Goodbye January!

If I'm honest, I'm ready for February to come. Or at least I think I am. Lots of fun things happen in February. There's my half birthday and Isla's half birthday and Emma's half birthday should be in there too though she technically doesn't have a half birthday since there is no February 30th. How did I let that happen?! Oh and then of course there's Valentine's Day.

January has been a bit bumpy this year. It started with illness for all of us girls, sleep deprivation, a near loss of my milk supply, poor growth and bottle rejection for Emma, a second bout of illness for the girls, sleep training. And then some bad news. It's been stressful and I've been emotional. But I've also been growing in my faith and for that I am grateful. I'm gaining perspective. So many of these challenges are temporary and so I'm learning to focus on the eternal.

I'm really looking forward to flipping my calendar page tomorrow and starting a new month. There are lots of things in February that I'm really nervous about but also so many occasions to celebrate. I for one just adore holidays and of course Valentine's Day is no exception. I mean really, what girl doesn't love a little extra affection from her man if she's being completely honest? Isla's already asking "What is a Valentine?" and I'm excited to show her! Happy February!

Emma: 22 Weeks

Emma is now officially 5 months old!

This week has gone much better than some of the weeks prior. We seem to be making headway on the whole sleep training ordeal for which I am oh so grateful. It is not easy to let your baby cry but after the last few weeks, I am 100% confident that sleep is a learned behavior and that sleeping and bedtimes must be taught. We've gone from having a baby who wouldn't go to bed before 11 PM (and who ate at 5 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM, 11 PM etc) to having a baby who eats for the last time ~6:30 PM and then is able to make it until early morning before needing to feed again. Last night, she went from 7:15 PM to 8 AM without eating!!! Granted, that could have been a fluke, but it's major progress. She still lets out a few squawks throughout the evening after we put her down but is no longer crying for long stretches before falling asleep. She usually wakes 1-2 times a night but I'm not feeding her if it's before 4 AM. The last couple nights a binky plug is all she's needed. Tonight I got brave enough to put her down back in her room with Isla (because I have company coming this weekend who will need the guest room!) I am so hoping we don't undo our progress.

Emma absolutely adores her sister. Every time Isla talks, it gets her attention, even if someone else is talking at the same time. Isla has a knack for making her giggle and you can just tell the two love each other.

Emma loves grabbing my hair and swatting my face while she nurses. Now I remember why I wanted short hair after having Isla!

She loves being held up above my head like an airplane and is starting to really enjoy peekaboo. Apparently she is also rather intrigued by her tongue.

DIY

I have a rather long list of projects I'm hoping to tackle. If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if I might be pregnant and experiencing some form of the nesting phase. Maybe there is such thing as I-have-a-2-year-old-and-a-5-month-old-and-I-need-to-do-something-other-than-change-diapers-and-feed-with-these-hands-of-mine sort of nesting. I'm not quite sure where I expect to find the time to implement this mental list of projects since I can't seem to get the girls to sleep at the same time but who cares about that detail! :) I just need to create!

Sooooooo, I placed an order yesterday for this fabric:

Our dining chairs have white cushions (seriously, who buys dining chair with white cushions and then proceeds to have kids???) Or at least they used to be white. Now I think each and every one of them has at least one giant stain in a variety of colors. So, I am going to recover them with this stain resistant fabric. I ordered a swatch of it first so I could try it out. When I poured water on it, the liquid beaded into droplets and was not absorbed. I even squirted some bright orange sriracha sauce on it and it wiped right off. Anyway, if you haven't already put two and two together, I'm going to attempt to recover all 8 of our chairs.

While I was at it, I also decided to order a yard of each of these fabrics to recover some of our living room pillows. Never thought I'd say this, but I feel the need for CHANGE!!!

Three of our dining chairs sit at the bar in the living room so I'm hoping the pillows will help tie together the green on the chairs with our bright red accent wall. It could end up looking like Christmas all year round, but hopefully not.

Then I've been scouring all the Value Villages in the area for a large frame. We have a huge vase full of wine corks we've been saving and I want to make my own fashionable cork board to hang near the entryway. I'm hoping this will be a great place to post the Christmas pictures you all sent! So far my frame hunt has left me empty handed but I'm sure I'll find one I like somewhere.

In my Value Village treasure hunting, I did come across these silver gems which I'd been in the market for since Christmas. After taking down my garlands, I realized our mantle was a bit barren. We almost spent $60 on some silver pillar candle holders at Ikea but I'm glad we didn't because I scored these for 4 bucks!

Oh and now I'm in the market for another couple yards of fabric to make a 2nd crib sheet for Emma's bed. One is definitely not enough! I'm having a hard time finding anything that doesn't look too busy with the fabric I chose for her crib skirt.

The peaks of sunshine we've been having reminded me that my garden planters are all disintegrating on the patio and that it's time for something new. I'd love to have one BIG one made that I can actually fit a large variety of produce in. So, of course dreaming up a garden planter reminded me that I need to pick out my vegetable seeds for the spring.....

Gosh, there's a LOT more I'm hoping to do but this is sounding like a lot already. One thing at a time. Hopefully I will have some pictures of finished projects to post soon!

Emma: 21 Weeks

Emma finally rolled over a couple more times for Graham to see on Jan 25th. He was beginning to think I'd made up that milestone. She frequently rolls to her side now to grab toys and can spin herself and scoot up with her feet. She seems to really enjoy rubbing her feet together and is almost always missing at least one sock.

We began our own version of sleep training this week. I just couldn't take the 15 hour days anymore and determined it was time to get her to fall asleep and stay asleep at a set time in the evenings. At first I tried putting her down after Isla around 7:30 or 8 PM but she was beginning to melt down closer to 6:30 so I bumped it up. I'm trying to give her a bottle at 6:30 PM and have her in bed by 7. If I can get my act together, I might even try bottle at 6 and bed at 6:30 but it is proving rather challenging doing all that right at the dinner hour. I can now see why my mom used to feed us at 5:30 PM!



Anyway, she was going down fine at first but then would wake up again anywhere from 15 minute to 2 hours later. We started by letting her cry for 5 minutes and then we'd calm her and then 10 minutes etc but she only got more and more worked up. I re-read my Healthy Sleep Habits book and finally we decided just to let her cry. I know there are a multitude of opinions on this but I believe whole heartedly that she needs to learn to fall asleep and fall back to sleep on her own. So, with Graham's support, I bit the bullet and decided we wouldn't go in there if she started to cry (ok, if we're honest, maybe he decided that one). The first time we tried it, she cried for 1 hour. And then the 2nd night it's like she knew it was coming and so decided not to to go to bed at 7 and cried for a half hour. Then she woke again at her usual 9:30/10 PM mark and we repeated the process. Of course I spent a lot of time crying too. Last night, after 8 or so nights of this, she finally went down without crying and didn't wake up again until 3 AM. Success! I'm feeling better about bedtime but now we need to decide what to do about the middle of the night awakenings and then conquer her cat naps during the day. 

Emma is extremely wiggly. She doesn't really sit on your lap anymore but rather tries to catapult herself out of your arms and onto the floor. We've had a couple close calls. She really loves is when I strip her down just to a diaper-all her limbs go crazy.



She is losing her hair by the bunches now, especially after I bathe her. You'd think we had a cat by the look of her sheet and swaddle. Makes me so sad. I know it will grow back, I just loved the way it was.

I think Emma is ready for solids. It's just that I'm not ready yet. She throws herself toward my dinner plate in the evenings and gets really frustrated while we're eating. I'll probably start in the next couple weeks but I'm dragging my feet as I've never been one to believe in starting before 6 months because it's just easier to wait. She obviously has a mind of her own though. Watch.

Isla: 2 Years, 5 months

Isla is at such a fun age! Maybe all kids are fun at this age but I think she is absolutely hilarious. She comes up with the most random ways to entertain herself which 1) makes me feel boring that I didn't think of the activity myself and 2) makes me thankful she is capable of being creative. Take for instance path building. She likes to collect all the pillows from the living room and lay them out across the floor to build a "path." She also likes to utilize a set of hardcover books on our shelf for the same purpose. Then she asks "Mom go on the path with me?"

Isla can officially spell her name! I just randomly caught her saying "I-S-L-A" one day. I'm trying to teach her to write it now. She asks me to do it all the time so hopefully she will figure it out before long.

I see little bits (ok maybe a lot of bits) of my personality in her. Each of the place settings in her toy dishes set is a different color and the other day I tried to give her a pink fork to go with her white plate. I was immediately corrected and told she would be needing the white fork with the white plate. I've intentionally tried to be very lax about this sort of thing in my play with her as OCD tendencies are not something I want to pass on to her. But apparently it runs in her blood. :)

For whatever reason, the staircase has turned into the bedroom for all her dolls and stuffed animals. She loves to put them down for their naps on the steps and always makes sure to remind me "Mom, be quiet. Ducky is sleeping."

Speaking of Ducky, Isla is coming up with her own little catch phrases. Her latest is to add a "y" to the end of a word and then repeat it again without the "y." Like her ducky is now "Ducky Ducks" and her soap has become "Soapy Soap." I feel like she's done it to a few other words too I just can't recall what they are at present. It makes me laugh.

We have added this wonderful little question to our "most-commonly-used-sentences-in-the-Crozier-household" and it has almost changed our lives from a discipline standpoint. Isla continues to test and test and test. But now when she is testing and bordering on disobeying, we ask her "Isla, are you going to choose to obey or disobey?" It really gets her attention and she stops whatever she is doing and usually responds eagerly "Obey!" and does whatever we ask. Only once did she tell me "Disobey!" and I don't think she was pleased with the consequences so that was the end of that. Yesterday over breakfast she told me out of nowhere "God wants me to obey." (Yes, apparently she is listening!) Then she proceeded to ask me "Where's God?" and so began a popular conversation in our house... She knows "He's in our hearts!" and yesterday she told me He was in Emma's heart too. :)

Isla adores her little sister and I have been particularly touched by how the two are engaging with one another this past month. Isla loves to lay on top of Emma and repeat "We don't share germs!" over and over in her face. (Can you tell she's growing up in a house with two medical professionals as parents?) They both proceed to giggle and laugh and so the cycle repeats. I hate to admit it but my two year old has become a mighty fine little babysitter during dinner prep and clean up time. I'll ask Isla to go give Emma her binky or go make Emma laugh and she will!

I love how Isla says certain words. For whatever reason she has never been able to say "picture." Instead it comes out "pick-shook" and so I had to capture it on video because someday she'll say it right and I'll be sad. She did finally master the word "pool" but it takes a lot of concentration first for her to get it right!

The other day I was changing her diaper and out of no where she told me "Some day when I am bigger and bigger, a boy gonna give me a ring for my finger!" She also told me that she'd like a big girl watch so she can wear it with her running shoes and run for exercise.

She joined me in doing my Jillian Michael's workout DVD a couple times last week while we were snowed in. She used Emma's stacking rings as weights and it was pretty adorable. I'd just been using my 3 pound weights to break myself back in but of course Isla had to ask why I wasn't using the 7 pounders. I told her that I couldn't lift those ones yet so she went the rest of the day repeating that "When mommy is older and older, she'll be able to lift the big green weights." Yes Isla, someday when I'm older.

Isla seems a bit more interested in using the potty over the past couple weeks (I think mostly because it prolongs bedtime). But, we've had two successes in four days so that give me hope. I'm still not pushing it as I know she'll let me know when she's ready.

One of Isla's very favorite words right now is "actually." She often tells me things like "Actually I'd like pasta Mommy" or "My dolly needs a clean diaper actually."

I think we conquered our early morning waking problem where Isla would start wailing at 5 AM for us to come fix her blanket....We told her she was old enough now to fix her own blanket and sure enough, after a few demonstration where we showed her how, she can do it all by herself. Ahhh, the magic of empowering...

As for other favorites, she is loving Spot the dog books, gluing all sorts of "crafts" with her glue stick, having her Daddy tell her made up stories and pretending the coffee table is a slide at the park (ummmm?) She's such a sweetheart and I'm grateful for her every day!

Crozier Christmas 2011, finally

This post will be a continuation of this post I wrote about Christmas #1 a couple weeks back. After the Christmas Eve service, we headed over to the senior Croziers where we enjoyed a dinner of cheese fondue with chocolate fondue for dessert. We opted to sleep over to make for a less rushed Christmas morn.  

We started with stockings...

 Yes, I am officially that mom who buys her kids matching Christmas pajamas. 

 Grandma Crozier served up a delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and eggs and each place setting was complete with a cute wooden ornament. 

 Don't ask me why, but Graham wore these glasses most of the morning...

Auntie Tash and Uncle John! (Of course I would have lighting issues when taking a picture of the professional photographer but I had to document you were there John!) 

Had to post a shot that captures the wildest tree ever (17 feet and they ordered a 12 footer...) 

 Graham and my gift to Isla. She LOVED it and I just loved her reaction. "A new little baby doll for me Mommy!" Nice work Graham--you know your daughter well.

I somehow managed not to get a solo picture of Scott (sorry Scott!) but here you can see him in the background between the stair rails. It's the best I could do!

 Grandpa Crozier and the little Cherub 

 After a soup lunch with just the immediate family, half of us retired to attempt a nap before the big party started. The evening closed with a ginormous gathering of the Davies clan that was quite exciting. Poor Emma was really not feeling well and we were all exhausted from our trip to Mexico so we bid our goodbyes around 7 and took our little sickies home to bed. Twas a Merry Christmas despite being ill!

Starbucks or bust!

Today is a snow day and Seattle is totally. freaking. out.  It cracks me up how unraveled the whole city becomes when snow hits but I gotta admit, the quiet streets and slowed lifestyle is nice every once in a while. This morning we "braved" the weather and plowed (yes, turns out the BOB Duallie doubles as a plow--who knew!?) our way to Starbucks in hopes of finding coffee. Not only were they open, but they were SLAMMED. Apparently none of us have anything better to do that go out to coffee when the snow hits! My dear husband has already made public a comment I made to the Facebook world: "Only people who are saving lives should go to work in the snow...and those who serve coffee." Can I get an AMEN!? 

 I don't own snow boots. Don't judge!

 Graham decided I needed a gargantuan mug-o-jo. I was totally embarrassed by the large size. Enough for tomorrow too!  

 Yeah, it was huge.

 Now Graham has left for work (he's saving lives of course) and us girls are hunkering down for a cozy afternoon at home. Happy snow day, Seattle!

Emma: 20 Weeks

Every week seems to be marked with new successes and challenges! I am thrilled to report that this week we conquered the bottle! I thought the process would take much longer but maybe having three nights out (some work, some fun) the week Emma decided to refuse the bottle actually was a good idea? She got lots of practice with her various caretakers! We have given her one every day since last Monday, each time with less and less refusal. Last night Graham gave her one with zero crying. Hooray! We are warming it at least to room temp now (I gave up my dream of her taking it cold awhile ago...) Now we just have to keep it up....Every. Single. Day.

Sleep, sleep, sleep...that's been the main challenge this week. It's so complicated to figure out any sort of a schedule when you have two because there are so many factors to consider! But I've reached a point where I neeeeeed to get a bedtime established for Emma so I can be guaranteed even just one hour with my hands free during the day to respond to emails or work on MOPS stuff. And sleep training right now is not as cut and dry as it seems given our recent milk supply/growth issues. I would like to feed Emma less in the evening but then want to make sure she's gaining weight as she should. Ultimately my main two goals are: a bedtime before 11 pm and a good afternoon nap that coincides with Isla's. For whatever reason, we just haven't been able to get Emma to sleep (and to stay asleep!) any earlier than 10:30 or 11PM. She'll fall asleep earlier but then wake every hour or two and eat half-heartedly each time until she falls back asleep. I have a couple problems with this: a) I do not want to use feeding as a method to get her to sleep and b) she doesn't actually appear all that hungry. So, I'm attacking sleep this week. I set up the pack 'n play in the guest room with a nice white noise CD so that we can start to let Emma fuss a bit in the evening without waking her sister (this has been the main reason we haven't done it earlier). Graham gave her a bottle at ~7:15 PM with the hopes it would be her last feed for the evening. I laid her down awake at about 8 PM and she went to sleep. As if on cue, she woke up at 9 but I refused to feed her. We took turns giving her the binky and trying to soothe her which was less than successful. Finally Graham picked her up and she was out in minutes. We did not hear from her again until 5 AM--woohoo! Of course, eventually we will try to get her to go back to sleep on her own but I figure we'll take it in steps. I put her back in her own room after her early morning feed because it made me sad to have the girls separated again. :) Emma will spend the whole night back in her room once we get a good bedtime routine.

In other news, Emma is now rolling from her back onto her side to reach for toys. She hasn't made it all the way over that direction but it's progress. She also is arching and craning her neck a lot when she's on her back to see what's above her. I think full on, regular rolling is just around the corner.

Ok, and I gotta close with this one. This is how Emma really feels about these weekly photo shoots (gasp!)

Emma: Weeks 16-19

We've been too busy partying over here and I got behind on my posts! I guess I missed my traditional bear picture for both week 16 and 17 but oh well, such is the life of the second born.

 18 Weeks (1/3/11)

Emma just is quite the social sprite. She likes to be at eye level which has resulted in her joining us on the table in her bouncy seat during mealtimes (yeah, I know, probably not the smartest move but I she is always strapped in....) This will not last long as she no longer really enjoys the bouncy seat. She is, however, way into toys now which is fun.

Emma has discovered numerous new cool sounds her voice can make and shares them with us often. Notice also her mirror giggles and the attractive bald spot on the back of her head. :) (By the way, I'm sooo close to just buying a new camera if I can't get this stretched out video thing figured out soon! Ugg!)

She also loves it when you get right in her face so she can grab your cheeks. She gets super talkative and starts making the best noises. This is a mutually pleasing activity.

Emma caught Isla’s Mexican bug on Christmas Eve and it stuck with her for a good 10 days or so. This is already her second cold (not including her illness that required hospitalization that first week)….I don’t think Isla got sick at all until she was 6 months old at least. Again, the life of the second born!

Other facts about Emma: she flips out when you pull shirts over her head. Note to self: don't try any surprises involving blindfolding when she is older. She immediately starts arching and flailing, doing everything in her power to be able to see again. It's odd. 

She really loves it when her older sister plays with her. Isla likes to join her for tummy time and Emma really likes it when she reads to her. It's a win-win situation for all. 

Emma's New Years resolution was to quit sleeping through the night and begin waking AND eating about 3 times on average. Of course I later realized this coincided with my milk supply issues so at least we have a reason!

Her nicknames thusfar include: Emmy, Em n Ems and Emmy Bear.

 19 Weeks (1/11/12)

This past week can be summed up in one word: TOUGH!! But, then I look at these pictures and can't get over how worth it she is.

Our 4 month peds appointment was not so great. I’ve mentioned most of it but it was when we learned Emma’s weight gain had slowed and that my milk supply had nearly dried up. She weighed 13 pounds, 2.5 oz (25-50th %ile). Thankfully she remained on track with her linear gain and measured 24 1/2 inches (50-75th %ile). She also had what I thought was a zit on her face but it had turned green and the doctor said it was a minor staph infection and so popped it and instructed me to put warm compresses on it followed by Neosporin three times a day. Do you how hard it is to do a lot of things once a day with a baby, let alone three times? Somehow I think I remembered most of the time.

Praise the Lord I was able to preserve my milk supply (so far)! I’m taking this NASTY liquid supplement called MotherLove More Milk Plus (creative, eh?) but it works. I have to remember this one FOUR times a day and can’t drink anything for the 15 minutes before or after. But then I’m supposed to be drinking like there’s no tomorrow to keep my supply up. I tell ya, it’s no wonder I’m losing my mind keeping all this straight.

Of course as if all this wasn't enough, Emma also decided to quit taking the bottle. I'm not sure what she was thinking. If my milk supply had dried up, it would have been her only option. Anyway, she used to just be a bad bottle feeder (milk dribbling everywhere) but this week she actually started refusing the bottle, screaming and arching, the whole kit and kaboodle. At first I thought it was just me and then she wouldn't take one from Graham either. I REFUSE to be the sole feeder so we got right to work on this one and have had some success over the past few days. We are doing a bottle every single day so that she gets it down pat as I'll be returning to work before long here.

Emma went to the nursery for the very first time on Sunday, January 8th. She did great apparently and I was able to listen to the whole sermon! Of course this morning, she woke up all booger-faced, a classic Thursday morning post-nursery occurrence in our house.

But on a positive note, she rolled over for the first time on Monday, January 9th! She went from tummy to back and both Isla and I had the pleasure of witnessing it (I missed Isla's first roll because she did it on my first day back to work, the stinker!) She did it again today when I wasn't looking.

We finally have established a good morning nap that is usually about an hour or so in length. She more or less quit napping (or following a schedule) last week with all that went on so we are still working on our afternoon timing and establishing a bedtime. I have had some success getting both girls to sleep (in separate rooms) around 1:30 or 2 PM but Emma doesn't usually stay asleep for long without some intervention. And bedtime is a whole different story...we're lucky if we can get her asleep by 10 PM. I can usually get her down at 7:30 or 8 PM but she seems to think it's just a nap. Can't wait to reclaim my evenings again!

What a week!

It's been a crazy week over here. I feel like I always say that but this time I really mean it. I guess it's really been 2 weeks actually. Christmas "vacation" truly ended when I returned back from Bellingham and took Emma for her well check up on Monday. At her appointment the month prior, her Dr was a little concerned that she'd dropped from the 90th to the 75th %ile for weight. She said it wasn't a problem unless she dropped again so encouraged me to pay attention to my milk supply and try and get in the habit of pumping daily. I did my best but seeing that showers are a little hard to come by, it's not surprising that daily pumping sessions were as well. Then we went to Mexico and I wasn't about to pack my pump....and then all of us girls got sick over Christmas which resulted in poor nursing for Emma....I bet you know where this is going.

Back to her appointment on Monday. She dropped to below the 50th %ile--yikes! Looking back, it all makes sense but I was so just trying to survive the busyness of all our Christmas celebrations that I didn't even notice. But in retrospect, it was obvious--my milk supply had tanked! Emma had been waking up to 5 times a night when I was at my parents and I could not figure out why. And she was taking upwards of an hour to eat and never seemed satisfied afterwards. And then when I really thought about it, I realized I wasn't waking up engorged anymore and wasn't experiencing any random mid-day let downs like I had been. I'm sure my own illness, decreased appetite and severe sleep deprivation due to the frequent wakings didn't help anything. My doctor also said 4 months of age is the common time to experience a decrease in milk supply because it is the point in time where your body can no longer draw calories from your reserves to make milk as well. So basically if you aren't eating enough, you won't make enough. This sort of surprised me because I had been *cough* thoroughly enjoying the Christmas goodies so didn't think I could possibly be deficient there!!

So began the week. Ever since Monday morning, I have basically been nursing and pumping every 2-3 hours and then attempting to give her a bottle of milk if she's still acting hungry. I started taking Fenugreek and am now trialing another herbal supplement that is supposed to help. I am drinking more liquid than you would possibly believe and have taken the "increasing my calories" recommendation to heart. I even choked down a chocolate stout and then sort of "enjoyed" a couple Belgian Whites because the nurse practitioners at work always told moms that beer helped. To add to all this, Emma hasn't really been napping (I think she's been hungry) and then I already mentioned how our nights have been going.

Then for whatever reason (maybe she was feeling left out?), Isla decided to make 5 AM her new waking time. All week she has been crying and wailing for about 2 hours every morning, asking us to "come fix my blanket" or "leave the door open" or "turn the light on" or "come pick Isla up." Fun times, eh?

Yesterday morning I woke up and literally the first thing that came to mind was I need to go sleep at a hotel. Ha! But, despite these new challenges, I was sharing with Graham this morning that I thought I'd actually handled it all quite well and was feeling pretty proud of myself. I should be a complete mess, I kept thinking but I was actually feeling really good about the progress we've made.

Of course then I came home and accidentally threw toilet paper in the sink (gross, yes, but not as bad as it sounds and no need to worry, the sink has since been thoroughly disinfected!!) And I found a bottle of breast milk in the cupboard. And I also made dinner plans for tonight, totally forgetting I had a MOPS meeting that I had organized this evening. Well, I may be emotionally and physically healthy, but mentally? That's a whole different story!

Our little Picasso

Isla has become quite the artsy one lately. I think this is one area where she takes after her Dad. We got her this cute paint-your-own rubber ducky set for Christmas and she was dying to break into it right away.

 This was her first time using paints and I think she did quite well if I do say so myself. This magnificent piece of work is her new bath time buddy. 

 Graham let her loose with the paints on some paper too and thinks her creation is frame-worthy. I haven't taken a picture of it yet but I think it's about time we figure out a way to display and rotate her works of art. Anyone have good suggestions?

 Graham always talks about the "Busy Bee Box" his mom made for him when he was young. It contained all things art-related and was a great way to keep him occupied. Isla received TONS of art supplies (stickers, coloring books, pipe cleaners, buttons etc) that I finally put in a little drawer for her as my version of a Busy Bee Box (I think she will soon have one at her Grandma and Grandpa Crozier's house too!). She asks always daily if I will "do a craft" with her. I am loving these special times together watching her create. She definitely takes the all or nothing approach, doesn't she?