Weekend plans

It's Friday and Ron has big plans for this afternoon and tonight that do not involve Peter and me. So we'll be trying to amuse ourselves. Life in a college town is great that way -- there's almost always something interesting going on. Today it's TWO art sales: one to benefit Habitat for Humanity and featuring work by Thaddeus Holownia and Jeff Burns (likely to be big money-raisers), and the other of work by fine arts students who (one hopes) will one day be the stars in their own benefit auction. We have a small but cherished collection of art, and maybe Peter and I will find something to add today. He hasn't shown much interest yet in (my favorite) abstract landscapes, but the students tell me that's very old school. Sunday I want to go to Cornhill Nursery and get a few more rosebushes for the front garden. I'm hoping that strategic placement will make the front porch a bit cosier without seeming overgrown and cramped. Off now to get the babe.

Redecorating Peter's room

Redecorating Peter's room
Originally uploaded by run lily.

Peter has his new room: soft green walls, linen blinds, cream and orange carpet. I'd still like to order some red bird linocuts (Flying in the Rain and You Can Do It) from littlestflower.typepad.com, and maybe bring up his red chair from the playroom, but otherwise it's done. Yeay! It looks like a little boy room.

Crystal Palace locomotive, Peter's first birthday

Crystal Palace locomotive, Peter's first birthday
Originally uploaded by run lily.

Ron and I managed to (mostly) take the day off yesterday -- me from writing, him from festival planning. I had planned a busy day, but decided Thursday night that I just couldn't do it. Tariq Ali can wait, and so can my article.

We went for a lovely walk in the morning, and then after a brief stop at the university to hug and kiss Allison and Darlene at the social science faculty office, we went to the amusement park, with a stop at Frenchy's to look for rug wool and assorted things. I picked up a hat that looked to be the right size and put it on Peter's head. He said, "Hat," with a nice H and even a T at the end. He's done that a few times since. We took a nursing break on a bench at Chapter's, and Peter seemed to be such a big boy. Another woman was nursing a very young baby, and suddenly Peter was the big toddler, walking over to stand and look at the little one. We went on all the little kid rides at Crystal Palace, and then back home in the evening, Peter decided that he was going to show us all his tricks and took off the lovely fish shirt he was wearing. I made another birthday cake (hot milk sponge cake from Joy of Cooking turned into a jelly roll with whipped cream and melted chocolate folded in). I can't believe he's one.

Birthday bunting

Birthday bunting, view into laundry room
Originally uploaded by run lily.

Well, the holiday bunting is almost done. I got the red gingham tape this afternoon, then pinned and arranged until it was the right length for the little space under the plate rail in the kitchen hallway. The flags are recycled thrift shop pieces: one tiny cafe curtain (the lineny yellow and blue floral), one medium quality, quite worn poly-cotton blue stripd pillowcase, and one absolutely amazing brilliantly new top quality yellow gingham bolster pillowcase. The flag dimensions were based on the size of the tiny cafe curtain: how many flags could I cut without wasting a scrap? In the end, I have two extras, so I'm going to make more of the stripe and gingham. It's not reversible, but it is very nice looking on the reverse: the stripe is lined in white, and the other two in the yellow gingham. I am mad for gingham.

This project was inspired all the way by Posy's beautiful bunting (posy.typepad.com). I love the idea of hanging it for birthdays, holidays, rainy days, blue days ... I'm planning to hang it on Peter's door on his actual birthday, but have it downstairs for the party tomorrow. The extra flags will be turned into another length of bunting as soon as I get more red gingham tape

"One Good Thing": flea's letter to her sons Alex and Chris

This was linked from Blogging Baby, and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose it. It's a lesson that I think of every day. I lecture occasionally on women's sexuality in my anthropology classes, and talk about how our society doesn't really recognize the validity of women's erotic feelings. Being able to really say "I want it" means that it doesn't preclude later saying "I don't like that, please don't do it." Flea's column today is a letter to her young sons about their responsibility as white men to protect the defenseless, even when no one else is, even when everyone else is going along with it. I won't try to tell the rest. She takes my breath away.

Inspiration: Button magnets

I'm wishing I had more time for fun stuff like making the button magnets that Mollycoddle posted on her site. How sweet are these? Back to real life. I'm actually taking a few minutes out of revising my article for Research in Economic Anth. Good news today: the editor likes it and wants the final version soon for peer review. I had been struggling with "what it should be" vs "what I know and want to say" in the introduction. Once I let go of trying to write "what it should be" then it all tumbled out nicely and clearly. I do have to go back and reorganize some parts in the middle, and flesh out the second paragraph of the introduction, but I think that's it.

Peter's baby room

Peter's baby room
Originally uploaded by run lily.

I think we're going to paint it soon, and wanted to remember the way it was when he was a little mouse. The wall color is a left-over from previous owners, who had paired it with a Southwest-style (1980ish) border. One of dh's drama students did the polka-dot border above the moulding. Sadly, that will go. It reminds me of boiled eggs, which I especially loved when I was pregnant and seemed to be the only thing that kept my stomach settled. I've already taken down the sheer cotton curtains that mum and I had embellished with gingham tape (purple, green, yellow) that matches the animal border that we used to hide the mess where we removed the old one. I had been planning to leave the room as is, waiting for another little stranger, but I think it's time for a change.

Half an hour's work

After pulling my hair out for most of the day, I took a break, made oatmeal scones (with chocolate chips instead of raisins) from Joy of Cooking, and we had them for a snack with strawberries and whipped cream. (Actually, Ron did much of the cooking while I directed from the sofa where I was nursing Peter.) After the break I went back to work and pounded out enough in the next half hour to feel that I had actually put in a good day's work. The rhythm of writing still surprises me sometimes.

At 5 Ron went off to a meeting, and Peter and I started some evening projects. I took the bi-fold door off his closet (it needs to be replaced with a proper panel door) and installed a curtain rod and curtains there instead. It's soft and sweet, and gives him a place to hide since the lowest shelf is about 30" off the ground. When I had the shelves installed, I wanted the lowest one high enough to leave room for tall packages of diapers. I'm still plotting to get the room painted sometime soon. Sunday is Peter's family birthday party, but Saturday seems free. Maybe then.

Braided rug project

Braided rug project
Originally uploaded by run lily.

I wanted to do a braided rug for the kitchen floor, something colorful and warm (for baby bottoms as well as our feet). It's made from strips of wool fabric snipped from thrift shop clothes that have been machine washed and dried. The fabric comes out shrunken, but not really felted. (Maybe the next rug will be from felted sweaters, though.) Cut the strips 2" wide, braid 3 of them together, and then start coiling and sewing. I make a braid a few feet long, and then coil it around, and (using heavy upholstery thread and a big needle) sew the coils. I've heard of people "lacing" the braids together invisibly, but I haven't done that (mostly because I'm clueless). I don't turn the raw edges together either, but I might try that next time, though it's not bothering me. A clothespin holds the working end so that the braid stays together. You can see it in the photo -- this is a work in progress.

So far, I've gone through one long coat and one blazer (red), one pleated knee-length skirt (cream), two straight knee-length skirts (black), and one pair of knee-length shorts (red plaid). It's a challenge to find the right tones, but it's cheap. One of our local thrift shops (Frenchy's) sells wool items for hooking at a dollar each. That brings the total so far to $6.

Trying to find time ...

I haven't been keeping our little family album as up-to-date as I'd like, partly because I'm procrastinating less and working more (grin), and partly because I'm trying to spend less time on the computer. Those are both good developments, I guess, but I don't want this project to fall by the wayside.

What's new in the past week is that Peter's walking as much as he can. Although he started in January, now he's walking more than crawling, and likes to walk laps around the house, especially holding on to a big person's finger or thumb. He leads.

We also installed black-out blinds in his bedroom, and moved his bedtime from 7 pm to 8 pm as part of a plan to improve his sleeping. It's worked quite well. He's not too cranky before bedtime (we've been entertaining him with home renovation projects: papering the inside of kitchen cabinets, installing blinds), and he manages to sleep through until 5 when he has his first breakfast, then back to sleep until 7 or so. What a relief.

Something else that's new is that Peter's been talking much more, or rather imitating in most cases. He's saying ba-ba again (bye-bye) spontaneously, and da-da of course, and then some other syllables that sound like hot and cold (ot, old), thank you (I can't quite spell this one, it's more like a two syllable grunt), and all done (a-da). These are real words. Then there is lots of repitition (spontaneous though) when he hears a word in our conversation, or when we speak to him. He seems to speak a lot on some days, and not so much on others.

His first birthday is in a few weeks. I'm torn about party plans. I want to do something special and fun, but also something that won't leave either of us frazzled and worn out. We also have lots of friends with babies around the same age or a bit older, and we'd love to include them in celebrating. Maybe two parties? A tea party for babies and mummies one day, then dinner for the grandrelatives and cousins from out of town. Either way, theme parties can wait.