|
Inspired by amazing crafty mums, I decided early on that I would like to create a tradition where I make something for Millipede for his birthday each year.
6 months late, but I've finally finished foxy for his first birthday.
Here's how it all started...
And here's where it is now...
I originally made pattern pieces as I went thinking at the end I would be able to offer a free pattern and tutorial. BUT I have since decided I have no intention of inflicting the torture upon anyone else. Let me just say, I learnt the hard way that there is a very very good reason why most softies have short limbs and wide bodies.
Regardless, I must say I'm quite pleased with my first softie attempt, and was VERY happy when upon first meeting, Millipede tucked him under his arm and merrily took him off to meet the rest of his soft toys.
Millipede is 17 months old, but sometimes I swear he is actually 78... YEARS that is!
Mostly he spends his days pottering around the garden with the watering can, but l et me set the scene I came across yesterday...
(He has had a cold, so his voice is croaky and hoarse.)
I'm occupied tidying up some mess, he is playing in the loungeroom.
Then I hear the TV come on. I poke my head around the corner to check, and find...
Him sitting on the couch snuggled up next to our cat, he has pulled the slanket up over his lap, is patting the cat with one hand, has a book in the other (with TV remote nearby), and is entranced watching the early edition news on TV, "ahh-ing" and "hmmm-ing" in response with his croaky hoarse voice.
Such a little old man!
We laughed about it being the early edition news, giving him time to have dinner and get to bed before 7pm, just like real old men ;) Perhaps if I get him a car cleaning kit he can have our car sparkling and immaculate, up to " senior citizen vehicle" standards in no time!
- - -
Please no Benjamin Button comments. It doesn't mater how hot you think Brad Pitt may be, the fact is it's just creepy.
Some of you may remember the wooden watch I gave Mr You for our anniversary last year. Well this year we clocked up 16 years together.
Traditionally anniversaries carry a theme; cotton, silver, diamond, etc… I'm not sure if the 16th anniversary has a theme, but this year I made one up all the same; "Game of Thrones" - whooot!!! (a-hem, exposing our nerdiness a little here -blush).
So last month I popped onto Etsy and got these for my tall good-lookin' man:
For those of you as addicted to the show as us, I know you're dying to know where I found these... Direwolves hoodie from Fencing N Archery and the cute Stark card from Sophie Blackhall Cain.
He loved them both!
I knew when I wrote my previous post that I had left out some of the lessons I wanted to mention. Give me a month and my brain catches up (there's a lesson right there). So here are a couple more things I've learnt (or mantra's I try to hold on to) on my amble through parenthood so far:
- Tell them what you're about to do in advance, (don't spring it on them while they are in the middle of something). This gives them time to prepare themselves, and therefore learn.
- They learn FAST. You may think they're not listening or absorbing, but they ARE.
- Your job as a parent is to prepare them for the next stage in their life.
- Good old fashioned sunshine bleaches almost any stain out of laundry.
- And most children's books end in a good sleep...
A month ago my little Millipede turned 1!
A whole year, I can't believe it. Life has changed alot in that year. And then changed back again, and then changed once more, and on it went. As each day I filled with more and more adoration. Remember at first when I loved his little arms that could not reach beyond the top of his head? Now I love his perfectly formed micro-calves. I love that he pokes his little pointer finger into any little gap it fits, mostly at the moment they live in his earholes. And I love that he loves music, laughing, his dad, reclining on things for a little rest, and practicing swimming on the kitchen floor.
We've just discovered (after a couple of scary moments) he is anaphylactic to peanuts, and my heart lurches with worry about how to keep him safe. (Did you know peanuts/peanut oil can sometimes lurk in vegetable oil, nutmeg and shampoo??!!! Just to name a few!)
But mostly this year I have learnt new things about myself. I have learnt that I will do just about anything to hear him laugh. I have learnt that I absorb and cling onto bits of advice that I hope will help me be a better mum. Here are some from various sources:
- Let the love that's in your heart beam on your face each time they enter the room (not the critical "what the hell have you rubbed through your hair now?" face).
- Always ask what's wrong when he's crying or whinging, never just assume.
- Include him.
... There are more, but for now I am besotted.
While I'm distracted trying to work out why half my baby's face turned red and puffed up on the weekend* (giving me a heart attack in the process I might add), I thought I'd fill this void with some lovelies from talented stylish ETSYites.
Here you go, enjoy:
*NOTE: I crammed him into the car and raced him to the afterhours clinic, watching more of his face blow-up on the way... of course by the time I got there he'd returned to normal colour and shape and was giggling happily, needless to say the doctor couldn't see anything wrong!!!!
It had been a few hours since he ate anything, we were inside playing at the time... any ideas?
One of Santa's elves has let me in on a little secret...
Santa is bringing Millipede THIS for Christmas!!!
Camilla Engman cot sheet.
A bit of a splurge really, but one that will certainly help to ease my pain of having to get up to the little one with the shouty-mouth 5 times a night. How thoughtful of Santa! ;D
Screen Print by VWorkshop on Etsy.
YIKES, I really have dropped off the face of the internet haven't I? I have so so many months of Millipede catch-ups to do, and months and months of general life news to. But right now I am tired.
So so so so very tired.
Millipede has reached a plethora of "stages" seemingly simultaneously; teething, crawling, separation anxiety, and an apparent 9 month sleep regression stage. At least I'm using all those as reasoning for his horrendous nights at the moment. And when I say horrendous I mean I can no longer form whole words, let alone sentences.
Luckily during the daytime he is the cutest, most gorgeous, adorable thing on the face of the planet. It's a survival mechanism. A very very clever one ;)
But check this for a *can't think of a good word, insert one here, with your own well functioning brains*... during the night he will wake if my clothing brushes softly against a wall, and just every hour anyway, but today he slept through the smoke alarm going off right outside his bedroom door! TWICE!!!!!!!
I love the colour blue, but I'm putting my foot down. Enough already!
Trying to dress a baby boy I've come to learn how uninspired baby clothing can be. I mean practically everything is pale blue (despite all the amazing shades blue has to offer), and for a boy it's a choice of stripes or traffic (cars, trucks, planes, trains...), it's like a smoggy old peak hour out there!
What about red, grey, green, orange, purple, yellow, brown, maroon, aqua? Or even some variations of blue?
So this article on Etsy really caught my attention...
- - - - -
As reported by Jeanne Maglaty for Smithsonian:
In June 1918, an article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department advised, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl." Through the following decades, several department stores, including Filene's, Halle's and Marshall Field, recommended that boys be dressed in pink.
Maglaty describes the turning point as the women's liberation movement in the mid-1960s. Young women gravitated toward gender neutral clothing to rebel against the subservient role of women dictated by society. But by the mid-1980s, gendered clothing returned in a big way...
..."All of a sudden it wasn’t just a blue overall; it was a blue overall with a teddy bear holding a football."
- - - - -
Fascinating!
(Remind me to do a show-and-tell of all the teddy bear reassignment surgeries I've done too).
To be honest, the challenge of finding clothes for Millipede that are a little more unique is kind of thrilling me at the moment. So when friends gifted us these I was nearly beside myself!
Alpaca jumper sent from Bolivia from friends currently traveling around the world. Apparently made by a woman who's been doing it for over 20 years.
And these gorgeous pants; "coffee bean" fabric hand printed, and pants designed and handmade by my friend who runs Hyde Clothing.
This month things got easier. Life with Millipede became all sorts of fun.
Now he's entertainable! We've always read books and sung him songs, but now he smiles to let you know he's enjoying it. I took him shopping for a new toy, waving a selection in front of him one by one, and there was a clear winner (a suspicious looking stick-shaped red elephant, we like to call Saveloy), he selected it by himself, with nothing more than a giant smile.
I marvel that life with Millipede has changed; as a newborn his default setting was crying (to be fed, sleep, pain), but suddenly it has shifted so dramatically that his default setting (for want of a better phrase) is smiley. And it's made a huge difference. Now we know he's having fun too!
That's not all that's changed. For some ungodknown reason I've started referring to myself in the third person as "mummy". Why does this happen?!
I sing everything as though I'm in a musical. We have songs for everything; walking around the house, getting dressed, his beautiful face, his nicknames, even pushing poo's through!!!
And when I'm not narrating our day through song, I find myself singing adult songs with the word 'baby' in them.
It's a strange and wonderful life, this life with our boy...
Our boy who receives compliments about his blue eyes, and who's eyelashes are often likened to Mr Snuffleupagus's.
Our boy who talks and talks. Obviously he doesn't understand language yet, thinking when we're speaking to each other it's merely a sequence of random sounds rather than words. And in this understanding he joins in with great gusto. When we return home from a day out he "retells" his day to Mr You with such conviction.
He has started repeating sounds, saying what sounds like "How good", to which we have many replies; very good thanks, super, not so good right now... and I overheard Mr You reply "over the moon" the other day. :)
He drools alot, spends much of his day battling between grabbing at his knees and feet (both new discoveries), or stuffing his whole fists in his mouth. He pokes his tongue out a little when concentrating, and makes a quiet num-num-num noise, like a little engine, when he's feeding.
MAN, we though he was cute before, but now... well quite frankly the cuteness is rediculous!
And of all his expressions, we often wonder if it's bad that the one we find cutest, the one that cracks us up and makes us melt the most is this one:
The one with the big bottom lip, that threatens imminent tears.
But perhaps my favourite thing about this month is that when I pick you up now, you wrap your little arms around me.
[Note: Millipede will be four months tomorrow, I didn't get around to doing a post for three months, but I keep notes as the month goes by in hope. This is what I had for month 3. Must have been feeling reeeeeaaaaally good. You'll see what I mean, if you can see past all the syrupiness that is ;) ].
- I never used to be into babies. Not a baby kind of girl. But now... well now I'm a total convert. I see a baby and I almost want to squeal.
- I was chatting to Millipede, telling him this time last year he wasn't part of us yet, and I actually got a bit teary thinking of life with him not in it.
- When I was pregnant, my biggest wonder was who it was living down there inside me. If I knew it was Millipede I know I would have been so much more excited!
- Where do babies come from? I think, before they are born, they are the light that makes the stars shine. And there they wait, twinkling away until their parents (and conditions) are ready for them. Some stars are much further away, and their journey takes much longer to arrive than others. (This is the type of thought that usually marks the conception of an illustration. But alas, time is no longer all mine to do as I please).
See what I mean?
Baby convert.
I'VE GOT IT BAD!
Terrible even....
[I apologise to everyone reading my blog these days, hoping to see illustrations, or even read something of a different topic. Unfortunately, or perhaps it's to be expected, but right now I am doing nothing I can report about that does not revolve around the baby. I had NO intention of this space becoming a "mummy blog", but I DO want to document all I can for myself and for Millipede. One day I hope to be able to talk about other things again. In the meantime I'm trying not to miss a single second.]
(FORWARD: This post is from two and a half weeks ago, only now have I have a chance to finish posting it.)
Dearest Millipede,
This month you have really come alive. You are alert, strong and still growing at a surprising pace. You've started flashing the most infectious smiles which melt us, and now you even chat along with your cute new words; "ah-goo" and "ah-woooo" (just like a little wolf).
Your eyes are still that amazing dark blue colour, but this month you've started losing your thick dark hair. You now have anti-sideburns, but still lots of hair up on top, and, as a little boy at the shops pointed out the other day, "it all sticks up".
This month we worked out what was making your tummy so sore, so now you don't hurt so much. Phew! And you are still a very good eater, which was an excellent help during my two cases of mastitis this month. Not nice for either of us, but together we all pulled through.
You've started developing a love for things. You love books, we read them together every morning. I've told people this before, and they thought I was joking, but when Grandma came to stay the other week, she noticed the same thing. You do indeed love books.
You also love "Eyesy", your ChunkyChooky rattle. Eyesy gets a smile every time you have your nappy changed. He has such lovely big friendly contrasting eyes, and this very morning I witnessed you grab Eyesy for the very first time. Grabbing is a brand new skill!
Although, Eyesy needs to go into hiding during the night, otherwise if you catch so much as a glance at him, you're instantly wide awake and chatting away to him as though you've both got so much to catch up on.
You love when your Daddy plays guitar for you. Mostly though, you love pictures. You love love love looking at all the pictures on the walls. From a very young age you would crane your head around after a feed to fixate on the wall of pictures. Now you've started noticing the pictures in all the other rooms too, and as we walk through you flick your head about trying to see them all.
Today you were in a cranky mood, nothing was soothing you. So we packed you up and took you off to an annual art show in town. Pictures!!! More than you'd ever seen before! You became calm and mesmerized the whole time. We hope you hold onto this art-love as you grow. :)
 We've noticed you also enjoy being outside more than inside. You seem to get bored and cooped up if we spend all day inside at home. I find this so strange and curious for someone so new to the world.
You've grown to love bath time too; kicking your little legs like a frog, and tipping your head back into the water, swishing it from side to side making your soft hair float about like river moss. We can't wait to take you swimming.
Mind you, you hate being dressed, which un-does all the relaxation of bath time. You also have evolved to hate sleeping during the day. You outright refuse to do it, despite how tired and cranky you get. This has been a bit of a shock for me, and I struggle to find things to do with you all day long. Thankfully you are a champion night time sleeper, for which we are enormously grateful.
Keep it up little guy.
All my love .xx.
The first time we took our Millipede into the backyard we were greeted by an adorable inquisitive koala. I've only ever seen a koala in the wild once before. That was about a year ago in a park, a long way away, very high in a tree. So THIS was very special.
The koala seemed as interested in us as we were of it. Then after some time of checking each other out, it lost interest, climbed down the tree, leaped onto another one, and was gone.
We couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the joys of the back yard.
A month! A whole month already... actually it's almost 5 weeks since we had our little boy. As days and nights make way for a new unit of time; 3 hourly blocks, weeks blend together, and in this new pattern, time has flown by.
In this short time our little boy has already grown so much, both in weight, length, and cheek plumpity (today they looked so big I swear they were resting on his shoulders). He is doing brilliantly. I spend lots of time gazing into his tiny little face, and touching his tiny little arms and legs and wishing for him to never grow. Part of me wants him to stay this tiny and cute forever more (the way his little arms only just reach to the top of his head when he stretches just kills me). But I know as each stage makes way for the next, I will feel the same way; partly wanting to freeze time, and partly dying to see what comes next.
For the time being I am loving his smallness. Alarmingly, when he's in his most docile, malleable state (just after a feed), I have an overwhelming urge to stick his floppy little body in a pumpkin, Anne Geddes style. I KNOW! I did warn you it was alarming! Before you know it I'll be displaying other worrying "mum" traits. They don't warn you about that in the books. Good God!
Despite having a short-list, it took us four days to decide on a name for him. In the meantime I found myself referring to him as various food types; my happy little vegemite, spud, happy potato, my little muffin man, egg with legs, and sleepy prawn (because of the adorable way his legs curled back up tight against his body when he got sleepy). Now he has a real name that doesn't make you hungry. And of course he needs a blog name too... I'd like to introduce you to our little Millipede.
 <
What else can I tell you? He has stacks of dark downy hair, very dark blue eyes, and makes a continual array of strange and curious noises.
Thank-you all for your kind comments of congratulations. I have, for the past month, been trying to get a chance to blog, I guess posts will be rare for a while until we adopt some sort of pattern here. But I do plan to continue... keep an eye out for atmospheric photos of a naked docile baby resting in a bowl of exotic fruits ;)
Boy!
Hello, Mr You here hacking into the pretty flossy matrix to let you all know our baby has arrived. Early and slowly but healthy.
He is pretty much the best thing we have ever seen.
Flossy is recovering and training well in hospital. She'll be home in a few days - not sure she will be back to this blog in a hurry as she is much in love [and servitude ;)] with jr.
So a massive high five to you all with a cross stitched felted pastry cigar on the side.
Image: I am fertile by Ana Ventura
I haven't really spoken much here about being pregnant. And with only a matter of weeks to go I thought it might be time for a catch-up post.
Things I've learnt:
- Considering how terrified I was about pregnancy, I count my blessings every day at what an easy, blissful one I've had. This has taught me to start being more positive (rather than shit-scared) about the next bits.
- I've learnt that I can no longer refer to myself as a girl. "Pregnant girl" sounds all sorts of wrong. I have learnt to refer to myself as a woman. Hehehe, still sounds funny though.
- I've learnt other women with young children are out-of-their-minds excited about babies, and can barely stop themselves talking about birth, spew, poo, sleepless nights, household mess, etc etc, for hours on end, all with some type of mysterious glee in their eyes.
- I've also learnt that as soon as you mention you're pregnant, these same women can't wait until the baby arrives to talk about these topics of conversation. They jump in right away. What they don't remember / don't realise, is that I will have the rest of my life to talk about all that stuff. Right now I only have a few weeks of normal life left to talk about normal things. I just want to make the most of that.
- I have learnt that everyone wants to come and visit in these last few weeks. I'm happy to see everyone, but am absolutely exhausted by the constant stream of visitors. And am getting further and further behind in my work (that I had been hoping to have all finish by now). I'm actually considering escaping by leaving my own house for a few days, just to get a rest from all the visits.
- However, I have also learnt that everyone is SO excited for us, and have been unbelievably generous towards us. This has been amazing!
- I have learnt that pushing a full shopping trolley is one of the hardest things for an already overloaded pregnant body.
- I have learnt that being short, people can't see your giant belly behind the trolley, and very few people get out of your way or offer to help you push it up the carpark ramp.
- However, when there isn't a trolley and the belly is obvious, other women in the general public will give you the nicest smiles.
- Despite Mr You regularly referring to the baby-bump as "you big karate poo", I watched him absolutely melt when we visited the neonatal-nursery (with teeeeny weeeny babies in there) during a recent tour of the hospitals' birth centre.
While we are both very scared about how we are going to cope as parents, and how we will manage getting used to such a different lifestyle, it is clear to me he is going to love every minute of it more than anything in the world. I have learnt that this is the single most reassuring thing for me.
- Recently during a yoga class, while meditating and being prompted to try to listen to our heart beating, I realised I currently have two hearts. ♥♥
- Mr You then realised I may also have a penis. Many jokes followed.
A few weekends ago (yes, that's how far behind I am in blogging), I was completely surprised when my friends threw me a surprise baby-shower!
It was at a gorgeous tea-house in a nursery, and together we sat around drinking very fine tea from very pretty cups, and munching on a delicious selection of bite-sized savouries and sweets. Each of us were served munchies from our own cake stand, and tea from our own tea-pots, with embroidered linen serviettes, and small flowers on our plates.
I've been to baby showers before, and had to do things like guess with a length of string how wide the pregnant woman's girth is. It's always been awkward, and there's always been at least a slight degree of offence due to the over-generous guesses.
Well, here, at mine, there was none of that. No awkward moments whatsoever. Just very fine company, tea and nibbles. It was wonderful. AND they gave me lovely gifts!!!
You may spot some handmade treasures in there from Chunky Chooky + My Bearded Pigeon.
I felt so special. And what's more, it was all a total complete and utter surprise! Mr You, in kahootz with these sneaky friends did a stellar job of keeping the secret. So much so, that somehow (I suspect Jedi mind-tricks), he managed to get me to suggest going to that exact tea-house that afternoon, so I thought it was my idea... Which as you can imagine added to my confusion... So when we walked in and I spotted the table of my waiting friends, I assumed they were there on their own, and it was a co-incidence we were there at the same time.
EVEN when they all called out "Surprise!" I still thought they meant "Surprise, what a co-incidence we're all here at the same time", not "Surprise here's a party for you!"
But it was a party for me. And I was completely chuffed. Thanks so so much guys! :)
Thismorning I woke up very early; bright-eyed, perky and excited beyond control.
You see today Mr You's brother-in-law arrived to paint the walls of our bedrooms! And to a nesting pregnant woman, that's like Santa arriving at Christmas!!!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :D
(Image from K is for Calligraphy, on Etsy)
Thank-you all so much for your kind, happy, sweet, encouraging and thoughtful words on my previous post!
Yes, I did manage to keep it quiet for quite a while, mind you, you may have noticed long absences on this blog in the past few months as a result. ;)
PHEW... it feels good to let the cat out of the bag I must say. Now I can catch you up on everything... actually there's not that much to tell (apart from some hilarious comments from Mr You). I've been uber-lucky to have had a dream run so far, not a single spew believe it or not. Actually I feel so robust I am trying to work out ways I can get super-high hormone levels and increased blood volume after all this is over. I feel so much more healthy than normal.
Yes, don't you worry, I am WELL aware of how freakin' lucky I am. Trust me.
On the flip side, because I am 5 foot 1, and before all this weighed 45 kilos, I have been warned by the obstetrician that towards the end I will have an almost impossible time breathing, eating, moving... eeek.
I have banned any talk or stories of childbirth until after Christmas. I aim to remain in deep denial for the rest of the year. If you try to talk to me about any of that just yet, it may bring on a big spew after all.
No, we don't know the gender yet. We're going for a surprise. We're pretty sure it'll be a boy or a girl... although it looked A LOT like a puppy at the first ultrasound. Hmmmm, maybe that's why I get a bit teary when I see lost or sick dogs on TV these days.
I'll keep you posted.
Thanks again. .xx.
P.S. Speaking of "thank-you's", my Thanksgiving giveaway will be announced shortly, although it's going to have to be a little different this year. Stay tuned.
While I'm busy working away at my desk; painting a new commission, creating more fabric designs, doing an inventory of stock... below the desk, warm on the inside, I am busy creating something much much more.
I'm 25 weeks pregnant.
I'm in amazement at how it all happens, how fast it all grows, and how much pure creation occurs. Meanwhile all I'm doing towards this master project is drinking milk by the gallon, eating as much fruit and leafy greens as I can, and waddling along to yoga each week.
People in the know tell me so far I just look like I've eaten a big hamburger, pasta or pudding. And while I'm not denying having done all those things, what's actually happening is my womb is fruiting!
So now you know. I'm not gluttonous... I'm pregnant. :)
|
|
