September

I hate to say it, but I think that summer is over. It's past Labor Day, the leaves are turning here in SE Wisconsin and school has begun. The calendar says that autumn doesn't begin for another 10 days, but I don't think that the upcoming equinox has much to say about the matter. Don't get me wrong, I love fall. I just wish the sun didn't set so early.

With that in mind, I love autumn. For many reasons, including the Weird Pumpkin season. Here are a few gourds I picked at the grocery store and farmer's market. I don't know all of the varieties because none of them were labeled, so comment if you can identify any of these!

Decorative gourd

Delicata, perhaps?

Hubbard squash

Sweet dumpling

Baby pumpkin

Kabocha squash, I think.

Taco in a basket, just because he's cute.

Homesick 3

Today Aaron made hotel reservations for his trip to San Diego. Let me re-emphasize: HIS trip to San Diego. This breaks my heart so much I can't even talk about it on Facebook. I've lived in Milwaukee for nearly 3 years now. I have not been "home" in that entire time and I am homesick. There. I said it.

Before I rant, let me emphasize that I love, love, love it here in MKE. The population is diverse, the restaurants are good, there are tons of things to do year-round. The winters aren't really that bad as long as you know your limits, and you still get 3 other seasons that more than make up for the cold and inclement weather. Having said that, I've found myself saying, "In California, we ... " and "Back in San Diego we used to ... " a lot lately. Way to make people grow tired of your conversation. So I'm just going to get it all out here.

1. I miss my family. I want to go to Oregon and see my sister and her family more than anything. My parents and in-laws are in South/Central California, my closest friends are in Seattle and San Diego, but my cousin/best friend is near San Francisco. It's almost not worth going unless I get to see everyone.

2. Winter sucks with a toddler. I know this will improve in two months, especially once we move into a better place. I could really use some shorts and Birks weather.

In general, I don't miss San Diego's monotonous weather. I like that we're exposing LG to all four seasons. But dressing him for San Diego would be soooo much easier. There, if I underestimated the temperature by ten degrees it wouldn't be a big deal -- oh dear, I have to keep a pair of pants or a sweater in the diaper bag in case it's 59 degrees instead of 69. But if it's 15 instead of 25? We like to walk instead of drive so we're pretty adventurous and, I like to think, well-suited to this climate. But it would be nice if I didn't have to worry about his baby-soft cheeks getting chapped from sub-zero winds.

3. Food. I want In n Out, fish tacos, a California Burrito, Thai food, and my favorite sushi restaurant. There's also a deep-dish pizza place in San Diego that's way better than any of the famous places in Chicago.

4. The beach. I want to show my son the Pacific Ocean. I want to jump waves with him, prowl the tide pools, and dig for sand crabs. OK, he's probably too young for most of that, but it'd be fun to introduce him to everything.

5. The zoo. There's a reason the San Diego Zoo is world-famous. 'Nuff said.

Oh What a Difference A Day Makes

I just noticed this picture the other day. It's one of the few we haven't posted on Facebook or otherwise shared, but it's so sweet. This is the day we brought LG home from the hospital at three days old:

 

And here he is at one year old, having masticated his first piece of cake:

God, I love that boy.

Adventures with Crafts

I am not a crafty person. When it comes to working with my hands, I don't have much patience or attention to detail. My Dad taught me how to crochet when I was 12, but I've only finished two crocheted projects. Because I get bored easily I'll put it away and then, when I return to it, I have to relearn how to work with the needles. I recently finished knitting a scarf that I began 3 years ago and the width grew by 30% by the time I finished because I didn't bother counting the stitches. Oops!

But I think that craftiness comes with being a stay-at-home mom, or maybe I've been inspired because many of my new friends are so creative. My friend Jillian showed me this book on making toys for your baby. It's based on Waldorf School ideas about creative development. I don't know much about the Waldorf School, but I do know they believe simple toys with fewer details help children develop their imagination. So their patterns are perfect for me because they're not very complicated and if I mess up it just stimulates my son's imagination even more, right?

With that in mind, here are my first attempts: chicks made from yarn fashioned into puff balls.

The one on the left is my first attempt. I think it looks the most like a chick. Aaron says the middle one looks like a Tribble from Star Trek:

The trouble with these is that I haven't figured out how to make them baby-proof because little ones can actually pull out the bits of yarn. Oops. At least I know my son has a developed pincer grasp.

I was most excited about making a knitted sheep. Except I can't remember how to knit, so I crocheted it.

Since I don't really know how to sew, I had trouble following the pattern for making the head shape. I think the neck isn't supposed to be that long. But it turned out pretty cute anyway, kind of like Eeyore. I just didn't expect it to be so big! But see how it doesn't have any markings for the eyes or mouth? That's the sort of plainness that the Waldorf School advocates. Less work for me!

Here are some felt chickens I made. These were a lot of fun -- my clumsy, wide stitches will only promote my son's creative development!

And finally, here's a felt horse. I made up the pattern myself, basing it on the same pattern of the felt chickens. Looks like my imagination is being developed as well!

I should add that LG isn't very interested in any of these toys yet. I tell myself that he's too young for imaginative play. After all, I don't think he really understands what horses or chickens are just yet. He enjoys his plastic blocks more than anything else right now. I'm sure that's developing his imagination just fine. In the mean time, I think I'm going to make him some felt food next. He doesn't know what eggs or carrots really look like, either, but it's fun for me.

Here's the tutorial for the felt food if you're interested: http://lyneya.wordpress.com/2009/04/30/tutorial-felt-banana-in-peel-or-corn-in-husk/

October

October is my favorite month, and not just because my birthday comes at the end of it. I love the colors and the cooler weather. Today we went out to capture the beauty of the fall leaves before they all blow off the trees or get snowed over!

This one reminds me of one we took last year. Oh what a difference a year makes!

Here's LG's first experience with a public swing.
Only after I downloaded these photos did I realize that those pants are navy blue, not black. Oh well.I love the look on his face here. He loves his mama!

Parenting in Public

As someone who was never particularly baby-crazy, it has come as a big surprise to me how much people loooooove babies. They want to coo over them and touch them (which freaks out ol' germaphobe me). Now, I don't deny that my little guy (LG) is absolutely wonderful and adorable, but really.

This week I got some interesting remarks.

1. From the middle-aged cashier in Walgreen's. After she cooed over how adorable he looked, sleeping in his wrap all snuggled against my chest, she said, "You're spoiling him!"

2. From the elderly mason at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. "He doesn't sleep in your bed, does he? That's a no-no!" I'd like to see him try and transfer LG to his bassinet. It's always easy to give advice when you don't have a squalling infant voting on your behavior.

3. A random mom at the pancake house. "Does he sleep through the night?" When I admitted that he had, he just doesn't do it often, she practically burst into tears. "I need to hug you! You know my pain!" And we commiserated on hearing other parents of little babies talk about how their angels sleep for 12-hour stretches and agreed that they're all lying.

Well, look at this sweet guy. Who wouldn't want to spoil him?

So as much as I would be suited to having a baby who really prefers some alone time, thank you very much, I am going to be taking the long view of infancy. He's only this small for a short amount of time, and if wearing him and snuggling with him in bed (safely!) are spoiling him, then we'll just have to deal with one very spoiled toddler. God help us.

Hiatus over, but I have some things to think about

Coming back to this blog after a respectable 4-month maternity leave, I can't help but laugh at my last post. All I can think is, "Wow, the pregnant woman in that picture had no idea what was coming!"

But before I get back to posting pictures and such, I have a couple of issues to present:

1. My child's privacy. My sister mentioned this to me once. She posts pictures of her kids on her blog, but not their names. She had read something about allowing your children a certain amount of privacy despite your own internet presence. Do I post my baby's pictures here with his name? I have other friends who do that and presumably they don't have any problems. Do I just stick to posting him on Facebook (which Aaron is better about doing -- feel free to friend him if you think you're missing the pics!)?

2. I really, really wish I could sew or knit. Larger swaddling blankets could be done in a jiffy. I could knit that Santa hat that I've always loved so he could wear it in our Christmas cards. Or that pumpkin hat that I love. My sister and I have been saying how important it is to have a tangible skill in this economy, something you can do with your hands because you're all the more employable.

3. I had all sorts of child-rearing theories before my baby was born. I was definitely one of those opinionated childless people who just KNOWS how to raise a child (and I probably owe apologies to all of my friends with children for suffering through any advice I gave, although I hope I didn't do it too often). What happened? Not just the reality of actually raising a child -- the sleep deprivation made me forget all of my ideas I'd gotten from my Psych classes, observing friends, etc. The only thing I remember came friend a friend I made in college. She was a 60-something woman who'd come back to finish her degree after dropping out 40+ years before to get married. She said that her friends spent too much time thinking about all the ways they wanted to be different from their parents, and all that negative focus turned them into their parents. She believed you should remember one way in which you want to emulate your parents and one way in which you don't. That I can handle.