Lil' Holiday Dresses

I've been looking around for some holiday dresses for Lois and of course I love so many (girl clothes are just so darn cute).  I want to get one dress for her to wear in pictures to send with our Christmas cards, and one she can wear in her picture with Santa.  I love these two dresses from The Gap.  I picture her in the white cable knit dress in a pile of leaves for her holiday picture and then in the red check party dress in her Santa picture.  I'd actually like grown-up versions of either of these dresses!  There are so many great local designers, though, who make really beautiful handmade clothes.  I think I'll head over to Mabuhay just to see what's in store.

PS. I'm feeling much better.  Finally!

Meow!

Wishing you a spooky, fun, and safe Halloween!

Stem Picking

Pumpkin picking is all about the stem isn't it? Or maybe the shape? Or maybe the color? No, for me, it's the stem. Even if the color is a nice, saturated deep orange, and the shape round as a basketball; even if it's one of those funky blue-gray pumpkins or a striped orange-white one, if the stem isn't good (or worse, no stem at all!), I'll move on to the next pumpkin. It's definitely the stem that determines the pumpkin for me.




The real star of pumpkin picking today, though, was Lois. What a cutie in the pumpkin patch! Today we went to Clancy's Pumpkin Patch. We wanted Lois to pick out her very first pumpkin. Actually last year, when she was just about two weeks old, we took her to a pumpkin patch (our first big day out with baby), but she was way too itty bitty to pick one.

She didn't care much about picking one out today either, but she had fun poking the pumpkins and trying to eat them.

Do you like her little gray shawl? I made it from an old cashmere sweater of mine. I've had the sweater for about 10 years now, but it's a little too snug for me.

Every year, for the past few years, I try it on hoping it will fit again. But it's always too tight. I could wear it standing, but sitting my tire's ready to hit the road. A tight cashmere tummy tire. Um, no thanks.

It was time to become something else, or go to someone else. I thought a shawl for Lois would be sweet, especially since I loved it so much and had it so long. I snipped off the arms, eyeballed a shawl sort of shape, pinned it and sewed the little shawl. And with some of the scraps I made a flower with a wooden button in the center.

We found our favorite pumpkin.

One!

Today Lois turned one! We had a great birthday picnic party. Perfect weather, great friends, and lots of fun. I can't believe how big Lois is now. She's growing so fast and starting to look more like a little girl than a baby. She's also on the verge of walking and talking. She's saying momma, dada, hi, and baby but never really at the right times yet. These are just a few words we say all the time that she's starting to repeat. She's also starting to walk around furniture or with a little help from mom and dad or with help from a big toy that she can push around while holding on to it. She loves to play with other babies and kids and thinks our cat, Sophie, is one of them (or just a fun, furry toy to chase around). Lately she also holds the remote up in the air and aims it at the TV. We must be watching too much TV around her! And she loves music. Sometimes when we play music she puckers her lips and throws her head back and forth, just like a little rock star. She's so cute, especially when covered in cupcake. Here are a few pictures from her big day. Happy birthday Lolo!

Lil' Liberty

Tomorrow is Lois' first birthday! I'm so excited I feel like it's Christmas eve! Cupcakes, check. Candles, check. Bubbles, check (must have bubbles). Party hat and dress, check, check! I made her dress from lightweight denim with Liberty print accents for the pocket and tie. I think it turned out pretty cute.

For beginners, I wouldn't recommend denim, especially denim with stretch to it, which this one has. I really just liked the wash of this denim and wasn't looking for it with stretch, but the wash I liked had stretch to it. I messed up the hem 3 times. With the stretch in the fabric, I couldn't get the tension right and it kept pinching a bit, arrrgh! I really wanted to do an especially good job on this one since I plan to keep it for Lois. I didn't want her to look at it later and think, wow, mom was a sloppy seamstress! My mom used to make our clothes and gave away everything except one dress, a beautiful dress, and I've looked at it often and am always impressed by how perfect it is. That dress is much more elaborate (maybe I'll take a picture next time I go home), but I hoped Lois would feel the same way about some things I've made.

Ah well, this dress isn't perfect, but it's a good go at stretch denim, and it's her very first brithday dress, so I hope she'll think it's special one day despite its imperfections. I can't wait till tomorrow. Party girl pictures coming soon!

11 Month Birthday

Just a few more weeks until the big ONE! I'm so excited I'm already planning her dress and party hat set, which might be made with a special Liberty print! For now, though, we're still celebrating her monthlies. Yesterday we went to the park where I took these pictures of Lois playing with, and trying to eat, leaves and grass. She's wearing a Tea Collection top, or dress really, that my sister gave to me at my shower. What a cutie! She's doing all kinds of new, fun things lately. Her favorite things to do lately are: walk around furniture, try to take off her diaper (not looking forward to this progressing), try to feed herself with a spoon, try to feed me (she hands me little pieces of food, which is really cute), open and close things, and unfortunately she's fascinated with the toilet. Oh and I almost forgot, she LOVES music! At the first sound of any music she bops and sways to the beat. And she's starting to clap her hands sometimes, too. Here's to the last monthly birthday until the big one!

London: Day One!

We made it to London safe and sound! YAY! WOOT! YIPPEE! Can you tell I'm excited to be here? Aside from some turbulence and an unhappy baby (not ours, thankfully for us), our flight was very good. Getting to and from the airport, which is the most dreaded part since we're now a walking Babies-R-Us when we travel, was not too bad either. I have to give props to Virgin Atlantic--they rock. We read they were the most family friendly airline before we made our last big trip to Zurich, and let me tell you, they are, so we paid a little extra and flew with them again and were really happy about it. They are so attentive and accommodating. Unfortunately Lois was too big for the baby cot in the bulkhead (although we did get one), so we had to take turns holding her, but still, they have the best service and the food is surprisingly good. Really good. Did I just say that about airplane food? Yes, it was really good. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and just rested and went to bed early, so today was our first day out. And what did we do on our first day? Let me tell you . . .

Andrew had to fly to Zurich for meetings, so I ventured out with Lois solo. We started the day by going to the Covent Garden market. There's a different market each weekday, and Monday is the antique market. It was very small, but there was a nice variety, and it's in a great space. The market is in a corridor that runs down the center of the entire building, so it has an open market feel but is covered with a grand glass ceiling and surrounded by enclosed retail shops and cafes. A few Covent Garden antique market sights . . .



After the market, we decided to stroll around the area. I had heard of Oxfam, the second-hand charity shop chain and saw that there was one near the market, so how could I resist? I thought I was going to the book and music exclusive Oxfam, but this one had a bit of everything, which was all the better to me. Believe it or not, I left empty handed. I have to pinch my pennies, or pence in this case, for our weekend getaways after all. Still, it was fun to look. This one did have a great book section, but I already brought two big books with me and have barely made a dent in one of them (page 7 of the first one--that's about how far you can get on a 10 hour plane ride with a 10 month old).

After Oxfam, it was time for lunch and a nap. Here's Lois having a good time in the apartment we've rented, which is great. It's a furnished 1 bedroom apartment in a great part of town called Holborn and conveniently near a train station. It doesn't get much better than that.

Then it was nap time.
After Lois took a nap, we headed to the British Museum. Andrew and I went there last time we were here, but Lois has never been, and I thought she'd like the cultural experience. She especially liked the Rosetta Stone and thought it was fascinating! Kidding, of course. She just kicked her feet and said "la la la" the whole time. Still, the British Museum is quite something, and FREE. Yes, free admission. It's polite to make a donation, though, which we did.

One of the most impressive things is the building itself, specifically the ceiling. See? My picture below is pretty lame compared to these. The main room you see there used to be the reading room of the British Library. Beyond those metal triangles is the sky, which was a little overcast, but it's there, clouds, sun and all.

There are a lot of great exhibits, but the one that surprised me the most was this stampede of elephants! Right in the great court under the grand ceiling. Created by kids, admired by all, as part of the garden exhibit right now. The other exhibit that might stop you in your tracks is this one called Cradle to Grave. A little more thought-provoking and somewhat disturbing, but really good. We saw it last time we were here, but it had the same startling effect on me the second time around. You can read about it here. I took pictures, but the elephants are more fun.

And lastly, we needed to eat. We found Waitrose on the way home, which is a very large grocery store near our apartment. Thanks to Lynne for telling me about it! You have to love a grocery store that has one entire isle devoted to "cakes and biscuits," don't you?

More coming soon . . . .

And We're Off!

We're headed to London today for our 6 week adventure! Andrew will be working hard as usual, but we'll make plenty of time for fun, too. Wish us luck on the 10+ hour flight with the little bundle. This time we have LOTS of extra diapers, and we've loaded our carry on bags with plenty of snacks and toys. We also ordered some neat baby travel gadgets from this company, including some snack/toy clips that attach one end to the snack or toy and one end to baby so that the person next to us won't constantly have to pick up her teething biscuits and toys out of the isle. We're as ready as we can be. London here we come!
This is London by M. Sasek.

10 Month Brithday

Today Lois celebrated her 10 month birthday! For this monthly birthday I put her in something extra special: a dress my mom made. It's baby pink and smocked at the top with a heart motif. It's really sweet, and I know my mom worked very hard on it. Thanks, mom! My mom had a smocking business when I was growing up and made a ton of dresses for me and my sister (matching dresses, of course). She gave them to a needy neighbor who had three or four little girls years ago, which was very nice, but I know she wishes she had kept some of them. Lois gives her good reason to start again, though. Unfortunately our little photo session was not very successful. It was so hard to get her to look up today! I don't know how photographers do it. I really needed Andrew or someone with me to help distract her into smiling and looking at the camera. When she would look up, by the time I could get her to smile or make a cute face, I missed the chance to take a picture. Plus she kept getting really mad in the dress because her knees were getting caught up in it and she had trouble crawling around in it. Ah, oh well. I will try to get some more pictures of her in the dress before she grows out of it. At least you can see what the detailing looks like in the picture below. Very pretty, don't you think?

After the exhausting attempt to have Lois produce a picture perfect smile, I thought she could use a break and a snack (me too). So after I changed her clothes, I put her in the high chair and gave her a teething biscuit. She looked so cute that I got the camera back out, and there you have it--not what I originally had in mind for this monthly birthday, but very cute nonetheless. Doesn't she look so grown up? She's acting very grown up, too. She says, "la, la, la" all the time now and loves to babble to herself. She also pulls up on furniture and walks around it while holding on. I think she'll be walking really soon. And lately she crawls around with toys in her mouth like a little puppy, and she loves to take things in and out of other things, like taking toys out of bins and clothes out of drawers. She's so cute.