Babywearing Coat

I've decided I'd really like one of these, since the babywearing is so much easier than last time and we're getting out and about more anyway... so here's my searchings over the past few days...

but first some light entertainment...

babywearing music video

So what I really thought I wanted was this...

MAM coat (£99)

I saw it a while ago and thought... yup... that would be a good investment. Trouble is I rarely wear coats... especially when babywearing... I overheat! So although this would last me a good long time (I plan on at least a couple more babies) I'm not sure I'd wear it that much, and if I did, I'd overheat bigtime.

This might be a real option, it's from an american site though, so I'm not sure how much the shipping would be just yet...

peekaru $79.95

It's a sleeveless coat, so I might manage in it... but then I saw the photo of the baby being carried on the back, with the coat reversed, and I think the high neck would drive me nuts... and since we'll be back carrying as soon as I can manage to get my mei tei sewn... it would be a bit
pointless.

I found this and this might be the answer to my issues...

No-Sew Babwearing Fleece Poncho (home made)

IF I ever get time to make it. I know the market in town on a Tuesday sells fleece by the metre, so it's just a case of getting up there and buying some really. And it'll be cheap.

This one would be an option also, if I could find a coat I actually like and fit me. (short with "weak" shoulders... is there any hope?!?)

Homemade babywearing coat (peaceful parenting)

There's a few patterns on ravelry too, but that would take longer than I have, especially as I have a few projects that need finishing asap.

seaweed - this one is a rectangle with button holes more or less, and it extends your normal coat over the baby/pregnancy. Great if you already have a coat you like, and while you are able to front carry.

There's this poncho which I like, and might have a go at when I have the needles and yarn to be able to. It's in french though, which might mean I need to dig out my GCSE french. I got a B, but we all know how little that actually means in terms of real world learning.

Another poncho (but this one is $15 instead of my favourite price.. FREE!)

And here are a few coats I came across which didn't inspire me at all... they are very nice and probably very well made, but just not my thing at all... even if I could afford the price tag!

mama jacket babywearing coat (£138)

Äiskä Babywearing Poncho £110.00

and I'm sorry I can't be as diplomatic about THIS... it's vile. Puts me in mind of a dressing gown. Who wants to go out looking as if they're wearing their baby in a dressing gown?? Especially a grey one. Yuck. As if babywearing doesn't draw enough attention.

I don't know what my problem is with sabotaging my own efforts to spend money on something nice for ME that looks good and makes our life easier... but I seem to have managed it AGAIN. I reckon I'll be attempting the homemade poncho. If I can find a couple of fleece jackets that fit and I like (unlikely. but we'll see) then I'll probably have a go at that too... it'll be cheaper overall... just need to find the time (she says sat typing away.... maybe I'll lug the sewing machine downstairs today while I'm lucky enough to have Daddy home to watch the little angels :D

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

recent funky purchases

I saw this cardigan in a charity shop window a couple of days ago when we were out trying to find paint and a few other bits...


The colour drew me to it initally, but the workmanship is amazing. I bet it took A LONG TIME to finish! It only cost 75p... so massive bargain!

Here is Willow wearing it... still a bit big, so will fit her all winter I hope.

She's teething quite hard, which is why she has really rosy cheeks :D Here she is leaning over to get my foot. She's pretty good at sitting herself back up again too!


Here's my second purchase in the charity shops...

Dungarees and a cardigan. £1.50. I don't know how the dungarees will work with EC-ing, but I couldn't leave them. Too pretty.

Then I saw THIS in a shop window and I just COULD NOT resist :D

Well, it's true after all... hahaha. Will be interesting to see peoples reactions to it. It's a good fit, so It'll probably still fit in summer. It's not particularly good quality though, unfortunately.

Eve watching Robin Hood this morning on my laptop...


Willow is really getting around a bit now :) I remember Eve starting to climb low lying objects around this age!
It snowed (still snowing actually) and the chickens have decided to take refuge in Eves wendy house... so I put food and water in there for them. I can't actually move their feeder and water container, it's frozen solid to the ground!!!

I cleared the snow off the bird water table and there's some hollyhock seeds and oregano trapped in the ice... very pretty!

Two quick videos of Eve in the snow... she made me chuckle :)

ECing in cold weather...

(I wrote this a few days ago... having issues finishing things...)

I just found this article (thanks ECUK yahoo group!) about ECing in cold weather climates. Phew! I was beginning to think I was possibly doing something against nature... I know mongolian babies are swaddled most of the day, so I was thinking, maybe this is something that really isn't going to work...

I still need to work on warm clothing solutions for Willow during the day. I would love some leg warmers, and I need to knit some more cardigans/jumpers... I'm thinking of knitting some jumpers long (jumper = sweater to USA friends) so that they are more like dresses.

The problem is that I am knitting presents for christmas, and I don't have much time for that anyway. I have to keep Eve pretty busy, or she becomes destructive/irritated (or should that be irritating?!)

I've decided I'd like a baby wearing coat... I don't really have a proper winter coat anyway... just a spring/autumn light coat, so I think when we've got a little money I'll want to spend it on this. I would really like to finish the mei tei too... (well get started on it) I have all the material ready, I just need to start!! Willow is getting a little heavy to wear on one shoulder now. I'm also slouching more in the sofa than I allowed myself to do whilst pregnant, so my back is starting to get sore again. I need to work on my lower abdominal and back muscles, otherwise I'm going to struggle. No more slouching. I may have to be banned from the sofa again. Which is no bad thing. That way I'm closer to the baby playing on the floor, and I can feel any draughts that might be around....gah!!

Although we don't get many signals with Willow to wee, I have noticed she will turn and look at me, either just before or after she wee's. I tend to work on timing more than signals, although Nick can't always cope with that -- he gets distracted by technology, then woosh, she's pee'd on him... hahaha. At the moment I'm working on offering the potty first thing in the morning and letting her sit as long as she likes... sometimes she will do 2 poops. she lets me know when she's ready to get off by pushing off.

We're useless at other peoples houses. And she will only wee on the potty now!! She used to be quite happy wee'ing over the sink or the toilet... but no more!!

Christmas @ MK

Yesterday we went to Milton Keynes with Nanny to "see Christmas". You see, Eve seems to believe Christmas is a thing... or a place you go to. It is a place where there is snow, and Christmas trees... and apparently 20ft elephants with tutus and a bit yellow umbrella. Oh, and white tigers that talk. Hmm.

I managed to take a few photos... not many since I was engaged with either riding with Eve or looking after the littlest one of our party.


Eve on the Carousel...








It was hilarious!! Everytime she came round again she was on a different horse!! I was in hysterics :)

Here's the helter skelter... which I was forced to go on TWICE since Nanny bagsied the carousel and didn't want to do the slide... bah! It was okay I guess!! They tried to trick me into buying photos of us at the bottom coming down the slide... but I resisted... that and they were really really awful!!


Eve waiting to go on the train


Here's one of the magical winter wonderland... you can see the elephant in the background!



And look... BREASTS!!! It's okay for the mermaids to have theirs hanging out, but I'm expected to use a "mothers lounge" (read smelly room next to toilets with uncomfortable seats) ?!?! I didn't by the way. If there were comfy seats I'd've considered it, but since there wasn't I thought I'd stay in one of the uncomfortable seat on the promenade... if that's the right word...


And finally I managed to find a display tucked away showing what Christmas is actually all really about. A really nice nativity if you ask me!

Sent using the Inspirational Quotes application for iPhone

Nick sent me this yesterday from his iphone to my hotmail inbox (just cuz he can I suspect)

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think he's secretly proud of me being a complete freak.

Snowflake...

HERE is the link to instructions for the snowflake. It says to use staples, and that's probably easiest, but Nick used sellotape.

Happy crafting :D

Christmas Crafts

Yay... that season is here again. Well, I wouldn't be doing this, except the weather has got cold and we've been sick and it's taking us a while to bounce back (we're not as young as we used to be you know!)

I'm not a complete scrooge, I'll have you know... I just think Christmas should be less about the presents and the glitter and the decorations and more about the giving and the love and the true story and meaning of Christmas. You know, baby Jesus and all (I know, I'm old-fashioned, but that's just the way it is)

The way I see it, in our house a Christmas tree is just asking for trouble. It's asking for tears and shouting "No, DO NOT touch, do not touch... Now the tree is on top of you and I'm cuddling you, and I told you not to touch... gah!"

So we're not putting the tree up until Christmas Eve. And it will probably be down by New Years. I'm not a Scrooge. Honest. I will warm up in a week or so. It would be sooner, but Nick won't let me play Christmas music, and Eve isn't keen either to be honest.

So anyway, back to the point... the thing I wouldn't probablyt be doing if it wasn't so darned cold and I felt like forcing myself to tidy and clean the house.... the Crafts :D

They are mainly toddler driven (for obvious reasons)

Someone brought us some gifts in a beautifully glittery bag last year, and I thought... mmm... save that... but it got all smashed up and creased... not useable for regifting, so I chopped it up, and here is Eve enjoying making it into a very lovely paper chain that we have adorning the archway (sounds posher than it is) between the living room and dining room.


Willow sat and played most contentedly in her high chair... I think Eve may have taken this photo... there's no way to tell... I'm pretty awful at times... but I don't normally put my finger in front of the lens...

Nick decided to get in on the action and started on this...

Which turned out to be a big snowflake... so beautiful... you'd never think it was made out of scrap paper he salvaged from the recycling box at work :)

Here's Willow in the wrap around jumper I just finished for her... I meant for the sleeves to be short... saves her chewing on them and getting them wet... see I learnt something from baby number one!! The yarn was a charity shop bargain purchase. I am now forbidden to buy any more yarn until I have used up most of my stash.

It looks and feels like wool, but it's only 30% wool and the rest is acrylic. You wouldn't know, it's not "squeaky" at all!! Here she is asleep, soooo cute!


So at some point we made some salt dough, and I was all like -- 300g flour and 300g salt... waaa...no way... *that* much salt... !!! and then mum informed me it's so that it doesn't go off.

Here's Eve painting the first batch... we only had small cutters at the time, but now we've pinched some bigger ones from mum and we'll have a production line going by the end of the week (if we can find some paint in all the shops that have moved that sort of practical thing out in favour of expensive crappy-but-glittery Christmas time junk)

We painted the hearts red, and the stars and bells gold. I put holes through them before baking with a straw, and once they'd dried we strung them up with glittery ribbon I happened to have left over from last year (and the year before) and they make EXCELLENT tree hangers. I was shocked, because I thought they'd be pretty rubbish looking. They actually look great on the tree (and by THE tree, I mean my mums tree).
So now my plan is to make more... haha... not for our tree... nooo. I've been trying to think of ways to show Eve what Christmas is about... and it suddenly came to me! We'll make these, and go round (perhap carol singing, but probably not since I'd be the only one singing) and give these. I wanted to avoid the idea of going round singing for money like a lot of kids seem to, but giving something instead. Okay, so this hasn't cost us a lot.... if it had, we blatantly couldn't have done it... but it's the though that counts... right? So the next project will be to make some cards (probably tomorrow) In fact, I should probably be prepping that right now...

I'll get some photos of the finished product...

We've also done some paper snowflakes for the windows, but I don't seem to have taken photos... could be to do with this winter induced Blah-ness I'm suffering from...

We went for a walk after painting the salt dough, and Eve decided to run around like a lunatic and we found this... looks like there's far more to explore!

(I forgot to rotate it, sorry)



So I saw these and thought of you Carolyn...


It's amazing how many fungii are around this time of year, I'd never really noticed before... but then I hadn't noticed the plum or walnut trees we discovered this year either...

They are gorgeous... I'd love to go on a course to learn which are edible... or get a really good book... or best of all have an expert teach me for free :D


Another photo by Eve, I think she really liked the texture


And two for Denise, whose Gran thoughtfully knitted and sent these for Willow... they're a bit big at the moment... in fact Eve has taken a great liking to the scarf :)



Right, so It's getting fairly late (for me, I need my beauty sleep don't you know) and Nick is nearly done assembling my little sisters computer, so there might be time for some cuddles on the sofa while watching something (that's as energetic as I feel tonight)

But tomorrow.... salt dough and caroling here we come!!

Another video

yeah, so most of the photos are of Willow today... she stays still longer than Eve, and I'm tired and still a bit sore...

Refrigerated veggies are great for chewing.... what?!




You lookin' at me?!

This is the cardigan I'm making for her... just have the sleeves, a button and buttonhole to finish... but don't have double pointed needles the right size, and can't afford to buy them right now... gah!

Videos

Thought I'd try to get a few videos posted... they take SO long to upload, but they are worth it in the end... they show far more personality than just a photo :)

Willow is doing well... she can sit by herself now and is pretty steady... I think she's enjoying the new perspective. So I guess that means the bouncy chair can go away now :) She's now waiting for a wee and poop in the morning, her nappies are a lot less wet. Wee's sometimes happen, but we haven't had an accident with a poop in a loooong time... especially now I'm in charge of taking the nappy off and sitting her on the potty (oh, and making sure it gets brought upstairs and put at the end of the bed in the first place!)

Eve is doing okay. She needs to be outside more, but we're not really up to it. Fingers crossed the back end of this week will get better.

Nick has been pretty sick over the last week, sinus pain, coughing, wheezing, sneezing, headaches, and diarhea and sickness the other night (simultaneously!). He's feeling a bit weak, and it's been hard work being mummy and daddy... but hey, I'm doing it, what other choice do I have?

The house is horrendously damp... It's never been this bad. All the windows are beading up, despite me going round drying them. We're not even drying much laundry here -- I've been taking it to dry in the drier at my MILs house (and occasionally my own mums house) so I don't get it. I know the front door could be a problem, It's an old wooden door and fascia, and it's pretty saturated I think. We're getting mould growing around the area. Yum. So I've borrowed one of those strip heaters and I'm trying to dry it out (Yeah, wish me luck) but I'd like to use a method which isn't going to eat away at our bank account via the energy bills. I wish we could just go buya new door... but that isn't going to happen this side of Nicks (probably imaginary) payrise.

Okay. Probably not horrendous. But that's how I feel. Gah.