Toddler Serenity Prayer

My mantra for the day... or year:

God grant me the serenity to accept that I have a two year-old;
The courage to know I cannot change her;
And the wisdom to back down from arguments I can't win.

When I get to it...

I believe in the importance of sharing birth stories - positive birth stories and sometimes scary ones as well. They are powerful, personal experiences which women have stopped sharing with each other - fearing that we might alienate each other.

Here's an idea, become a birth-choice advocate. It frees you to take a non-judgmental, neutral, supportive position. Once, I was a natural-birth advocate and I certainly still am for my own family and any woman who knows that's what is best for her and her own family. However, women who are not interested in natural childbirth for any number of reasons may feel judged and they have certainly lashed out at me for my choices. In no way can I define or experience another person's pain - I have not lived their life. And certainly, I have been blessed with a supportive partner, mother and family who have helped me stick to my choices and my labors have been textbook - slightly longer but not by much.

A healthy fear inspired me to thoroughly prepare for labor and birth - as well as you can prepare. And in our childbirth preparation classes they introduced me to a novel idea: many women prepare for birth but few for breastfeeding - preparing essentially for something that (hopefully) lasts less than a day while neglecting a relationship that will (again, hopefully) last a year or more. We have been told that breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, what we are not told is that it is a learned behavior and we might not have grown up seeing it, and there may be challenges that we cannot possibly anticipate.

All this is to say that I will be sharing my boy's birth story when I can get to it...

Welcome to the (Wintery) World

Good morning Simon!
Our delightful little chap was born January 6, 2010. (Which means it's taken me almost a month to get around to posting this...) Big sister is very proud.





Born in the water on a stormy night.

Updatery

I have come to the conclusion that blogging and graduate school do not mix... This should be evident by my lack of posts over the last few months. Well, now it's winter break so here's
some updates...


I am about three weeks away from due date of baby #2... Feeling fat and sassy.

Some knitting has been accomplished:

For the new baby.... Munchkin Hat on ravelry


And matching for big sis...





A little sweater for a dear friend's boy - Joelle Hoverson's Child's Placket-Neck Pullover also on ravelry...


And, a delightful knit... the Baby Sophisticate pattern, also from ravelry









So many more things to do before our new addition gets here. Now that finals are over I feel I can officially "nest" and settle in for a while. Oh, if that weren't for the massive piles of laundry that have been growing steadily during finals, the mending... I guess that's all part of the nesting though.

If you'll excuse me, I hear the vacuum calling my name.

Room to Grow II

Here's the big girl helping to clean up her new room:


Tree details:


The view above the bed:




Birds, birds, birds.










Finishing touches:

Room to Grow

Here's the project of the last few weeks, with my dear husband working at all hours to get it finished...

First, the room before - just some paint samples on the walls:



Here's the dutch door that leads into my office with blackboard paint for doodles:




And here I am proudly displaying part of the reason we need that "room to grow":


The preliminary tree sketch:








Pictures of the finished project forthcoming...

Finished knits

The birthday sweater:

Knitted squid pair - the second is for the new baby.


Asymmetrical cardigan courtesy of a free Ravelrey pattern. Buttons were a going-out-of-business special.

A shrug for Dear Daughter on those brisk fall days that don't quite call for a full sweater.

More to come... and hopefully some actual stories and updates as well.