A New Hat for Adah

The hats I made for Adah last winter (here and here) have long since been outgrown. The baby can't have a cold head, can she? So, I set to work on making her a new hat. My requirements for this hat were that it be:
1. simple-  I have very little free time for knitting
2. free- had to be made from yarn I already have stashed away
3. big enough that she won't outgrow it in a month's time.

I achieved all my goals with this extremely simple rolled brim cap. I crocheted a flower and attached it with a cute little button to dress it up. I also added a pair of crocheted straps in an attempt to keep it on her head. But, no such luck. I might as well give this hat to some other child who will use it, because I doubt Adah will ever wear it.

I managed to snap a couple of quick pics before she yanked it off and tossed it to the floor with disgust.

Will somebody please tell the child that this hat was made with love by her mommy using vintage Morino wool and its cute and  really practical?

Photo Update: Really Great Park and New People

 

 

So Silly...

Sometime around the age of two, children the world over, begin demanding of their caregivers to, "Watch this!" It might be a wiggly little dance, it could be a somersault, it could be tossing a plate full of food like a frisbee. You just never know what your gonna get.

Today, I was beckoned with, "Mommy, quick! Come take pictures of me!" Which is in the same family as "Watch this!", just with more confidence. 

Here's what we got:
(please ignore the mess, its not my fault)

Craft Time

Elijah asked if he could make a mask today. Of course, I am always ready and willing to pull out the craft supplies for my little man, all three (overflowing) drawers full.

He knew what he wanted, but he needed some help making it happen. He wanted feathers, I found a way and helped to attach them. The same for the "monster curls" at the bottom. The rest was the work of his hands.

While we worked on the mask, Adah found a sunny spot on the floor to eat a snack and work on some easy Spanish crossword puzzles.

It turned out awesome, if I do say so myself.

After appraising his handiwork in the mirror,

he declares, "I am a dragon."


Then he chased us around the house.
We screamed like girls, because, we are girls.

Its 1:00 pm now, they are napping. I am still in my pink pajamas, blogging.
I am trying to decide if it has been a productive day or not.
Hmmmm....yes, I think so.

Lots and lots of little wooden people arrived on my doorstep today. I opened the box and my stomach sank; I began to feel a little queasy.



I've had encouragement from admiring friends and family to sell these dolls ever since I painted them for my nieces last Christmas. I admit that I haven't jumped at the idea. I didn't really enjoy painting the dolls.

But, Gabe and I did the math and each little doll cost $0.05-$0.50. They sell for $5-$25 a piece online. It seemed like for such a small investment in money, though a rather large investment in time, it was worth a shot.

I applied for a big upcoming craft show here in Asheville. I have not heard anything yet about that, so for now I will be painting these to sell online. The hope is that these will supplement our rather tight income with a little babysitter, date night, Christmas shopping, fun money. We'll see!

I guess I better get started.... there are 200 0r s0 of those *%!@!#%@ dolls waiting for me.

My Dream Last Night: Part 2

So onto to the meaning of this dream....

First off, this is just my worldly take on it, my woman's intuition. Its just a dream and it probably means nothing at all. You know when you first wake up and you are still kind of "in the dream"; and how sometimes your first impressions of what and why you dreamed are still sort of hanging out in dream world, too. It was on those first impressions that I base this interpretation:

To me, the baby represents something newly created or some new creative venture.... something beautiful.... or maybe just my inner creative desire. And it is READY to be born.

And if I would just stop for one minute to let it be born, just let it come out, it would happen so easily, so quickly, so painlessly.

But, I am busy being busy. Walking about the house is the business of life, of keeping house and children. Also, it is a deliberate busy-ness, a chosen distraction, an excuse of why I can't stop and birth this baby.

In the dream I put off having the baby until a "better" time. I don't feel ready.
At some point, ready or not, its going to happen and I won't be able to stop it. And when it does, I am going to be surprised by the peacefulness of it....so surprised that I might mistake my creative venture as being dead or not going anywhere. However, I will breathe life into it and it will bring me great joy and contentment.

Now for the last part about my mother in law cutting the umbilical cord. Well, I've had think about that. This part didn't come to me in the moments after the dream. I have been dwelling on it and have conjured up a possibility.

First, I am not sure that my MIL, personally, has anything to do with it. I have great respect and admiration for MIL. She is a truly inspirational woman who I look to for guidance in many areas of life, both spiritual and practical. I think she might just be symbolic of a maternal or spiritual elder, someone who will guide me and give me advice about how to help the give the baby its own life.

And, I think the cutting of the umbilical cord represents, just as it does in real life, making the child self sustaining, not relying on the mother's biological resources to live. In other words, although I will be caring for "my baby", it will be able to grow and live on it's on strength.

Hey, I really don't know exactly what all it means it, but its fun to imagine!
Thanks for "listening".

My Dream Last Night

Totally off topic.... last night I dreamed that I gave birth to a baby girl. This dream was very vivid and detailed and felt significant. (I think it has been a while since I slept long enough or deep enough to dream. I used to have very vivid dreams every night.) I feel an urge to write about it, but first.....

**On the unlikely chance that there might be a male reader amongst my 3 or 4 readers, or for anyone who might not be up for this, be warned: I am going to use a bit of possibly graphic child birthing imagery while describing my dream. **

My first memory of this dream is standing at my kitchen sink with Gabe. I tell him that I've just realized I am in the process of giving birth to a baby. I tell him I had no idea I was pregnant, however, every time I stand still the baby begins to "come out". And I feel this happening as I am standing to tell him this. I don't look or feel pregnant, but I am having that very distinct sensation of a baby actually being born, not the labor pains but just the final culmination where at last, the baby appears from the womb. Its not painful, but just that unique feeling of a baby crowning, mothers everywhere will know what I mean.

I decide to walk because when I walk this birth process is stopped, the baby disappears back inside of me. When I walk I can carry on as if everything is normal and stop this thing from happening.

(Gosh, this is so graphic and personal, why I am sharing this? I guess because of the symbolism that I have placed on this dream, which I will get to in a minute. Feel free to stop reading and let me process the dream in the private, if you like.)

Now, I am walking in my house, back and forth and all is well. Evidently, I am not ready to have this baby. There is no anxiety about it, just a sense of, "I am going to hold this off as long as I can."

As it only happens in dreams, suddenly my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are standing in my hallway. I stop to explain to them that I am having a baby, but as long as I keep moving the birthing process stops and that's why I am walking around the house.

In the split second in which I stop to talk them, the baby is now sliding out and this time it can't be stopped. I reach "down there" and I can feel the child's head pushing out. Again, there is no pain, just that one-of-a-kind feeling of a baby being born. It all happens very quickly and just like that I am holding the child in my arms.

The baby is a girl with a shock of black hair, eyes closed sweetly and a smile on her face. She is not crying, but rather, totally silent; really quite shocking in her silence and stillness. I wonder if she is alive and place my mouth on hers, breathe a breath into her lungs and her eyes open. Now she is looking right at me, right into my eyes, smiling, completely still and silent. Her smile feels, to me, to be one of total contentment and joy. I look at her with a odd wonderment and think to myself, "Is she okay? She's not moving or making a sound, but look at that smile.... she must be okay."

I am still squatting my hallway holding my slippery newborn. I call to my mother-in-law who has left the room to take a phone call. She is chatting casually on her cell phone and I call out to her to ask if she can help me cut the umbilical cord which is still pulsing blood from me to the baby. She says she'll be there in a minute.

End of dream.

I think I'll get to my feelings of what this all means later.