Thursday, January 31, 2013

three things

Three simple things
I have discovered this time around
that I wish I had known about
when I had my first child:

My sister-in-law gave us a set of these for Baby.
They are fantastic!
Simple
(Just zip it up!)
Secure
(Baby is snugly wrapped up in them.)
Stretchy
(He can still move around a bit when he wants to.)
Soft
(Made from mostly cotton
plus the zipper is cleverly covered with a special flap
so that it doesn't scratch his chin.)
It's a brilliant product.

 I don't know why it took me so long
to start folding receiving blankets
in stable oblongs
instead of in tower-of-pisa squares.
They fit so much better in the drawer,
they don't fall over,
and it's one less fold to make
which can add up when you're washing a few.
Win-win.

I don't have a photos for this last one,
has revolutionized my nursing wardrobe.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

newborn portraits

The nice thing about doing your own photography
is that you can take as much time as you want.
I enjoyed being able to break up
Baby's newborn portrait session
into several small sessions on different days
so that neither one of us got too tired and cranky.
The following are my very favorites:


There were a few ideas I had hoped to try
that I just didn't get to.
I may still try; we'll see.
When it really comes down to it,
I'm pretty pleased with what I already have,
and my motivation is waning
along with Baby's sleep-through-anything stage.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

aliens

Little Man and Brother
love adding googly eyes to their projects,
so I got them some for their Christmas stockings.
They recently decided to use their googly eyes and paint
to make aliens.

These were Brother's.

This one's my favorite.

And these are Little Man's

I so enjoy the things they come up with.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

very hungry caterpillar

has been among all three of my older children's favorite books.
So when I saw this adorable idea
for embellishing baby clothes with button caterpillars,
I immediately knew that some day I would adapt the idea
to make a Very Hungry Caterpillar shirt.
 A few days ago I eagerly seized a spare fifteen minutes or so,
collected a white onesie we already owned
along with a few buttons and some embroidery floss,
and whipped out a cute little shirt for my baby boy.

 He doesn't seem to have much of an opinion,
but his big brothers think it's a pretty awesome shirt,
and I think he looks beyond adorable in it.

Of course, I'm just a little bit biased...

Monday, January 7, 2013

Baby

Our newest little boy
arrived on January 3 at 9:46 p.m.
after a short and smooth labor.

He's tiny yet big,
weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce
and measuring 22 1/2 inches long.

He has been perfectly healthy
(Which is a relief since the rest of the family
has been suffering from a nasty respiratory flu)
and is a peaceful, easy baby.

I am attempting to get my fill
of baby cuddles, tiny fingers, softest skin, and downy hair.
Also sleep.
You'll understand if posting is sparse for a while...

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

my first fingerless gloves

I am outrageously pleased
with how my first fingerless gloves turned out.
Well, technically this is my second pair;
I used the same pattern and yarn for the first set,
but they turned out uncomfortably small for me,
so a I gave them to a friend with tiny hands
who will be able to enjoy them much more.


(It's a lot harder than I thought it would be
to take photos of myself wearing them.)

I used this pretty Three Leaf Mitt pattern.
It was very well written,
and I discovered that following
what I believe is something like a lace chart
is nowhere near as hard as I feared!

To make my second pair larger,
I simply added an extra rib on the palm (3 knits and 1 purl).
I also added an extra three rows
to the all-around ribbing at the top and the bottom
because I liked the way it looked and fit better that way.

Fingerless gloves are so quick and fun.
I could easily get addicted to making them.