Three!

Our "baby" turned three yesterday. (She is so, so, SO far from a baby now! But in my heart, she'll always be...) I did a terrible job of capturing the day, but here are a few little memories:

We were up and celebrating in pjs by 6 am. Her cards and gifts, birthday crown, cake, and other things awaited her on the dining-room table. Here she is, dancing along to her favorite card--a musical one, sent by her cousin Katherine. (We must have heard that song 100 times by now.)

Here's a bit of her birthday table. Lucy had requested a "spinning Pooh cake" (because last year's cake had spun, and because Pooh has been a huge part of our life this year.)

I began reading The World of Pooh to the kids in my program sometime last year, and was amazed at how much Lucy was listening and understanding. So we began reading chapters ahead on the weekend, and soon it became our every-night-before-bedtime reading. Oh, how I love Milne's use of language (don't even get me started on the bland, watered-down Disney versions...ugh!) And I adore sharing my beloved childhood book with her. And she loves it, too. Her most-requested story is "in which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water," but she has many favorites. Her language is peppered with Pooh-isms (my favorite is "I'm not quite certain.") Our conversations about daily life often end up referring back to favorite Pooh stories. So...

Pictured above you can see a few of the Pooh characters I painted this past month as her main gift. (I haven't yet gotten a photo of all nine. Soon?) Pooh and Christopher Robin are perched on the sad-excuse-for-an-umbrella-as-boat cake, off to rescue Piglet (oh, well, the cake didn't work as I'd hoped, but Lucy was happy with it, and it was delicious). They're floating along through the 100 Aker Wood on a map Andi and I copied from the end paper of the book (one of Lucy's favorite parts of the book). Beside it is a birdhouse made from a Pooh book, a gift from Tim and Eric (it's perched atop my Pooh book and The World of Christopher Robin, which we started reading because we wanted to know more about Pooh, and now know almost as well. Do you know it? The poems are just brilliant. Daily I find myself reciting in my head from this book.)

I also made her a beehive pinata with honey sticks inside (Pooh's favorite, you know.)

(Horrible photo showing my inability to keep a tidy house. Boots I'm not sure I'm keeping yet under the piano; random ugly light fixture atop it...this is our house having been "cleaned up" for a party! Sigh. Other priorities right now...)

We continued the celebration in the evening, over dinner with family. (Lucy'd insisted on wearing her new summer dress from Granny right away, so we layered it up for her.) My mother (Nanny) was able to come (she'd started a new, very draining chemo this week, and we didn't think she'd make it), which made the evening extra special for me. Here, Lucy's opening a donkey-themed lunchbox from her, about to discover the stuffed donkey inside, ("Eeyore!"), which she hasn't put down since.

I didn't get a good photo of her party, but it was Nanny, Tim, Eric, and Randy there in person, and Granny there through Skype.

Here, Lucy tries to get enough air to blow out her candles. (I'd pulled Pooh and Christopher Robin and the umbrella's "handle" off the cake and was about to cut it when I realized I'd forgotten the candles!)

At the end of the night, as she tried to settle for sleep, Lucy was revisiting her day. She asked me "on my next birthday, can we have everything the same? But can I have balloons? Would that be all right with you?" Yes, my darling, that would be all right.

Galloping and spinning horses for an almost-2-year-old

Tomorrow is Lucy's birthday, but we've already begun celebrating, because she has so many people who want to celebrate with her, and it's so hard to have a relaxed birthday celebration if you have to cram it all in after work midweek. We didn't want to do a big party, but chose instead to have individual time with each of her special people. So Sunday, we spent the day with her Granny, saw a couple of friends for brief drop-by visits, and later had a visit and dinner with her aunt, uncle, and cousins.

I spent Saturday on her cake--my first major decorative baking attempt. First came the cookies--many, many horse cookies. (This was our first try at piping cookie frosting.) We made lots so we could have two special treats: the cake on the weekend and on her actual birthday, the extra cookies.

Then, Saturday night after Lucy went to bed, we prepped the dining room: setting out her crown and garland, her cards and gifts, photos of her as she's grown, and her cake. I've been so inspired by all the Waldorf-y birthdays I see on various blogs with a special table set for the birthday child. It seems like such a low-key, relaxed, special way to honor the occasion. We're loving it as our new birthday tradition. Here's her chair, waiting for her with her crown and the stick horse I've been working on, complete and ready to ride.

(I pretty much followed the directions in Creative Play for Your Toddler, with just a few tweaks. A great book, by the way! I'm thrilled with this horse.)

You can see that Lucy loved it, too.

(I'd love to share--but for modesty's sake, won't--the most joyful pictures of the day: Lucy and her horse galloping wildly around the island, pre-bath, totally nude.)

And here's the finished cake, of which I'm ridiculously proud:

Lucy loves carousels; they were a highlight of her year. So my mom suggested a carousel cake. The brainstorming began around Christmas time: how to make the roof? the horses? the poles? where would the candles go? what kind of cake? (I settled on a yellow cake with lemon frosting and blueberry-jam filling; mmm!) Our friend Tim came up with the brilliant plan of a lazy susan, so the carousel actually turned:

It was a lovely day; quiet and special and Lucy-paced. Perfect.

Tomorrow, she's two. Two!

Almost 2...

Tick, tick, tick...the clock's counting down to Lucy's 2nd birthday.
I've got a few things in the works for this carousel-loving birthday girl...

1st knitting lesson

Our friend Melissa came over tonight, and brought a gift for Lucy's birthday--the sweater Lucy's wearing here (better photos in the light tomorrow), and the hat they're working on:


Lucy thought Melissa's fancy new knitting needles made a lovely necklace, and kept looping them around her neck.



Melissa gave her her own ball of yarn to work with, and Lucy soon transformed it into this:



(Lucy got many lovely handknits this birthday; I'll try to remember to photograph them all tomorrow. She's so lucky to have so many generous crafty people in her life!)

My baby is 1!

How can my baby be a year old already? Everyone says it, because it's true: it flies. That little tiny bundle who'd disappear into the sling or drape across a shoulder and sleep most of the day has grown so fast and learned so much in the past 12 months, it's mind-boggling.

At one, Lucy:

-Smiles and laughs and finds great joy in every day.

-Loves passionately. She has favorite people who make her glow when they come into a room.

-Talks and talks and talks. Words: mama, baby, up, uh-oh, oh wow!, yeah, oh, dah do (gentle), hhh! (hot), mmmm, ball, mendow (window). Signs: finished, socks, telephone, hat, potty, bird. And a constant stream of beautiful babble.

-Understands so much of what we say to her. When she put a rock in her mouth and I asked "is it delicious?" she answered "mmmm!" When I say I'm going to go feed the chickens, she points to the window that faces the coop.

-Walks, some on her own, much more holding on to furniture or, preferably, the hand of a favorite person. Crawls when speed is the goal.

-Draws and paints enthusiastically.

-Loves to be read to, finds her favorite books and asks for them again and again, and looks at books on her own.

-Loves to be outside. When it's time to go out, she gets her boots and gives them to me to put on.

Oh, and so much more. It's overwhelming to me to try to sum up my brilliant, joyful, beautiful baby.

It pales in comparison to her, but I did make her a few things for her birthday. The crown, above (thanks to here and here for inspiration), and a bunting (from here, of course), below.



We put a candle in her bread at dinner time. Yes, we're goofy like that.

Happy Valentine's Day

We're busy celebrating this weekend, with a houseful of family and friends come to wish Lucy a happy birthday (she'll be 1 on Monday!). I'll be back in this space as soon as possible.

In the works...

I haven't been sewing much lately; been too tired to do more than the regular evening clean-up and prep most nights. But I have started a few little projects...

For Lucy's birthday (can it really be only 2 weeks away? It feels like she was born weeks ago!), I've started a birthday bunting (based on the one in The Creative Family).



(That's my wild 60s tablecloth they're on; maybe I should have found a neutral background!)

And to make this drafty, freezing old house a bit warmer, I'm planning to make some draft dodgers. It's a big project: each window will need two. I went back and forth about fabrics: one beautiful fabric? a patchwork?, plain white to match the windows? In the end, I decided on plain white, because we do NOT want to draw attention to our windows. (What? You're supposed to scrape the paint off the glass after you paint? That's not how they're supposed to look? Just take a quick peek and then look away. That's right. There's something shiny on the other side of the room...)



I used the plain white fabric of a dust ruffle I'd bought for the skirt fabric. To make them a bit more interesting and to add to the "warmth" factor (if only psychologically), I decided to embroider them with warm-ish words. Cozy. Warm. Roasty. Toasty. (Got some ideas for me? I have a lot to make.)