I think it was Meghan I was talking to the other day and she said that she wanted to see more pictures of Valiant. We actually had a little photo session the other day because I wanted to get some passport photos of him (there’s always a hope and a dream of travel for me.) Taking passport photos with a 4 month old is a little challenging….
…but with the proper cropping I think we finally came up with something that worked
And here are some random Valiant photos just so you remember what your little grandson/nephew/cousin across the country looks like.
 I am here in Washington D.C. visiting my seventh grandchild and when I first laid eyes on him he looked very familiar to me, not some stranger boy who I’d wonder where he came from, what his ancestry is, but he just looked like he belonged to our family, like I’d known him forever.
Erin and Tim have some wonderful neighbors and the first evening Tim was off at a class and little Valiant was born, Erin decided to meet up with some friends that evening for coffee. When she stepped out the door her neighbor yelled across, “Where you goin’?”
“I’m going to hang out with my friends, go for coffee,” she informed her.
Her neighbor yelled back, “What you mean, ‘you goin’ to hang out with your friends,’ that baby’s just born and your goin’ out to hang with your friends!? I didn’t go out and hang with friends, I didn’t go out of my house for weeks after my baby was born and you’re off to hang out… and no hat on that baby’s head!!? That baby needs a hat on his head, what do you mean goin out without no hat on that baby’s head!?”
Today that wonderful neighbor brought little Valiant a gift, three hats for his head and some other soft cute clothing. She said, “Good thing your mother’s here, teach you about putting a hat on that baby’s head.”
This evening when we went out of the house we heard Erin’s neighbor yell across the street, “Let me see that baby’s head.”
Andrew was carrying little Valiant so he dropped the blanket enough for Tim and Erin’s neighbor to see that his little head was covered with a hat.
“Good girl,” she praised.
caitlin, March 31st, 2010
Call us fickle. Call us indecisive.
But we’ve changed our son’s name. Actually, he’s keeping his full legal name of David Justus Jude but we’re calling him Jude from now on.
I always wondered about parents who did that sort of thing, “Hello, didn’t you have 9 months to think this over, and now, after the kid shows up, you decide to get down to business and really decide?”
Of course, now I see why and how that can happen. I had to see his little face and get to know him before I was sure. (And also get over the whole idea of “Jude Law” too. I’m over it. And his name is perfect.)
Meet Jude:
4 weeks later, he’s filling out his little onesies:
One week later (8 weeks old) before his bath this morning:
 Perhaps a lovely Easter gift? I think these are positively adorable and since I have four little guys I have a wonderful excuse to get all of them. What little boy wouldn’t want to ride an alligator or tame a zebra or elephant? Anwyn is more into the blue spotted pony.
 This design idea came about as a result of The Blizzard of 2010. I was trapped at home for several days– nothing was open and there was no way to get anywhere even if the stores were up and running. I had been needing a baby gift for Justus and hadn’t found anything I really liked, so with nothing but time on my hands, I decided to makehim something. I don’t keep much sewing/crafting stuff around, but I do have one small bag of odds and ends to draw from. I also knew Tim had been wanting to get rid of some sweaters, so I had him go through his shelf and pull down what he didn’t need anymore– and Voila! the Baby Owl Sweater was born.
I used a blue crew-neck sweater with a small knit that was too large for Tim and started cutting down the middle of the front.
Then I cut the rest of the sweater down to size.
I wanted the inside seams to be finished looking so I first sewed the edges of the sweater with wrong sides together, flipped that inside out, and sewed with right sides together, creating a finished seam and making sure to leave space at the top as armholes.
Next I needed some finished looking “arms” so I cannibalized one of the original arms of the sweater, cutting off a length that looked about right for a baby’s arm….
….and then cutting that down the center, right in half, to form two “baby arms” out of one “adult arm.”
To get the arms ready to be sewn onto the body of the sweater, I cut their tops off in a half-moon shape so that they would hang from the body at an angle.
Using the same “finished edge” technique as I used to sew the body of the sweater together, I sewed the arm up the middle to create a tube.
I attached the arm tube to the sweater this way.
And here’s a closer look at how to do that.
Then the same thing on the other side.
To finish off the seams running up the center of the sweater, I sewed a piece of ribbon to the edge and turned it under (in other words, the ribbon is now on the inside of the sweater and doesn’t show on the outside.)
To finish the bottom edge, I first machine stitched a hem and then hand-sewed the base for looks.
The rest was the fun part– all the decorative work– making button holes and sewing on leather buttons, machine-stitching around an owl and branch for a whimsical touch, and hand-sewing the owls eyes.
Finished! This sweater was my first attempt and I kept it for Peabody. I made another one out of a yellow sweater of Tim’s (the more professional version) once I’d worked out the kinks in my original design, and that one went to Peabody’s cousin Justus.
 I think Fox might just have wavy hair.  He has always had a bit of a cowlick.
 Fox at six months
I was told by someone that I have not posted nearly enough pictures of Fox. So here they are.
erin, February 24th, 2010
This past Saturday a few friends hosted me the most beautiful shower ever! It was a dressed up event starting at 5 in the evening complete with low-lighting, cocktail attire, and hor d’ oeuvres. One of the girls dreamed up three completely different mock-tail recipes and even made personalized labels for the “champagne” (I sampled all of them:). Along with the twinkle lights and candle lanterns hanging from the ceiling, they had also hung a string of onesies that guests could decorate.
The evening would not have been complete without a round of Celebrity– in this case, Famous Babies-Celebrity
Some of the guests got pretty competitive with their cloth diaper/onesie decorating… and I mean the two women standing beside me
Elephants, Tiny Republican gear and American flags made a generous showing among the gifts
Me with one of the fabulous photographers of the event (Tim’s mom also took some pics).
The smallest hostest and her mom
caitlin, February 4th, 2010
I just need to brag for a minute about Zac’s grandmother, my kid’s great grandmother, who we all call Nana. She can turn out unique handmade gift for anyone, from knitted children’s hoodies, to re-usable fabric grocery bags, to full-sized quilts. She’s made things that are are so clever I wonder why I’ve never seen such a thing before.
Freyja’s Christmas gift was no exception: a coloring book bag, sized perfectly for a book to fit into, with a pocket for each crayon, all made up in the most adorable vintage fabric ever.
 Freyja is now a traveling artist
I’ve already warned her that I will be beating down her door for sewing lessons soon.
Here are some craft patterns for similar little bags.
caitlin, January 28th, 2010
My wonderful friend Rachel threw a baby shower for me last week that got me all excited and ready for this little boy. I thought you might like to glean from a few of her fabulous ideas that made the party so special:
Dessert
I am still thinking about (no, dreaming of . . . . no, obsessing over) the S’mores Cupcakes she created, and I’ve pretty much decided I need to have a box in the delivery room as motivation. These little beauties are the brain children of a local baker (Trophy Cupcake, who I’ve featured in Seattle Bride’s newest issue– on stands now) and the recipe was featured on Martha Stewart as her favorite cupcake flavor!
All the hype is for good reason, basically, they are to die for. And along with the Coconut Butter Cream Cupcakes and fruit that Becky and Aileen made, I could have hung out at the food table most of the night.
Fun
Rachel set up a table with white newborn baby onesies and paint and pens for guests to decorate. It was fun to see everyone’s clever designs and personality expressed on the little wearable keepsakes. Here are a couple designs.
Gifts
All my lovely friends proved my preconceived notions– about boys clothes not being very fun– completly wrong! But then, I’m just lucky to have friends with such incredible taste. I couldn’t believe the adorable assortment, and I’m going to be envious of my son’s shoe collection!
terri, January 15th, 2010
Well… enough about all that purging and not purchasing; let’s go shopping!! Got any children’s birthdays coming up?
If your children are into tattoos like my grandchildren are and love to have things drawn all over their hands this idea is perfect. Like smaller temporary tattoos, these hand puppets go on and come off easily with water.
 Did you ever make these when you were in grade school out of real eggs? We planted grass seeds and waited until our eggs grew green hair. Now you can kick it up a notch with these cute little egg heads. What a fun little guest to have sitting on a windowsill.
 I had one of these pencils when I was a kid and loved writing with it.
All this fun stuff and a lot more is available at a very clever online shop spoonsisters.com. And the prices are incredibly reasonable!
meghan, December 29th, 2009
 When the hair just isn't working...  I buzz it off. He is the third baby to have his head buzzed. While I like baby hair, scruffy greasy hair is not cute and neither is male pattern baldness. I am never so attached to their baby hair that I won’t buzz it off at the slightest sign of one of these characteristics.
caitlin, December 16th, 2009
Last week we had a cold snap in Seattle so I stocked up on warm layers for Freyja so we didn’t have to stay cooped up all day.
I’m just crazy about these little fury boots I found at where else? Target.
And though I am a huge fan of the ”Baby Leg’s” brand, these little cuties are $2.99 and do the job just as well. I have to resist putting them on her every day. Once again, my one stop shop, Target had a great selection of boy and girl leg warmers sure to keep the chill off that bit of baby ankle on stroller outings.
I also scored a bib snow suit for those really cold days.
Now my only question is, how do you get a toddler to keep her mittens on?
erin, November 20th, 2009
I’m exploding with design ideas lately. I think part of it is that I am looking forward to spending more time at home once little Peabody arrives and I have so many projects I want to do! I’ve been getting very distracted by ideas like upholstering a headboard (like this one from Design Sponge), creating an office space in our bedroom, refinishing furniture… I’ve had to try to make myself focus on forming a design for the nursery instead of taking on the whole house at once. Part of my problem is that in my search to get baby room inspiration, I keep coming upon all kinds of good ideas! It doesn’t help that I hit upon some fantastic blogs with all kinds of beautiful things and do it yourself projects like the above mentioned Design Sponge, also Creature Comforts, Decor8, and Apartment Therapy.
Every time I try to narrow down my ideas, I find a new look or color that I love. So far, I have hit upon one thing that I hope will help provide some cohesion for my random thoughts. While sorting through sites for cool fabric, I came upon the designer Alexander Henry and fell in love with his Spotted Owls pattern (perfect for a little boy!):
Although I might also try it in aqua too:
I’d like to make some curtains, the crib bumper, crib skirt, and maybe a couple pillows, but one thing that was particularly hard was finding fabric I actually liked. Here are some suggestions from my neurotic web-searching of good fabric sites: Fashionable Fabrics, Fabric Worm, Sew, Mamma, Sew, and PurlSoho. Of course if you are really enterprising, you can even design your own fabric at Spoon Flower. Just as a seed idea, here are some prints I immediately liked:
Alexander Henry: 2D Zoo, Bird Seed, Cotton, Poppies Bright, and lots more..
Michael Miller: Tweet Tweet
Heather Ross
Anna Griffin Riley: Circus
(I’d love reader in-put on some other good fabric sources though!)
I think birds are going to be my theme, and I ran across this adorable do it yourself bird mobile for above the crib.
I’d like to either paint or apply some birds to the walls. My thought is that I might do the room a muted yellow and paint some white and gold birds on the walls– it all depends on what I find for a chair and a rug in the room though, since those will determine my colors to a large extent. For birds or other designs you can apply to a wall without painting, look no further than MyCurlyCue.
For the crib, I’ve been thinking about a vintage iron one and am drawn to the idea of painting it a bright color that stands out from the rest of the room, like this yellow one:
AND, I just happened to find one on Craigslist
Here are some before pictures so you can see what I’m able to come up with in the next four months of office-to-nursery transformation. The office is definitely the ugliest room in our house, so it will be an easy challenge!
meghan, November 5th, 2009
 The lighting was pretty good and the kids were mostly happy  Athanasius and Canon  Anwyn and Fox I took these Thursday morning when I should have been teaching school, but the lighting was pretty good so I interrupted the kids’ play to call them down for a photo shoot. Canon balked at wearing the striped shirt because he was a mouse and didn’t want to be a handsome mouse. I told him that he could put on the ugly shirt after pictures.
Now I really have to go do school.
 Anwyn, Fox, Athanasius, and a handsome mouse.
Our prayers and those of many others have been answered– we are so grateful for all the prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf and thrilled to announce:
It’s a boy!
I’m due April 3rd 2010 and for right now this little guy is going by the name Peabody, given to him by his father.
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