Today was another sick day for me. I feel like I hit 30 years old and started falling apart. I never used to get sick; I remember being in college and the entire class would be carrying around Kleenex boxes and I’d waltz through with nary a sniffle. Since having B I’ve definitely caught a few more colds but in the last year, that seems to have gone up even further. And the headaches. This year - and the cause of the sick day today - I’ve had at least three instances of two- to three-day headaches. They start off faint-but-there and untouchable by Advil or Tylenol and carry through the night turning into a stronger one with a stabbing head rush every time I stand up. Love ‘em. This one is nearly gone and will be gone by morning, so back to work for the next two nights.

Tonight was a scrounging kind of dinner night. B ate part of a peanut butter and banana sandwich and then part of my egg-on-an-english-muffin. Canned peaches rounded out the gourmet meal. I’m enjoying Menu Plan Monday, both for the recipes and new blogs that I find via I’m An Organizing Junkie and for the way it makes it so much easier to make dinner on any given night. I’ve done meal planning before and somehow fallen off the wagon; I’m hoping I ride this one for a long time.

June will be another Make It Instead month in the kitchen too. I have the dry ingredients for bread pre-mixed in the freezer, a recipe for yogurt and one for pita bread, and puréed tomatoes in the freezer ready to be made into another pot of tomato soup. Crackers may be on the agenda too. I was surprised at how easy it was to do the last MII month and am looking forward to this one too.

The sewing machine has continued to hum a little and I now have two pairs of long pj pants and two pairs of short ones to go with the ones B modeled the other day. Some of the shirts are partly cut out as well but I’m still digging through my solid knits bucket trying to find colours that coordinate the best. Look for more pictures in the coming week.

Up tomorrow: B’s first real dentist visit in the morning, lawn-cutting (if the weather cooperates), and a nap for both of us in the afternoon.

The sewing machine was humming yesterday afternoon at our house. It’s been quite a while since that has happened, possibly only once since Christmas, but I haven’t forgotten how to sew. Yesterday the humming was producing a new pair of pajamas for B. His flannel ones were getting too small and though it’s not too warm here yet (outside or inside) to wear them, summer is supposedly coming so summer pj’s were in order.

Ignore the awful "cheeeeeeese!" face, the lovely ponytail sprout on his head (he requests one a few times a year), the flash lighting and therefore the colouring, and the pose. The pose in itself isn’t bad, but it doesn’t display the clothes at their best. And I love this pajama set. A lot.

The shirt is the Ottobre curved raglan in size 104. I’m not sure which issue this one came from but the curved raglan is found in a couple of issues. The pj pants are regular cotton woven (not flannel) and are the same pattern as the alligator waffle-knit pajamas that I made back in February. The pattern for the pants was originally traced from a pair of ready-to-wear pj bottoms, all I did for these newest ones was make them straight legged instead of tapering a little to the ankle. B loves the fire trucks, police cars, and "ambilances" that repeat all over the fabric. I love the fit, big but not too big, room to grow and once again making him look like my little boy unlike when he’s busting out of his too-small clothes. There are more in the works - tonight I cut out two more pairs of pajama pants with shirts to follow.

And a little of that. Starting with a picture of my lovable but sanity robbing child looking cute and being sweet. And wow, does he ever look grown up!

He wanted the picture taken just like this. He carefully placed the alligator cracker so it would look like his puppy was eating it. And after the picture was taken, he promptly took the camera and ran around taking pictures of everything in sight. I know he would absolutely love to have a camera of his own but I’m afraid it wouldn’t last a day and so I’m hesitant to find one, even just a cheap geared-to-kids one. Maybe next Christmas.

He had a nice cold and fever a week ago, which he promptly gave to my boyfriend (after a half-hour visit); it took a little longer to find me and I phoned in to work this morning and booked off. Tomorrow will be an off day too as I’m still feeling rather off kilter physically. I got some sleep, picked him up from school instead of having him take the bus, and took him to skating tonight because he wanted to go (and if he’s eager and asking to go, then we definitely go). The cold air in the rink actually felt good and made me a little more alert.

B did very well at skating tonight and branched out into actually moving both feet in a regular skating motion instead of shuffling. I was surprised and couldn’t stop grinning at him. He said to me, "See? I knew I could do it!" It really was a leap forward for him and I hope he’s just as confident next week. I don’t have any plans to push him into any sort of competitive skating or hockey, I would just like for him to be able to skate confidently. I don’t have that myself and I’d like to encourage him in it.

I made him drop his pants so I could get the boxers he was wearing.

When I was sewing up his t-shirt and pajamas, I came across five pairs of boxers that I had cut out for him late last summer while I was cutting some out for my niece. After getting them all done I held them up to a single pair that I had made probably three or more years ago and that he has been wearing ever since potty learning. They appeared to be the exact same size but these new ones seem to fit bigger, which is great. I was afraid that he would have no growing room. The back on the pair above has another bug print panel which is a little bigger, extending probably 1.5 inches on either side as compared to the front panel. 

The pattern is from the Winter 2004 (04/04) issue of Ottobre. I love this pattern. The blue camouflage pair was made from a tweaked pattern, which has the legs and back all being one piece, which makes for a three-seam pair of boxers. The others have a contrasting panel on the backside. Excuse the wrinkled trucks pair; they are clean and unworn but I pulled them from B’s overnight bag. The story behind the identical twin pair of brow and gold ones is that I cut out two right legs in the dinosaur print and had to work with that; I’m not happy with the solid brown leg but I didn’t have a brown that matched better and couldn’t visulaize blue since the blue is actually more of an aqua shade.

A little bit of B’s photography to close off -

"Let’s put the alligators back in the batainer [container] and take a picture!
Isn’t that a GREAT idea!?"

"Here, hold Chocolate and I’ll take your picture."
(Note the sticker on my chest. He gave me that for doing a good job but I don’t
remember what that job was.)

B is definitely feeling better today and will be going back to school tomorrow. Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome days, fully of snuggles and kisses and frequent utterings of "I love you." One of the times on Tuesday night that he woke up and came upstairs, I was sitting on the couch with an afghan over my lap and a bowl of grapes beside me. B snuggled in under the blanket and we ate the grapes together. So it was cute last night when he stumbled up the stairs and came squinting and sporting a bed head into the dimly-lit living room. After making a visit to the bathroom he asked me, "Can we eat grapes together?" I told him that he had to go back to bed since it was nearly 11 p.m. and he said, "We can get that blanket there and put it on our legs and eat grapes together." And so we did.

Today, however, was not quite so pleasant and I believe it was due in large part to me rushing to finish a pair of pajamas for B so he could have them tonight at my mom’s. He did not ask for them nor did he have to have new pj’s tonight but I for some reason kept sewing away on them even though I was also telling myself that I still had to do several things including packing his overnight bag, his school bag, and his lunch as well as my lunch for work. I also desperately needed a nap but knew that I wasn’t going to get one. At one point he said, "Race you downstairs," but I wasn’t quite ready and told him to finish watching Miss Spider on Treehouse and I lost that window of opportunity. I was short on patience, long on fatigue, and also long on overreaction and raising my voice. After he’d been quiet for some time this morning I went out and found him kneeling on the kitchen floor with an open (and now half-empty) large spice jar of sesame seeds with the bulk of the seeds on the floor. I yelled. He jumped. And then after I spouted off to his tuned-out ears he yelled back at me that he was going to clean it up himself and went and got the hand-held vacuum while I went back to sewing. After another period of quiet I came out to see him in front of the under-the-sink cupboard. The garbage can was pulled out and the smell of Windex was permeating my nose hairs. I yelled again and yanked him out of that space, taking three scrubbers and one brush from him at the same time. He yelled back that he was just trying to make it all "shiny clean". I felt like a shit. Again.

There were so many things that I could have done differently. And should have done differently. I should have looked for his motives, his intentions, instead of jumping in and escalating what wasn’t a situation in the first place. I shouldn’t have let my choices (sewing instead of napping, etc) influence my reactions as they did. The day started off with me waking up and coming upstairs to a sopping wet dish towel and a sticky apple juice floor (and a half full jug of juice which had previously been nearly full). He knows he is not to pour things that are full but I also should not have stayed in bed 20 minutes after he got up because I was tired due to staying up far too late last night. I know it’s a cycle. I know that the power to change our difficulties lies in part in myself. I know that I hurt my boy’s feelings several times this afternoon and again as we were getting in the car to drive him to my mom’s before work a little after 3 o’clock. I know that he refused to look at me the whole way even after I apologized to him and told him that I should have been more aware of what he was trying to do and his reasons for it.

Tomorrow while he’s at school (my mom will drop him off as she has him tonight) I plan to sleep in as late as sleep stays with me and then, after a quick tidy-up, read a few more chapters in a book that I’m already enjoying almost as much as the Alfie Kohn book mentioned a few posts ago. I’m currently reading Mary Sheedy Kurcinka’s "Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles" (title from memory; there’s a link in my sidebar). I definitely know the parent I want to be. I’m just hoping I don’t break my boy’s heart in the process of finding the way.

My silly goof in his new mama-made jammies this afternoon. I tried them on him for fit (they’re big and will fit next year) and he didn’t want to take them off. He went to grandma’s in them.

Yes, he still had bed head at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We weren’t going anywhere. 

The print is a thermal knit with green alligators all over it. The shirt is the same pattern as the one the other day except I left off the short sleeves and added a ribbed cuff. The pants also have a ribbed cuff but are a little long and the leg material hangs over the cuffs right now. The shirt is an Ottobre one (I don’t remember the issue off-hand) and the pants are traced from a pair of flannel pj bottoms that he alreay has. I’m going to take the hem on the shirt out and drop it a half-inch to be more in proportion with the arms and pants and to ensure that it won’t be too short next winter. 

The wee sick boy requested a shirt yesterday. We looked through my stash and with my choice of pattern, his choice of fabrics, a slight modification on my part due to cutting one of the fabrics about an inch too short, and me fighting with the collar top-stitching (ripped it out twice and still don’t love it), the shirt is done. And he refused to wear it. Not that he had to wear it today but he told me, "I’m not wearing that one," when I asked him to please go and get a shirt as he was getting dressed this morning. Myself, I don’t love the print sleeves; they look a little out of place to me. But I did enjoy sewing again. It’s been very interittent and very challenging to do in my very cluttered sewing room. It was the box room when I moved in here a year and a half ago and is only recently become a little more cleared out and put away.

I okay’d the blue because it does match perfectly with some blue in the snakes.

And the boy yesterday. Poor kid looked like this most of the day. He got really warm towards the evening but just before bedtime (6:30 to 7′ish) he started to shiver and shake so badly he could barely walk. I curled up in bed with him to try and get him warm. He was in flannel pj’s in a fleece-sheeted bed and wrapped in his two flannel blankies but it took a good 10 minutes before he stopped shaking. He fell asleep within two minutes but shook even after that. He woke up twice before 10:30 and then crawled into bed with me and we slept until nearly 9 this morning. He’s usually up by 7:00, 7:30 at the latest.

I kept him home from school today (and had to take a sick day myself because I couldn’t send him to daycare either) and he’s doing much better. It’s working its way out.

My poor niece will have to wait until tomorrow for her gift (her birthday is today) since it’s not quite ready but I don’t think she’ll mind. She’s been wanting some more of these since the first batch I made her well over a year ago. (These are not her entire gift; she’s getting more than underwear.)

These are boxer briefs in size 122 (traced a fraction larger to be almost size 128) from Ottobre (issue Winter 2004). The hem on one leg on the blue camo flowers needs to be ripped out and redone. I also need to fasten off the threads left over from coverstitching the leg hems. Instead of steaming the elastic and pressing the hems (I like them to look finished and pressed as opposed to "fluffy"), I may just toss them in the washer tomorrow; they were traced with washable marker so it wouldn’t hurt for that to be washed out too. Hmm… I started typing this short post about an hour ago. I guess I should get started on unpicking that one leg?

I’ve been doing my first sewing in months, possibly even a whole year since I moved into this house last August. A co-worker is going on maternity leave tomorrow and I’m making her two outfits for the new baby. The baby had better stay a girl!

The top is from the Baby Essentials cross-front top from New Conceptions in size 3-6 months. I used a soft and stretchy crinkle knit that I found at Fabricland, labeled, of course, as 100% unknown fibres. It felt a little gross before I washed it (thin and not all that soft) but now I think it’s mostly cotton. I haven’t done a burn test though as I’m afraid I’ll find out that it’s mostly polyester. The pants in soft brown velour are from Ottobre 4/08 and are the "Vilkas" pattern in size 68. I have another outfit started consisting of all Ottobre pieces: a wrap jumper and short bloomers, a puff-sleeved t-shirt, and a cropped sweater/jacket. I’m hoping to finish that up by the time I go back to work on Tuesday. B is going back to the cottage from Saturday afternoon until Wednesday or Thursday so I could be able to work on it.

In Feingold news, we’re noticing a difference. B’s been really, really awesome the last few days in comparision to how he has been in the past (or maybe just awesome regardless). I wasn’t sure whether it was the program, a fluke, or something else entirely but yesterday shortly before his nap he came across a 2-count box of Chiclets from a collection of small items that I had for I Spy bags. He snatched up an orange one and ate it before I could grab it and within 30 to 45 minutes he was rude complete with head butting, roughness, yelling, hitting, etc., all the behaviours we dealt with multiple times on a daily basis before. He’s been a little rough and rude this morning too and told me he had Shreddies for breakfast at my mom’s so I don’t know if it’s still the gum, if it’s the Shreddies (which I’ve told her I don’t think he can have), or a combination. It was neat to see the black and white difference between the pre-gum and post-gum behaviours though and it confirms for me that the awesome behaviour has been a result of the program. I plan to stick with it for a few more weeks and then I’ll think about trying Stage Two.

Related but on a different thread, I’m disappointed in the Canadian food list that I received from Feingold. I recognize next to none of the brands and have not been able to find them in my stores. I know and find more of the brands on the US list than I do on the Canadian one. I had been under the assumption that the Canadian list contained Canadian brands but in fact, it contains American brands that are distributed here. Strangely enough, the Canandian list is missing some of the brands and items that the US list has, and which are sold here. So I’m going by the US list and hoping that the recipes/formulas are the same for the items sold here. I keep meaning to write to FAUS but every time I think of it it’s not a convenient time (eg: rushing out the door to work) and whenever I am at home and can sit for two minutes, I never think of it. I should post on the Yahoo group too and see what take others have on it.

Soccer tonight for B, with his final being played this Saturday, then it’s the cottage for him for a few days later that afternoon. Sewing for me and much lounging around while he’s gone though I do need to thoroughly scrub the kitchen and sort through the piles of clothes in my room. I need to take advantage of the time off from child and work (I’m not back to work until Tuesday) and get the house in order. Not that it’s in shambles but it could handle a deep clean. 

I am an impulse buyer. Usually it’s not a huge problem; I don’t buy myself into a hole of debt that takes months to pay off. But I still buy on impulse sometimes. Case in point, the other night. This little gadget now resides at my house. I’m not completely sure why since I’m not an organizer type of girl. Sure, it’s handy and cute and I can carry my lists, calculator, address book, and schedule with me everywhere but I’ve been surviving just fine without those things for quite some time previous. Nevertheless, I am now $100+ poorer and I have a nifty new toy, the Palm Z22. I love the SplashShopper add-on - I can make my grocery list right on it and know how much it’s going to cost me before I get to the checkout.

It’s another pissing-down-rain kind of day and I’m car-less (it’s in the shop) so we’re housebound. B is going a little stir crazy but I’ve promised him that when he wakes up from his nap if the rain has stopped he can go outside to play. The lid of his sand table is off and upside down and he’s dying to go and play in the collected water and, no doubt, the saturated sand in the table.

Me, I’ve been tackling some housecleaning. Not necessarily the mop-and-bucket type but cleaning nonetheless. I’ve cleaned up the kitchen counter (one of the corners always seems to become my bills/papers/magazines/purse drop spot) and spent a good portion of the morning in my sewing room. The sewing room that I have never sewn in. I moved into this house in mid-August last year and it was such a convenient room to put all the I’ll-sort-them-later boxes because I could put a kiddie lock on the knob, close the door, and B couldn’t get in (plus it got the boxes out of the way). It’s been almost a year since I moved in and the room is still not emptied out. It’s very much improved; before, you could not walk on the floor - it was precarious and you had to take huge, well thought out steps. So though the pictures below don’t look like much, believe me when I saw that I am freakishly happy with the way it looks. I’ve ruler-folded all my big/whole pieces of fabric and that makes me freakishly happy too. I’m not sure what one does with the oddly-shaped, smaller, or selvedge-less pieces but I’ve got them in labeled plastic tubs.

There’s a three-drawer dresser just inside the picture on the right, fabric next to that (obviously), a cutting table at the back, and a corner desk in the corner (can’t see it) that I will most likely move my coverstitch machine to. The sewing desk is a hollow-core door attached to and sitting on (one on each end) on those cheap pressboard Closetmaid shelves; there is a piece of 1x2 screwed into the wall along the back length of the door as well to give a bit more support.

The machines are my sewing machine (Huskystar 215), serger (White Speedylock 1600), and a Janome 1000CP coverstitch (or coverhem if you prefer). The tubs in the closet contain yarn (the lefthand stack) and the fabric (the rest of them) that didn’t fit nicely on the shelving. So for now, the closet is full. And you should see the stuff that didn’t make it into the closet! My mother got a huge amount of yarn from me. Under the window is where I’m contemplating putting my old desktop PC for B. He has a few pre-school educational programs/games that he’s constantly bugging me to use and I don’t want him on my laptop. I always rolled my eyes at the idea of very young children having a computer but hey, we all change when it’s our own child, right?

Maybe a little more work in there today. It might make me feel not so lazy for still being in my pajamas with bed head.