Frock by Friday: Day 1

Well, the downloading of the pattern was easy. Heck, printing it off was pretty simple too! I started cutting away and was quickly reminded of kindergarten and cutting on straight lines. The entire time, I thought to myself, why am I not using my industrial cutting board or even my paper trimmer? 30 pages later, I was finished cutting. I'd managed to tape the first row rather easily, but it was the 4 other rows that gave me fits. Plus, all of that taping reminded me of the time that I broke the vase and attempted to put it all back together with scotch tape. Yes, there was a time that I truly believed that tape could fix anything, just as long as you had enough of it! ;)

Lucky for me, Don came in to save the day. Actually, he was in the middle of folding 100 newsletters and stuffing them in envelopes for the HOA. I begged him to trade me tasks. While he didn't want to really, I think he saw the despair in my eyes and handed over the folding and stuffing. My mind immediately took me over to those "Work from Home" ads where you just stuff mailers. Shortly thereafter, I dispelled that idea when my hand began to cramp around letter 53. No thanks! Just as I finished with 100, he was putting on the final piece of tape. Unfortunately, we didn't have any packing tape, otherwise, I would've used Jacki's idea. Definitely going to get some next time I'm out and about, especially since I have another pattern that I want to make that I downloaded from Burdastyle as well. (Totally excited about that one too, because the pattern was FREE and the gorgeous navy blue linen fabric cost me a whole $1.10 for 1 1/4 yards!) All in all, it took about three hours from start to finish with about a 20 minute break to play on the Internets and stretch out my hands.

This past weekend, we took the Subarbean to a nearby park to have her portrait taken. But Bianca, aren't y'all photographers? Why yes, but we wanted some images from another perspective, an outsider's view of our little one. We were very lucky that she captured her spirit beautifully! Also, she snapped a few of us as a family and the proofs were amazing! I'm unable to post those for another couple of weeks, so you're just gonna have to enjoy these as a teaser!

Now that you've had some cuteness, here's a hefty dose of mommyhood:
I'm back on the insomniac train, so last night when I finally caught my window of sleep at 1:30AM, I stopped by her room to check on her. This is my ritual. Always on the way to bed, I stop by to tuck her in, kiss her goodnight and turn off her night light. This time, when I lifted her blankie to cover her, it was saturated. Then I remembered the three glasses of water she'd inhaled just before bedtime. Of course! She's had a couple of these bed wetting accidents, all of which were preceded by mass amounts liquid intake prior to bedtime. So there we were, Don and I, tag-teaming it. I undressed her and wiped her down with a wet wipe and redressed her. Don took the blankets and sheets to the washer. Instead of remaking the bed, I opted to bring her back to ours to take advantage of some snuggle time. Plus, if I exerted the energy to make the bed, I knew I'd be wired for another hour or so and as it was, I needed rest. I gently placed her next to my pillow and she curled in. I came in behind her, whispering, I love you, cuddlebug, simultaneously tucking her in with my quilt. She nuzzled in the pillow and in her little voice, said, "thank you mommy. coddle, coddle" and let out a sleepy giggle. Seconds later she was fast asleep. Ever since she returned from her vacation, she's been calling me Mommy instead of Mama. I glanced over at the clock, 2AM. I'd have to be up in less than 5 hours, but holding my little one, it didn't matter. To trade sleep for moments like these, well, it's an easy no-brainer trade.