That darn Tooth Fairy

Last night, I was sitting up late in our darkened living room, holding my sleeping little boy Reid real tight. Reid is getting his molars and needs a little extra loving. And my heart is breaking that he is less and less a little baby each day, and so I need a little extra loving, too.

And then, out of the darkness and ever-so-softly pads in Addie, her cheeks stained with tears. What the heck is she doing out of bed? She is gripping tightly to her specially-decorated envelope which holds her first tooth ever lost.

"Mama" she sobs, "I don't want the Tooth Fairy to take my tooth away from me. I always want to keep my tooth forever!"

"That's ok", I sigh, my heart aching at her earnestness. "I want to keep your tooth for always, too. Tell you what. Let's keep it. I hear that whole thing's a fraud, and I'll pay you more money for it then that darn Tooth Fairy ever would!"

Win-Win. Addie gets to keep her tooth, and I don't have to spend the next 10 years hiding it from her.

good morning

Addie awakens each morning with some truly amazing morning hair.

The best part is that she's completely clueless to the back of her head and would go about her day completely happy and oblivious if I didn't capture and comb her!

I've been wanting to capture this quirk of her childhood for some time, and so today I grabbed both Addie and the moment and photographed her latest 'do.

Thank goodness for conditioning spray!

pieced

I've been sewing and quilting up a storm around here lately (so satisfying!). Yesterday I finished machine piecing this child's sized quilt for my little man Reid. It is now ready to be quilted by hand, which should take a year or two to finish. But my goal is to have it done sooner this time around. Fingers crossed!

I wanted Reid and Addie to both always have matching hand made quilts made my their mama, so here I repeated the simple design of the first quilt I made for Addie which I finished many moons ago now. Addie's is made in tomato red and turquoise and she sleeps tucked in under it every night.

I chose greys and yellows for Reid's colourway because Reid was born at the time of year in Vancouver when we are coming out what seems like endless of grey damp and rain. On the afternoon when Reid was born, however, I clearly remember the most brilliant sunshine broke through the clouds and spring seemed to arrive at his birth. A sweet memory, translated into his simple little quilt. And with his laid-back happy personality, Reid will always be my sunny day boy.



I stitched lots of little important things in - cars, trucks, pets, animals, bugs, paper-folded boats. Reid enjoys searching through it and discovering these little treasures. At one time, it seemed rather difficult to find nice fabrics for boys - but that's sure changed over the past few years. I still find most fabrics are geared towards the feminine, but I also find fabrics which suit Reid well all of the time, too.

(I also have many - 100 or so - a bagful - of extra yellow and grey squares cut that are left over. They are 2.5" in size. If you sew and would like them, please let me know and I will send them out to you.) Thank you! The extra squares have now been spoken for.

at the fence

at the fence, a photo by lovelydesign on Flickr.

i realised early on in the year that at the top of Reid's activity choices is to putter around our yard. I am over the moon with this realisation - and we have been getting much work done, side by side, moving rocks, uplifting the earth, weeding, preparing, discovering. I have many plans, but they are slow goals. I feel as though have no one to impress but myself - a rather satisfying feeling which in my experience usually yields the most fulfilling results. We shall see.

Out of school hours, and more and more as the grey wet days fade into brilliant sunshine, Adelaide will join us. Having this light-and-airy-fence installed last spring was one of the best things I had done. With it I can work on the street-side of our garden relatively stress-free, but still have closeness to them. Soon, I will stain it and add a few embellishments, i believe.

I am greatly enjoying this time with my children and the peace and contentedness and satisfaction which comes from gardening and work out-of-doors. It's like a sigh of relief for the soul.

Happy Spring!

For Adelaide, on her 6th birthday

Today, on her 6th birthday, I took a moment to capture my Addie. So I can keep a little of her here, just like this, forever with me.

"...Everything you hear, smell, see

All the world is everything
Everything is you and me
Hope and peace and love and trust
All the world is all of us."

This little person is my whole heart.

Happy Birthday, my sweet sweet girl.

just me, and the kids

Just another average weekday. Puttering around the house, tidying up, giving the kids snacks, placing orders for supplies online, looking for a gift for Charles. Nursing Reid on and off while I browse online. Pasta dinner ingredients laid out on the kitchen counter, ready to go. Just counting down to six o'clock.

Addie emerged from kindergarten with an sore throbbing ear. She's on Tylenol now and seems much better. I'm hoping her ear heals and doesn't infect and rupture like last time. When she screamed all night in pain.

She is happily colouring christmas cards for her classmates. But then, she's upset at me because I wrote out "Merry Christmas" for her and she thought it said "Merry Chris4mas" and wrote that in all of her cards. All sealed neatly in a stack on the kitchen table. She's crying with this failure.

To distract her from her upset I told her I'd trim her bangs which were falling hopelessly into her eyes while she moaned at me about the 4. I sat her up on the bathroom counter, grabbed my sewing shears and started to trim. Now she's laughing and wiggling in agony of the tickling. Somehow I manage not to jab her.

Reid came into the bathroom and moaned to sit up on the counter with Addie, too. I sat him up with us. This made him so happy that he's snorting with joy.

I was looking at my two children, with my face reflected in the mirror in between them. I wanted to capture this moment of us, together, as we almost always are.

On another ordinary day, just me and the kids.

Sweet Reid (18 months old)

I've had a really difficult month with Reid. I'm exhausted. But... it's funny because I feel like I love him even so much more than ever before. When I look through these photos of him, I must really resist the urge to sneak to where he's now fast asleep and just snuggle him up!

I guess that sometimes in relationships... when you stuggle and go through hard times together, all that work just makes your love stronger. Even though it's been so hard, I feel more connected to him then ever.

Just. love. this. boy.

Little Artist Adelaide

I've been meaning to share this with you all as Adelaide is just so proud. Look at what she discovered in the latest issue of Strawberry Shortcake magazine - she is giddy with happiness - it is her first published artwork!

At first, I actually found it kind of weird at first that they didn't give us any advance notice about this. But then I realised that it's actually really awesome that we had no idea and Addie just discovered it on her own. I don't think I've ever seen her so close to peeing herself with delight!