First Christmas

I've been slow to post lately, but I'm catching up tonight. Here are some from Theo's first Christmas here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have more photos from xmas, but they're on another computer that's difficult to access tonight, so they'll have to get posted later. All for now!!

new duds

 

mr. t has been in need of some walking shoes. He has socks, and bootees, but the first aren't super-warm, and the second don't grip the floor well. I've been wanting to get him something warm that he can walk in. You can buy little soft-soled shoes, but they're kind of expensive for something he'll only wear for a short while, and somehow they're difficult to find used. So I looked around on the internet, and guess what, I'm not the first mom to encounter this problem. Several creative folks have posted patterns for making soft-soled shoes. There's a nice summary here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2041350_softsole-leather-baby-shoes.html and I ultimately used this pattern: http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf and just enlarged it.

So I found myself some leather, pulled out our industrial sewing machine (handy for so many things other than sailmaking!), and started experimenting.

It took about a week of playing around with patterns, sizes, fabrics, and thread tensions to come up with something that worked, but I'm finally happy with the results. They fit, they seem comfortable, and most importantly, they stay on. And now that I've figured out what to make and how to make them, they're very simple. Three pieces, 6 seams, 7 if you count sewing the elastic into a circle. And voila, the little man is shod.

I made two pairs, and will probably make a few more in the next little while. These were just using fabric scraps and sailmaking thread. I plan to make some cuter ones. They only take about an hour.

 

I also made him a little hat. I thought he would look dapper in a black bowler.

 

He doesn't seem to agree:

 

Something with strings will undoubtedly be next.

whoa, what's in here??

 

The little man is fascinated by the fridge, and tries to climb in every chance he gets. He's like our very own energy-efficiency monitor - he helps us remember to close the fridge door the second we are done in there!!

giant head

 

and tiny foot

Packed

 

Maybe Padre will take wee mr. t to work with him today...

10 days apart

 

The wee ones are just 10 days apart. We know her parents through our old neighbours. When we announced we were pregnant, they replied, "so are we!". We've been visiting with them and comparing number of teeth, how many hours they sleep, etc. I think Theo is starting to recognize little Simona. He still tries to poke her in the eye, though.

helping

 

birthday approaching