Out and about and other newness

So, this is my last catch-up posting. Let's see how clever and concise I can be!

1. Sew-sew
One of the things I've been experimenting with lately is making some oh-so-cute dresses for Juniper. I thought to myself "how hard can a miniature dress be"? So I just started loosely cutting a made-up pattern, all care-free and willy-nilly. Hmmm. Not as easy as I had thought. The problem? I wanted to have something fitted, but soon came to realize that it is a fine art to have something that is fitted and can fit over a small squirmy creature who can't put her arms above her head. Thus, a whole lot of ripping things apart, starting again, etc etc. There might have been tears involved, I can't really remember, but there was at least one sleepless night where I kept trying to come up with solutions to the problem. Here is what that first dress turned out like:

As you can see, my solution was to put in elastic at the top, so that it would stretch over her arms and then settle into place afterward. Good in theory, but i didn't quite perfect the technique, and it was still too small and tight to get on with ease. The two times we put her in it, it was slightly traumatic for everyone involved, and so this dress has now been retired. I might try a similar technique again, but not make it so tight. We'll see.

In the meantime, however, I decided it would be wise to invest in some real patterns and see if I fared any better. I have now made a couple of dresses using a bought pattern, although I ended up altering it quite a bit (shortening the straps and adding snaps, adding a tie in the back, etc). Here is one of those dresses, which I made from an old piece of my clothing (I don't have a picture of the second one):

They are not difficult - I have visions of more and different things I could do, like maybe at a onesie bottom to the inside portion so that it wouldn't ride up as much, or make it reversible. The problem, of course, is finding the time... I whipped these ones off while my mom was here and keeping Juniper amused during the day.

2. Mommy-daughter outings
One of the things that has truly kept me sane over these last few months, espeically once Clark started going back to school, has been getting out of the house - going on excursions of various sorts with Juniper. Of course, we still get out for walks whenever it is nice out, like this glorious day that Juniper and I took a trip to Frog Pond.



There are quite a few things we do other than just walks, however. For awhile, most of these excursions involved various breast feeding support groups, which were such a life-saver. There were a few women and their kids, all of whom were born around the same time as Juniper, and all with midwives, who I would see week after week, and after awhile, these groups became more about chatting with our new buddies than about breast feeding support.
We have since branched out, however - I've now gone to "reel babies", for instance. This happens about twice a month, where one of the theatres in town will show a movie (something current), and parents bring their babies along with them. The lights aren't dimmed all the way, the sound is lower, there are change tables and bottle warmers, and often the movie is slightly drowned out by crying. A very surreal experience, but such a treat to go to the movies!
We've also now been to "mom and babes yoga", and infant massage, both of which we'll keep going to.
We had a particularly nice day last week, when Kata was on vacation - the three of us did some beading, then went for lunch. If only Kata was off all the time! Juniper and I are going to have to find some other moms and babes who are looking for fun day-time outings.

Tonight the three of us headed out to a dinner that is thrown every year for people getting a Killam scholarship (which Clark currently is)... we almost didn't bother, because we weren't sure how it would work with Juniper (we'd be there long past when we usually put her to bed), but we decided to give it a go. Of course, Juniper was an angel. And she gave us an excuse to leave after the meal, and before the really boring part where they go through all the scholars. Here we are post dinner. Notice my new, really short hair. I'm not sure what I think of it yet!


3. And one more thing...

I don't know if this will be interesting to anyone else, but Juniper pooped in her potty for the first time the other day! No, we are not crazy and trying to potty train her or anything, but there is something called "ec" (elimination communication), which is based on the theory that if you watch your child's cues, you know when she is about to poop. As the theory goes, a baby is much happier if they don't have to soil a diaper, so if you can get them on the potty instead, it's a good thing. We haven't been very diligent about this at all, but it worked the other day, so I thought I'd take a picture to commemorate. Yay Juniper!


Alright, so I wasn't very concise or clever, but at least now I'm caught up. Maybe now my posts don't have to be quite as epic, and will come more regularly. We'll see. Don't hold me to it. I'm thinking about starting to integrate in some thesis work - should I have mentioned that out loud? I'm not pressuring myself into anything, though, not yet anyway.