A felted wool coat for Peter

A felted wool coat for Peter
Originally uploaded by run lily.

This little coat is just about done -- it still needs a zipper, and the trim. Peter loved it even half done, and wore it around the house for half an hour after I took his picture. He protested when I started to take it off, but eventually agreed to trade the coat for two little cuffs that he wore instead. The sweater was a men's large before felting, and I've resewn it in blanket stitch with 3 strands of embroidery thread. Lots of fun today!

Things that make Peter laugh

Peter started laughing when he was just a few months old. At first, his laugh was a burble -- like a brook. Sandra (who keeps him a few days a week) said that Cohen (who's 4) had asked one day about the sound Peter made, and she explained that he was laughing. He used to laugh like a nut when I played pattycake with him, and then a bit later when we played peek-a-boo. He still enjoys those games sometimes, but they don't make him laugh the way they used to. Now he laughs loudly, big "ha ha ha!" kinds of laughs. These are some of the things that he finds funny these days. I wish I had started this list earlier.

1. Seeing someone he loves -- mama, dada, Lily -- come into the room.
2. Having mama whisper silly sounds against the back of his cheeks and neck.
3. Watching dada pretend to scare him with funny faces.
4. The word blah-blah-blah.
5. Being tickled on his kneecaps and behind his knees.
6. Other people laughing.

Green, green, green

We painted Peter's room right after his first birthday. I like the color: it's calming, and soft, and reminds me of the color of tree leaves with sunlight streaming down through them. We added a soft (made in Canada, artificial fibre) straw-colored rug for playing and reading on. At some point, I'll replace the quilt (this one was made by my grandmother many, many years ago) with one that can take more frequent washings.

The gingham one folded over the rocking chair was made by Grammy too, especially for Peter. It has hand-stitched heart appliques, and is entirely hand-quilted in a circles and stripes pattern. She's 88 now.

Vintage

Even though my students no longer look incredulous when I (only half in jest) say that I was already in university when they were born, I still don't get it. Really, I mean. The 80s are as far off now as the 50s were when I was in elementary school. The 50s were Happy Days and sockhops for us, a theme-park of a decade. And the 40s were a fable, some far-off place where our parents were born but left as children to come to the New World and be modern. Even the 1970s seems like the recent past to me, though more and more the catchphrases are seeming odd. When I felt last week that I just never had fun anymore, and grocery shopping by myself qualified as a "day out," I suddenly realized that this is what women meant in the 1970s by taking time to "find yourself." Except no one says that anymore. Ron brought this "vintage" tricycle home from his mum's a few weeks ago. They bought it new for him.

Tuesday

Peter's at Sandra's playing with the kids, and I have been working at home today, mostly on a book review of Imagined Diasporas, by Pnina Werbner. It's very good, but dense. This afternoon I want to spend some time making a wish list of acquisitions for my new courses. This will be fun, as finally I'm spending someone else's grant money! Woohoo! The university hasn't employed a Middle East specialist before, so the collection is weak and unprogrammed in that area. It's a big task, but I've got a plan: a list of topics (overviews, economy, political systems, kinship, gender, belief systems, popular culture, ethnic minorities, language, social movements, life cycle) with major backlist and current works for each. I'm not even thinking about what this may cost.

Friday's foray to the art sales wasn't as much fun as I'd anticipated. Peter and I went at 4:30, just as Ron's auditions were beginning. The benefit auction works were still being hung, but we poked around anyway and didn't find anything that made my heart leap. The student sale did have lots of fun things (piles of linocuts for $7 each!), but everything was on the floor and I couldn't put Peter down. That made going through things very awkward. I tracked down an illustrator a few years ago by asking the drawing prof to recommend someone, and my lovely linocuts for Peter's room may come about this way. The ones I liked on Etsey have sold, and the creator doesn't do commissions. I was disappointed by that.

Otherwise, things are going well, I guess. Ron's mum is in the hospital (a few hours away) and we are concerned about that. Peter is getting over his cold. I'm sleeping somewhat better, but still stressed and tired. I need to get this review done, then back to my henna practices article. Ron's schedule is getting busier and busier, and there are more and more evening meetings and shows. That is our life, I guess.

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.