Start 'Em Young

Whenever Mr. Cleaver and I talked about having kids, we talked about how much of we do already is pretty kid friendly (see: apple picking) and how we wanted to integrate Miss Cleaver into as much of what we love about our lives as possible.

As so, as she sleeps a lot still and is pretty portable, Miss Cleaver's been and mostly slept through a number of knit nights, neighborhood walks, trips to visit my co-workers, weekly visits to the local library for story time, and Record Store Day.

This past weekend she got a crash course in Mom's nerd loves as she celebrated (read: slept through) International Star Wars Day, Free Comic Book Day, and a viewing of Iron Man 3 at the Drive-in. (Fun fact: the first time we went to Pride's Corner Drive-In back in 2010, we saw Iron Man 2 - how time flies!)

I know it won't always be as easy or practical to take her along on all these things, but as long it is, we'll be bringing her along.

Blessed Days

Come Friday, Little Miss Cleaver (LMC or Miss C.) will be a month old (well, four weeks). It's hard to believe a) that it's been a month already and b) that's she's only been in our lives a month. The nights are long and the days are short and we couldn't be happier.

I've managed to get in a little sewing, and Miss C. went to her first knit night last week and got tons of cuddles and mom got to use two hands at once. I spend a lot of time just looking at her and thinking how beautiful she is and how amazing it is that she's ours.

I love being a mom to this little wigglebottom.

One Week

So those pictures I posted in my last post with the baby bump? I glad I took them that morning, because less than 24 hours later I was going into labor. Well technically, my water partially broke and I didn't actually go into labor and had to be induced, but by the next evening I was in the hospital working on bringing this into the world.

The afternoon of March 22nd brought 9 pounds and 4 oz of our very own little red-headed girl and we couldn't be more overjoyed, proud, overwhelmed, amazed, everything.

Sometimes I just hold her in my arms and can't believe how beautiful and wonderful it all is and how soft her hair is.

And yes, I've been projectile spit up on and our laundry in the past week has more than doubled and there are a lot of diapers and late night feedings, but it couldn't be more worth it.

Steinbeck has been a very curious but very good big brother and Mr. Cleaver is the absolute best.

I know my life is going to be totally different going forward and I have no idea what to expect, but I'm looking forward to living life with this wee one.

I've debated more about what to call our little girl on this blog than we did on her actual name and I still haven't settle on anything, but it'll come in time I'm sure. Until then, I'm off to cuddle my little one.

A Confession

I have a confession to make. I’ve become addicted to sewing baby clothes.

Teeny tiny adorable baby clothes.

When I started my sewing for the Wee Baby T, I avoided clothes as I didn’t have a good idea of what size babies actually are (still don’t really).

So I made other practical things: some bibs, a carrier, a nursing pillow, a toy or two.

But then Made by Rae came out with the Geranium dress pattern and I was overcome with the cuteness. I downloaded the pattern the day it became available and set about to sewing it shortly after. It sat finished except for the closure for a while (I made several failed attempts at snaps, but need to purchase better snaps methinks), before I finally added some buttons. In the meantime, my addiction lay latent, as yet unknown.

I had intended to sew some more baby clothes, in fact the weekend after we found out the gender I went and bought a bunch of fabric and some patterns for that express purpose, but still I held back.

Then a few weeks ago I was hit hard by the nesting instinct.

It started simply, an envelope tee from Growing Up Sew Liberated. But there was something thrilling about it. The tee was so little! It took such little time to sew! And I had successfully sewn something with knits for the first time!

I started digging through my stash, pattern books, and pinterest to see what else I could make. I came up with the fabric for another tee and started planning for my next projects.

A few weekends and a few trips to JoAnn’s later (and a new found appreciation for sewing multiples assembly-line style), we have all this:

Patterns from top to bottom: Envelope tees from Growing Up Sew Liberated. Geranium Dress from Made by Rae Reversible baby pants from Growing Up Sew Liberated. Baby Tights from Made by Rae Basic Newborn Pants from Made by Rae

And I have more fabric! And more patterns! And more plans!

Who knows what my sewing time will be like in the not-so-distant future, but as long as that babe stays inside, she’s getting better dressed by the weekend. [Note to Wee Baby T: this does not mean you should take this as an opportunity to be overdue] ;)

Bits and Pieces

The nesting instinct is strong in the Cleaver household these days.

Things are beginning to come together in bits and pieces. The nursery got painted this weekend, we've ordered new carpet to replace the mismatched (and smelly!) carpet in all the bedrooms, and have even purchased (or made!) a few things for the Wee Babe. Once the carpet is installed next week, we'll be able to start setting up the nursery for reals, and not just on paper.

With about 9 weeks to go before my due date, it seems both like time is going by way too fast and not nearly fast enough. I've definitely hit the tired and uncomfy part of the third trimester, but there's still so much to do! That said, one thing I've learned to appreciate about this pregnancy is that it's forced me to just SLOW DOWN and rest when I need to, something I've never been terribly good at.

After all, my most important job these days is gestating, and I seem to be doing pretty well there. :)

Our Happiest Thanksgiving on Earth

According to my big brother, I haven't posted anything since November 8th, and I'd be the first to admit that ever since this pregnancy began, I'm lost my blogging rhythm, which I suppose can only be expected. But worry not - things have been carrying on here at the Cleaver household, in perhaps a more chaotic fashion than usual.

Work has been keeping me very busy, we're having new insulation put in the house, I'm trying to finish up a number of deadline projects, and I've been building up a cache of knit and sewn baby things I hope to share with you soon. In the midst of all of this, we took off Thanksgiving week to visit my extended family in Southern California.

With three other shutterbugs snapping photos of all the family gatherings, I neglected to pull out the camera for any of the family events, but I did take my camera with us on our Tuesday trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland, thanks to the generosity of my aunt and uncle. Because everyone else was still working that day, it was just Mr. Cleaver and I, but I was pleased to accompany the Mr. on his first trip to Disney.

We gamely avoided any of the non-pregnancy-friendly rides, but still found more than plenty to fill our day. Mr. Cleaver declared Pirates of the Caribbean to be the best ride, while my favorite of the day was the new-to-me Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Between all the standing in queues and walking, I think it took my legs 3 days to recover!

But it was a fabulous fun day and a great transition into the holiday season!

Fall is on Its Way

Oh hey there blog. Don't worry, I didn't forget about you. It's just been a long quiet summer. I watched a lot of dvds (The Poseidon Adventure really holds up by the way and my love for the X-Men cartoon survives unabated), but for the past month or so, I didn't really do much of anything I'd call "blog-worthy." But fall is quickly approaching here in Maine and the Cleaver household is getting back into the swing of things.

First stop? Ricker Hill for our annual apple picking adventure.

On our 4th year out, my love for this place is still strong, as the doughnuts are still delicious, the views wonderful, and the apple selection top-notch.  We picked a half-bushel and a peck of MacIntoshes, McIntoshes, Cortlands, and my personal favorites, Jonagolds. I see a pie-making afternoon in my near future.

The weather was sunny and crisp, just like an apple-picking day should be.

Steinbeck was super-helpful.

We came home happy, tired, and full.  Though I might have been a bit more tired than usual, but that's only because gestating a tiny human being is hard work......

Yep - the Cleaver's are expecting!

While I couldn't come up with any cutesy blog announcement photo theme (they are seriously not kidding about that 1st trimester fatigue), both the Mr. and I are super excited. I'm about 12.5 weeks along and am due in late March. So expect many photos of tiny baby sweaters soon. I imagine it's going to be a busy fall!

Just Spinning Along

I did get that spinning wheel of my own, and am loving it!

Also, contented pooch:

Be back with more substantial posts soon!

The 4th in Four

I finished up so many projects in the past week, but haven't had the time to really photograph them. It's been a full week: Monday was Steinbeck's "Gotcha Day" - one year since we first brought him home, Tuesday was Mr. Cleaver's birthday and we enjoyed stuffed deep dish pizza straight from Giordano's in Chicago. On the fourth, Mother Nature outdid any fireworks with an intense thunderstorm, so we stayed inside and watched the last three episodes of Freaks and Geeks instead.

Yesterday, we took the day off and ran errands, bought a Johnny Cash CD, and checked out a bunch of comic books (the Runaways, where have you been all my life?) and the first season of Arrested Development from the library. In the interim, I've been chugging away at my tour de fleece spinning including the yellow lace-weight, which Mr. Cleaver termed "a lot of yarn." I finished my cookie-monster cardigan and I've been swatching like crazy for new projects. I even managed to sew on the bias binding on my second sorbetto.

I'm back to work today, but it's been a fun few days off. Even better, I'm just hours away from the weekend!

Northern California Adventures: The Places

Last week Mr. Cleaver and I headed out to Northern California to visit my family. The weather was beautiful and we ate enough food for the entire month of January - in fact most of my trip photos were of food, so I'm going to give the eats their own post.

Today I wanted to focus on the last day of our trip when my big brother (hi Luke!) took us to Muir Woods and San Francisco before depositing us at the airport to catch our red eye back to Maine, where it promptly snowed 8 inches on our return.

Luke had suggested we go to Muir Woods, and since Mr. Cleaver had never seen a giant redwood tree, I heartily agreed!

If you're not familiar with redwoods, the coastal redwoods are the tallest living trees in the world and can grow up to 380 ft (115m) high. These amazing trees grow only in a small region of Northern California and the the Pacific Northwest and I visited them often growing up on camping trips with my family.

Perhaps even more amazing is that these giant trees grow from the tiniest pinecones!

Coming from Maine, it was fun to see how green everything was, even if the non-evergreens had lost their leaves.

For a complete 180 from our woodland trekking, we ended the afternoon at Ghiradelli Square and Pier 39 in San Francisco- the epitome of touristy hustle and bustle.

The  Bourdin Sourdough Bakery

Checking out the Sea Lions at Pier 39

Sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge.