Is it too late for a Christmas post?

I realise it's 5 days into the new year already, but I really wanted to do a post about my Christmas sewing project (that I finished on the night before the 1st December). I embarked on a mass-production challenge (as I tend to do) evidenced here and here. I decided that I'd like to give handmade Advent Calendars to some of my nearest and dearest friends.

The biggest challenge was deciding how to get the numbers 1 through 24 onto the fabric. In the end I went with hand sewing, and spent a crazy week hand stitching in the backyard, in the car (passenger seat only of course) and in the company of any poor soul who came to visit during that time (and yes - I did provide visitors with a spare needle and thread and their help was very much appreciated).

I (and my helpers) stitched up 6 sets of numbers, as I had intended to make 6 calendars. In the end though, I only made 3 (time was not on my side, and I will make up the remaining 3 some other time). One went to my favourite little Australian in Canada. Another went to a friend here in Brisbane. The other was for us.  All 3 were different (yes, photographing them before giving them away would have been a good idea - no, I didn't do that).  The only photographs I have are of the 'bunting' style one that I made for us.

We only put stickers in the pockets this year (Lola is too young for some of the great 'activity' ideas I found online, and we thought she'd be eating enough chocolate over the festive period).

But Simon has an idea of how to use the calendar better next year, and it will also tackle the problem of the kids having too many things to open on Christmas morning and losing interest in the process half way through (not a bad problem to have I realise).  We're going to use the calendar as a treasure hunt clue giver, and spread out most of the little Christmas presents over the month of December.  Well, that's the plan anyway. We've got plenty of time to work out the details. 360 days to be exact!

I've been busy

Well, I thought I'd been busy. That was up until 5 days ago when our new baby boy arrived. Now I realise that life before that date was not so busy after all.  Sure, the nights were long.  Trying to sleep when you're 9 months pregnant is not fun. But I guess in a way it prepares us for what's coming.

But the biggest challenge of all has come from left of field.  My biggest worry has been trying to show a 2 year old girl that her mama and papa have enough love for a whole extra person in their family.  I had thought that her excitement about her new baby brother was going to be enough to get us through this period - but I think I'd underestimated the power of a 2 year old's emotions.  She's definitely excited he's here, and she loves her new baby brother to pieces.  But since his arrival, she's been what I like to call 'emotionally volatile'.. Having said that - she's probably only mirroring my own emotions :) Filled with love one moment, crying with unabandon the next.  I really thought I'd escaped the emotions this time, but they creep up on me when I least expect it.  The wierd thing is - I was weepy for weeks after her birth - but that was more of a 'I don't know what I'm doing and I can't believe they've trusted me to bring this little, helpless, beautiful baby girl home'. But this time, the weepiness comes when I feel like she's missing out on something that we all took for granted before our baby boy arrived. Or when I rouse on her for being too rough when she tries to kiss her brother. Luckily we have Daddy home with us for the next 4 weeks, and so far he's been there to meet her every need. Although I feel guilty that I get to snuggle and nurse a beautiful, trusting new baby boy - and he has to endure the painful cries of "I want Mummy to do it" when he tries to help Lola with things.

But still being in the middle of this ride - it's hard to see whether it's been bumpy all the time - or whether I'm only focussing on the bumps right now.  But rather than feel guilty at turning her life upside down, I'm going to hope that this time is character building for her. She's learning to love a new person, she's learning to share her Mum and Dad's time, and she's learning that her parents aren't perfect, and are really just doing the best that they can do.  I tell her every day that I'm trying to be the best Mum I can be, and she says 'ok mummy'. She's a beautiful girl and we're all looking forward to a wonderful Christmas together as a family of 4.   

A little bit quiet..

Things have been a little bit quiet on the blog front and in our household lately. I'm starting to feel the true meaning of the term 'heavily' pregnant, and with only 6 weeks to go - it's starting to feel very real all of a sudden.

There has been a lot of transitioning going on for our little 2 year old lately as well. She's out of nappies and doing really well on the potty (not quite happy about using the 'big' toilet yet :)) and she's also started to sleep in her own room, in a big girls bed. Getting her out of our bed was something we felt we needed to do if we wanted to co-sleep with the new baby, and I think the change has been harder on us than her! She doesn't even want to come into our bed through the night anymore - but instead she wants Mummy to come sleep in her bed :) It's early days still though, and we're all learning together.

So there hasn't been a lot of sewing of late - but there has been some gift making and ideas going around..

Here's a dress from Heather Ross's "Weekend Sewing" book that I made sometime ago but has only just started to fit 'twirly' Lola..

And here's what the kids in my Mums group will be getting for Christmas:

Image from The Happy Home blog

I loved this blog post from Belinda last week - and went out to Spotlight yesterday to get my shapes to stick the magnets to. I'm going to let Lola loose with the paints on these. I think they'll be gorgeous little gifts.