hanging in

Actually we are doing a lot more than just hanging in as we wait for this baby to arrive. We are enjoying these beautiful fall days and I am loving having a little bit of "extra" time to get myself prepared. I am already 10 days past how far I got in my last pregnancy, and I am feeling ready now- which I never really felt last time, I was so taken by surprise by the early birth.

::Our apple harvest, 12 apples in all- but 12 tasty apples::

We saw our midwife today, a lovely home visit, and it is looking good for a home birth. I am feeling pretty thrilled about that. And I am so excited to meet this new little person.

And lovin' up this little guy I've got, who seems to get sweeter and cuter all the time. He's been enjoying the warm weather and this keyboard we've got on loan- making up all sorts of delicious toddler tunes.

Lucky baby gets a brilliant singer/songwriter as a big brother. May come in handy when I run dry on lullabies.

threading beads

Ari and I were in need of a project the other night (Perry was cleaning the kitchen and my aching hips needed to have a rest,) and I pulled out some unfinished wooden beads from the back room that I bought awhile ago. We set to painting them with watercolour paint, a task Ari loved, attempting to cover every last bit of every bead with paint. The pictures of the painting turned out too dark to post, but imagine deep concentration and a furrowed brow and a paint shirt and you'll have it.
We left some unpainted - or rather I hid some unpainted ones from the overzealous painterboy- and rubbed beeswax polish on once they had dried. They are such pretty shades, and the watercolour paint highlighted the grain of the wood much more nicely than paint would have.
And the best part is that Ari loves threading them. It was so fun to watch him with them at first- struggling so hard to figure out how to get that tapestry needle through and the bead pulled down the yarn, but so excited when he got it. Taking the beads off was just as challenging, and fun to watch. I 've been studying child development and the process of learning new things (mylination and setting down new pathways in the brain etc.) and it was fun to have a case study right there at the kitchen table.

And, just like Enki espouses, a sleep-cycle cemented these new learnings. In the morning he reached into the bead basket and threaded and unthreaded those beads without a hitch. He was rather pleased with himself sitting there beading in his dino PJ's. This feels like just the begining of this sort of focused activity for him- I can hardly hold myself back from setting up a thousand craft projects for he and I for the winter.

to Ari: an almost-big-brother

"smile for the camera, Ari!"

Dear Ari,

I wanted to record a little bit of who you are right now, before you makes this big leap from our only child to big brother. You are my sweet boy, my snugly little guy, my sweetheart. At playdates I have to monitor you, not to ensure that you don't hit or kick (okay, you have your moments, but they are rare,) but to make sure you don't over-snuggle the other small people, especially the babies. You love babies, and often will just say out of the blue, "remember baby Lucia, mama?" or "I LOVE to snuggle baby Wren!" I'm taking this as a good sign for the baby to come, though it is impossible to know how you will feel when it is your mama with a new baby.

:pocketing special rocks for your rock basket:

We had some rough spots this summer, with lots of tantrums and tears and frustrations. We struggled through and you came out the other side transformed into a little boy, speaking in great big full sentences, singing songs through word for word, cracking jokes and imaginating the days away. It's been quite miraculous really. Your favorite things to play these days are "boat" where you load up a cardboard box with everything you need for your big trip down the river, including your wooden spoon paddle and plenty of felt playfood (and today lots of musical instruments since you were going to a party,) and you head off. You catch fish and sleep in there and keep yourself entertained for a good while, which is such a treat. You also like to pretend to be animals- birds, snakes, elephants, jumping bugs, cats. You let me know which you are by saying "hi mama kitty," or "hi mama horse" and I know to only call you "baby kitty" or "baby horsey" for the next while. :showing off your "very fancy" silks and broach:

You are also an extremely active little guy, and your need for physical activity is great. You will happily run the 5km distance to and from our creek before bed including sprinting back up the steep driveway on our way home. We are noticing that you are so much happier and settled when you are getting lots of exercises and it is our current challenge (especially with me being sooo pregnant!) to help you meet these needs. I made myself a list to stick on the fridge reminding myself of the movements kids need for sensory integration and all the different sorts of activities that meet them. So when you are getting squirly and I can't quite pull of a 5km run, I can suggest some games with spinning and crawling and pulling etc to ground you a bit.


You are so in love with life my dear sweet boy. You embrace the world with such gusto, making it a joy to spend time with you. You really are good company. You love people and keep your introverted mama on her toes as you greet and chat up absolutely everyone that we pass by. You get a little offended when grumpy old men or flaggers at the road construction don't return your waves and greetings. You love mountains and animals and the moon and helicopters and working in the garden and books and trains and babies and flowers and music. You really love music. You love to drum and sing (oh! that singing! it is just the sweetest thing!) and dance and pick out the instruments that are playing in songs. You often wait to start dancing until the drums come in on a song and then you leap to life.

You also love to help us. You "wash" the dishes, cut soft fruit and veggies with a butter knife, pick our supper salad from the garden, sweep the floors and generally make yourself as useful as you can. And I am often amazed at how much you can manage to do.

:cutting zucchini without once getting "fusterated":

I think you will make a fantastic big brother. And, once this baby grows big enough to be a playmate, you will have such fun together, with you and your joyful, in-the-moment attitude leading the way. I love you my baby, my sweet big boy.

Life feels full right now, as we ready ourselves for our new arrival, and my body starts to get tired and sore. I seem to have done something to my back which is making we hobble about even slower than I was already. There is a specialness to this time though- such an excitement of what is on it's way and how soon big changes are coming, and yet moving through our days with much mindfulness of the loveliness of this last bit of time of being a family of three.

I have been collecting up some of the projects I have been working on for the babe, as I wash receiving blankets and baby hats readying them for the (hopeful) homebirth. This one above I started in early pregnancy before I became convinced that this baby is a boy. The rose i-cord trim kind of puts it over the top in girliness, but it does look cute on baby Sammy here, so maybe I would put it on a boy. It is knit in merino and is just so wonderfully soft. Sammy was kind to offer his modelling services- he's been quite busy since we changed him into this preemie sleeper from my sister-in-law - he now is regularly being rocked and cuddled and diapered by Ari. He also modelled this sweet thrift-store find for me- .75 wool booties, as soft as a cloud. A happy find.
Some more woolie covers- I'm set now, for the newborn days. The blue one is the next size up.
And I am so pleased with this little blanket I just made. I had been looking at organic baby blankets and just couldn't spend amount of money that they were going for. And then I remembered this organic jersey I've had in my stash for awhile now, unsure of what to do with it. This was so simple to make- just bias trim from this botanical print that I love (not organic though-) and two layers of the jersey sewn together. It is wonderfully soft and warm and I am so happy to have it done.
And we are still working on stocking the freezer- this is the space above it which we painted in chalkboard paint ages ago and finally got to using. Such a handy system to know what is in the giant chest freezer, and I find huge satisfaction in watching the list grow as the weather cools.
And still, there are plenty of projects that look like this. There has to always be more than one can possibly get done, right? That is just how it always seems to be.

blessings

I was the recipient of a lovely belly blessing last Sunday- a beautiful sunny day filled with flowers and women and warm heartfelt wishes for my birth and for my baby-to-be. Everyone created a "birth bundle" contributing special objects and words to be wrapped up and kept for the baby at a later time. These things keep arriving too- from people unable to make it, and I imagine adding to it (and creating one for Ari too of things people gave him- since he was born a couple days before the planned event!) special cards and objects and the first outfit etc.My best friend (and doula) organized the event and had everyone bring beautiful bouquets of flowers which decorated the space and then were used to make "flower beads" to be worn during the birth.

They are currently drying at her place so I don't know how they turned out, but forming them was a lovely thing to do together. And not all the flowers got turned into beads so now my house is full of flowers from my friend's gardens.
Pictures are a little sparse, I wasn't in picture taking mode, but the day will stay warm and bright in my memory.

And Ari is always happy to do a little belly blessing of his own, which is a little easier to capture.

harvest

The garden is brimming- tomatoes hiding in the dense green of our little greenhouse, calling Ari to bring his sand pail to load them into as I poke my head into the outrageous jungle to excavate the red ones- more peas than we could ever eat or shell, rainbows of chard needing to be blanched, and flowers tumbling over each other hoping for a chance to bloom before the frosts set in.
Lots of berry picking too, raspberries and huckleberries and saskatoons. Kerplink kerplank kerplunk go the berries into Ari's bucket, before he fishes them out to eat them. Mmm September.