leave
•  My site is really well organised, they have a good system and it flows nicely
•  these things are everywhere! (at least in Idaho this is true)

Cons-

•  You don't choose the produce- it is chosen for you and you never know what you're going to get
•  You have a small time frame (20 minutes from the posted time) to pick it up or else you lose it and there are no refunds.
• The small time frame for me is really early in the morning on a Saturday (usually about 6:30)
• they like you to volunteer at least once every couple of months which is an hour earlier than my really early pick-up time.

As you can see, several of my pros can also be cons. once in a while because of the preferences of my kidos I do need to supplement my baskets with some store bought produce. Usually it isn't much; a bag of apples or a bunch of bananas or some recipe specific veggies.
I have a couple of recommendations that you might find helpful:

• Find your local site on facebook if possible- My pick up time on the BB website is 7am but because I am in the local facebook group I know that my people are REALLY fast and I will get the best choice of baskets if I go at 6:30 because they are usually ready at 6:30 rather than 7.
• The early bird gets the worm!- You get to pick your basket and if you go early you have a lot of control over quality. PLUS all the baskets have at least the same amount of fruits and veggies but the extras get distributed as evenly as possible among that baskets so you can pick a basket that might have more of 1 thing that you like. For example, on my first week there was only 1 bag of grapes in the baskets but I got there early and I know my kids like grapes so I picked a basket with 2 bags since there were extras that week. There were baskets with extra lettuce and other stuff too. They really do try to dole out the extras evenly but every basket is different.
• If there is a delay in delivery or weather issues I know (through facebook) before it's posted on the main site.
• read all of the directions and play around on the main website thoroughly before you join up so that you aren't confused. It's a really easy process but there is a lot to learn at first.
• DO volunteer! If you can, you should volunteer. Not only are you helping out and getting a work out you get first pick from the baskets, first pick from the extras, and if someone doesn't pick up their basket you get more stuff. It pays to volunteer.

I'm actually not a huge lover of a variety of fruits and veggies, I know what I like and I don't really like to explore too far out of my comfort zone. But we really want our kids to try new things constantly and we want them to like more fresh healthy foods than we do and so this is a great way for us to explore as a family and set a good example for our children. It really forces us to step out of the box and try new things. It feels really nice to have to get creative in order to use all of our produce and I actually look forward to new recipes. I'm forced to follow through on all those good intentioned copied recipes that I have in my stash and I like it!

You can get more info and sign up at bountifulbaskets.org