spoonfuls

Eating with a spoon! All by himself! This will revolutionize mealtime...



Of course, he doesn't eat like that all the time. Sometimes he eats like this:



There are lots of photos that I need to post - of his birthday, especially. Hopefully soon....

refinished

 

Douglas had this table when I met him. It was covered in a thick layer of white enamel paint, which is how it was when he got it. I remember looking at it and thinking - hm, I like its lines. I wonder if there's nice wood under there. I'll bet there is....

One of my little mat leave projects was to refinish this. I scraped the paint off with a scraper, chip by chip. I sanded. I sanded more. A few days ago, we glued the table top pieces back together, then put the whole thing together and oiled it. And I love it. The wood has amazing depth, and glows a beautiful honey color.

OK, it's not quite finished - the pieces of the top aren't all level, and need to be sanded, then re-oiled. But that's probably not going to happen for a bit. so here it is, so far.

And this is my last week of mat leave. I can't believe it. Tomorrow Theo goes for his first day of gradual entry at the daycare. He and I will be there together, playing, for about 2 hours. The next day I'll leave him there by himself for about 30 minutes. And on Friday, I'll take him there, hang out for a few minutes, then go for a walk for an hour or so. I'm not looking forward to it at all. I think he'll have fun - he's such a social critter that I bet he will have a great time playing with the other kids. And I think it'll be good for him. And good for me to have a little break and some time to think workish thoughts.

But I'm still not looking forward to it!

wee walker

 

my boys

 

mmmmarmalade

 

 

Does it mean something that wee mr. t was born in marmalade season? Will he have a special affinity for Paddington Bear? Or a penchant for marmalade words? I just heard this expression, meaning fancy, multisyllabic words, and love it.

My little bookhound

 

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

At mama's knee

 

Ten months old

 

and already driving a car!

Snow!

 

I bundled the wee man into his snowsuit and took him out for a bit of frolicking. He didn't want to frolic, though. He just wanted to sit and watch the flakes come down around him.

Movember!

I've always kind of envied guys' ability to totally change their appearance in just a few days by growing facial hair. Not that I'd want to have to shave every day. But it would be cool to be able to look like someone else at the drop of a hat.

Douglas is taking advantage of that ability this month, and all for a good cause. Check him out at:

http://theworldlikeadog.blogspot.com/2010/11/movember.html

snowfall

 

La Nina is here, with her fluffy white blanket. I think we may be in for a record snowfall this season. Which is funny after last year, when the Olympic Committee had to truck snow in from other towns to cover our poor, bare ski hills.

We are already out, romping in the drifts. I wouldn't say Theo knows what to make of snow quite yet, but he will soon....

 

 

the red heart of memory

 

I knitted a little lacy cap for Shelley's wee bairn-to-be. She had her baby shower today, so I can now post pictures without worrying about giving anything away. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The yarn is a luscious red, and very soft. If only I could remember what type it is.... I'm so bad about keeping ball bands. I know I bought it in SLO - Celine, maybe you can help me out??

 

 

The shower was lovely. There were no games involving diapers and crushed Mars bars, just good food and conversation. Shelley and I have known each other since we were about 13. We and 3 other women have been good friends since high school, and 3 of the 5 of us are having babies within a year of each other. It's amazing to be able to compare experiences with friends who share so much history. We can remember sitting in the high school hallway giggling about boys, and passing notes in Physics class. And now here we are, having children.