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20120526

Some Month Three Observations

So Sleepy
Remember when I gave you some of my thoughts from my weeks of pregnancy?  Well, here are some of my thoughts on having a daughter who is three months old.
  • Things worn by N2, which N never wore -- rompers, 'bubble' outfits, skirts, hairbands, pink, onesies with puff sleeves and picot edging, dresses, and anything embroidered with kittens or strawberries.
  • Breastfeeding is nice, but I make too much milk.  I can't believe that is true.
  • I love N a lot.  I just wish he wouldn't wake N2 in the mornings so much.
  • My daughter has chubby knees and elbows which dimple.  I have a hard time not constantly pretending to snack on them.  I thought I was alone until my mom started to nibble on N2's toes.
  • I'm never going to get back into shape with my chocolate covered doughnut obsession.  (By the way, I'll use the word donut on the same day that I write the word nite instead of night, i.e., when hell freezes over.)
  • Sleeping with N2 is just as nice as sleeping with N was.  I love cosleeping naps more than just about anything in the world.
  • I use the word pretty a lot to describe my daughter.  I'd feel horrible and stereotypical about that except that I called N pretty as well.  And to be fair?   He really was.  N2, I'm sorry, but he might even have been prettier.  He inherited his daddy's eyelashes.  You got mine, kiddo.
  • Pretending to throw N2 in the air forced her to really laugh.  It scares me to death, but it makes her smile so hard that I do it until my arms ache.
  • It's easy to love two different children so much that you ache inside when you think of them.
  • Growth spurts are painful when you're the only one who feeds your child.
That's all for now.  These are not as funny as my observations from pregnancy.  That's because I'm more humorous when I'm a seething ball of anger and anxiety.  Sad, but true. 

20120512

Happy Mother's Day

Family Kite Outing

I turned to P last night, and said, "I have the perfect plan to make someone disappear forever."

He didn't roll his eyes at me, which is nice, and he inquired as to my plans, which is also nice.  Sometimes he ignores me when I'm crazy.  "What is your plan?"

"I'm going to tell my mom that the person said that N and N2 were definitely not the cutest babies on Earth.  Then that person will 'mysteriously' disappear."

Grandma Gets Some Baby Girl 
Cuddles

P nodded and added, "But we'll know the truth."

My Favorite Picture Of My Mom and Nathan

"You know what she told me today?"

A shake of his head, and I answered, "She said that my babies were perfect and gorgeous looking, just like I was as a baby.  I wonder if she accosts random strangers with photos of them and demands that they declare N and N2 the best.  I bet she does.  I bet she browbeats them into agreeing."

My Mom and Nathan

I added, "She's right though.  My babies are the most gorgeous creatures on Earth."  

Happy Mother's Day.

20120508

Finished Project: Last Minute Mittens

Mittens

Leave it to me to sew the one project in the whole book I said I wasn't going to sew first.  How does one get into this position?  Well, let me tell you.  First, highly pregnant, miserable, and uncomfortable, you tell your husband to go without you to the skating rink with your son.   Then, when he comes back, in the middle of winter, you find that your husband and son have lost one of the cutest mittens on Earth.  It was a mitten shaped like a puppy dog face with paw prints on the finger areas.  You weep a little privately to yourself.

Then, two weeks later, after failing to find any other cute mittens, you give up.  You decide no more mittens, which is ridiculous in January.  And then, to your consternation, it snows a big snow and your son wants to play in it.  You are at home, with no mittens, no way to quickly purchase good mittens, and a son who wants to play in the snow.  He is sad about his puppy dog mittens.  You are sad about his puppy dog mittens, but you decide something must be done.  How fast can you knit mittens?  The obvious answer is not fast enough.

Mittens

But, sewing?  Sewing is faster.  And, if you think about it, you have a sewing pattern for mittens!

Project:  Last Minute Mittens
Pattern:  Mittens from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew
Fabric:  Scavenged microfleece from N's old pajamas

Mittens

So, there you are, you quickly trace off the pattern of these mittens you were never going to sew.  You wonder if it is feasible to make corduroy mittens.  No, that is ridiculous.  Does Jo-Ann sell microfleece or wool?  Are they open in a snow storm?  Suddenly, it hits you!  You have microfleece pajamas that your son has outgrown.  You sweep through his closet and pull out one you kind of hate.  You have not picked out this non-cute pair of pajamas, that is for damned sure.  Ta-da, you think.  This is the pair to cut up.  You'll not be cutting on grain, but you're not even sure if microfleece has a grain.

You cut, cut, cut, and then, try to figure out how to sew these suckers together.  You have to give it to Oliver + S, this patten is clear.  It is your own confusion and lack of sewing skills that lead you to wonder how this two dimensional fabric becomes three dimensional clothing.  Finally, after a lot of work, you piece it together, and, coincidentally, you have bias tape in a color that works with the fabric in the size needed and elastic in the size required.  This project was sent by God to your sewing machine, it is clear.

Miraculously, it all works together.  For the first time sewing ever, you do not need to pick out stitches.  Even the part that you think will not work, the zig-zagging of the edge of the raw edges, works wonderfully, creating the look of the mittens in the book.  

The next morning, you hand them to your son, happy he can play outside.  He looks at you, and weeps, "I want my puppy dog mittens."  Your reply?  "If you want to play in the snow, this is all you've got." 

Mittens

Less dramatically -- I feel like this was a great pattern and a wonderful introduction to the world of Oliver + S.  It makes me want to make more of their stuff.  It wasn't the most exciting thing to sew, but it turned out cuter than I thought it would and I loved the way the bias tape was so neutral against the blue.  It was totally boyish without being dull.  Also, the zig-zagging did lend a neat effect that I was not prepared for. 

Do you like the way I combined my styling photoshoots for the last two projects?  He matches SO WELL.

What next, what next?!

Flyer's Hat

Flyer's Hat

Sometime in December or January, I promised N I would make him a Flyer's Hat.  I meant I would knit it.  I told him we could go pick out the yarn together and he got very excited about this.  He was super excited to see and feel the yarn and he kept petting the yarn.  Then came the picking of the pattern and, boy howdy, was he angry!

Here are the two types of hat he wanted me to knit him:  baseball cap or construction hat.  When I told him that I could knit neither of those hats, he set up a howl and had a tantrum which resulted in me telling him, "Fine!  I'll never knit you a hat!"  (I was in my eighth month of pregnancy, so I wasn't exactly rational either.)

After a lot of talking through, I realized I had to just ignore him and knit the hat I was prepared to knit.  It worked out.  I did have to bribe him with chocolate to get these photos though.

Flyer's Hat

Project:  N's Flyers Hat (ravel it!)
PatternSeaman's Cap
Yarn:  Random Soft Yarn From Yarnings
Needles:  Some Addi Turbos in 5 and 7

The sad part is that though I love love love the black yarn I used, I have no idea what yarn it is.  I do know it is different yarn from the orange yarn, but I don't mind so much.  They are both soft, but the orange is crisp and the black is extra fuzzy soft.  I mean, see how it looks so nice in the black part, but my stitches look uneven and kind of sucky in the orange?!  That's because the orange is so good at showing my uneven and sad stitch definition.

Flyer's Hat

P made N wear this hat while ice skating, and I've made him put it on a time or two.  I'm hoping by the time that next winter rolls around, he'll be a little easier to talk into wearing this.  We're already drilling him on how much he loves the Flyers this playoff season.  " No, N, the New Jersey Devils are called that because they are literally EVIL.  They are made of evil."  Don't worry.  I might have said that, but I later rescinded and when he told me that they were the bad guys, I admitted that the reason I didn't like them was because they are too good at hockey.  We got into a little fight before I clarified that being anti-Flyers does not make you an actual devil, just a devil in name.  I didn't tell N my theory that Martin Brodeur might actually have sold his soul to the devil.

But, tell me the truth, my readers -- does this look like a future Flyers player to you?

Flyer's Hat