How to Make a Bottle Buddy

March 8, 2013 by Laura Lohr 14 Comments

When Allie brought home the latest school project I sighed at the prospect. The task seemed daunting for a second grade project. She had to choose a U.S. President to report on and create a “bottle buddy” replica of her president she chose. We had two weeks to complete it. We’ve included the steps we took and the Bottle Buddy instructions to create your very own Bottle Buddy.

Bottle Buddy Project — My daughter and her Bottle Buddy.

We were given a gentle suggestion from the teacher to choose a president that was not George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Barrack Obama. The teacher was looking to have some variety in the project. We began searching for a president that would spark our little scholar’s interest and search we did. I suggested my favorite president—Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We suggested Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant. Mr. Bear’s dad’s name is Grant, so we were really pushing for Grant or FDR. Nothing seemed to suit her.

Finally, she saw the picture of Grover Cleveland and she was sold. She loved that he was a big guy and she thought he would suit her needs. Mr. Bear and I couldn’t think of anything concrete that we knew about Grover Cleveland, so we acquiesced. Grover Cleveland it is!

On the following library day, Allie came home with her Grover Cleveland biography book and she eagerly began learning all she could, while taking notes. Who is this kid? She did a great job retelling all she could about our 22nd and 24th president, which left the bottle buddy.

According to the instructions, a bottle buddy is made out of a plastic bottle and is fashioned to look like the president of one’s choosing. We knew right away it was going to be a big project. I headed over to Michaels and got all the supplies to make our fancy guy.

What You’ll Need:

Black felt for the suit jacket and pants
White felt for the white dress shirt
Styrofoam like these round ones, but chose these egg-shaped ones instead
Buttons
Yarn for the hair
Googly wiggle eyes and we found these creepy ones with a colored iris in green. AWESOME!

We came home with our loot and I immediately questioned how we were going to do this. Mr. Bear had some great ideas for the head. I had no ideas. They began by fashioning yarn “hair” to the Styrofoam egg “head.” I don’t know how Mr. Bear did it, but it turned out amazing!

I began trying to figure out how to make clothing out of felt to dress a 2 liter bottle. To say it was a huge task is an understatement, especially since I really didn’t have an experience with making clothes for a beverage bottle. Try as I might, I was able to come up with some pretty good ideas. Allie wanted a hat of course and she got it! I hand sewed all the felt and even made the hat by hand. It was a lot of work, but it was a success and she loved working on it.

So, yeah. Allie’s project became our project. She did a great job on her project and while my fingers were sore from poking myself with the sewing needle OVER and OVER, it was well-worthwhile!

Have you done a bottle buddy project? What bottle buddy personality have you or will you create? Let me know in comments!

Hush Little Baby, Don’t You Cry

September 12, 2012 by Laura Lohr 1 Comment

I sat on my cherished corner of the couch, sipping my French pressed coffee, absorbed in the business I had delayed for nearly two weeks. I was soaking in the silence, like one soaks in the warm sunlight on summer’s day. It was the vibration that starled me first, then followed by the blarring of my obnoxious ringtone that shook me to reality. A number I did not recognize.

For a moment, I toyed with the idea of dismissing it to voicemail. At the last minute, I pressed “Accept” and my voiced cracked a forced, “HEEELLO!?”

“Is this Allison’s mom?” the voice chirped. Shit. I immediately discerned that this was the voice of the school nurse.

“Yes, it is,” I hesitantly breathed, through my exigent grimace that had formed about my face. My thoughts go to days earlier.

…
Five days earlier, Allison was promenading around the tiled edge of our sunken tub, when she slipped and toppled to the floor 2 feet below. We heard her cries echo throughout from the second floor and shriek to the first. The clamourous thud was next, followed by the whimpers and moans. Mr. Bear jumped to his feet, leaped to the staircase, taking two, three steps at a time, while I sat immobilized and incapacitated. I am a coward. I cannot move. I am powerless. I do not want to see what is wrong. I panicked.

I trailed behind Mr. Bear, assuring that he would be the first responder. There was no blood. There was no head injury. I whisper my thanks to God and Allie’s guardian angels and scooped up my big, little girl into my arms and attempted to soothe her hurts. She buried her face into the crook of my arm and sobbed her little, big girl sobs, as I cede my own sobs to console her. I felt vulnerable, exposed and buried my own face to hide my frailty—my cowardess. And that, I found reasons to swaddle a baby.

I took a deep breath and coaxed, “Are you okay? What were you doing?” not waiting for an answer, I wrapped her up in the bath towel and dried the water droplets before they rolled from shoulder to wrist.

Fortunately, while her back was sore for a couple days after, she was fine. We alternated between hot and cold compresses over the weekend, however, she was all right. She is a lucky little girl.
…

“Mrs. Lohr, this is Nurse xxxx, at Your_daughter’s_school. I have Allison—-” she informed.

Time froze for what felt like an eternity.

“Allison is fine. I just called to let you know that during lunch she fell from the monkey bars on the playground,” she continued.

I could feel my throat rise from my chest and the color drain from my face and rush to my limbs, making my hands feel heavy.

“She bumped her chin and bit her tongue. She is not bleeding badly, but she did bite it and it is bleeding a bit. She is ready to go back to class, so I am going to put her on. So, hold on…” she implored.

“Hiii, Mommy. I fell off the monkey bars” I could hear the tears welling up in her by the cracks in her voice and the tears began to flow in my own eyes. The sobs were coming quicker with each word she expelled.

“Hi, Baby! Are you okay? I heard what happened. I am going to be there to pick you up in about an hour or so. I love you, Sweet Pea! Are you going to be able to get back to class?” I blubbered, trying to regain my composure. I was trying to convince my voice to be strong and confident, although I was melting into a soppy mess on the floor. There it is again. My heart in my throat.

“Yeeess. I can, Mama. My chin and my tongue hurts and it was bleeding. It hurts really, really bad. (Indescernable whimpering)” she stammered, barely able to speak. Her voice was thick and breath heavy.

“I’ll be there in about an hour, Sweetheart. Can you be a great big girl and go back to class? Are you okay to go back to class?”

“Yes, Mommy, I can,” she whispered and handed the phone back to the nurse.

The nurse assured me that Allie was fine until she heard my voice. I could believe that, because I felt the same way when I heard Allie’s. When I arrived at the school afterschool, she rushed toward me as soon as she identified me in the sea of parents in front of the school.

“MOOOOOOMMMMMYYYY!” she screeched, running toward me with her tongue stuck out as she ran. and hugged me while her entire little, big girl being.

Her jaw hurts and she asked if I could “juice her dinner” because it hurts her jaw to chew. She shared with me that it was not so bad to be hurt because she received much attention. My only child. Always looking for the silverlining in every cloud.

There is quite a large gash on her tongue. She has spent most of her time with her tongue hung more than halfway out. It is difficult to understand her. She is going to survive from this injury and for that I am grateful. She has a bruise and a scab on her chin. I often reflect on a addage I heard years ago, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” It is moments like these that I believe these worder to be no truer.

Allie Tongue — Allie pointing out EXACTLY where it hurts. Poor little, big girl!

How am I going to get this kid to make it to adulthood? Sigh.

Back to School: First Day of Second Grade

August 27, 2012 by Laura Lohr Leave a Comment

My little girl is growing up so fast. It is hard to believe that she is in the second grade. This year was already much different than last year. Allie laid out her clothes for today, completely down to the socks. She was so excited about her first day back to school. Her best friend, Owen, is in her class and she is over the moon about it!

Last year was a year of much growth in so many ways. She is doing so well in school and got Student of the Month right before the school year was over. She is a smart little girl. She is well-liked by peers and teachers. She is so very thoughtful and loving. She cares deeply about her family and is always asking when she will be able to see different family members again. She has the best sense of humor and keeps everyone laughing. She thinks big and has lots of questions I have to look up the answers to. She keeps us on our toes.

I have received more than a few requests from readers to share more Allie photos and stories. I promise not to disappoint. She really is a wonderful little child, so full of life. To know her, definitely is to love her.

Here are a few photos from this morning. The sun was blinding this morning, so there are a lot of shadows (and the photographer was off her game—ME!).