Category Archives: Photographs

Welcome, Bria Elisabeth!

Hello, world. We’ve been offline for a few days; sorry about that. I managed to get a quick announcement via text message out to Twitter late Thursday morning, and eventually a quick post to FaceBook when I’d had the time to sit back and buy data access for my iPhone on Thursday night, but this is the first chance I’ve had to sit at my computer since we got home late Friday night to acquaint you all with the lovely news of our daughter’s birth and shower you with photos.

In a delicious show of irony, the Owlet decided to hatch on the estimated due date I’d been using from the beginning before my doctor adjusted it back and forth. To the medical community, I say Ha, and Ha again.

Thursday morning I woke up just after 4 AM and thought to myself, Hmm, that’s probably another annoying prodromal labour contraction. And really, there was no reason to think otherwise, seeing as how I’d been handling two weeks of prodromal labour on and off. I got up to walk around as usual, and started timing the contractions just out of habit. Good thing I did, because it turned out that they were getting more intense, were lasting about ninety seconds, and were coming between two and four minutes apart. After a solid hour of timing them to be extra-sure I woke HRH, who called his parents, and we threw the last few things we needed into bags. The boy woke up just before his grandparents arrived and we gave him hugs and kisses and told him his sister would finally arrive that day, and that he could come meet her that afternoon. The roads were beautifully clear at six-thirty in the morning, and we got to the hospital in record time. Good thing, too, because when they checked me out they discovered I was just passing 4 cm, and the contractions were getting stronger. They let me move around with the monitors strapped to me, thank goodness. Within an hour I was at 8cm, and then suddenly 9+cm, and the doctor was there and they made me get on the bed to push ( “Please don’t make me get on the bed, I hate the bed, the contractions are worse on the bed,” I remember saying). After fifteen minutes of pushing (which certainly felt much longer than that), and a grand total of four hours of labour (a time span which I certainly do not recommend in general, because yes, that was about fourteen hours of work compressed into a quite intensified four hours), Bria Elisabeth was born at 08:13, weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and measuring 51 cm long.

Our first family picture, post-birth:

Baby!

A close-up of the baby!

True to our word, the boy was the first person to hold the baby after HRH and I, and he got a little teary about it:

And then he began gifting her with all the little toys he’d chosen and bought for her:

Culminating in the ceremonial Passing of the Bunny, one of the boy’s special favourite toys when he was just a tiny thing:

We were released 36 hours after the baby’s birth, and only that late because they weren’t allowed to release us any earlier. Both baby and I are in sparkling good health, eating and sleeping and settling in well. Today the hit-by-a-bus feeling that lands a couple of days after a major physical undertaking arrived, and Tylenol is my friend, because everything everywhere hurts.

For those wondering, Bria is pronounced BREE-ah, and yes, it’s Elisabeth with an S instead of a Z.

Owlet Update, 38 weeks

I am having a hard time shaking the belief that this is actually 39 weeks, since I’ve counted according to earlier data from the beginning. Yesterday’s prenatal was my 38-week appointment according to my doctor, and with her new numbers I’m technically at 38.5 weeks.

This was an uneventful OB appointment. She was totally not perturbed about the heavy bleeding on Monday that sent me to the hospital (what, were I and the nurse on duty the only ones who were worried? the gyno on call didn’t even check me out, only the nurse and a resident), isn’t concerned about the ongoing light bleeding, and says my membranes haven’t broken. There has been zero change from last week: 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced, contractions gaining in strength and pain but apparently doing nothing (except waking me up and making me walk a lot at night). Weight gain has ceased, which is normal, and for which I am deeply grateful, because pretty much nothing fits any more except dresses since the baby dropped two weeks ago. The internal exam hurt like blazes this time; my cervix is currently at a weird angle, apparently. Baby’s still chugging along all healthy and strong, and seems very happy where she is… which of course means I’m cranky, because I’m really, really past ready to get her out. I’m just going to start planning to have this baby in mid-August, which is the latest I’ll be able to go without being induced. That way I can’t be disappointed.

I’ve decided that trying to get as much crafty stuff done in the next couple of weeks will either (a) make Owlet arrive sooner rather than later, and/or (b) keep me busy and distracted till mid-August when they’ll evict her. I’ve sewed the owls for the mobile the boy designed (and they are so incredibly adorable! HRH wants me to keep making them for no other reason than to see more. Pictures to come when the mobile is assembled) so next on the list is the coverlet the boy decided she should have. I’ve narrowed the owl fabric down to two choices for that by browsing Etsy for two months; a backing can be chosen once that first decision is made.

I cast on for the long lace cardigan the other day in an effort to trick her out, too. Here’s the first three inches of the back, done in diagonal eyelet lace stitch with the BFL/silk blend I spun and used for the lace cap, on needles bigger than the weight of the yarn calls for so that the stitch is nice and open and airy:

I blindstitched and machine-stitched the ends of the green woven blanket I posted last week because I didn’t want a fringe (it would just get matted and felted) but I’m not sold on how they look, so I’ve decided to find some nice natural unbleached Cluny lace to sew over them, which means more fun Etsy browsing and mailbox joy to which to look forward.

And finally, I’m looking at free online patterns to sew wool soakers to cover the cloth diapers. It didn’t even occur to me that I could sew them. (Or rather, it did a while back, but the first patterns I found were for PUL covers and involved a lot of layers and stretching and elastic and Velcro tabs and I just don’t have to energy to deal with all that right now.) But durr, there are more ways to make things with fabric than knitting and weaving, as sewing the tiny owls for the mobile reminded me. I can use polar fleece, or I can hit the thrift stores and look for real wool sweaters to felt slightly and then cut pattern pieces out. I’ve also been browsing free patterns for making tiny dresses, because I’m finding such glorious Japanese printed fabrics on Etsy during my hunt for owl fabric for the coverlet.

The boy has a playdate this afternoon, the second day in a row with his best friend. I’d offered to have them over here today after her mum took them out to play in the local pool yesterday so I could go to my doctor, but she said that she’d have them over to her place again this afternoon to give me a whole afternoon at home to myself, something I haven’t had all summer, bless her. HRH is back at work as of yesterday, and while I deeply appreciate all the work he and his dad have put in on the attic (it’s 90% done!), it has been increasingly stressful dealing with so many people in my house at once for four weeks straight when I am accustomed to having lots of mental and emotional space to myself. I find that lately I’ve been needing even more space as this pregnancy nears its end, which is perfectly normal, and the social pressure of dealing with people on a daily basis has not been helping my ability to find a still space inside myself with which to deal with the stress and emotions attached to the last couple of weeks of pregnancy, especially one that has gone past what the medical community predicted would be the end based on past evidence. It doesn’t help that I’m sleeping horribly because I’m in a lot of pain, and can’t nap successfully when there were so many people around. (You would think I’d be used to sleeping horribly due to pain, but this is different from fibro. I know how to handle that kind of sleep/non-sleep. The only cure for this is to have the darn baby, and she’s not cooperating.)

A lot of things will be easier once we have the baby, and I keep telling myself that. Two weeks, max. It’s just that I’m working through so many tangled emotions about the whole going to full term (and possibly even past the EDD) after being primed to expect another early baby thing that two weeks feels like forever, especially when yesterday’s appointment showed zero change from the previous week. The empty baby bed next to ours is starting to be depressing instead of exciting.

Last week I bought the Owlet a party sundress for Ada’s birthday, and if she isn’t out to wear it and attend, I will be very, very sad indeed.

Owlet Update, 37 weeks

For those greedy for precise info: Yesterday’s prenatal revealed that I am 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced, and my OB said that the baby’s head was right there against the cervix, ready to go (I could have told her that; she lowered right after the last appointment two weeks ago and has been headbutting the cervix with great verve ever since). “Votre accouchement prendra place comme une charme,” my OB said with great delight. I swear, she’s more excited about how this is going than I am. I’m finally at the one prenatal appointment a week till the end point, so we’ll see where we are next week. Of course, we all know that dilation and effacement aren’t reliable signposts and that things can mysteriously reverse themselves, but physically I was already feeling Stuff Happen, so it’s nice to hear her confirm my suspicions.

For everyone else: Hey, I’m going to have a baby in a couple of weeks. That’s about all we know, because while there are certain signs that a baby’s body and a gestating mother’s body are headed in the right direction for birthing, no one really knows what triggers labour to happen whenever it does, though there are lots of theories. Also, hey, did you know that an estimated due date isn’t anything more than a guess based on a couple of charts put together by some doctor decades ago? A precise science this is not. A baby is considered On Time if it’s born two weeks before or after the EDD (why yes, that does mean a four-week spread, and yes, that’s kind of stressful if you’re trying to plan anything). This is why we’ve been telling people a rough time period instead of an actual date when they ask. And really, with all the adjustments back and forth being made to my EDD for various reasons, I’m just as glad we went that route, because otherwise people would be terribly confused by this point.

The renos upstairs proceed apace. HRH goes back to work next Wednesday, and while he’d like to be further along in the attic conversion, that would be logistically impossible. He’s done an incredible amount in the month he’s had, and his dad has been right there with him. The roof insulation is pretty much done, the wiring is all there just waiting for an electrician to check and connect it (waiting for replies from electricians = annoying), and HRH even took a day to run a duct up from the basement so that there would be air conditioning up there. That had to be done, really, because otherwise it was a sauna and the environment was unworkable. Not that the a/c actually makes the room cool, what with humidex temperatures of 48 C this week and working directly under a dark roof being baked by the sun, but it does make it somewhat more bearable. Plasterboard can be screwed to the wall framing at night after work once the wiring is approved and connected (c’mon, electricians!) and then it’s mudding and painting, and then it’s essentially done. If we can swing it and the sales are still on, HRH wants to put a floating laminate floor in instead of pouring three coats of paint on the plywood floor, too.

We have a car seat that fits our vehicle now (that was one of those Kind Of Important Things we had to handle quickly a week or so ago when we discovered that the incredibly awesome luxury car seat we borrowed from Miranda was too big to fit our car for safe and regular use), and we got the lightweight Snap n’Go stroller frame we wanted, too (we borrowed one six years ago and they’re brilliant; they’re much lighter and smaller than a true stroller, and you just snap the car seat into it). Best thing is we got them both on excellent sale, and they’re the only new items we’ve had to buy for this baby. And the resale value on the stroller frame is awesomely high, which means we’ll be able to recoup almost all of what we paid for it, tra la la.

More handmade show and tell!

Cate knit this absolutely fantastic Tweed baby blanket for the Owlet:

I forgot to post photos of the lace baby cap I knit (my first real lace project!). It needs a proper ribbon, as this is a temporary braid of yarn:

And here is the blanket I wove last weekend (which obviously did not work to trick the Owlet out). I love how the thick and thin single-ply yarn creates the texture and visual interest here with just a plain weave:

I think that’s it for now.

Recent Fibre Arts Roundup

Over May and June, I spun about 6 oz of beautiful BFL/silk blend that I’d been hoarding for over a year. It’s a Louet blend, and I ordered it one day at my LYS when the owner was scrolling through the listings on the wholesale website. I’d intended to order the Merino/silk, but she said, “Ooh, they’re coming out with a BFL/silk blend in a couple of months!” so I preordered that, then tucked it into my stash when it arrived and just loved the fact that I owned it. When I decided that I wanted to knit a lace cap for this baby (I swear, I do not know who I am any more) I knew exactly what I wanted to spin for it: the BFL/silk. Because really, it’s such a lovely fibre that chances are good I’d never use it for anything else because it would get worn out or damaged or whatever.

Anyway, it was a dream to spin. I started out with 2oz and got about 300 yards of laceweight two-ply, with which I am very impressed as I knit with it. I had angst while swatching before I spun this yarn, but actually casting on and doing the real thing has taught me a lot about how I knit and the kind of mistakes that I make. And also that using a nicer quality yarn makes the whole thing a lot more enjoyable.

Anyway, I have managed to complete two full repeats of the lace pattern to date:

I will admit that I unknit and reknit every row because I made at least one mistake each time, but I am very proud of what I’ve got so far. Three more repeats and I will have the top/sides of the cap; then a solid back is knitted and sewn on. I am resisting knitting it, though, because it’s a bit of a chore, and I don’t have the energy to focus on the pattern. It takes me about ninety minutes to do a full six-row repeat, including ripping back and reknitting, and with the amount of editing work I’ve been doing lately that’s been glomping what energy I do have, and the fact that there are two people home 24/7 who usually are not, the knitting is kind of low on the list of priorities. It’s hard to devote ninety minutes to something that needs absolute quiet and concentration when there are people tromping through your house doing renos and a small child asking you to fix things, fetch things down from shelves, make snacks, or read things.

I enjoyed spinning the fibre for this so much that I decided having a long lacy coat thing to match the cap would be nice, so I tracked down a basic diagonal eyelet lace stitch and am vaguely planning doing a basic long sweater with bigger needles than the BFL/silk calls for to make the lacework even more open, and sewing short pretty ribbons at the chest to fasten it. This was a thinly veiled excuse for spinning another 3ish oz of the BFL/silk blend, which I did with great enjoyment. The diagonal eyelet pattern is so very basic enough that I could do it while in the hospital if necessary (it’s certainly a hell of a lot less complicated than the lace pattern for the cap), and doing a back panel, two sleeves, and two front panels would be easy-peasy. But I mean, really? A long open lace light coat/ sweater thing? Totally impractical. It would be worn maybe once. Pregnancy is messing with my brain, I tell you. Well, at least I loved spinning it.

Other knitty stuff:

My Chaussons mignons:

My Page 81 booties, which, as you can see, were knitted at two different tensions, which created two different gauges, which in turn yielded two different sized booties. The solution to this is to knit a third bootie, which will either match the newborn sized one, or the 3-6 months sized one:

And now, other people’s knitty stuff!

Ceri knit the Owlet a lovely newborn hat from Manos silk blend, in my favourite Wildflowers colourway, and a pair of Canadian flag socks!

Jan knit a cardi, hat, and shoelet set in a lovely pale icy green for the Owlet. Those shoelets are also knit from the Chaussons mignons pattern, and are much tidier than mine:

I think that’s it.

I’ve gone back to considering weaving the Manos Clasica blanket again. It’s certainly more mindless than knitting, and once I’ve finished my second set of galley proofs early this week, I could warp the loom.

Weekend Roundup: Canada Day Edition

The concert was just lovely this year. And I am still pregnant, so I have broken the Die Fledermaus overture curse (I didn’t get to play it last time we prepared it because the boy arrived early!). A slightly higher chair meant that suddenly my endpin-at-full-extension no longer held the cello at the proper angle to skim the bump, so I had to switch to playing sidesaddle, which I hadn’t prepared… but it all worked, even though I looked like a poster child for How To Not Play The Cello:

And now I get to put the cello away for a month or so, unless I feel like taking it out and noodling with it for a bit. My teacher suggested using a block for my endpin, which would lift it up a bit more.

The orchestra got together to give me a card with best wishes and a little cup, bowl, and bib set for the baby, which was terribly sweet, and they’ve asked for pictures and news as soon as we have it. I was told I was so darn cute that night by three different musicians. ‘Cute’ is not a word I’d use to describe a pregnant cellist, but hey, whatever works for them. I was also informed that I was a trouper. I take my commitments seriously, so bowing out mid-season just wasn’t an option for me; on one hand, I was in it for the season… and on the other hand, I’m just selfish, and I loved the music and didn’t want to give orchestra up, as it was the one thing that got me out of the house. The concert itself wasn’t a problem so much as the occasional rehearsal evening where I looked at the time and my energy levels and my physical state and grumbled all the way through my forty-five minute drive to our rehearsal location. But actually rehearsing always made it worth it. Some people were surprised that I intend to be back in September as well, but others weren’t; they understand that getting out one night a week when you have a new baby is good for the sanity.

And our good deed of the night was finding someone’s iPhone after the fireworks, and they came to pick it up the next morning (though we offered to drive it back on our errands today; it’s a 45-minute drive, after all) and they brought chocolates as a thank you!

It seems to be a sudden FAQ, so no, I have no birthday plans this year due to a certain young lady who could arrive any time. We knew I’d be either exhausted and in the last days of pregnancy, or exhausted because I had a newborn, so deliberately haven’t planned anything. (On the other hand, a great way to ensure she’d be born around that time would be to plan something that we’d then have to cancel dramatically at the last moment…) Also, three separate important people have pointed out that they are out of town in mid-July when the Owlet could very well make her debut, which either means that yes, she’ll be born when no one is around, or that she’ll stubbornly hang on till the beginning of August. We shall see.

I have had a sudden influx of handmade gifts! Ceri knitted a lovely newborn hat out of Manos silk blend in my favourite Wildflower colourway, and a pair of Canadian flag baby socks that I’d seen ages ago and loved. And Jan gave me a hat-cardi-shoelet set in a lovely cool pale green yarn that she’d not only kitted, but entered in the Maxville Fair and won second prize for a 2- or 3-piece baby set! (Her Chausson Mignons are much more mignon than mine. Wait, you haven’t seen mine yet, because I still haven’t written a knitting/spinning roundup. Sigh. Take my word for it.) I should assemble everything and photograph it so you can be jealous, and add it to the as-yet-mythical knitting/spinning summary.

Today and tomorrow are devoted to proofing the galleys of the bird book (FULL COLOUR, people! It’s gorgeous!). Wednesday is a doctor’s appointment for me, and one for the boy, and then next Monday I proof the companion bird journal, and then I am Officially Off. I turned down a copyediting gig that was due July 17, because I couldn’t guarantee that I could do it and get it back on time what with the exhaustion that hits during final couple of weeks (or the baby that might land).

The Boy’s New Cello

This past Monday we took a day trip to Ottawa to visit the Canadian Museum of Nature (or “the dinosaur museum,” as the boy calls it, but he also calls the ROM the same thing so it’s city-dependent) and we’re very impressed with the renovations. The new Queen’s Lantern in the front is surprisingly beautiful for a modernist structure of metal and glass, housing what they call a butterfly staircase (which is essentially a divided staircase that goes up two different ways from floating mini landings) and the whole thing is actually suspended, not built on the lower part of the tower so as to avoid placing weight on it (the reason that the plans for the original tower had to be abandoned). It was a beautiful day for a drive, too.

The other reason we were in Ottawa was to see the 1/8 cello I’d seen listed on Kijiji a month ago. I told the gentleman who listed it that if he sold it in the meantime I would completely understand, but he kept it for me against several other inquiries. He was so kind that I’m very grateful the cello was in great condition and we could buy it. It’s thirty years old; he bought it long ago for his daughter who played it for a year before switching to piano, and he’s kept it all this time, hoping that he’d eventually have grandkids who would play it. He and his wife are selling their house (which was a lovely older semi-detached cottage-style house dating from the 1940s, I think, and if we were in the Ottawa area it’s just the kind of place we’d love to move into) and it was finally time for them to let the cello go.

It’s in very good condition for something that’s been stored for thirty years. There are a couple of cosmetic scratches, but other than that it’s very sound. The strings are dead, dead, dead, but I tuned them as best I could and the boy had a go at it to see how it felt, and the tone wasn’t bad. It will need new strings and bow, as I expected, and the tuning pegs may need to be reshaped (although I got them to stop slipping with a couple of dabs of peg dope — yay, I finally got to use the stick of it that Emily sent me!). I don’t doubt my luthier will want to reshape the bridge, too, because it seems very thick and heavy. The endpin is clunky and dates back from before the fashion was to be as light as possible, so it may be replaced at some point too. It desperately needs a new case, as the bag it’s got is vinyl backed with some sort of mohair-like man-made material that shreds onto the bridge and doesn’t open very well. But the instrument itself is in great shape, and all these other little things can be done one by one, starting with the strings and case, since we’re still using our teacher’s tiny Twinkle bow. And seriously, when one was renting at $170 for two months at a time, this will still come out cheaper only four months down the line. (I’m not kidding: this cello cost $150; updating the accessories will cost about $300. The only local 1/8 listed is $850. New, we’d be paying $1400.)

Most importantly, I asked him if he liked it, and he thought about it seriously before saying that he did, and that it felt comfortable. Did he want to buy it, I asked? Yes, he said firmly, he rather thought he did, which charmed the seller and his wife. So his decision was final, and we paid the gentleman, and the boy now owns his own cello.

(Oh, the forehead in the photo? He walked up to me this morning and said, “Mama, I want you to draw a maple leaf with a lightning bolt on it on my forehead.” “We have no face paint,” I told him. “We can use marker,” he replied cheerfully. Oh, no, we can’t, I thought darkly, because his so-called washable markers have proved decidedly non-washable lately. “Let me Google facepaint recipes,” I sad, and found one that I kitbashed (cornstarch, flour, honey instead of corn syrup, hot water, food colouring), outlined a maple leaf in eyeliner, and painted it in. In related news, we were awoken early this morning by the boy burrowing into our bed, where he proceeded to sing the national anthem to us.)

More recent good news:

– My largest freelance cheque arrived the day after the mail started moving after the government’s heavy-handed back-to-work legislation, so we have money again. For a limited time, of course, because now I get to throw money at utility bills that have been piling up, car insurance and registration, and reno materials, and cloth diapers, and obviously 1/8 size cello accessories that cost the same as full-size ones, a fact that I find extremely unfair… but this is what it was earmarked for, so I’m just thankful I’ve got it. (Which reminds me; I need to call QPIP and struggle through the red tape of initializing maternity benefits for a self-employed entrepreneur. Pray for me.)

– HRH and his dad finished laying the floor in the attic yesterday. This is huge, because it means all the other steps can happen.

– Tonight is the annual Canada Day concert given by the Lakeshore Chamber Orchestra, and although I’m still not feeling fully prepared (the inability to remember if I’m supposed to be playing A flats or sharps is one issue that comes to mind, and no, looking at a key signature doesn’t help much on the fly). Also, we suddenly have a full brass section, part of the magic of hey-it’s-the-week-before-the-concert. I’m looking forward to it. It’s a gorgeous day for Canada Day festivities, too.

– I hit 35 weeks yesterday, and am still very proud of the Owlet for hanging in there. One more week and my hospital will deliver her without stopping labour or transferring me to Ste-Justine for imprisonment. (Just kidding, Ste-Justine; you are a remarkable hospital, and I love you and your staff and everything you have done for us in the past, but I really, really want to work with my own hospital of choice for this delivery.) She is getting really cramped for space and I am near the okay-enough-of-this point, so any time as of 7 July is a go. We are not committing to a date, but we suspect the third week of July.

– My cousin and his family stopped by for the afternoon on Tuesday on their way to Nova Scotia and we had a wonderful time with them. I hope they stop by on their way back in two weeks, but I think they plan to drive straight through.

Right; time to give my music one last once-over in the hopes that anything that hasn’t yet stuck manages to make its way into my brain, then pack a sandwich and snacks and stuff to eat after warmup and before the concert, otherwise I will fall over dead around eight-forty-five.

Farewell To Kindergarten

Yesterday afternoon all three kindergarten classes got together and presented a little concert for their parents, got certificates, and then there was cake.

It’s the boy’s last day of kindergarten today:

It seems like only yesterday that he was off to school for the first time…

I’m a wee bit wistful, and tremendously proud. His teacher told us his reading skills were far beyond his grade level (which doesn’t surprise us, because we read to him all the time, and he will read any text he can; if we put cereal boxes on the table he’d read them, but we don’t, so he reads things like CD spines and flyers that come in the mail and the company information on passing trucks as well as books). He’s doing addition and subtraction, things I didn’t grasp until the middle of grade one, and, perhaps most of all, I am proud of the thoughtful, sensitive little citizen he’s become.