12-months

Ingrid is 1-year old!  We’ve gone from this:

to this:

E-gads.  Amazing how much can change in one year.  This past month Ingrid did great.  We finally had a month that wasn’t entirely sponsored by Baby Advil and Tylenol! Hooray!

She is still our sweet happy little thing.  Not much really sets her off (if she is feeling well).  She can fall down or get frustrated with a toy, and still maintain her composure (this is much different from Syd). She also isn’t much for the separation anxiety hysteria that usually sets in around this time. Granted, it could come later, but for the most part when I leave her with a baby-sitter or drop her off at school she is perfectly content.

She started standing up independently this month! She loves to just stand and wave her toys around to get our attention.  She is still pretty wobbly, but each day gets more secure on those two chubby legs.  With the help of a push-toy she is also getting really good at walking and just seems so proud of herself when she does it. She isn’t as busy as Sydney was who seemed to be constant motion all the time, but she is wiggly…changing her is…exhausting.  She is also a wicked fast crawler; it’s funny to hear how fast she can move on the hard wood floors. It’s even fun to watch because she puts her head down and just crawls like heck.

A new tooth appeared this month too; one of her front teeth poked through last week and I think she is working on the other one.

Ingrid does a great job at self play but always loves playing with and watching Sydney too.  She will contently take items and put them in baskets/bags or bang things together. She loves exploring everything in Sydney’s kitchen and can already open and shut the doors with dexterity.  In general she does a great job of problem solving without getting frustrated which is…refreshing.

Her talking is hit or miss. She really babbles up a storm in the car for some reason.  She has gone from repeating one sound to more of a babble.  She occasionally will repeat sounds we make but that’s hit-or-miss. Still no da-da’s or ma-ma’s directed at us meaningfully.  We haven’t been as vigilant with the sign-language with her, but she seems to grasp some of it a bit or at least will mimic our movements.

I’m glad to report her sleeping has improved greatly since she has been less sick these past few months. She goes down around 7:30 and can sleep til 6/6:30.  She will even play a bit (throw all her toys out of her crib) in the mornings before requiring intervention from us!  I’m looking forward to catching up on some much-needed sleep!

I am still breastfeeding her in the mornings and before bed.  She will be transitioned soon from breast-milk to whole milk during the days at school once the frozen milk supply runs out.  Her solid intake has gotten more varied as well and she can eat mostly anything now that doesn’t involve a lot of chewing (steak, pork chops).  Her preference is fruits and veggies though; not much of a meat eater!  She loves peaches, pears, berries, grapes and peas — adores peas.

There is no denying it, Ingrid is a thumb-sucker. Syd was always a paci girl so this is new to us.  The minute someone picks her up her thumb goes straight in her mouth and at bedtime its the first thing she does when I lay her down.  She loves to crawl in my lap, lay her head on my chest and suck her thumb which makes me melt a bit inside each time.

Her 12-month well-check is next week and I’ll update this post with her stats then!

Spring school photos

I hope you all are ready for a good laugh. You know that school photos never disappoint and this session will not let you down.

First up, Ingrid in her all grey picture wear.

In her defense the poor girl was super sick. I ended up getting a call from school around 11 while in a meeting and had a to leave to go pick her up. She was a feverish snotty mess.  Poor thing.  You could see the tears in her eyes in the photo.  Sadness.

Sydney’s were not much better. I didn’t realize til after I was nearly out the door that AM (running late of course) that it was picture day.  Royce did his best getting Syd to take off her princess t-shirt and into a dress; and he even did her little side pony tail too. She looks like something out of an 80′s movie.  And of course the scowl made an appearance; it always does in school photos.

And the pictures of the two together are just classic. Ingrid doesn’t look amused and still has tears in her eyes and Syd is just doing as best she can in a forced posed way. I can only imagine how this all went down behind the scenes.  Bless my husband for trying to get those girls ready by himself for picture day, but between Ingrid’s grey pant ensemble and Syds dress, tights, shoes and hair I’m just beside myself with laughter.

Happy Birthday Ingrid!

We celebrated Ingrid’s first birthday here at home with few of our friends and their kids.  It was as relaxing as 8 adults and 10  kids can be.  We had great weather so the big kids enjoyed a bouncy house out front and the little kids enjoyed watching the big kids bounce.  Salad, veggies and pizza were served for supper and of course there was cake!  Ingrid loved her cake, she really dug down and got nice and messy;  just like a good first birthday girl should do.  Click on the messy baby below to see more of her first birthday party!

Darling Ranges

I finished my Darling Ranges dress a few weekends ago. Just in time to don it for a baby shower I was hosting!

Even though it was a pain-in-the-ass to get to fit right, it really has nothing to do with the pattern and more to do with the fact that I have clown boobs (hate), and a waist (like) which makes fitting patterns…a challenge.  I will leave it at that. I used Robert Kaufman’s Yarn-Dyed Essex Linen in Black and it was a dream to work with and wears really nicely as well.  The fit ended up being adequate (which is between great and bad on the scale of things). I honestly kinda got tired of screwing with it to make it right (and fitting yourself is very very hard!).  There comes a time when you just want to get ‘er done. It’s a tidge too snug at the bust, but that may work  itself out as my boobies shrink (ahem shrivel) from breastfeeding.  The armpits are also a bit tight but this is a problem I have with ready-to-wear garments as well.  I haven’t figured out how to solve that problem with hand-made garments yet.

I ended up using pearl snaps as the closure mostly because I felt they would give it more staying power and would pull and gape less at the bust than a button would.  I made the hem a little shorter than I normally would since I didn’t think going into the project that this would be something I would wear to the office.  I also omitted the back ties and put in two darts to shape the back because I’m not a tie kinda gal.

Overall I’m happy with the garment and I can see myself wearing it to girl friend gatherings, date nights and maybe a few summer BBQ’s. Although the majority of the people I work with would care less if I wore this to the office, it isn’t something I would feel would be work appropriate because it would hamper my serious buttoned up style since a part of nearly every work day I sit across the table from a bunch of Pharmaceutical Company big wigs wearing tailored black suits while I tell them they are doing things wrong. Not to mention I would freeze to death in my Antarctic office!

I do not know when I will be calm enough to attempt making myself something this fitted again. I have a few skirts in mind and some blouses, none of which I suspect will have quite the fit issues I had with Darling Ranges due to styling. Hopefully I can get get motivated to make something again soon!

A quick get-a-way

Lots of posts to make but I’ll start first with a quick one.  Royce and I escaped last week for 3 nights to the Chesapeake.  We stayed at the Hyatt Golf Resort, Spa and Marina. We only took part in the golf part.

tee-off

It was nice to get away, and I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I was sick the entire time and well that just sucks, especially if you really need to get some ‘reset’ time (which I did).

Lots of friends kept saying “well at least you don’t have to take care of children!” and “at least you can rest!” which is nice and all; but to be honest…fuck it. If I’m going to be sick I would rather just go to work, and do my routine at home with my kids.  I want to possess the health and energy to enjoy my time away.  I don’t want to be laid up in a hotel room wondering when I can take my next dose of ibuprofen because my throat hurts so bad I’m afraid to swallow.  To make matters even worse I couldn’t sleep.  Between the constant throat and sinus pain I tossed and turned.  I wanted to be home with my humidifier, in my own bed (and maybe a little Xanax). Now I must say that a I was grateful that I wasn’t sick on a vacation with my children; cause that — would suck…

I did manage to get out and ‘enjoy’ (I use the term loosely) a few rounds of golf with Royce.  I did play decently, which surprised me since I haven’t swung my sticks more than once since Ingrid was born.

golf skillz

He did play alone on Friday because I was just too achy and weak to do much outside of the hotel room.  I did manage to make it out to knit ‘poolside’ (it was freezing so I was in pants and a sweater) while waiting for him to come up the 18th hole.

18th green

I did seemingly drink a lot of whiskey; it helped my throat pain…and since I was on vacation I could consume it at any hour of the day (my preferred time was lunch).

my liquid lunch of choice

It was nice to get away from the routine and kids! I just hope next time we get the chance to do this I’m healthy enough to enjoy it a bit more!

after sinking a putt, Royce told me to “pretend you are not sick and cold” and this was the result

And I must give a big shout out to my mother and Auntie-M (my sister) who came out to watch the girls so that this vacation was possible. I think everyone enjoyed the change of pace!

Grandma with her grandkids

Simple sewing

I’ve been screwing with a bodice for a dress for myself since Friday to no avail, so Saturday I needed to make something with my time so I whipped up a dress for Syd.

The fabric is just a cotton out of my stash here, something I tossed in my on-line cart a while back because it was purple (“my favrit color” according to Syd).  The fabric is a bit bold so it works well with the Roller Skate Dress. Since I was familiar with the construction from the Easter Dresses this went together in no time.  In anticipation of this dress lasting through the muggy Maryland summer I didn’t fully line the skirt, and instead hacked off the bodice lining under the casing stitches with my pinking shears.  Yes I was so lazy I didn’t even bother to turn in the raw edge.  Syd won’t notice; neither will anyone else unless they turn her dress inside out.

I think I’m finally getting somewhere with my bodice though. After endless reading on full bust adjustments (FBA), dart manipulation, armsyce’s, and patter slashing…I’ve taken the bodice from the Darling Ranges dress and altered it to fit someone with boobs.  I ended up taking the bodice from another dress out of Gertie’s book (she caters to us curvy girls) to get the dart placement and bust area correct.  Then I used that pattern and overlayed it with the Darling Ranges pattern and combined the two. Pain in the ass? You bet!  And the thing is I’m not even sure I like the Darling Ranges style…I’m only making it because 1) I thought it would be an easy ‘starter’ dress for myself (hahahahaha) and 2) it seems all the ready-to-wear dresses this summer have this bodice/skirt styling.  I figure I can belt it to make it a bit less feminine.  We will see. I have on order some black/grey linen for it so maybe the darker color will lure me in.  I’ve also heard this dress is comfortable as heck so maybe comfort will win over my fear of frill.

11-months

Gah where has time gone? I can’t believe in < 30 days I’ll be saying Ingrid is 1-year old.

Month 11 was a good one. Only faint days of sickness, only one day home from school, and for the most part a fairly happy kid. Teething has a way to throw kinks into any happy child, and although we still only have 2 teeth to show for the screaming, me thinks she is working on a few more that will show themselves soon.

Ingrid got much better at eating this month. She shovels anything and everything in. She is good at eating vegetables and loves peas, green beans, and broccoli. Fruit cocktail, peaches and pears is hands down her favorite thing in the world. It’s funny to watch her grab large handfuls of the slippery chunks as she tries to get all the pieces in her mouth. And like all kids she loves spaghetti; since both kids eat that well we probably have it once a week (yawn). She is mostly on non pureed self-feeding solids now. She will still suck down a pouch (yes at this point she will hold them herself and suck the food out – how easy is that?) or two a night of stage 2 baby food but that will soon come to an end because I’m tired of storing them (unless she is still behind on her growth statistics in which cause I’ll store whatever will fatten her up). She is still in 6-9 month clothes and I’m really really sick of them.  Looking forward to getting her into some new 9-month stuff soon even though she is nearly 12-months old!

One of Ingrid’s quirks is her ‘talking’ when she eats. She makes these “nom, nom, nom” noises like she is trying to tell us how much she likes what she is eating. She only makes them if she seemingly is ‘enjoying’ her meal, and even daycare gets a kick out of her little singing while eating habit.  I caught her on video the other day if you want to check out a long clip with some messy eating. She also does the same ‘dizzy dizzy’ stuff her sister did, which this video also captures briefly at the beginning.

We are working on signing with her like we did with her sister. She loves to imitate what we are doing but I’m not sure she understands what it all means yet.  Someday, slowly she will.  She is also successfully taking water from a sippy! This was way easier than it was with Sydney. Then again Ingrid didn’t go on a bottle strike either and throw the entire ‘what will she take milk out of?!!?’ panic that Syd put us through.  She is still breastfeeding but I’ll start to wean her soon.  I would like to just get down to an AM and a night-time feed so that I can stop pumping at work.  We will see…my supply in the freezer is dwindling so that always gives me pause each time I consider leaving the pump at home. Either way the time is near and I’ll be free at last soon! Very soon! Yay!!!

Ingrid isn’t walking yet without assistance but I feel like it will happen soon.  This is strange since I look back at Syds photos from this time and she was already a pro at walking!  Towards the end of the month Ingrid started getting a little more confident and will let go of objects she is holding onto when standing. She is still pretty wobbly but I think free-standing will happen any day now.  She can walk with the assistance of a push toy which we discovered this weekend and captured here and here (I just couldn’t choose which video was cuter so you get two…).

Even though she isn’t walking she gets around pretty good with crawling. She is wicked fast. I’ve caught myself running across the kitchen so I can close the stair gate more times than I care to admit. Sydney was never this curious…Ingrid is always into something, exploring something, eating something she shouldn’t be eating, attempting to reach something she shouldn’t get.  She keeps us on our toes.

Thankfully the weather has been getting nicer so we have been able to spend a lot of time outside.  Between the deck and the front yard we are out as often as we can be.  Much of my afternoon is spent on that polkda-dot blanket with the girls, reading, eating, soaking up the sun and heckling the neighbors.

All and all it was a good month (finally). We had some rough nights alone since I’m starting to ‘wean’ myself off babysitters too.  Now that Ingrid isn’t feeding at 6 PM there is really no excuse (other than my own selfishness) to have help at night when Royce is working.  On a good night the girls do a decent job playing together while I get supper ready and do the bottle washing/making and breakfast prep routine. There are some nights when both kids are at their worst when I wonder how I survive and two thoughts help me get through 1) I’m not pregnant and 2) each bad night is one less bad night I have ahead of me.  Soon I’ll be done with bottles and teething and weekly colds and cry-unless-you-hold-me and getting woken up in the middle of the night; and knowing that this is the last time I have to deal with these stages is all the peace I need.

Easter 2013

It was a very cold and dreary Easter Sunday here this year.  Considering how beautiful it was on Saturday…

…it’s kind of a shame we didn’t get a repeat on Sunday.

We opened Easter baskets and presents Sunday morning.

Easter is turning into a mini-Christmas…which is fine by me…I would rather give a toy than excessive amounts of candy.

It’s always fun to give the kids new things to play with too to change things up a bit. It also gives the grandparents an excuse to spoil their grand-kids.

There rest of our morning was pretty uneventful. I sewed while Royce spent some time with Sydney. After Ingrid woke up from her morning nap we took pictures of the girls in their new dresses. They sure would have been soooo much cuter if we didn’t have to put tights and long-sleeved shirts on underneath. Alas it was only 40 degree’s out…grumble grumble where is SPRING???

Then like we have in years past, my friend Ashley invited us over for Easter lunch.  Although this year instead of two tired pregnant woman we had 3 new babes to celebrate with!  All those children brought the chaos level up a notch, and I think both of us are looking forward to years when the kids are older and we can send them outside (if it’s warm) while the adults actually get to enjoy eating Easter lunch for once.

After lunch, we had waited long enough for the rain to subside and we had a very wet Easter Egg hunt for Stella Jane and Syd.

Next year those girls will have to duke it out for eggs once Peter, Elliot and Ingrid are more mobile.  For more of our Easter Day fun see the photos on Flickr.

Briar, I’ll alter you to make you work

I had high expectations for this pattern. My friend Katie loves it and so does the rest of the sewing community. So I set forth with excitement to try out Megan Nielsen’s new Briar top pattern. Based on my measurements I cut a medium and it fits my shoulders perfectly but the fit of the rest of the shirt is just, well, blah.

I own a couple of high-low cut tops but they are longer in the front which allows you to wear them with leggings. Briar (to me) can really only be worn with jeans or skinny jeans. I don’t know how I can incorporate this into my summer wardrobe with the back of it being as long as it is.

Since the back of this is so low it hides one bee-hind which, although not my favorite asset (pun intended), is still an asset, and I feel that covering it up doesn’t do me much justice.

Also, I could go on and on about features that I do not like about my body, but I do have a waist, and a flat tummy so I’m particular in avoiding clothes that tend to gloss over highlighting these features. I figure there will be plenty of time in years to come (when hormones and time get the best of me) for me to hide behind shapeless t-shirts. But since I’m not there yet, I would prefer to flaunt what I have.

I’m determined to salvage this top though (how about them matching side stripes huh???) I’m going to try to bring it in on the sides and use the length of my Angel Top to bring up the bottom hem a bit so that the back curve hits a bit more reasonably like this RTW top I love.

stay tuned. I’ll write about the general construction and sewing of the top when I have a finished product but the jury is still out on sewing with knits. Currently, I find it more of a headache than it’s worth!

Spring Dresses

Even though church isn’t on our agenda for Easter, we still have festivities with friends so I decided to make the girls a new spring dress.

These are their first matching dresses I’ve made for them.

The pattern was super easy.  It is the new Roller Skate Dress by Oliver & S. Typical of O&S patterns it is a very thoughtful dress. The instructions are easy, and it went together smoothly.

The fussiest part was  sewing on that jumbo rick rack by hand. Thankfully I’ve had some really boring meetings to call into during my work from home days.

The fabric is a cotton/poly blend bed sheet I found at a thrift store and since I had so much of it I decided use it for the lining as well. Sydney and I went to the fabric store and she helped me pick out the rick rack and the matching buttons for the back closures. I think she had fun looking through all the buttons (our local fabric store has a very unique button collection) to find the right one for both her dress and little sisters dress too.

We don’t do fancy things often, so I’m not sure how much use these delicate dresses will get, but hopefully they will be worn more than once!