Friday, March 26, 2010

Birthdays, Bollywood and Baby Teeth

These are the things that have made me an un-blogger over the last little while! Ten days ago, Baby M. had no teeth. Now he has two. Teeth coming in that quickly made for a cranky baby that needed constant snuggles (and gripe water, and a little Tylenol). He's back to his usual cheerful self now, though, and likes to rub his tongue over his new teeth (so cute). Now we just wait for the next ones! His little friend, who's a week younger than him, has seven teeth, and got FIVE of them within a month, poor little darlin'. Gah.

I've been taking Bollywood dance classes over the past few months at the gorgeous Wild Lily Dance Centre, which is run by two lovely ladies (and amazing bellydancers), Lori and Vanessa. Unlike the usual ballet-hip hop-ballroom dance schools, Wild Lily classes feature what the ladies call alternative and cultural dance styles, yoga, and hula-hooping. The school is about to move to a new location, and tonight is the last student showcase at the current studio. Our Bollywood group performed in public for the first time last weekend, at the Multicultural Women's Organization of NL's food and craft fair at the Holiday Inn, and are performing two routines tonight... we're all kinda nervous, but looking forward to it. The costumes alone are reason enough to want to take part- they're super colourful and beautiful.

There've been three birthdays in our family over the past few weeks: my little niece and her mom (my sister-in-law), and my sister, who turned 30 and finally got the birthday she's been waiting for since she was 12 years old. Seriously, she's always dreamed of being in her 30s, the little weirdo. I have a thing about birthday cards, and any other store-bought cards - it takes me a long time to pick them out. I can't give someone a card just for the sake of it; it has to say exactly what I want to say, or else I buy a blank one and write something myself. Over the last little while, I've been making them like I made Ian's valentine: sewing the card and envelope from fabric, and embroidering the front of the card. I did little unicorns and rainbows for my niece, a chihuahua for my sister-in-law, and a cute little 1950s-style waitress carrying a cake on a tray for my sister. For my sister's birthday present, I made her this:




It's made with Rae's Buttercup Bag pattern (I'm a licenced seller of these purses now, yippee!). I had gotten my sister to tell me her favourite colours (blue, green and black) and found this pretty fabric... the difficult part was that it was a landscape, not just a repeated pattern, so I had to make sure both sides of the purse were cut in the exact same spot. Ian actually measured and cut the strap for me while I was cutting other pieces, and did his best to get "the most butterflies in as possible" (his words. Cute.). Anyway, the bag comes in a small and medium size, is fully lined with a reinforced strap, and has an interior pocket and a magnetic clasp. If you want one, I can customize colours and patterns.  I was thinking of enlarging the pattern and using a zipper instead of the clasp to make a diaper bag- what do you think? 

***

Lisa was the winner of the Munkeh in the last Celebrate the Boy giveaway, and Kerri won the legwarmers. Drop me an e-mail with your address when you get a chance, ladies, and your packages will be in the mail ASAP. Since Dara (Readily a Parent) was the only other person to comment (and a good friend), I'm sending her a package, too. :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Apologies and Legwarmers

When I was really small, I had a book that I kept at my grandparents' house called "Wilma's Busy day," and my grandmother still laughs about having to read it over and over. It was about Wilma Flintstone, who spent an entire day trying to get a bath, but as soon as she put a foot in the tub, she'd get interrupted by the phone or the doorbell or something. I had a Wilma week this past week- I tried to do a blog post at least a dozen times, but as soon as I'd sit to write it, Baby M. would need me or the phone would ring or I'd realize the time and have to be somewhere in 15 minutes. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!

***

Since the cold weather arrived (months ago now), I realized something I had no reason to even think about before, but it drives me crazy... why don't they make tights for little boys? It first occurred to me when Baby M. was christened, and I was looking for something for him to wear under his christening gown. We ended up going with a pair of plain beige Baby Legs to keep his little legs warm. Since then, there have been lots of times when we've gone for walks or it's been particularly cold when I would have loved to put some kind of legging or tights on Baby M. underneath his clothes to keep him warm, but I've yet to find any boyish tights in this city (I did buy him a pair of plain black ones, though). When I lived in the U.K., tights for little boys were an everyday common thing in kids clothing stores, and my nephew has a bunch of pairs from Ireland, so in the end, I found some cute pairs online (both striped; one gray and navy with a panda on the bum; the other green and brown with a lion).

In an effort to avoid spending $20 and up on baby legwarmers for her boys, my sister came up with a super easy and cute way to make them from a pair of long adult socks, which you can find in boyish colours and patterns (my sister, by the way, could have her own crafty blog if she wanted to, but says she'd have to call it "The Half-A**ed Crafter" since she has limited patience... LOL).

Here's how to do it:


Find a pair of knee socks- they're easy to come by at Wal-Mart or the dollar store.


Cut off the foot part at the ankle, just above the heel.

Cut out about a 3.5-inch section in the middle of the foot part.You won't need the other two pieces.


Fold the foot section in half widthwise, so you have a ring like this:

Put the ring on the end of the sock, the two raw edges at the bottom and lined up with the raw edge of the sock. If there's a pattern on both pieces, match them up as best as you can. A lot of patterned socks have a solid colour foot, so you won't need to do this.


Without turning the sock inside out, sew along the raw edge. Then turn the ring part - which is now the cuff - down.

If you like a wider cuff, cut the piece of the sock foot longer than 3.5 inches.

Et voila! Easy-peasy legwarmers that your boy can wear underneath pants to keep his legs nice and snuggly (I had to interrupt a very important phone call to snap this pic, as you can see). :)

For the end of Celebrate the Boy month, I'm going to do two giveaways: one for a pair of baby legwarmers, the other for another Munkeh! Leave me a comment telling me the best part about being the parent (grandparent/aunt/uncle, etc.) of a boy and which prize you'd like to have, and I'll use the random number generator again to pick two winners on Wednesday at 5pm (3:30 pm ET). If you want a chance to win both, feel free to leave two comments. :)

For me, the best part about being the mom of an adorable little boy is being able to watch him grow and learn... it's amazing to see him go from being born without the ability to focus his eyes properly to a baby who amazes me every single day with something new and brilliant he knows how to do. Of course, his little baby cuddles are the most awesome things, too. :)