baybeasts

I made these pants a while ago for a friend who recently had a gorgeous baby boy. Here they are modelled by our own gorgeous boy:

One year ago today, the six cells that were to become Loey were transferred through my cervix and into my uterus for a quick swim before implanting a few days later. We are so head explodingly glad that he did.

Five years ago today, S’s mother died unexpectedly. I had not yet entered the picture, so I never met Kate, but I feel sure she would have been thrilled to have grandchildren. She had certainly predicted it for years, despite S refusing to believe it would ever happen. We think it is nice, in a bittersweet kind of way, that Loey was transferred on this day, and that Tootle is due any time now. It winds a little thread back into the world of Kate. We have bought shiraz and lamb chops and mint chocolate to gastronomically honour her death day.

Tootle update : Nothing on the horizon - it might still be two weeks before we meet the baby. We have started a crazed last-minute attempt to crochet another cotton baby blanket. Kate was a brilliant knitter, so I think she would approve…

We got two more hand knitted jumpers in the mail today from my great aunt Dot, who I hardly know. She is the country-living sister of the Best Grandmother Ever™, however I wasn’t expecting a letter as nice as this along with the present…

Dear bean and S,

Just to wish you both all the best for the future with your little family. What a good idea having the babies so close together - they will be great mates and you can share the babysitting (and the feeding?). Three of my grandchildren were very close together and they often got fed by the wrong mum if mum was held up and they were hungry. Hope everything goes well for you both.

Love from Dot.

I was 36 weeks last Friday.

The first 20 weeks limped by but the second 20 weeks have flown. We are scared shitless, but can’t wait to meet this little person who is nearly cooked.

S has made her first ‘butt sweater’. It is so small and sweet - we think we’ll only get a week or so of use, but it is just delighting us.

It is made from pure felted wool, so I am going to treat it with lanolin and then it will be quite waterproof over a newborn cloth nappy.

I came home from work today to find that, despite nausea, S had done an amazing job of rearranging our bedroom. This included lifting our enormously heavy latex mattress about five times, hammering nails into various wooden supports and (quite) a few tears of frustration culminating in this lovely sight that greeted my return. We now have a queen and single bed of equal heights, only a foot off the ground. I’m not sure how the vacuum will gain access but I’ll worry about that when the dust bunnies come out to play…

When S first talked about co-sleeping, I was fairly unimpressed by the idea as it sounded like a sure way to have babies who wanted to breastfeed all night, forever. She has remained steadily optimistic that we will find ways to manage and I finally, through gritted teeth, agreed to give it a go.

I’m now quite looking forward to it, and my heart feels happy looking at this big family bed. The multi-coloured blanket on the single bed was generously knitted for me by a work colleague, and we have put our practice B1 and B2 in to have a snuggle.
The paintings on the wall were done by S’s Mum, who died four years ago.

after a hellish week at work, we’re off to brisbane. hooray! it’s a funny thing - when we first arranged this trip i was reluctant. i knew that this would be a really busy time at work (it’s turned out to be even worse than i feared), and i resented having to take leave. i also resented not being able to stop off in sydney and visit my family.

but over the last week or so i have really started to look forward to this trip. i love bean’s family - it will be amusing and (mostly) relaxing to hang out with them. and i can’t wait to show off bean’s bump to them all. hopefully b1 will behave and kick a few of them! also, brisbane is beginning to feel like a second home, and so i am finding myself looking forward to that sense of place - the smell of the air, the big green leaves on the plants, the wide lazy streets.

i’ve been slack with blogging because, well, there’s not much to say. i’m knitting madly (current projects: a very cute tiny vest and a funky striped jumpsuit); b1 is kicky and gorgeous and every day i smile at hir profile which i have put on my computer desktop as the background; bean is obsessed with nappies (they probably deserve a blog post of their own); the lawn is lovely when it’s mowed; bean has a new haircut and it is really funky and sexy (and is making me think again about cutting mine); i’ve had a small promotion at work but it’s only an acting position which is annoying, and i’m tired of applying for jobs but it’s really time to get paid more; i don’t think that starbuck is dead (it was too sudden and there was too much other mystical stuff around it - shell come back somehow for sure); um, i can’t really think of anything else.

what a boring blog post. but i thought maybe some newsiness would be appreciated by some of our readers. i’ll try to get back to my usual literary standard soon. (and i’m sorry for not talking about the elephant in the room. i just can’t bring myself to.)

oh, and it’s lovely being linked to - hello to those of you who found us via the twinkle, lesbian family.org, and babes in blogland. welcome!

and now for something less naked…

I guess you could call this our baby trousseau.

I have been working on it for a while (though I should admit that bean made the incredibly beautiful rug), but I am feeling a new sense of urgency now that there is apparently a real live baby wriggling around in bean’s tummy. I’m working on two rugs, and have plans for any number of booties and cardigans and vests and jumpers and little knitted pants. I think I am obsessed.

The one thing I haven’t done is visited the button shop - 90 per cent of these little things need a button, or two or three. bean and I can’t wait for button day - it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Each one has a story: the brown hoodie (my favourite) was started and unravelled numerous times, but the snail I got right first go; the orange and cream striped hat was initially made for my manager at work when she was pregnant, but I got the colours around the wrong way and had to make her a whole new one that matched the booties that I had already made; I hated the green vest pretty much the whole time I was making it and for some time afterwards, but now, strangely, I adore it; the tiny dark blue dress was made from our friend K’s mother’s old ring binder of crochet patterns that I just can’t bear to give back yet because there are some more wonderful patterns in there; I started making the white dress for another friend’s baby but then loved it so much that I couldn’t bear to let it go and so had to knit her something else (which also turned out to be stunningly beautiful); the wool for the maroon shawl-neck jumper was outrageously expensive (hand dyed) but I do not regret a cent of the cost; the four hats are all actually properly known as helmets - the bottom two come from the ‘pretty baby helmet’ pattern…and so on and so on.

I am really looking forward to these garments accruing more layers of story, of vomit and cuddles and showing off; to having photos of them filled with chubby arms and warm soft bodies; to telling these stories to our children, remembering how small they once were.

work is NUTS! i will never skite about being a cruisy public servant again. hence the lack of blogging. but there is hopefully some good worky news to post in the next couple of weeks…

the lawn has ‘taken’ - that is, it is green-ish and getting longer. phew - that’s the scary thing about instant lawn, that it may just turn up its toes and die on you, making a mockery of the expensive convenience of instant lawn.

the winter vegies are finally in - carrots, onions, silverbeet, broccoli, peas and beans, and an experimental crop of potatoes (i think it will be too cold but you never know until you try!). i’ve also planted a mess of flower seeds - pansies, lobelia, columbines, calendula and marigolds, scabiosa, and goodness knows what else. i am hoping for a flowerful spring this year - which reminds me, must get more bulbs (tulips!).

i finished an exquisite baby jumper with a shawl collar in mottled maroons and blacks - it is so beautiful i get all squishy when i look at it. i am now working on very dinky orange and cream stay-on booties for my pregnant boss at work (soooo many pregnant women at work!) because she is very cool and i want to give her something nice.

after looking up the definition in the dictionary i’ve decided we are definitely not bourgeois. well, i hope not anyway. might post more on this later. you know, we make a lot of our own stuff. and stuff. ah shit…

and we are feeling a lot better than we were a week ago. chins up, looking forward! here we go again.