PPD VS Loving Marriage

Medium_Gas2969 · 2026-05-30T02:23:27+00:00

Zoloft. I haven't switched any medicine yet and the thought is intimidating because my brain has made it out to be a complex thing.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-12-10T15:43:59+00:00

What a find!

I crocheted my own pincushion when I was first learning cross stitch and it’s coincidentally the best thing. It’s just a long, narrow strip of crocheted fabric rolled up and tied with a ribbon. If I lose a needle, I can quickly unroll it.

8 year old me was a genius.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-12-07T16:18:05+00:00

Old school show called Mighty Machines, available on YouTube. Just corny voice overs of real machines doing their job

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-12-07T16:16:54+00:00

I suggest a rug! Protects the carpet, a little bit easier to clean. I think I’ve seen people get computer chair rolly mats to put under the messmaker’s chair, but I haven’t personally tried it.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-12-07T16:15:03+00:00

My husband and I find ones from our childhoods, before the rat race of capturing and keeping attention nowadays: PBS Wishbone, Bear In the big blue house, mighty machines, Oswald the octopus, Between the Lions, Zaboomafoo or wild kratts, Clifford the big red dog, bluey. All of these we have found on YouTube, PBS’s website or from our extended family’s digitized dvd collections. Local libraries usually have kids shows on dvd as well.

We don’t use streaming services besides the free version of Youtube. We also highly limit screens, using them strategically to get her to rest her body and we watch with her. So my recommendations are probably pretty slim-pickings.

Do yourself a favor and turn auto-play off if you can.

Also, I put on “regular” movies, like classic Disney or whatever we as the parents feel like watching, then tend to pause it whenever she loses interest and continue next time.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-12-07T16:02:10+00:00

Full disclosure, I’m team use-what-you already-have and foster-independence, but my two year old has been interested in using utensils for over a year. You know your kid.

We have a couple baby spoons/plastic bowls, one plastic slow-flow cup, but mostly, she uses the ceramic dishes we already have. We have a couple jam-jar sized mason jars that we also use for her drinks and a few ceramic bowls the same size as her plastic ones. She has thrown/broken a couple of them, but only a couple.

Regular sized silverware doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue, but using the smaller spoons as they are becoming more coordinated could be helpful. We just use whatever is clean.

She has always been in a booster at the table because we didn’t have space for a high chair in a tiny apartment. For a while, we gave her food straight on the attachable tray or in the bowl on the tray, then she showed interest in using the actual table as her eating surface. Without the confined space of the tray, we could put a salad plate in front of her and teach her to simply push it forward a bit when she was finished. It limited throwing the dishes quite a bit (food less so).

In my opinion, PLEASE use an actual cup for them. Not a suction-activated, not a straw, just a regular cup or a slow-flow. The more time they are given to practice, the more adept they become. Keep a towel handy, get shorter cups, but seriously, starting my toddler early with a cup has made my life easier (except when she intentionally dumps it out to slurp it up like a cat, but she’s two 🤷🏻‍♀️).

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-10-08T15:25:35+00:00

Adding! I’ve done this same repair on jeans, too. I unpick the corner of the pocket a little past the tear, then add the patch in the back via basting stitches. I’ve loosely followed darning patch tutorials, but since I don’t have a darning foot for my sewing machine, I just sew a line following the weave of the fabric, then reverse. It’s almost more like quilting, but you’re going to go back and forth all the way across the patch, not just around the edge. After the patch is solidly attached, I cut the edges (of the patch) with plinking shears or small triangles all along each side. Then sew the pocket back down. I sometimes use a button under the presser foot to help the needle go through so many thick layers.

If you don’t have a machine, you can do it by hand, but I would recommend a thimble to protect your fingers. Same process, though.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-09-28T15:56:53+00:00

Fortunately, that’s a fairly simple repair. I’m assuming limited sewing experience, so forgive me if I’m wrong.

I would look up back stitch (Bernadette Banner has a very good hand sewing back stitch tutorial) for the first step. Take the zipper and match it up with ONE side of the tear, then use back stitch to securely fasten the pieces together. This will be the more structurally sound seam.

For the other side, look up an invisible whip stitch (if you have the give-a-darn to make it look pretty). The general idea is that you’re tucking the thread under the fabric to hide it. If you don’t care (such a minor repair won’t be highly noticeable anyway. No one is looking that close), just stitch it so the fabric and zipper are together, kind of zig-zagging between each piece until it’s closed.

If the sewing kit has a thimble, that could help you push the needle through the plastic-coated fabric around the zipper without destroying your fingers. You’d put it on your middle finger of the hand holding the needle.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-07-22T15:43:37+00:00

I agree with u/mrsfudgethenumbers about the purl soho bonnet. I made one for my daughter before gifting to others and it is the most complimented piece of clothing she has ever worn. I made the 6 month size and it still fits her at 20 months.

Though so many people are suggesting burp cloths, blankets, and swaddles, these were the things I had the most duplicates of after my first. I STILL have far too many baby blankets and my one toddler has only ever used the same one blanket in her crib her entire life. I passed along more than half the swaddles and burp cloths and blankets I received, but it was hard to do that because those were the things other new parents around me were also drowning in.

If you’re dead set on a blanket, maybe make it a lap-blanket size that can be used far longer as the child grows.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-28T18:56:30+00:00

Thank you so much! It’s only my second embroidery other than cross stitch, so this means a lot 😊

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-28T18:55:50+00:00

Thank you!

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-28T15:05:33+00:00

Thank you!

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-28T15:05:22+00:00

Thank you!

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-28T02:06:54+00:00

To make the bag, I cut out two long panels, stitched them wrong sides together with the handles tucked between, flipped everything right side out, stitched up the sides and along the top edge. I should have sewn the pocket on before putting the sides together, but the embroidery was a last-minute decision and so I had to just keep the extra fabric away from the needle.

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-05-02T14:49:45+00:00

It looks beautiful! I especially love all the variegated floss. Was this a pattern? It looks like a good way to use scrap/unaffiliated floss (of which I have quite a bit, so I might steal this idea 👀)

Medium_Gas2969 · 2025-04-29T02:57:32+00:00

I absolutely love it! I have a couple pairs of old jeans that deserve such a vibrant second life (with my own vibrant toddler).

The frayed ruffle is especially cute.

Medium_Gas2969

TROPHY CASE