Quiet Book

I've had a little project brewing for the last two years...

I made a quiet book for Lily. I initially started back in December 2013 when Michal was working late hours and Lily would go to bed at 5:00. After she went to bed, I cleaned, cooked dinner, and didn't have anything else to do to occupy my time before Michal got home - so I tried to embark on bringing out my creativeness. 

The project got put on hold once Michal started returning at a regular hour, but come February and March - he was working harder than ever and I hardly saw him. In fact, I was only able to spend an hour with him on my birthday. So to keep from getting upset that I didn't ever see him, and to keep me from watching too much winter Olympics, I continued working on my quiet book.

Life got busy again, and I didn't have the time or energy to continue this project. But when I got pregnant, I had severe insomnia and this is what I worked on when I couldn't sleep.

When Marco was born - everything was finished and completed except the grommets in the pages, and the cover. My mom helped me put together the grommets and she told me she would do a cover for me. After waiting for her cover, I gave up and in September 2015 decided to do my own. At first I started with this complex zipper pattern, then it evolved to velcro, and then I eventually settled on the easiest route - strings! I put some pockets on the inside to make sure it could hold any loose pieces and got this cover done while watching two or three netflix shows with Michal. It made me feel like I wasn't wasting time watching TV by accomplishing something.

So without further ado...

Here is the quiet book that I created.

COVER

MATCHING PAGES

 (one page is all animals, the other is miscellaneous - somehow one of the matching pieces got switched while I was taking pictures)

BRAID THE HORSE'S TAIL

TIC TAC TOE

MARBLE and BUTTON MAZE

I originally started this as a marble, but I like the button much better. I have two pages now - oh well.

MONKEY PAGE

Can remove the coconuts and the banana from his hand.

MR and MRS POTATO HEAD PAGE

FROGGIE PAGE

Unzip his mouth and his tongue comes out.

CUTTING BOARD PAGE

Open up the top of the cutting board and you can cut up all your own fruits and vegetables.

A-Z PAGE

Under every letter is a corresponding object starting with that letter.

FISHING PAGE

Hook the fish from the fishing pole and go fishing.

BALLET SHOE PAGE

Learn to tie a bow.

AMERICAN FLAG PAGE

Snap the stripes into place and secure the stars via velcro.

RINGS PAGE

Learn to create and loop rings.

SHAPES PAGE

Match the shapes with the corresponding colors and shapes.

VOLCANO PAGE

Pull the tab and watch it erupt!

SNAKE PAGE

Learn to coil up a messy, tangled snake.

WEAVING PAGE

Learn to weave

FLAMINGO PAGE

Move the pipe cleaner legs and search for the hidden turtle.

STAR PAGE

Loop the blue thread around the blue buttons to create a beautiful star.

MOUSE and CHEESE PAGE

Move the mouse through the slice of swiss cheese.

ART PALLET

Paint with your mix and match colors.

FLOWER and FOOTBALL PAGE

The football page is pretty self-explanatory, you thread the shoelace to create a football.

The flower (pot) page is my one incomplete page. There are corresponding colored flowers that you button on to the page, but I'm inexperienced at making a button hole, so until I get enough "buttonhole" experience - this page will remain unfinished. 

And my mom made the following pages: (hers are done on a slightly darker, heavier material... however, we planned to make the pages the same size so that they could be interchangeable. Isn't my mom just wonderful?)

DINOSAUR

Find the Dinosaurs in the Page and Match them with their pair that's not hidden.

TREE SEASONS PAGE

Unzip the zipper and create your season of choice:

Spring - small foliage with apples

Summer - Full leaves

Fall - colored leaves

Winter - baby green leaves

PULL STRINGS PAGE

I did one and my mom did one. I like my Mom's page better because she put button stoppers on each of the strings, plus - each of the strings were different colors and similar texture.

SAILBOAT

Match the shapes. Pull them out of the boat and find the corresponding shape.

RACE CAR PAGE

Rearrange the road with velcro on the back and pull out the car and sailboat to create your own little racetrack!

OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM

Unzip the zipper and pull out the finger puppets!

And then when you're all done...

wrap the sleeves up around the pages, tie the strings, keep everything intact and put it away for the next time you need children to be quiet!

Over the course of making this quiet book I spent countless hours and (probably) several hundred dollars. I've had several people ask me ("Do you love me enough to...") to make a quiet book for them. I'd love to do a quiet book exchange where 12 of us get a page and make 12 pages for everyone and then we put it together and... voila! A whole new quiet book... Or where I have a friend and we make one together... but I don't think I'd spend this kind of time or money on someone other than my children.

However, I can't wait to discover what my next "project" will be! I've decided I want to do a "project" every year for my children... that way, in case something happens to me, they have something to remember me by. Any ideas or suggestions of "projects" are welcome!