Category Archives: The Kids

The Birthday

   “Will report back with photos, hopefully.”

That last word of the last post may have been a bit premonitory! Important events in this family’s life seem to be marked by a distinct lack of decent photographs. (Don’t even ask me about our wedding. Just don’t.) In this case, as with Dermot’s 30th birthday three weeks ago, we were so busy trying to keep people fed and happy that neither of us got behind the camera much. We did, however, have a really lovely time, and everybody was well fed and happy, so that and the memories really are all that count. I did manage a few photos – this first one is on party day – the day before her birthday.
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Legwarmers, courtesy Babylegs. These things are great!
Cute red dress, courtesy my wonderful friend Jane
Wiggles DVD, courtesy Uncle Stu
Dinky red cap, courtesy Grandpa
Backwards-cap-wearin’-style, all her very own 🙂

And here we have our gorgeous 1 year old and big brother on her birthday – note the Russian dolls we gave her. I must get a good photograph of these to show you, they’re beautiful.

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And then there’s this last one – which is something I wouldn’t normally show you, as it is such an unattractive shot of myself (note bags under eyes, and yes, my eyebrows need serious attention – and yes, if you look closely, you can see Niamh has inherited those same crazy eyebrows, poor girl!) But something about this photograph really works for me – it was taken the afternoon of her birthday, after we experienced a pretty rough night following the party, and I think it sums up the feeling of the last year pretty succinctly, don’t you?

Niamh-Birthday
For what it’s worth, she went on to sleep eleven hours that night, so all is forgiven again 🙂

Again with the Hardanger!

Niamh-thief
Be wary – the little people, they strike when you are least prepared. And nick off with your latest finish!

Haha. Moments after this shot, Niamh was ‘posing’ the ornament up against the wall, just like Mummy :giggle: I have photos of that too, but they’re just too blurry, and besides, this one captures that glint in her eye just perfectly!

Hardanger-Ornament-1
So here then is my latest finish – Scissors Keeper (only it isn’t) from the book ‘Hardanger Embroidery’ by Jill Carter. It’s stitched with one of my hand dyed #8 perle cottons and a couple of DMC pinks which I don’t think were perfect choices, really. I just grabbed whatever I could find because I was itching to start this. Both sides are identical, and it’s finished this as a pillow-style Christmas ornament instead of a fob.

Can you spot the suspended beads in the Dove’s eyes? How about now:

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Good trick, no? I like this a lot, and I’m planning to do another in a different colourway, and with larger beads (again, I just grabbed what came easily to hand). There are a couple of other pieces in this book that I’d like to stitch, too. Next up – the Pincushion, I think.

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Firsts

Tooooo tired from the weekend (which was excellent). But I had to pop in for a little minute to tell you about my babes. Today we had two firsts – somewhat coincidentally on Mother’s Day, so I am bound never to forget 🙂 Niamh took her first steps! Four or five times she took a single step, sometimes landing on her knees, sometimes staying upright, and twice she took two consecutive steps. Stay tuned for craziness just around the corner :giggle:

Finn quite possibly outdid that, however – with his first poem. Popping out from inside a cupboard, he told me it made him think up a poem, and then reeled off this little gem:

I like to hide in cupboards
It’s very fun to do
It’s dark when I close the door
Then I come out of it sometimes

When we wrote it down together, we changed that last line to

Then I come out of it and sometimes say ‘Boo’!

Just so it would rhyme. Afterwards, I felt terribly guilty for even raising the suggestion, because the original version had such wonderful spontaneity about it, and besides, poems don’t have to rhyme, do they? But Finn has become quite attached to the rhyming version, and has read it several times over, so I think the ‘Boo’! version is staying.

Because I Said So

Did you know that, according to my Mister Smartypants 4-year-old, “because” is no longer an acceptable answer? Just yesterday I was asked to provide a “real answer” to his question – “because” just didn’t cut it.

Sigh. I’m going to have to start using my brain again, aren’t I?

Thankfully Niamh has not acquired skills of logic yet. Her communication is still mostly in the point-and-squawk category. Though she does have recognizable (to me) words for hello, bye-bye, duck, ball, vrrooomm, and woof (did you know a duck says woof? So, apparently, do most animals!)

Thank you for all the wonderful compliments on my Dragonfly Jewels piece. (The most comments on any single post on this blog, in fact!) Please know that I read and appreciate all of them, though I haven’t had opportunity to respond individually to you all.

The last ten days or so have been a blur of schools, ill health, and preparation for Dermot’s birthday celebrations, happening this weekend. I think we’ve finally settled on a school for Finn (so far I’m managing to hold the my-baby-is-growing-up teary thoughts at bay!), we all seem to be on the way to health again (lucky Niamh managed to avoid the gastro and most of the cold – yay for extended breastfeeding). We head off today to get the party started – we’re hosting a weekend away in my Mum’s ‘second house’. So far I’ve baked and iced the birthday cake. I have lemon tart to do tomorrow, and chocolate & ginger mousse on Saturday – can you see where my culinary interests lie?! The sweet I’m good with – the savoury I’m leaving up to Dermot. (Yes, I’ve finally dispensed with the ‘OtherHalf’, and ‘outed’ my husband! 🙂 )

There has also been stitching – and even another finished piece, if you can believe that! I’m not showing you just yet, because for once, I’m going to do the actual finishing before I show it off (it’s just a Christmas Ornament, don’t get excited). I’ll give you a clue though – I borrowed this book from our local library, and couldn’t resist stitching something from within. There are some very nice projects in this book, and nice, easy to follow stitch instructions and diagrams. So my dalliance with Hardanger continues.

Now… I’ve just got Finn off to kinder, and Niamh off to bed, so I’m off to pack stuff for the weekend. Enjoy yours!

PS. Sorry for the v.rambly and parentheses-laden post. I really just wanted to get something down so that you know I’ve not disappeared off into the ether just yet!

Ten!

Ten months

Can you believe my baby was ten months old yesterday? No, nor can I :giggle: Ten whole months have gone by in a blur of Niamh-induced-sleep-deprivation (Finn’s latest ‘excuse’ for everything is “I’m too tired“. I wonder where he could possibly have picked that up?!)

She’s doing pretty wonderfully. She waves bye-bye, sometimes hello, and claps her hands, especially to music (and in time, what’s more!) She’s got the “baba-baba”, “mama-mama”, and “dada-dada”s down pat. She has four sharp teeth, and we’ve been expecting more for months. She likes to chew on everything, so mind your fingers (I had blood drawn just this morning). She loves water, and adores the great outdoors. She’s absolutely fearless and downright cheeky with a wonderful sense of humour. Whenever we turn our backs for just a moment, she gets very busy – unfolded laundry is removed from baskets with great speed, CDs are pulled from the rack, Finn’s bookshelves are emptied…

Two weeks ago she stood unaided for the first time 😮 Only for a couple of seconds, but a stand nonetheless. Since then she’s done it a few times, and progressed to 4 or 5 seconds at a go. We all know what that means…

But… and here’s the big one… she sleeps. Finally, she sleeps! A big round of applause please! Since coming back from Port Fairy a few weeks back, we moved her cot into Finn’s room. The preceding several weeks had been pretty dreadful, and the only way I was getting any rest was by co-sleeping half the night. Which was fine by us really (and I do kind of miss it), but possibly a little counter-productive. So we moved her in with Finn and got serious about settling her in her own bed, and allowed her a little bit of fussing (a very much gentle-ified version of “controlled comforting”). Anyway, the long story short is that most nights, she sleeps from 7pm to at least 2am – sometimes she needs a settling down around then, sometimes a little drink of water. Or even more lately, she sleeps through longer – to 4 or even 5am. Unfortunately, mornings don’t seem to start any later than 5.30am, ever. Which is kind of sucky (no, I’m not a morning person), but at least I’m frequently managing to get six hour stretches of sleep for myself. Hooray!

Have a happy Easter weekend – we’re off camping again tomorrow 🙂
Cheeky kids

PS. Thank you for all the kind thoughts following my grandmother’s death, I appreciate them very much.

Sara Bear

Nope, I haven’t ‘gone over to the dark side’ :giggle: Not just yet, anyway. You know how people say everyone has a novel in them? Well, I don’t think I have a novel in me, but I do think I might have a quilt in me… somewhere. When and how it will choose to emerge, I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, that clue was a bit deceptive. I only used one of those fabrics in this project. I have plans for some of the others, and still more I bought ‘just because they’re pretty’. I have wanted to start building a bit of a craft fabric stash for a while, to entice me back into sewing.

And here she is. Out among the garlic chives and aubergines, enjoying the sunshine, showing off her candy pink Mary Janes – my weekend happy dance: Ms Sara Bear. (Or Sara Beara if, like Finn, you prefer.)

Sara Bear

The pattern is from the Put Together Book #1 (Kitty, Bunny & Bear) by the very clever Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderfuls. I’m pretty happy with how she turned out, though I didn’t get a nice curve on her ears (Finn, being the very literal boy he is, wanted to call her ‘Square-Ears Bear’!) The shoes are removable, and a good thing too, else Niamh would have chewed them off by now. She (Niamh) isn’t much into soft toys as comfort items, but she does seem to think Sara Bear is a pretty good plaything, so I think I have a winner 🙂

Hot and Colds

Thirty-eight degrees and I do not get along so well (that’s °C, aka 100°F). So this weekend has not been so fun. Three of them in a row!!! Yuk :yuk:

Yesterday was the worst. Hot days are even less fun when taking care of a sick and over-tired babe. Especially when feeling kind of sick yourself, and especially when the babe in question is also painfully cutting more teeth 🙁

We all came down with sniffles and sore throats over the last couple of days, probably courtesy of a certain pre-schooler. Getting a ‘cold’ in the middle of a blistering summer is really odd. The usual ‘rug up under a doona on the couch and drink chicken soup’ rule doesn’t apply. Instead all we want to do is lay about wearing as little as possible (!) and doing as little as possible.

But that was yesterday. Today, we have been much better. Niamh has returned to her favourite hot weather pastime – playing in the foot of the shower and getting thoroughly soaked. Finn has returned to… well actually, perhaps he’s not completely over it, he was super-cranky today. But we also fitted in some shopping (mostly me), some cleaning (mostly OtherHalf) and an unexpected visit from my little sister (yay!), all despite the continuing heat. Also, I made a little something. I tried to get pictures but the light was crappy so I’ll try again tomorrow. Here’s a little clue. It’s my latest colourful addiction:

Crafty Fabric Tower

Pretty, no?

Happy Dance #1/07

We’re back! We had a great time, the small people were both (relatively) well behaved, and not even the 4am-faulty-car-horn incident (not our car) on the first night, and the blustery oh-heck-will-those-trees-drop-their-limbs-on-the-tent-? weather on the second night could ruin our happy-camper-spirits. It was nice to be back in a tent – a brand spanking new one, what’s more 🙂 Our next expedition is the Port Fairy folk festival over the long weekend in March. The enjoyment factor of that festival is always heavily dependent on the weather, so all fingers are crossed.

Hardanger-Exchange-tWe spent a couple of nights at my father-in-law’s place after the festival ended, where I was able to (finally) get a move on my Hardanger Exchange piece (an exchange on the Rotation BB). I’ve dilly-dallied over this for so long (mailing date was today), but finally today I had my first HD of 2007. I didn’t quite get it finished into something yet, so it will still be delayed a bit, but hopefully I’ll have it in the mail by Friday. I can’t show you the whole thing yet, obviously, but I wanted to show a sneak preview, simply because this is the first time I’ve done ‘real’ Hardanger – I’ve never done woven bars and Dove’s eyes before, just Kloster blocks and a little bit of cutting. Obviously my cutting needs work to get those little end bits right off, but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out, nonetheless. The thread and fabric used here are both my hand-dyes (though this fabric turned out almost solid, which is why I used it for this). Can’t wait to show you the whole thing once it reaches its destination.

Must. Not. Shop…

I seem to have welcomed in 2007 with an almighty case of the blaaahs, which has caught me completely off-guard, because I expected to be feeling all fresh and motivated and ready to take on the world. Bummer.

So now I find myself alone in the house (sort of), with Finn away for his very first ever parent-less stay with Grandma (sob!), and Niamh finally down for a nap after having a slightly ornery morning (teething? full moon? the weather? just plain moody like her mum?) And I’m fighting the urge to go online shopping (aargh… SB&B 25% off!), especially since Christmas was just here, and the amount of stuff coming in to the house, with no corresponding outgoings, is just overwhelming really (note to self: get Freecycling).

Instead, I’ve lunched on cold Milo and hot buttered toast (of dubious nutritional value, I grant you, but enjoyable nonetheless), and I’m going run off a couple of quick emails which are long overdue, and then… I. Must. Sit. Down. And. Stitch! That UFO-RR piece isn’t going to stitch itself, you know.

Oh, and PS, I am a big liar – I was awake to bring in the New Year after all. One distraction led to another, and before I knew it, Niamh was waking up at bang-on midnight, and I got a lovely baby-snuggle for the first few seconds of 2007. That was definitely not blah-worthy 🙂

No Parties for Us

I am about as tired now as I was exactly four years ago. Then, I was finally trying to catch up on some sleep after a gruelling labour and eventual caesarian section, and a brand spanking new baby Finn was sleeping close by in a hospital bassinet. When the city fireworks went off at midnight (and continued for what seemed an hour :yuk: ), he kept right on sleeping. I think every other newborn on the floor woke up though, and I certainly didn’t sleep much through that ‘excitement’ either!

Tonight, I certainly hope to sleep through any fireworks. I don’t plan on seeing in the New Year, I plan on being in bed very shortly. Finn, too, is finally sleeping, though it took him a good hour after bedtime to fall asleep. I think he was telling his bears all about the excitement of his birthday 🙂

I’m always a little dismayed on his behalf when his birthday rolls around – friends and family are often gallivanting away on summer holidays, or have NYE plans which prevent them from coming to a party. This year, we decided instead of getting upset about it, we would make his birthday into something special by going somewhere new, just the four of us. So off we trundled to Scienceworks, and it was great! Perhaps the only problem was not allowing enough time to see everything. We spent about 3½ hours there, and Finn had an absolute blast. Add to that a new bike and too much sugar (because what would a kid’s birthday be without a garishly decorated cake? Pictures tomorrow!) and you can understand why he was slightly wound up this evening.

So… while the rest of the world is seeing in the New Year, I’ll be busy with my dreams. And hopefully not up more than once to Niamh. However you’ll be spending your night tonight, I hope it’s exactly what you want it to be. Happy New Year! 🙂