Last Doll Dress: The Poppy Dress

I was able to pick up some buttons to finish off the last baby doll dress last night. I love how these buttons pop against the purple dress! So cute.

This was originally a pattern for a doll cardigan to fit Waldorf dolls, called the Poppy Cardigan. I made a few alterations to change it into a dress because, at her age, I figured Ella would get frustrated with putting a cardi on a doll.

I used Cascade 220 Superwash wool to make the dress. It's a soft, machine-washable wool that drapes really nice.


I knit the pattern as directed until after the split for sleeves. At that point, I joined the sides and knit it in the round for an inch. Then I did one row of increasing every stitch (kfab) to double my stitches for the skirt. I knit until it was about 6" long, then knit the garter stitch hem. The total length is 6 1/2" from center neckline to hem edge.


I'm pleased with the look and fit of the finished piece. Ella loves it, too!

December Recap 5: Close Encounters of the T21 Kind

When we are home, just motoring around town doing our thing, we rarely run into other people with Down syndrome (aka T21.) We see Sean's classmate at school, but that's about it. So when we are away, I always have my T21 Radar on to notice other families. This trip was no exception.

Encounter 1: Orlando airport, Budget Rental Car waiting area.
A woman walked by with her cocker spaniel and waited just across from where we sat with the kids while Doug got our vehicle. My kids didn't want to go see the dog up close, so we watched from a distance. A 14-ish year old boy walked up to the dog with his 3 year old brother, who has Down syndrome. I watched his big smile as the dog wagged his tail and grinned back at him. He sat on the floor in front of the dog to play with him. All was well until the dog jumped up and licked him on his forehead, then the boy decided that was enough and reached up to brother to take him away in tears.

I watched them head back over to mom and then Sean wandered off that way, too. We worked are way over to them and said hello. The other mom was happy to meet Sean and talked to him at length.

Encounter 2: This was a mere brush, but at Magic Kingdom there was a boy older than Sean, maybe 10ish, with his parents and they seemed to be 2 groups ahead of us on several rides that day. Didn't chat with them, but I liked seeing how their child reacted to all the stimulus of WDW. The previous day, Doug said a similar aged boy with Ds was in line for the Rock & Roller Coaster ride. He said he really wondered how he handled that ride as it was fast and a bit scary. No way would Sean go on a ride like that, but maybe as he gets older he'll be interested?

Encounter 3: Lunch at Freddy's Frozen Custard with my family, New Year's weekend.
Sean wanted to sit at a different table than the rest of us, so Doug moved over to sit with him. A family of three, their daughter being a young adult with T21, sat at a table between our two groups. I watched them and saw them watching Sean as they ate. When Doug and Sean finished, Sean wanted to go sit outside at a picnic table, so Doug came over to grab their coats. Sean walked out without him and I guess the mother thought he was leaving on his own, so she hopped up and went after him to reign him back in.

I had to laugh, because Sean & Ella herding is such a second nature thing to Aidan and his cousins, as well as us. I guess that instinct doesn't wear off as our wandering ones get older!

I love that T21 Radar.

December Recap 4: Christmas Day at Disney World

Our Christmas Day started at Magic Kingdom.

This time, we got the double stroller and a special needs pass. We learned the thanks to the American's with Disabilities Act, Sean and 5 of his friends could use a special pass to get into rides more easily at WDW. The pass allowed us to wait for rides in the FastPass lane, rather than the extremely long regular line. Ride operators worked our group into the ride in alternate with people in the regular line. We did still wait a bit, but not nearly as much as the previous day. We were also able to use the stroller as a wheelchair if there was a long line and Sean needed to sit until it was our turn. That said, it was an extremely busy day at Magic Kingdom, we later heard that they had to close the gates at 11 am as it was full to capacity by that time (100,000 people.)

The first thing we saw after getting our pass and stroller was a street parade with some of our favorite characters: Woody, Jessie, Mr Incredible and Frozone. I lifted Sean high up to see everyone and he beamed with excitement and waved so hard! It literally brought tears to my eyes. We worked our way through the crowds towards the castle to find a ride to start with.

First stop was the famous Mad Tea Party tea cup ride! Doug, Aidan, Sean and I rode while Grandma and Grandpa watched with Ella. Sean covered his ears the whole time, but said he liked it. Aidan was disappointed that we wouldn't let him spin the cup too fast.

Next we took Sean and Ella to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while Grandma and Aidan rode Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Doug and I rode the carousel with the three kids, then the six of us went on It's a Small World together.






We had a horribly long wait to get some lunch, then we walked up to the Toontown section. By the time we got there, Ella was sound asleep. The boys explored a bit, then we decided to take the train back to the entrance and go back to the hotel. The kids wanted to swim in the big pool at the resort before we had to leave Orlando.

The kids absolutely loved playing in the resort pool. They had little life jackets so the kids were fearlessly jumping in and going down the water slides.





We had to drive to Okeechobee after that, so we packed up the kids and our things and headed down south aways where we spent the rest of our week. We had cool, windy weather the rest of the week so we didn't get to do as much outdoors as we wanted. It was nice just being lazy and watching movies or playing games with the family. We did take a day trip to hit some fabulous outlet stores in Fort Myers.

Our flight home went fairly well, though we got in late so that made an exhausting day. We were glad to see that we didn't have an ice or snow covered van to clear off at 11 pm.

It was a neat experience, for sure. Disney certainly has a lot more to do than we could take on in a short time with young kids. I hope we can try it again in several years when they are older. I saw so many other things that I'd like to do there.

December Recap 3: Christmas Eve at Disney World

We flew to Orlando, FL on Dec. 23rd and went to the Caribbean Beach Resort at WDW that evening. The kids did fairly well traveling there, we had a fully charged dvd player, i-Pod and PSP to keep them occupied. Hey, screen time has it's uses in tight spots! For a change, our kids weren't the loudest on the plane. :)

I didn't take any photos of the resort, but did get some video at the pool on the last day there. The resort was big and comfortable, we had rooms overlooking the beach so the kids got to play in the sand several times. The weather was a lot cooler than it had been when we went to Florida the year before, so that was a bit of a bummer. Still, you can't beat walking around in long sleeve shirts, no bulky down coats, in December!

Christmas Eve Day is my niece's birthday, so we let her choose which park to go to that day. She picked Hollywood Studios. We all met for breakfast then rode the bus to the park together. Sean and Ella loved the bus ride almost as much as the Disney rides and sang Wheels on the Bus the whole way there. We rented a double stroller and headed to the Pixar Section to ride the Toy Story Mania attraction. Given the huge amount of love all the kids, especially Sean, has for Toy Story, we knew that this was a MUST DO event. What a wonderland!






The wait for the ride took around 45 minutes and proved to be very difficult for Ella (she kept wanting to climb all over the displays) and Sean (they had the theme music running rather loudly and Potato Head talked to people.) Once in the ride, they forgot all about it and had so much fun. It didn't take Sean long to figure out how to fire the Buzz Lightyear laser at the targets. He rode in a car with me, Aidan and Grandpa rode in a second car, and Doug, Grandma and Ella rode in the third. Doug earned the highest score, with me in a close second.

Our second stop was to meet Woody and Buzz. When we got in line, the doorman said is was about a 20 minute wait. The kids had fun posing with the photo props, but as we got near the front of the line Sean started wandering ahead to have a look. Grandma followed him up and kept trying to talk him back into our place, but Sean was just mesmerized by his heroes. He just stood there and stared in awe. The Disney photographer talked to Janice and told her that Sean should have a special pass so we didn't have to wait in long lines. She told a co-worker to bring us to the front of the line and let us go next. By the time we got up there, Sean was hand-and-hand with two of his favorite people.








From there we had some lunch, then Grandpa and I took the little two to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playset and Doug, Grandma and Aidan went to the Muppets 3D Show. By the time we met up again, Ella was getting very tired and Sean was asking to go home. We decided to take them to see The Cars display and then Grandpa was going to help me get the little two back to the hotel for some nap time/down time. Sean is a huge fan of the movie Cars and would of loved to see them up close. Unfortunately for him, they were automated displays that rev their engines and talked. It was so loud he refused to be on the same side of the street as them, let alone go up close.



Doug, Aidan and Grandma stayed until the park closed at 5:30 but were only able to get to two more attractions: The Rock & Roller Coaster, which scared the beejezus out of Aidan, and the Lights-Motors-Action Stunt Show, which was a huge hit in his eyes! They didn't take the camera with them, though.

We met up together for dinner that evening at the restaurant at the resort and then flopped exhausted into bed.

December Recap 2: Early Christmas at Home

Since we were leaving for our Florida vacation and wouldn't be home Christmas Day, Aidan had me email Santa at The Portable North Pole Website to ask if he could visit our house early this year. Luckily, Santa balanced out Sean and Ella's good behavior against Aidan recent naughtiness and made the trip for us. LOL




Aidan's highlights



Sean's favorites



New loves for Eleanor



One thing we suggested to family and have had fun with is new games for the kids. We got several different ones to play.


As for me, my husband surprised me with a Flip Camera, so I will hopefully take more videos in 2011. Yay!

December Recap 1: Finished Christmas Knits

A Drop-Stitch Scarf for my sister, Ann, knit in Nurturing Threads Wicked Rainbow yarn.



A swing top dress I designed & named The Violet-Elizabeth Dress, based on two other patterns. This was made for my friend's daughter, Alena. She just turned two, so I had Ella try it on for size. I used Classic Elite organic cotton & merino wool blend yarn for it.



I also made Hudson Hats for each of my kids.
Aidan's is made out of Mosaic Moon cestari wool in the Woodland in Spring colorway.

Sean's is made out of Retro Baby gaia organic bulky wool in the Rumple colorway.

Eleanor's is made out of Nurturing Threads aria organic merino wool in the Enchanted Lotus colorway.



I made a manly waffle-knit hat for Doug with inexpensive acrylic-wool blend Plymouth Encore yarn.


And, lastly, I made two more doll dresses for Ella's babies. I need to sew buttons on one and the other one I designed the pattern for so I will list that separately. Phew! My needles were hot in December! :)

Two Special Visitors

The kids got to see two very special people this weekend, Santa and my older sister, Ann. Ann and her husband, Blake, came out for a weekend visit from Wisconsin. They narrowly missed blizzard weather to spend some time with us. It's been bitterly cold and crazy windy all weekend, but I suppose that's still better than a blizzard!

We take the kids to visit Santa in his little glass house in the park every year. Sean rushed right in to go first and just loved on Santa!

Aidan went next, and I caught this coy smile when Santa said, "Have you been a little naughty this year?"

Ella wasn't willing to snuggle up to a stranger, so she let Daddy sit near him. :)

We drove halfway to my parents house to meet up with the family. I thought a lunch together and some playtime at the mall would give us a chance to catch up, but the mall was busy and the two littles took off in opposite directions every second they could. Did get to take a few pics while waiting for our food.

Mom (aka Nana) and her first-born, Ann.

Ann with Aidan and cousin Adam (my sister, Tanya's son.)

And then Sean took this one of Ann, too cute!


I wish we could get out to Wisconsin to visit them sometime, but not in the winter! :)

Wordless Wednesday: School Christmas Concert

(Video of Sean "singing")

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