the big ONE.

hard to believe, but little pringle is one year old. it has been a crazy wonderful year. and of course the big question was, to have a party or not? we all know he ain't going to remember any of it, nor will he understand what is happening, but we will. so we had a party.

the beginnings of a banner

we wanted to keep it small and simple, but i am me and simple is NOT in my dna. simple design, yes. simple projects, nope. my brain went into overdrive figuring out exactly how to transform our building's blah blah blah community room into the perfect spot for a first birthday party.

the community room. oy vey.

i painted some lovely banners, the mister created gads and gads of strings with colorful squares, we sewed some monster party favors, and we made paper stars and paper chains. we happily, the end result was dreamy.

the mister and his helper making wall coverings.

yummy.

the food corner.

i love this wall, sigh.

and then there was the cake. naturally i consulted the internet, but what i found was ridiculously intimidating. there are some seriously overachieving parents out there!!! i am not, nor have i ever been, known for my baking, so trying to make a dump truck sculpture with cake was definitely beyond my skill level. but i still wanted it to be special. i had it in my head that i would make the entire thing from scratch...cake AND frosting. of course, my kitchen is not equipped with any type of electrified mixer and apparently these gadgets make the process a whole lot easier. right. oh well. i decided to make a "trial" cake for our little family-of-three celebration that we had on the little guy's actual birthday. the cake was bright green. delicious, but seriously crumbly. the frosting took three tries. the final version was chocolately goodness, but hard. of course, pringle was delighted with the result. in fact, he got upset when we took it away. 

numero uno.

even though it was yummy, the mister and i decided that the cake for the party needed some improvements. enter betty crocker. in the end i made a four-layer cake, with blue and green layers. and white frosting with orange decorations. the design was simple, simple, simple, and it turned out sooooooooooooo pretty. so so pretty. i kept opening the fridge to look at it, because i was so surprised that it turned out so glorious. and the taste..well, betty crocker did a fabulous job, so the cake was scrumptious. and did i mention it was pretty? it was.

i adore this cake. it makes me giddy.

staring down the cake.

monster party favors!!

all in all, it was a delightful party. and pringle had super much fun.

the birthday boy.

baby pants tutorial.

i think babies wearing pants are adorable. i mean, i think all babies are adorable, but when you put them in pants, you up the ante. naturally, i wanted to put pants on my little guy, but i balked at the craziness of buying miniature pants that will only fit for a few months. i figured i could sew some, but my internet search did not yield exactly what i was looking for, so i created my own pattern. i am posting it here with a tutorial, in the hopes of saving you the trouble of creating your own pattern. i appreciate you using this pattern for personal use only.

this pattern is for basic elastic-waist baby pants. they are not the "super easy" single pattern piece pants, rather proper pants that have two pattern pieces. a front with a dropped waist for a better fit and a back with extra space to fit a diapered bum. the pattern is sized for 3-6 months, but it can be easily re-sized to fit your baby (see below for a little information about changing the sizes). if you have a serger, i recommend using it for steps 2, 3, and 4.

materials: 1/2 yard of lightweight fabric and 17 inches of 1/2" elastic. [choosing fabric: cotton or cotton flannel are both good. knits stretch, so sewing is more difficult. horizontal stripes need to be matched during cutting and sewing, which makes them a pain in the neck, but not impossible.]
 

directions: (click on images to see them larger)

before you start, print out the baby pants pattern. in the print box, under "page scaling", select "none." it should print in landscape mode on 4 pieces of paper. put the papers next to each other without overlapping the edges. make sure to match up the lines - there might be a slight gap where the printer created margins, but that is okay. tape the pages together and cut them out.

put the pages next to each other without overlapping papers. there might be a slight gap due to printer margins.

step one. fold your fabric right sides together and lay your pattern pieces on top. the bottom edge of each pattern piece should be parallel to the grain of the fabric. pin the pattern pieces in place and cut out your fabric.

step 1. cutting fabric.

step two. take the pattern pieces off the fabric. your fabric should already be right sides together. pin along the center seams. sew. press the seams (serger: press to one side. regular machine: press open).

step 2. pin and sew front and back center seams.

step three. make sure your fabric is right sides together. you do not want extra fabric at the top or bottom edges, so in this step pinning is important!! pin the top and bottom corners of one side. then match up the rest of the side and pin. repeat this for the other side. sew down both sides. press.

step 3. pin the top and bottom side corners. then pin the rest of the side.

step four. lay the pants down flat, making sure the sides are actually on the side. this might sound stupid, but unfinished pants can be a tad deceiving, so just check! the side seams should be on the sides, and the center of the waist should dip down in the front. again, you do not want extra fabric at the bottom edges, so pinning is important. line up the seams in the center of the crotch and pin. pin the two bottom corners. now pin the rest of the inseam. sew. press.

step 4. match and pin center seams and bottom corners of inseam. pin the rest of inseam and sew.

step five. create the casing for the elastic. turn the pants inside out. turn the top edge down 1/4" and press. now turn it down 3/4" and press. have a seam gauge stashed in your sewing box? pull it out and use it...you will see, it will make this step easier. pin the edge, with the top of the pins at the top of the pants. this is probably the opposite of how your brain wants to pin this edge, but when you get to the sewing machine you will thank me, because you will be able to take out the pins while sewing. if you have a label, sew it on before you sew the edge. if you have a tag that goes in a seam, you can tuck it under the edge before sewing. sew along the edge all the way around the waist, but stop 1" before you get to your starting point. this will leave a gap that you will use to thread the elastic into the casing.

step 5. elastic casing at waist. fold & press 1/4". fold & press 3/4". add label. pin elastic casing.

step 5. sew the bottom edge of elastic casing.

step six. thread your elastic through the casing. make sure the elastic is flat inside the casing (you do not want to find a twist after closing the casing) and overlap the edges of the elastic by about 1". sew  the two ends of the elastic with a zig-zag stitch. now finish sewing the casing by closing the 1" gap you left when sewing the edge in step five.

step 6. thread elastic through casing. overlap elastic ends by 1". join elastic ends with zig-zag stitch. finish sewing the elastic casing.

step seven. hemming the pants. turn the pants inside out. fold the hem up 1/4" and press. then fold it up 3/4" and press. again, ignore your brain and place the pins, so that the top of the pin is sticking out the bottom of the pants leg. now turn the pants right side out and sew along the edge. if you like, you can do a second line of stitching for decoration. repeat on the second leg.

step 7. hem. fold & press 1/4". fold & press 3/4". pin. sew hem.

step 7. optional: sew a second hemline. nibble baby toes.

congratulations, you have finished your pants!!!

finished pants! big enough to fit a diapered bottom.

a delightful modification is to add a different fabric at the bottom of the legs. if you want to do this, you need to replace the bottom of each leg with a different fabric. do this BEFORE you start assembling the pants. remember that 1" of the bottom is turned under during step seven, so if you want a 1" strip of a different fabric at the bottom, you actually need to cut a 2 1/4" strip (1/4" seam allowance to attach to the leg, 1" turned under when hemming, and 1" visible). you also need to cut 3/4" off the bottom of the pant leg and then attach your colored piece to the bottom of each leg. the sew the pants as usual.

pringle modeling pants with a different-colored bottom edge.

altering the pattern to fit your baby. if the the pants are too short/long, just extend/shorten the bottom portion of the legs. if the pants do not rise high enough to reach the waist or go up to your baby's chin, extend/shorten the waist portion of the pattern piece. if the pants are not wide enough or too wide, extend/shrink the side of each pattern piece (note, if you are adjusting the width, you probably need to adjust the length of your elastic).

need help?? if you need assistance or if something does not make sense, post a comment or send me an email at pickelswimming@gmail.com

credits: when creating this pattern, i consulted the following sites: wabi sabi baby, made, make baby stuff, and sew mama sew.

blanketed.

every day with a little baby brings new developments. the latest is that pringle is starting to grab hold of things that you put in his hand. this is rather exciting because it means we can give him things that he can use to keep himself entertained. and most things that we put in his hand eventually end up in his mouth.

trying to eat his sock monkey's arm.

he has a rattle that he plays with by shaking it and waving it around or he shoves it in his mouth and sucks on it. the problem with this rattle is that once he drops it he cannot pick it back up. apparently he has not yet figured out the joys of his opposable thumbs. being a mini-human means that he is also fascinated by ordinary things like burp cloths, which happen to be much easier for him to hold. after considering these basic facts, i decided the little guy needs a toy that is easy for him to hold, play with, and suck on. enter the lovey or security blanket. i have decided that pringle needs one. yes, NEEDS.

trying to eat his momma's sewing.

i could head over to target and pick up a security blanket for $7.99, but what kind of crafty mom would i be if i purchased something that i could lovingly make myself? and of course i could make this blanket by sewing together two pieces of cloth, but well...have you ever met me? no? oh, well in this house we like to complicate things as much as possible. so rather than take anything resembling an easy route, i instead used leftover fabric from THE quilt to make a mini quilt. and a mini stuffed owl. and then i sewed the two together and, if i may say so myself, the result is rather marvelous. it only took me a week.

ladies and gentlemen, meet paco...

me thinks pringle likes paco...
 

minimalist amusement.

a week after the mister and i found out we were pregnant, i dragged him to the local baby store. my goal was not to show him all of the things i wanted for our baby, but rather to show him the vastness of the world of baby products, most of which i was hoping to avoid purchasing. i had rather strong opinions on what i wanted, but having never before had a baby i was not always sure what things were optional. i tried to find a list for guidance, but oh geez. i found gads of lists and they were all endless. yikes. in the end, we just went with our gut, buying the bare essentials with a plan to add as needed. we are not trying to deny pringle anything, we are just raising the kid on a budget. it turns out there is even a name for this... the minimalist baby.

this week the mister and i decided that pringle NEEDS a crib mobile. perhaps this seems like a strange necessity, but let us examine the facts. one, the kid is obsessed with the things that dangle from his play gym. and two, the kid wakes up at the crack of dawn and wants to play. clearly he needs in-crib entertainment....anything to buy us a couple extra minutes of z's. we pondered an ikea mobile, but it does not come with any way to attach to a crib. not sure why they call it a *crib* mobile, but that is a horse of a different color. long story short, it was not working for us, so the mister and i joined forces and made pringle a mobile.

the mister attached the arm of an adjustable lamp to the side of the crib and i sewed together some bits of cloth. we put it all together and now pringle has an adjustable crib mobile. he cannot take his eyes off of it. just in case he does, we also stuck a mirror on the wall so he can talk to himself. frugal-style fun and games.

baby got back.

the pepa.

sometimes things are not better in the west. no offense to the myriad of companies producing baby carriers, but the developed world has simply not designed any product that carries babies as efficiently and perfectly as the women of developing nations. i have seen pictures of how it is done in other countries, but lesotho is the only country for which i have first hand experience. they use a blanket and a gigantic safety pin. that is it. it sounds too good to be true, but i assure you it is possible. thanks to my two year sojourn in lesotho, and the fact that my best friend and her mother both had babies, i learned how to pepa (carry a baby on my back). about a month ago i decided pringle was ready to pepa, so on my back he went. other people seem surprised at how much he likes it, but not me. let us think about this...he is tightly wrapped and happens to be strapped to one of his favorite people in the world. what's not to love? anyhow, i started off using my tjale (a blanket women wear around their waist or shoulders, similar to a picnic blanket - mine was given to me by my in-laws) and when at home, i carried pringle around on my back all the time. but i was not mentally prepared for venturing out in public. i have this awful tendency to get a bit timid about doing out-of-the-ordinary things in public, so obviously strapping my baby on my back and wandering the grocery store was totally NOT in my comfort zone. ugh.

boring blue blanket.

but then a friend saw a picture i had posted of pringle on my back and she mentioned that my blanket is boring. she is right. it is blue with blue stripes. well, i cannot say that i needed another sewing project, but i like a good challenge. and i realized that maybe if i made a special pepa blanket, i would be more at ease using it in public. as an added bonus it would be lovely and hopefully not be as hot as an acrylic blanket, which is mucho importante in miami. so i pulled out my fabrics and voila!! a quilted cloth to carry my little pringle. now when people ask me what carrier i am using, i am going to tell them it is a "pepa" by lerato. and they will be super jealous, because their hands-free carrier ain't as fantastic as my hands-free carrier. 

the new and improved pepa blanket.

ain't it lovely? i am still not 100% confident using it in public, because i feel like a fish out of water, but i am working on it. i am building up mental stamina... i used it walking downstairs to get the mail, to a yoga studio grand opening, and in the mister's company at the grocery store. it has been wonderful, but it definitely gets a lot of stares and comments. i know i know...time to stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking and just worry about what is best for me and my baby. easier said than done, but i am trying!!!

pringle loves it!

nice to meet you murphy.

"if anything can go wrong, it will." ~murphy's law.

who, ME?!?

in my pre-baby life i had some run-ins with murphy. now that baby is here, murphy visits every 5-7 minutes. awesome? well, no. not exactly. but it does keep you on your toes and teach you how to see the humor in life. these are the top 10 new rules in our life.

1. if it is inconvenient or impossible to take the baby out of his car seat, he screams. conversely, if it is convenient or possible to take him out of his car seat, he is sound asleep.

2. the baby will scream hysterically during a car ride, only bothering to fall asleep when we arrive at home.

3. the baby will happily hold the paci in his mouth when you sit with him. he will drop it the moment you walk away.

4. when you are prepared with a rag to catch spit-up, the baby will just burp. when you are entirely unprepared, the baby will barf all over you.

5. the baby will make hundreds of cute faces when the camera is in the other room. retrieve the camera and the baby just stares at you.

6. if you need the baby to sleep "just five more minutes,"so you can finish something, he will wake up. if you want the baby to wake up so you can do the 2am feeding before you drift off, he will stay asleep. 

7. when you put the baby in a cute onesie you would like to look at all day, he will happily soil it within the hour.

8. when lying on top of you (aka you cannot get anything done), the baby will sleep soundly for hours and hours. if you try to put him in his bed, he will be awake within 60 seconds.

9. the more tired the baby is, the harder it is to put him to sleep.

10. if you are early you will breeze right out the door. if you are on time or running late, the baby will gleefully provide you with a diaper explosion that will require you to change his diaper and outfit, and possibly even your outfit. the severity of the explosion is directly proportional to your tardiness.

all in a days work.

if only we were always this calm.

the mister: hi honey.

me: hi!!!

the mister: how was your day?

me: busy.

the mister: oh yeah? what did you do?

this puts a damper on productivity.

me: oh, you know, lots. ate breakfast. watched the tour de france broadcast. three times. played on facebook. for four hours. called the bank, which was uber-frustrating, so like all sane folks, i cried on the phone with the customer service representative (everyone cries when they call their bank, right?). nursed the baby. tried to soothe my crying baby. it took three hours. ate some candy. played on twitter. watched the baby sleep for two hours. pumped. ate some lunch. and then you came home, so that's it.

just a newbie.

hard work...who ME?!?

as you have clearly figured out, i have a newborn in the house. loving the little one, but ummm..newborns are hard work! holy bananas. i mean, don't get me wrong, it is all good stuff, but it is HARD WORK! i was expecting the typical eating, sleeping, pooping, and crying...but i did not realize the potential complexity of those four events. 

milk time...censored, because this is not THAT kind of blog.

eating. this is not a simple affair of have some milk and then be fine with life. nope. first, he nurses eight to twelve times a day, for thirty to forty minutes at a time. yikes!! never knew it could take so long to fill the world's smallest stomach. of course, at least half of the time i forget to grab my phone, the remote, or something to drink, so i end up stuck under a nursing newborn with nothing to amuse myself and completely parched. second, i am supposed to remember which side he nursed on last and start on that side at the next feeding. do who, what?!?! right. i can barely remember to brush my teeth and i am supposed to keep track of which boob is up next. ummm. sure. third, make sure he eats every three hours. well luckily, despite never remembering to look at the clock, this is not a problem. this kid never stops eating. fourth, change the kid's diaper BEFORE he eats. okay, check. and finally, burp the kid AFTER he eats. oh sure, spend forty minutes waiting for the kid to suck his way to sleep and then wake him up?!?! no thanks. he will burp in his own good time. (this is probably the point when someone is freaking out, because i do not regularly burp my kid...but hey, sleeping babies are much more pleasant than cranky i-am-supposed-to-be-sleeping-but-you-woke-me-up-to-burp-me babies.)

sleeping on prime real etate...momma's lap.

sleeping. that is, the baby sleeping. seems straightforward. mmmhmm. easy peasy, until the little dude discovered that he can sleep in his momma and poppa's bed or better yet...on top of them! yup. little guy is already spoiled. if he is even remotely awake, he refuses to sleep in his crib. this is a great time to point out that his crib is butted up against our bed, so his mattress is essentially an extension of ours. it's not like he is sleeping miles away, but apparently he thinks the 9" space between him and his momma is too much. at this point you might be wondering how a newborn refuses a crib. well, we lull him to sleep wherever he likes...in our lap, on our chest, next to us in bed, etc. then we move him to his crib. for up to five minutes things seem fabulous. and then the noises start. he squeaks. then he opens his eyes. next he waves his arms and kicks his feet. sometimes he manages to give himself the hiccups (sounds ridiculous, but i swear he does it!), and no matter what, after a few minutes he starts crying. oh and did i mention that when i manage to get him to sleep somewhere other than on top of me, he invariably wakes up right as i am thinking "i hope he sleeps for two more minutes, so i can finish what i am doing." this kid has a sixth sense for how best to dominate momma's world. whoever said that babies are boring, because all they do is sleep, has clearly never met my kid.

nonchalant pooper.

pooping. okay, even i have to admit, there is nothing complicated about the little guy's poop. he poops, i change his diaper, he poops again. sometimes he does not wait for a new diaper before pooping, which means big clean up for me. but still, pooping is basic and easy peasy. although, i have to say, his pooping is amusing - the kid lets loose some whoppers and he does it all while gazing nonchalantly into the distance.

this is the "PICK ME UP" shriek.

crying. according to the experts (whoever they are), newborns have different cries for different issues and if i tune my brain, then based on his cry i should know exactly what my kid wants. ummm..i guess my brain is not tunable, because i have so far only deciphered three different cries. the first is the rhythmic shrieking, which is the little dude saying "pick me up, pick me up, PICK ME UP!!!" check. then there are the startling screams combined with kicking, which means "my belly hurts" and is almost always followed up by a humongous poop. got it. finally there are the fussy and whiny cries, which cover all other issues. this is the crying for which i wish i had translations, so i could tell if the dude is hungry, tired, hot, cold, needs a diaper change, or is just generally uncomfortable. maybe in another few weeks i will have the guidebook, but for now we just bop along hoping to find the cure for his crying. luckily pringle is an easygoing dude and has been patient while i figure out how to be a momma.

mommy list.

**warning: some folks might consider this a sappy post. you're gonna have to deal. i just had a baby...sap is now in my blood.

while i found pregnancy to be a delightful experience, it has nothing on the fascination of life with baby. when the doctor put my little nugget on my belly and i stared into his wide-open eyes, i could not believe that i was finally holding my precious pringle. so perfect and so complete. despite having taken all the requisite science classes in school and having previously seen tiny babies, i still marvel at the fact that this little thing popped out with ears, hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, fingers, toes, and nails. i had tried to envision life with pringle, but having never experienced it, it's a little hard to imagine.

before you have a baby, there are lots of folks who are ready to give you unsolicited commentary on what to expect. they typically focus on the humdrum and negative, reminding you of the poopy diapers, sleepless nights, and the expense involved in bringing a baby into the world. i tried to just nod and smile whenever these folks felt the need to speak their mind and kept reminding myself that obviously there is a reason why people say "congratulations" when a baby enters the world. luckily, in my life there were lots of positive folks, excited for the impending arrival of our little nugget and readily telling me how my life was about to be turned inside-out, but in a wonderful way. it's hard to put into words the amazingness that comes with a newborn, but if i had to try to explain, these are some of the things that keep me constantly fascinated with my little guy and mommyhood...

1. the wild-eyed look he has when he is fighting sleep.
2. he squeaks.
3. his soft and squishy little knees and elbows.
4. his baby sneezes.
5. the way he relaxes at the sound of my voice.
6. the way his hair smells.
7. he has the hiccups about 17 times a day.

8. he throws his arms above his head when he is sleeping.

9. after nursing, he turns into a limp noodle.

10. his look of nonchalance as he lets rip a LOUD poop.

11. he purses his lips and scrunches his eyes when i put kisses all over his face.

12. watching the mister play with him.

13. when he is tired, he closes his eyes, raises his eyebrows, tilts back his head, and rolls it around, in some sort of weird stretch.

14. as sleep-depriving as it is, i love that he would rather sleep curled up right next to me, than 9" away on his bed. (yes, the white sheet right next to him is his bed, but it is too far away from mommy).

15. his serious study of the world around him.

16. his chubby cheeks.

17. his hair is all over the place and completely uncontrollable.

18. watching the myriad of faces he makes when he sleeps.

19. he falls asleep on my chest or on my lap and i want to melt.