How much wood could a Brisbane chuck

if a Brisbane could chuck wood? Which he CAN!

This is the problem. Brisbane likes to chew on things. He has 8 teeth. Which is apparently impressive for his age (that's what his pediatrician and some very intelligent mothers have told me). So basically he is constantly drooling and teething and chewing. So when he wakes up in the morning or from his nap he decides to have a little snack. He made those marks in his crib shown in the pictures above in one nap.

I tied a towel around it so that he couldn't reach the wood anymore. That didn't last long. He learned how to untie it and/or move on to the other sides of the crib. After we were officially ghetto with two towels tied to our baby's crib we decided we would break down and buy a cover for it.

So I drug my three kids to Babies 'R Us. I had to ask a very helpful associate to show me where the crib rail covers were. Of course none of them would work/fit on our crib. So the girl turns to me and says, "Are you crafty?" And in my head I think, "like a fox?" But instead I say, "Ummm....no."

Those who know me know that I am not the crafting type. I don't scrapbook. I don't have one of those fancy machines that cut vinyl. I am so uncrafty that my handwriting isn't even all that good (let's face it, crafty people have good handwriting).I followed up my emphatic 'no' with, "But I can sew".

It was a gift that my mother gave me. The gift of sewing. I am grateful for that gift even if I don't appreciate it much (and don't use it much). My mother taught me how to sew (and how to pick out seams....of which I am a pro...that is picking out seams...not sewing).

So I scrounged up some fabric that I had enough of but just needed to be pieced together a bit(free from my mother). Got out the sewing machine that my mother gave me for Christmas and sewed away.

Notice how heavily involved my mother was in this process. Taught me. Gave me fabric. Bought me machine. She also gave me excellent sewing advice over the phone. She basically made the whole cover.

While I was sick a few weeks ago I did one side of the crib at a time. The covers didn't take me too terribly long to make. The first one was a little short. The second one was my best one. And the third one, the long side, a bit twisty. But nobody will ever notice and they serve their purpose.

I consider the whole thing a success. Brisbane doesn't enjoy chewing on his crib nearly so much anymore. He moved on to the windowsill. That's right. My child eats plaster. I think he might have some strange deficiency. So after he put several holes in my windowsill and chewed it down to the framing, we got smart. But instead of me sewing a cover for it, we just moved the sofa in front of the window.

But despite outsmarting my one year old twice, I will be the first to admit, our kids are definitely smarter than us!