this is the cooperative one

{the easy kid}

I made this shirt for Malayna over the weekend. Well, okay, all I really did was cut the silhouette out of blue fabric and hand-stitch it onto a t-shirt. {The Puppy Love silhouette was created by Anna Marie Horner. Scroll down on her blog and see the wonderful things she made with it - a cake {!} and a gorgeous bag for her daughter. Over in her sidebar is a free jpeg of the silhouette!} That blue fabric was just sitting in a box in my studio for the past few years, waiting to be put to use. I got it for free from craigslist - the woman who gave it to me also got it for free from an elderly woman who was cleaning out her stash.

Malayna saw me making it and when I was finished she gushed over it, saying "it's so pweeeeety, mommy!" {Okay, so pretty is her new favorite word and she calls just about everything pweeeeety.} So imagine my surprise {not really} when she refused to wear it. I had a cute little outfit planned - the shirt, a green skirt {to match the stitching} and her favorite "baby" socks. {Which is what she calls the socks that only come to her ankle.}

She made her most obnoxious face and whined that she didn't want to wear "that shirt!" Ugh. Now what? Let Luco wear it? {It won't fit.} Give it to cousin Jack? {My brother David would say it's a "girl's" shirt.} Cut it up and put it in a little frame? I can't just let it sit around doing nothing! I know it's not a masterpiece, but I spent precious time working on it!

Right about now my mom and dad are laughing and secretly thanking the gods that I got the daughter they wished on me. I can't even tell you how many times my mom said to me, "I hope you have a daughter just like you."

Malayna has added another personality to her repertoire. His name is Leo and he's a baby. He walks funny and can't talk. But he's mostly pleasant! We saw her cousins Jack and Sean over the weekend, and Malayna was calling herself Leo while she was playing with Jack. Since Jack's only 19 months old, he was pretty confused. But he caught on quickly - if David {my brother and Jack's dad} asks him what Malayna's other name is, Jack says "Leo." Oh, Jack. If you only knew...

{Jack, Sean and Malayna at mom-mom's and pop-pop's house}