The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round...

Ok, so Lila won't technically be taking the bus, but my little girl is starting preschool next week. It's surreal in so many ways. First, I simply am having a hard time seeing Lila as the little girl she so clearly has become. No more baby fat, no more diapers, no more comforting her during night feedings, no more carting her around on my hip. Oddly enough, it all hit home when I went to get her new shoes. She had gone up from a size 8 to a size 9. The visual difference in the shoe floored me. Add to that she now gets to choose from an entirely different wall of shoes...I was a mess. And I felt a little silly for spending 20 minutes purusing the shoes on the baby/toddler wall. Can we say denial?

I realize I've been absolutely horrid at posting lately. My only free time to do much of anything is during the afternoon nap (going on as I type) and after the kids go to bed. How to use this precious time is not easy. Do I sew? Blog? Read a book? Watch TV? Take a shower? Eat? CLEAN??!! So, I'm working on balancing this all a bit better.

The summer has flown by about as quickly as this naptime. Elijah is growing and growing and growing. Seriously, he's HUGE. Definitely over 20 pounds, and my mother-in-law is betting on 25lbs. Yikes. No wonder it often feels as though my left bicep is just going to explode after a day of carrying him around. We're a bit concerned that he's not even crawling yet, but in every other way he's magnificent. Smiley, happy, great sense of humor, snuggly (my favorite), loves to clap and raise his arms up in the air to the question, "How big is Elijah?" He is a mama's boy through and through, which is just fine with me.

Pictures!

One of our last outings as a family of three...

Aren't those pictures lovely? Taken my my friend, Alta. She always manages to capture on film exactly how I feel about my babies.

Adventures in sewing

I've finally taken some pics of the dresses I've recently made for Lila. Alas, Lila is not the most cooperative of models. I managed only to capture her in one dress before I decided that what had started out as a lovely day was quickly deteriorating with each click of the camera.

I'm sorry, but isn't she just gorgeous?? And then she insisted on wearing the Indians cap...

Here is where things started going downhill. Can you tell?

                                               

Close-up of the Oliver & S dress. Love love love the fabric!

Notice the contrasting hem!

This was actually made a while ago, but is the same pattern as above. Who knew there was a oh-so-girlie safari print out there!

Adorable contrasting hem. I'm thinking I might have that on the outside next time.

This is the "All-Ages Classic Jumper" from the One Yard Wonders book. After a little online research, I was relieved to find out that I wasn't the only one completely baffled by the directions for the back of the dress. After a ridiculous amount of mistakes (thankfully, my cheapness meant I subbornly kept at it as I had no intention of wasting this adorable fabric from Sew to Speak) it all finally came together. I definitely want to make this in some fall/winter fabrics (corduroy, for sure), but need to think on how to figure out the back & straps part of the pattern.

I was going to post some more pictures and talk about our week, but I've literally been working on thist post on-and-off for about 5 hours now. I'm going to celebrate the fact that I actually finished a post (with pictures!) and stop while I'm ahead. Hmmm, I just noticed that Lila is watching TV in a tank top and nothing else. Probably should get on that...

Things I finally completed...

It's a rare thing these days to be able to set out to do something and actually DO IT. So, I will trumpet from the rooftops my recent accomplishments:

1. I finally did Lila's entire head in cornrows. Ok, so it took me 4 days (as I was limited to Elijah's morning nap), but it looked fabulous, if I do say so myself. Pictures are coming, I promise. Lila was very very pleased with her braids and beads. As a surprising bonus, I could hear her coming the few times she woke up in the middle of the night and wandered into our room.

2. I finished two dresses for Lila!! Both involved buttons and I had been decidedly avoiding those little finishing details. I still don't have much of a system to correctly place the buttons and button holes, although I'm sure Kevin will be able to come up with a very precise step-by-step "how-to" (the joys of having a patient engineer hubby). The dresses are both riddled with errors, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that sees them. That being said, even I can say that the dresses are just freakin' cute. Love them. Can't wait to make both patterns in fall fabrics for Lila's first year of preschool! Again, pictures coming.

We had a great couple of days with the most fabulous Miss Alta, Mr Drake & Baby R. As if Lila wasn't already half in love, she was completely sunk (pardon the pun) when Mr Drake played a version of hide & seek in the lake. Baby R's gigantic smiles and attempted fist-eating started each morning off on the perfect note.

Best news ever? My most favorite mamas-to-be jetted off to Ethiopia, met their darling boys, and PASSED COURT!!!! Woo hoo! Congrats Em & Damon, Amy & Joel! Cannot wait to meet your beautiful baby boys.