Sixteen weeks old and sweeter than ever.
Spring Wishing
It’s miserably cold & rainy outside and dark in my basement apartment. Some days I go outside just once in the morning to walk the dogs for twenty minutes and spend the rest of my time holed up on the couch in a pile of blankets. I’m powerfully sick of it and can’t wait for actual spring to start, so I’m trying to make it happen through sheer force of will.
I put Gwen in these spring green & white striped pajamas as soon as they come out of the wash every time.
Since Valentine’s Day Taylor has been buying me tulips every Wednesday. What says spring more than tulips? N O T H I N G.
On Tuesday I bought these pastel Easter-y nonpariels and last night I used them to make cookies (that only turned out a little weird).
The recipe actually called for 1/2 cup of jimmies and only 2 tablespoons of nonpariels, but the only jimmies I have in that quantity are Halloween colours and silver, neither of which screams “spring”. Also, remind me to show you all my collection of sprinkles one day, it is OUT OF HAND. Anyway even jimmy-less these cookies are good! I was a little worried all the nonpariels would be too crunchy but they aren’t at all. I do kind of wish I’d put food colouring in them though, pink and turquoise and lilac cookies with pastel sprinkles would have been great.
The Two Faces of Gwen
Lullabies
When I was little my mom would sing special songs to me and each of my siblings at bedtime, and this was the song she sang for me. I sang it to Sym when she was little and now I sing it for Gwen.
We also had an album by The Seekers with this song on it so their version reminds me of childhood as well, which is good since I don’t have a youtube of my mom.
Morning Permabulations
I hate Tuesday mornings. Have I mentioned this before? Maybe.
Tuesday mornings are the hardest for me because Taylor is at work (usually until noon) and Sym is at her dad’s, so it’s just me and Gwen at home with the pets. It would be nice except for the fact that the dogs need walking. Never do I wish harder that we had our own house with our own backyard so I could just let the dogs out to do their business while I sat around making goo-goo eyes at Gwen than I do on Tuesday mornings!
With no one home to take them out for me OR watch Gwen while I do it, I have to do it all myself. What should be a fifteen-minute walk around the block is a huge production with babies and blankets and strollers and usually cursing. At this time of year it’s also usually cold and/or raining, which adds another level of unpleasantness to the proceedings. I have to get Gwen up and changed and dressed and fed and burped before I can even take the dogs out, and since I don’t trust Georgie 100% with the hallway & living room carpets I have to leave her locked in my bedroom until Gwen and I are ready to go out.
Poor thing.
Since these mornings suck so hard I’ve decided it’s the best time to ~treat myself, so after the walk I drop the dogs off and Gwen and I go get coffee instead of making it at home. Today, since it wasn’t raining (at the time, it is now) I also grabbed her bag and we went for a walk across downtown to meet Taylor on his way home from work… and do a little shopping, oops. But like, I NEEDED that fancy bright yellow picture frame and paper straws and cupcake liners and pastel sprinkles and edible Easter grass (it’s grass-tastic, apparently)!
lol no I didn’t but OH WELL. I said I was treating myself, right? And I also got practical things like dog poop bags and dish towels so it all evens out.
Now we’re home and I’m going to spend some time on my favourite procrastination activities: half-heartedly doing housework and making the aforementioned goo-goo eyes at Gwen before I get down to business making banners. But first, baby pictures!
Her #1 favourite activity these days is turning on her side and gnawing on her fingers.
My internet friend Danielle made a bunch of simple solid-colour blankets for me so now I have many more options for coordinating her blanket to her outfit. See here how the orange blanket goes with the orange carrots on her onesie? Yes, I know I have problems.
THAT SMILE. Like is it any wonder I have such a hard time getting things done! I just wanna gaze at her all day!
I love her casually crossed little legs. She rolled the whole way over again yesterday (while I was out of the room, the little sneak) for the first time since Valentine’s Day.
In totally unrelated news, I never adressed this but I wanted to thank everyone who voted for me in the Apartment Therapy Homies. I didn’t win (in fact, I came in dead last, haha), but I didn’t expect to so I’m not disappointed. I was just happy to make it into the top six in my category, hopefully gain some new readers, and find a bunch of great new blogs to read in the process!
I’m also happy to say that Unicorn Parade has recently been nominated for a Canadian Weblog Award! It’s a juried competition so I’m not going to be hassling you for votes, but I do encourage everyone to check out the other nominees.
What Gwen Wore
I’ve been so busy this week, I haven’t really bothered getting Gwen (or myself…) dressed; it’s been a pajama kind of week.
Sunday, February 17th
brown striped footie pajamas, H&M; leather-trimmed headband, made by me
Monday, February 18th
“sweet pea” onesie & green striped jacket, Baby Gap; light brown footie pants, H&M
Tuesday, February 19th
“Aristocats” pajamas & alpaca booties, H&M
Friday, February 22nd
apple onesie, Baby Gap; professor baby cardigan & brown striped footie pants, H&M
Saturday, February 23rd
green striped footie pajamas, H&M (we may yet get dressed in actual clothes today, only time will tell.)
Scatterbrain
I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been swamped with banner orders. February has been my busiest month since November, so I’ve been working long hours and I think it’s starting to affect my brain because I keep making dumb mistakes. On Wednesday when I printed out all the invoices for my next batch of banners I accidentally printed one out twice, which meant I ended up making an entire banner I didn’t need to make. A WHOLE BANNER. Luckily it was a popular one that I sell quite a few of so I guess I’m ahead on those now? I also found a custom order I’d listed incorrectly, I spelled a customer’s name wrong on an address label and last night I cut out the letters for a mini banner in mint green instead of light pink. WHAT. THOSE AREN’T EVEN SIMILAR. And that was WASN’T a banner I sell a lot of so unless there’s more than one “kawaii princess” banner enthusiast out there it was a total wash.
What I need to do is take some time off from banners but unfortunately, doing that would just put me further behind schedule, meaning I’d be busier and probably make even more mistakes in the long run. I guess I will just keep it up and hope I don’t waste any more time on silly mistakes.
Symstagram
follow Georgie the Peorgie on Instagram; a well-lit cup of water; magically delicious; the littlest interior designer
Snug as a Bug
I bought this Mamas & Papas Baby Snug floor seat for Gwen and she’s not sure how she feels about it. I think she kind of likes it but she isn’t a pro at sitting up yet. When she gets excited she does that whole stiff body/back arch thing babies do to express almost every emotion (anger, hunger, happiness, excitement, sleepiness) so when she’s in the seat she finds herself leaning back too far and is unable to sit forward without help. The first time I sat her in it she didn’t cry, but she did make some really sad frowny faces. Mostly she looked like this gif of the baby going through the tunnel:
I think once she gets the hang of it she’ll really like it though!
I chose this one because the tray was included and the green part of the seat comes out, leaving the white base as a bigger seat for when Gwen is older, meaning we’ll be able to use it for longer. I’m getting ahead of myself though, first she needs to figure out how to just sit in it.
It Gets Tiresome
One of the things I hate most of all is doing the same boring-ass task over and over again, and nothing exemplifies this more than vacuuming. With a house full of fluffy pets, I have to vacuum pretty much every day, and it is so tedious! Right now the dogs are all blowing out their undercoat and every day AT LEAST ONCE the whole carpet is covered in tufts of hair, especially black hair from Kichou. idk why, but he is the worst for shedding! I’ve even been hassling Taylor into brushing him more often and he’s still leaving trails of hair clumps all over the house
why, Kichou. whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
To make matters worse, I’m also apparently blowing out MY undercoat, aka in the throes of postpartum hair loss. If you weren’t aware, that’s when after you have a baby and all that long, luxurious hair you grew during your pregnancy falls out of your head and piles in drifts around the house. I either didn’t have it or didn’t notice it after I had Sym (my hair was short then) but this time I definitely have it and it is SO ANNOYING. I pretty much always have that thing where I have a stray hair stuck to the side of my shirt that tickles my inner arm (YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT) and I’m ready for it to stop.
Other tiresome things: washing fifty million baby bottles a day, folding fifty million wash cloths, making repetitious banners, going to the post office.
Something not tiresome at all: this baby face
Also YOU’RE WELCOME for my not posting pics of the clumps and balls and drifts of hair billowing around my house right now.