the Maddy dress

Sometime ago my mom gave me some “vintage” patterns for kid’s clothing. Since vintage is so in these days, I decided to give one of the simpler patterns a try.

Enter Burda #10464.

Definitely 1970s. Bell bottomed pants, large collars, dresses mid-thigh. Not to mention the fabric choices in the illustrations! And the hair.

Looking past all of that, though, the dress itself is not that vintage. Timeless, I suppose.

So I forged ahead and decided to make version C of the dress. My mom had saved all the pattern pieces and the instruction sheet. The German instruction sheet. I have to say, that as far as instruction sheets go this one was minimal. You really have to have some advanced knowledge of sewing and dress construction (not to mention be able to read German) in order to follow these instructions. Actually, if you have advanced knowledge of sewing and clothing construction you don’t really need the instructions.

The only really useful instruction on this sheet was this:

WICHTIG! Naht- und Saumzugaben mu¨ssen beim Zuschneiden zugegeben werden!

Which, when I read it now 24hrs after finishing the dress I believe says:

WARNING! Seam allowances must be added when cutting the material.

Yes, I am reading that now. Yes, I already finished the dress. No, I did not add seam allowances. Sigh. No wonder the size 5 that I made barely fits Maddy. Oops.

Anyway, I dove into my material stash and found some fabric. I mixed and matched and hemmed and hawed and finally came to a decision based mostly on availability of what I had on hand and partly on colour combination.

The finished product:

The piping around the armholes was my doing. The topstitching around the bodice was my doing. I even experimented with some French seams down the side… not entirely sure I did it correctly, but it’s done. I didn’t do the pockets.

I think this dress would look sweet with some contrast piping down the front seams. And next time I make it I’ll add some seam allowances!

February is sucking the life out of me

First we had this:

Then we had this:

And then we had 3 snow days. And a holiday. And a sick kid who couldn’t go to school. And the sidewalks aren’t plowed and I don’t have a car and I am trappedinmyhousewiththreekids. And they’re predicting more snow.

And while we could do some of this this and this:

… I think I now officially hate February.

March, hurry up.

professing love

Some days I wonder what I got myself in to. The kids are all screaming or crying, I get kicked, spat on, yelled at. Food is thrown. Tantrums are thrown. No one is happy.

And then art work like this comes home from school and all the bad stuff that happened that day disappears.  I love you too, Maja.

they are, afterall, part Canadian

This past December we had an epic snowfall — well, epic using Philadelphia standards. I think it was the biggest snowfall that we’ve had in December in a 100 years? or something like that. Of course this called for: SLEDDING/TOBOGANNING/SLIDING (call it what you will).

I was a little nervous sending Maja out to the park with a sled because last year when Richard and I took her sledding she got a face full of snow on her first run down the hill — we had to go home with her screaming the whole way back. Thankfully, however, this year was much better! She actually enjoyed herself!

tummy sliding, toboggan riding, snow slipping, saucer-flying!!!!!

I think she spent about 6 hrs out there on the toboggan hill that sunny day. I’m not kidding. She was loving it. And best of all? Maddy had fun too — they were both fearless!

#23

Today is a RED LETTER day: kindergarten registration for Maja. I can imagine to some people this would not seem to be such a big deal, but in our neighbourhood for our local public school is it. Richard was in line for registration at 6am. In the dark, cold, mid-January freezing-ness with a thermos of coffee and some hot bagels. And guess what? He wasn’t the first in line for one of the coveted 51 spots. He was #23. There were people in front of him with lawn chairs and blankets!

WHAT? Did I just say “public” school? Yes. A public school in Philadelphia. You heard me correctly. I have not lost my mind. And people lined up in the pre-dawn hours to get in? Uh-huh.

Our local public school is somewhat special, you see. It is the reason houses in our neighbourhood are so expensive as you have to live within a catchment in order to attend this school. The school which is partnered with the University of Pennsylvania and therefore is so well run. One of the few schools where a child can actually get a decent public school education in this city.

Disappointingly, though, Richard didn’t have to stay out there for 3 hrs waiting until the doors opened at 9am. A security guard handed out numbers and sent everyone home with instructions to come back at 8:45am. I am only disappointed because when the time comes I can not hold the guilt over Maja’s head:

Your father stood out in the cold for THREE HOURS so that you could go to school, young lady!!!!!!

Alas, he only stood out there for about 15 min. Ah well, there will be other opportunities to instill parental guilt on my child. For now, I’m just glad we don’t have to pay for daycare for Maja anymore come September.

Wild Thing

One of the events that occurred during December which I never got around to writing about was Maja’s stage debut. I have always proclaimed that Maja would be an actress… she’s SO DRAMATIC. Ooof.

The nursery school that the girls attend has the pre-K class put on 2 “plays” a year. The mid-year play was Where the Wild Things Are and Maja was the “lead” — as in she played Maxine, a female version of Max.

Here’s the video. Of course I cried — pregnancy hormones and all.

3 sisters

My three babies:

Maja in 2005; Madeleine in 2007; Pippa in 2009

welcome Philippa Emma Sabine

Pippa made her appearance on December 30, 2009 @ 10:07pm.

She weighed in at 7lbs 14oz — much heftier then I had thought she would be. 19″.

Philippa is because we like the name. Even more, I like her nicknames: Pippa, Pips, Pipster.

Emma was my great-grandmother’s name; it’s also my mother’s middle name.

Sabine is my older sister’s middle name.

My labour was… well, FAST. I thought Maddy’s labour was fast? HA! Try this: 1 hr. One. Hour. Quite frankly, I think it’s a small miracle I a) didn’t have the baby at home or b) have the baby in the ER or c) have the baby in the PEC (Perinatal Evaluation Center).

So, on the 30th I had an OB appointment. I was already annoyed that Pips had not made an appearance as now my entire family had left after the holidays — she was LATE and I was DONE being pregnant. The midwife that I saw that afternoon told me that I was at 4cm and about 80% effaced. WOHOO. I quietly asked if I should try the castor oil “trick”… and I got a very sotto voce answer: yes. 4oz in a chocolate shake. But then the midwife said I should wait until the morning of the 31st to do this; if I did it after my appointment I would be in labour all night and tired by the time the baby arrived. The look on my face then caused her to say: You’re not waiting are you? You have the look of a woman who is desperate.

Damn straight. Hello? The drugstore and the chocolate milk shake place are rightnexttoeachother. There was no way I wasn’t going to do the castor oil right away. So, by 3pm I had downed the concoction and probably within an hour I was having some moderate contractions. And it stayed that was for the rest of the afternoon and evening — definitely having contractions but nothing painful. I entertained my in-laws, we had Chinese take-out for dinner, I put the kids to bed at 8pm.

Shortly past 8pm I lay down in bed and prepared myself to do some Sudoku puzzles and fall asleep. I also started writing down some times of contractions. Not that they were painful, but just in case… between 8 and 9pm I had contractions that ranged from 3 min. apart to 8 min. apart. So: Not regular. Not increasingly painful. Not “progressing”.

At 9:10pm I had a contraction that was accompanied by a “pop”. My water broke. I rounded up the troops (Richard and my mom), Richard called our neighbour down the street to be in the house for M&M (who were asleep) and we headed to the hospital. I was checked in by 9:29pm and WALKED over to the PEC. At the PEC things got interesting. I joked that they were going to send me home! I mentioned that if possible I would like an epidural — at which point I believe the PEC nurse started laughing at me. Then all hell broke loose. She checked me — 8cm. No time for an IV. She called in the doctor and the two of them wheeled me down the hall from the PEC into a labour room. Yes, the DOCTOR wheeled the gurney.

Someone in the labour room (I swear there were like 5 nurses and the doctor, plus of course Richard and my mom were in there — a regular party) then mentioned my request for an epidural. Hello??? I’m done with the hard part — I know how this works, so I responded by yelling “THERE’S NO TIME FOR THAT!!!!” and I promptly started pushing… while I was still on the gurney. Someone asked me while I was pushing if I could move over to the other bed! Right. Don’t know how, but I slid over and immediately pushed 2 more times in the space of about a minute (taking a pause to yell at Richard to get the hell over to the bed and hold my hand! dammit) before Pippa made her arrival at 10:07pm.

Fast.

And there she was:

dust dust dust

It’s been almost 6 weeks since my last post. I swear that I haven’t forgotten to post… but well I’ve been BUSY. You know!

My mom has been and gone. We had an epic snowstorm in December; then there was Christmas and a baby. Then a few weeks of adjustment to our now family of 5.

The baby of course deserves a post of her own. With her birth story!

Let me just finish my dinner and I’ll get started on that…

December is for lists

December — the time to make lists. Except this year my lists are not for Santa. My lists are for me, and for you, and for Richard, and for my friends. I am making lists for co-workers, bosses. The lists are for information, procedures, phone numbers, names. The lists are for dates, events, shopping, groceries.

I like lists. Maybe I should make a list of lists… oh, I just did.

The problem is that despite all my lists I am not feeling more organized. I am just realizing, instead, how completely and woefully unprepared I am to deal with this baby.

I pray she doesn’t come early. Especially since I couldn’t get a hair appointment until the 14th; especially since my pre-baby pedicure is not until the 15th. Especially since my mom won’t be here until the 18th! And Maja’s pre-k play (did I tell you that she’s the “lead” in the play?!?) is the 18th and her ballet recital is the 20th. I can not miss those events. (See, a list of Important Events That Must Be Attended).

And then there’s the biggest list of all: the Honey-Do list. Stay tuned.