I Made That!

I haven't posted much about my adventures in sewing since I debuted the dress I made for Merrill last fall, but I've still been at it.  This is my latest creation: 

a true red-carpet-star-to-be.  Millie held the dress up and posed like that all on her own as if Ryan Seacrest were there to ask her who the designer was! (and she has never seen a red-carpet walk ... what a natural ;) ).

Some things I learned while making this dress (well, actually before making this dress...): 1) waiting until the day before your sewing class to find a project will add a bit of stress 2) taking two preschool-aged girls to Hancock Fabrics to pick out a pattern and fabric for a project the day before your class, at the end of the day, while in the first (exhausting) trimester of your pregnancy will add a bit more stress 3) letting a four-year-old thumb through the pattern books with you and pick out her own dress will guarantee that she picks the most "fancy" (aka complicated) dress she can find thus adding a bit more stress and 4) said four-year-old will also pick the fanciest and most sparkly fabric she can find -- and try to combine it with an equally fancy and sparkly contrasting fabric (luckily, in this case, the four-year-old will compromise on a tamer contrast fabric) 5) while all-combined 1-4 will result in some stress, they will also produce a darn cute dress!

Some detail on the dress; these sleeves were killer!  Mostly because the fabric pieces were so darn small (leaving me to sew in less than 1/8 inch in some cases), but also because the techniques were new (gathering).

A close-up of the main fabric.  Notice the gold shiny "sequins" -- it was the closest I would let Millie get to real sequins :).  All the ladies at the sewing shop loved the fabric!

So, this was my post-holiday project.  Millie was determined for it to be her "first-day-of-spring-Lainie's-birthday" dress.  Which, given that I started it the week after the new year, I didn't think would be a problem.  But we had so many class cancellations due to weather or sickness, that I finished it just in time (about a week early).  Luckily she loves the dress.  So does Merrill.  Merrill hugged the dress and told Millie to do the same ;).  My next project will be to finally make the curtains for the kitchen.  Having the windows bare in the winter was actually kind of nice, but I think we're going to want the curtains for the summer.

In-between making Merrill's dress and Millie's dress I made these shoulder bags as Christmas gifts for Lauren and Mary::

A little kitschy, but perfect for two die-hard Mizzou Tiger's fans.  I was able to make the second one in just one class (3 hours!) -- not bad!

While I'm making the curtains, I'm also going to be searching for my next project -- with controlled input from two certain little girls ;).

{Happy St. Patrick's Day}

O'Reilly (or Reilly O as Millie calls him) paid a visit to our house this morning -- turning our breakfast green and causing some mild mischief.  It's amazing how strong the power of suggestion is -- turning a few chairs the wrong way was enough to convince the girls the leprechaun had been here.  They went running through the house finding other "evidence" of his presence :).  (Millie made me taste her green milk and cereal before she would eat them).  Happy St. Patrick's Day!  May the luck of the Irish be with you today and always!

Tiny Dancer

Merrill started dance classes last fall after spending the summer watching Millie.  She enjoys it just as much as her sister and has really come a long way.  It was hard to snap pictures of her because she was always watching herself in the mirror (seems like a good habit for a dancer...) and because they move so fast!  One of the things that amazes me about her is that she not only comes home and "practices" the things she has learned in her own class through her play, but she practices the things she has seen Millie do in her class that she hasn't been directly taught.  She loves to stand on the trunk at the end of our bed (where she can watch herself in the mirror over our dresser) and do plies and "tip-toe releves" (toe raises).  She goes through the sequence over and over again.  By the time she is ready for Millie's class she is going to be a pro!  Millie also often dances in Merrill's class.  It started as a way to help Merrill be comfortable, now it's a way to keep Millie entertained during her sister's class.  Luckily the teachers don't mind.

Merrill practicing her jumping

dancing with scarves

look at the emotion in her face ;)

Signs of Spring

 Gardener Millie

Dress-Up, Park, Pizza, Oh My!

The girls had a blast with my parents last night and 50% of the people in the house got a (fairly) good night's sleep...

The bags are packed

and the girls are ready -- rain boots, extra shoes and all 

It can only mean one thing -- no, we didn't send them to the gypsies -- a sleepover at Lainie and Grandpa's for the girls and a night out for Scott and me!  Woo Hoo!

Evens and Odds

When I started landscaping our backyard with my dad last spring, he would always tell me that mother nature plants things in odd numbers and he tries to mimic that in the spaces he creates.  Something about that idea really resonated with me when I thought about our family.  It wasn't so much that this MADE me think we needed another child, but it just kind of added another element to the quite voice that was always in the back of my mind saying "maybe our family isn't done yet, maybe one more..."  I don't know, maybe it was the even number that was throwing me off and making it hard to say definitively, "yes, we are done having kids" (because even in my public post declaring we were done with that stage, I ended with "for now."  Obviously I wasn't fooling myself or anyone else because here we are expecting baby number three and very few people were actually surprised by the news).

The irony is that Scott and I always thought we wanted an even number of children -- either two or four, not one, not three.  I have no idea why, but it was a completely arbitrary "rule" we both felt strongly about.   I think that "rule" influenced our original thought that we were done with two children.  We knew we weren't going to have four (unless we happened to be blessed with twins, which, don't panic, we have not been) and so we thought we had to stop.  But, I guess sometimes you just can't fight mother nature and she really wanted to plant an odd number in our garden :).

 I have to say, this does appeal to my need for symmetry... the depiction of the baby as a girl is pure speculation (and hopeful thinking) on Millie's part :)

Other random thoughts on my third (and final) pregnancy:

• I have a dear friend who has suffered three miscarriages in the past year-and-a-half while trying to have a second child.  This has made me 1) very aware of the fragility of  pregnancy (and life in general), 2) guilty at times for being pregnant with my third knowing how much she wants another child in her life (irrational guilt yes -- I know in my head that there are not a finite number of babies waiting in heaven to be given to a family, and that I did not "take" a baby that could have been hers; my heart still breaks for her anyway and I do not want to be a source of pain for her; which again, I KNOW I am not, but yeah ...)
• I do not consider myself a worrier or an anxious person by nature, but I've been much more anxious about things this time around.  Some of the things I've worried (usually irrationally) about at various points in the pregnancy:
• something going wrong with the pregnancy -- I think knowing the struggles of my friend as well as my age (being over the dreaded 35...) has just made me much more anxious this time around and much more reluctant to talk/write about the pregnancy for fear of "jinxing" anything
• people thinking I'm too old to be pregnant again (see above age: 35)
• people thinking two is enough and why would I be having another child?  I know that families of more than two children are quite common, but we don't happen to have any of those families in our immediate circle of friends, so it really feels like we are bucking the trend of two.  Even though we are clearly not pioneers in this area
• that the spacing between this child and Merrill is too big and the youngest will feel left out
• the dynamics that are created with 3 children -- who is going to be left out?  Will they all be friends?  
• the baby is due August 12, the girls start the new school year August 15.  It will be Merrill's first day of pre-school. I don't want to miss it.  I hope the timing isn't too much for the girls and that all of the transitions aren't too difficult. 
• I am SO un-enthused  about maternity clothes.  I've been shopping/looking a couple of times and purchased a couple of things, but overall I am just NOT looking forward to maternity clothes.  Most of them are just unappealing and I don't want to spend the money.  For now I'm making do with sun- and maxi-dresses with a jean jacket or sweater and the one pair of maternity jeans I did purchase.  
• I had a lot more nausea this time around (considering I didn't really have any with the other two) and am thankful that stage has passed
• I also had a lot of food aversions that just happened to include some of my favorite foods (hummus, peanut butter, cooked vegetables -- especially broccoli and brussels sprouts)  This was seriously not a good thing for a vegetarian!  It didn't mean I ate less necessarily (though I'm definitely eating more now that the aversions are mostly gone), I just ate a lot of non-smelly, easily digestible starchy carbs like bread and crackers.   
• Now that the food aversions and nausea are over, the heartburn and indigestion have begun -- fun!  This must be another hairy child :)
• I enjoyed a lot of ice cream during my first two pregnancies.  I've had it twice this time around -- the first time it gave me severe heartburn, the second time it gave me severe stomach cramps.  I'm thinking ice cream is off the list of fun pregnancy foods.  Probably better for me in the end anyway :).
• I do crave a lot of chocolate, but it too gives me indigestion along with all things sweet.  One of these days I'm going to learn my lesson and just stop eating it.  This baby is trying to make me a healthier person (though it's also making vegetables hard to eat so not sure where that leaves me!)
• I'm not "doing" this pregnancy any better than the other two -- my hair is dry, my skin is dry and completely broken out (seriously, I have to spackle my face every morning to just look half-way normal and even then the results are questionable), I'm bloated ... I am just not a "cute" pregnant lady. The swelling hasn't started yet, maybe I'll be lucky on that one.  But I guess no one goes into a pregnancy to improve their looks (though better hair at least would be nice)
• I've been more crabby this time around.  At least, I'm hoping it's the pregnancy, otherwise I really feel for my family!
• I was very fatigued during the first trimester and was pretty much useless.  My daily accomplishments were minimal and we had more t.v. afternoons and dinners out than I would have liked
• I have more energy now, but am still pretty wiped out at the end of the day.  I think this may be my new state of "normal" and I want to learn to work with it :)
• If we did a count of Old Wives Tales based on all of the above, the predicted sex of this baby would be a girl.  This would make Millie and Merrill very happy -- though we are finally at the place where they accept that we don't get to choose a boy or girl and say they will be happy with either (even though they continually refer to the baby as a girl because as Millie said "we don't know, so let's just say girl")
• I had an odd experience early on where a name "came" to me -- it is a name that is traditionally associated with one sex, but could be used for either.  It's not a name that we considered in the past and not a name that I would have thought I would pick, but I'm having a hard time shaking it.  
•  I'm looking forward to the coming stages of pregnancy and actually looking pregnant instead of just like I've been eating too much (which, I probably have...)
• I'm definitely in the nesting phase and I have a strong urge to purge and organize every closet and cabinet in the house -- I am a bit overwhelmed by this urge and am having a hard time starting.  Though we (Scott) have painted the entire basement, including Scott's office, and gotten a good start on organizing that area and have also moved quite a bit of furniture around the whole house in the process
• We have our "big" ultrasound at the end of the month.  We haven't decided yet if we are going to find out the sex of the baby.  We didn't for either of the girls, but are considering it this time to help give Millie and Merrill time to process the information. A part of me still doesn't want to find out. 
• I'm excited, but nervous, to have this new baby with us and see how our lives grow and change and expand with a new life to share them with.  I guess that part doesn't change no matter how many times you've done this!