Mostly simple brown dress

 Brown dress (this is a color that looks good on Esme, so I grabbed it up when I saw it at two dollars a yard), with little leftovers of blue dot fabric for facings and a butterfly/bug applique for decoration.

I started this Christmas night and finished it tonight.  I haven't done one in a while and it was nice to finish one again.  Esme has been wearing handmade dresses during her school break and they still look so good on her in this style.

Sew all the bears Mom

Esme saw me looking through craft book ideas last night and she pointed out a (very different looking) teddy bear as something we should make. "Sew all the bears Mom. Make them FAT, stuff them all full of fat in their bellies like this, and fat toes, and hands, too!." She chose purple. She helped hand me tools, get stuffing and on a few of the embroidery parts I let her help me get the thread and pull the needle out where I had started each stitch. She thought she was doing big work - and really enjoyed it. This morning she already wants me to make another one - or 'all of them'... a set. We will see what happens. I do have to go to work today, too.

What is there - a pants fairy?

Is there a pants fairy like the tooth fairy? That comes in the middle of the night looking for loose pairs of pants and takes them away? Just kidding - but some days I wonder. I just did the laundry after going through Esme's clothes. There are many more pairs of pants I _remember_ making that I have not found there.... who knows where they are. The most recently made pairs are there. I cut out another pair at work today and sewed it when I got home. I need to keep it up here and there to outpace the pants fairy!

Childrens Songs

The singing at the library got me to trying to remember the songs I sang as a kid and also the ones Esme has heard often from me during her life. I found the versions of at least one song I remember was very shortened from the original!

Froggy went a courtin
Froggy went a courtin and he did ride uh-huh uh-huh

Froggy went a courtin and he did ride uh-huh uh-huh

Froggy went a courtin and he did ride, sword and pistol by his side, uh-huh uh-huh

Froggy went a courtin and he did ride uh-huh uh-huh

Froggy went a courtin and he did ride uh-huh uh-huh

Froggy went a courtin and he did ride, got himself a fine mouse bride, uh-huh uh-huh

That's all I can remember from when my mom and grandma would sing that particular song - but apparently it is a ballad with over 170 verses, only one of them being like the first one I remember. Personally after listening to Bob Dylan's version I like the one my relatives sang better.

Also, 'My Bonny Lies over the Ocean', 'Alouette', 'Frere Jacque (Brother John)' and 'She'll be Coming round the Mountain.'

The last one there is Esme's favorite - only because it calms her down. It was one of the songs I sang her at bathtime when she was newborn and I think the repetition made her respond to it best out of all of them.

She'll be coming round the mountain, when she comes (when she comes)

She'll be coming round the mountain, when she comes...

She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes (when she comes)

She'll be riding six white horses, when she comes (when she comes)

She'll be riding six white horses, when she comes...

She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be riding six white horses, she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes (when she comes)

And we'll all go out to see her when she comes, (when she comes)

And we'll all go out to see her when she comes...

She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be riding six white horses, and we'll all go out to see her when she comes (when she comes)

I've heard there are a lot more verses to that song too but that is the version I remembered being sung to me and as a little kid trying to remember where to put the new part when we got to the refrain.