8/30/10

Diving Board!

Yesterday, the girls and I went to the Philadelphia Cricket Club with my mom's best friend Meg. We swam in the big pool and the baby pool, and the girls went off the diving board! It was crazy to see Fern fearlessly walk to the end and jump off into 13 feet of water, and then love it and do it again.
Sage with Fern right behind her

8/26/10

Handmade for Baby

I've made a couple things for baby's arrival:
Tray spray painted this bed and I made the mattress:
Baby bed
I made these organic cotton sheets and wool mattress pads:
Organic cotton fitted sheet
Wool mattress pad

And if you check out the Flickr there are a couple other items. I used a technique on the sheets that I learned from Melissa at Fehr Trade: Serge the edges and insert the elastic in one step. I used this technique to sew the girls' bathing suits as well. I raise the blade of the serger and pull the elastic with my right hand and guide the fabric through with my left. It made these sheets so easy and fast!

8/24/10

Michigan

We are back from our annual trip to Northern Michigan. It was magical as it always is. This year was particularly challenging with missing my mom, but we had a nice ceremony to remember her and spread her ashes in Torch Lake.
Spreading grandma's ashes at the point
This was the first year that actually felt like a vacation for us. The girls were so independent and required very little baby gear (though the stroller was a lifesaver).

We came home to the fleas that took a little vacation and returned home as well. Trying to figure out what to do about our cats while preparing home and hearts for the arrival of this little boy.

8/10/10

Kiddie Pool

Kiddie Pool
Yesterday was a big day for the girls. Sage, who is  4, has always been a water baby. She can swim on her back and front, and I think she could probably swim about 25 yards without help if she really tried. She can swim down to probably 5 feet deep to retrieve objects. She doesn't swim any strokes, just doggy-paddle at this point, but she is able to take a breath and continue swimming.
Fern has always been more hesitant of water, and we have had to be careful with her in the water as well. She had 12 ear infections her first year of life, so spending time at the pool was never a priority then. We had to be careful with her in the bath tub also, so as not to get dirty water in her ears.

When Sage was a baby, we would purposely put her laying on her back in a couple inches of water for her bath time, and we started that at about 2-3 months of age (sorry, naked baby pic). She LOVED having the water in her ears and moving her arms and legs around, and she has never had an ear infection:
tubby tub
Fern never got that early immersion experience, and I think it definitely effected her comfort level with water. However, after setting up my birth pool for them to swim in yesterday, she took off in her skills. She jumped underwater and put her face in a million times. When we went to swim at the public pool last night, she jumped into the water and swam to me on her own, she pushed off the wall and swam a couple feet to me, and in the area where she could walk, she was going under and swimming around!

Yesterday was another day I wish I could have shared with my mom. She taught all of us kids how to swim, and was the one who really stressed the importance of early immersion. She was a swim instructor for years, and active on all of our swim teams. She really valued the ability to swim, and the magic and mystery that being underwater and in the water provides. I wish I could have seen her excitement and joy at Fern's new skills. I know she is in heaven seeing it all, but it would have been so nice to share that moment with her and the girls. 

8/4/10

Nautical Dress photo shoot

I had Fern model the Nautical dress today, check out the poses she was striking:
Toddler dress

I finished some wool shorties today after not feeling motivated for about a week to work on them. I got 6 done so I will be posting a pair a day.

Lastly, we bought another stroller on Craigslist. We sold our used Phil and Ted's on Craigslist back in January, before we found out I was pregnant. Since then, and especially in the heat and with Fern's newfound love of tantrums, I have REALLY missed it. These strollers are AWESOME, and for living in the city and getting in and out of doorways with one hand, I couldn't handle a side-by-side. Yay!:
Sanity has returned