My brother and his family are in town from Maine. Maine to New Mexico. That's a long, expensive trip, so it's a rare one. We went to the zoo yesterday and had some fun. Brock had never met his cousins before, so he was thrilled. He had the time of his life rough-housing with them.

Left to right, Niece Julia, SIL Charity, brother Ryan, me in a doofy hat and my step-niece Ana

My sweet niece Julia

Ready to dodge monkey poo.

Brother Ryan and niece Julia.

Dorky hat AND a dorky smile! Go me! Oh, and my shirt ripped about 4 seconds before this shot, so I'm sort of pissed because I JUST GOT IT.

My nephew Hunter

Splash area for the kids. It was sooo hot, this felt great.

Playing nice for a minute.

The kids loved chasing peacocks. The peacocks, not so much.

My brother and my niece, Julia.

Brock running right in front of a lady in a motorized chair.

Quilters mega-giveaway bonanza!

There's a big ol' giveaway -- like weeks of them -- for wannabe quilters going on over at Stash Manicure. You have to jump through a few hoops, but some sewer pals might like to check it out! There are also non-wannabe quilter giveaways and lots of visitor posts.

The Pleat Week

Join in at See Kate Sew in 7 days. Because who doesn't need to make better pleats?

Partying like a true Brock Star

On Friday, my dad and stepmom retired. Yay for them! On Saturday, we partied.

Brock grew weary of sitting peacefully, and the dance floor was empty, so we set him free. He wobbled and tottered all about with his hands in the air, sometimes one of them splayed across his face as though he simply couldn't believe something.

Then he took off for the band. He discovered their maracas and said, to nobody in particular, "Don't mind if I doooooo!" in a voice that sounded strangely similar to Homer Simpson's. And off he ran, right through the stage and all of the instrument cords.

Yep, that's my kid. The one running loose and getting underfoot. The one stealing instruments and the show. Nope. He doesn't take after shy Mommy. He's more like Daddy, who is always happy to be on TV or radio.

He would toddle toward someone with the world's biggest smile on his face, and they'd open their arms to greet him, and at the last second, he'd swerve. DENIED. Little tease with the big eyes.

With grandpa:

I do have some video, shot on someone else's camera, so maybe I'll eventually get it. And we'll have some pictures soon of the whole shindig.

In other news, my brother and his family are coming all the way from Maine this week to visit. I have never met my youngest niece, and none of them have met Brock. It's a family reunion I am so excited for!

Random Brockiness

I realize that I really haven't had an update about Brock's development. I'm sure everyone is just dying to know. Brock is 12 months old.

Mobility
Brock is walking, but not very far. He walks along in a hilarious manner with his hands above his head. Then he loses his balance, falls and starts crawling without missing a beat. I'd say he started walking right around his first birthday. He was cruising very well before that.

Eating
We are trying to phase out the bottles. Eating is sort of hit-and-miss. Some days he stuffs his face with table foods and shuns baby foods. Others are the opposite. It's scary not having bottles to rely on. So far, if he wakes up too early, he still gets a bottle and goes back to sleep. He also gets a bottle before bed and sometimes one during the day if he seems to be having a bottle meltdown.

I think the key is not letting him get too hungry and feeding him frequently. But it sure is a lot more time consuming coming up with a balanced diet he is capable of eating, and the actual act of eating it can take a while. I sure do sweep the kitchen floor more in one day than I used to in a month. Wish I was kidding.

I don't know why this bottle thing is so hard for me. I wanted to feed him bottles till he was 18. Easy to pack his lunch that way! I guess it will be nice not washing all those Dr. Brown's parts, but I'm still not sure how to handle 5 a.m. hungry wake-ups.

I tried introducing a sippy (soft and hard spouts) at 9 months, but he wasn't ready and didn't get it. I tried again later and he managed to figure out the soft spouts, but he still doesn't get to tip the cup back. I have found the straw sippies are the best for us. I started with the Playtex trainer and he got it right away. I bought several of those. And lost several before learning to move the trash farther from his high chair. Now he gets milk in his straw sippy throughout the day as much as possible.

Talking
Brock is very vocal, but he's still not really saying any words that I'm aware of. He seems to say Daddy but not Mommy. And sometimes when I ask him a question he seems to say "yeah." But I'm really doubting it. And a few times after I say "no," he seems to say "no," too. Which reminds me to use more variety when I "scold" him. So he's not talking much, but he did get compliments on his nice handwriting on his birthday thank you cards, so I guess I can be proud of that.

Playing
Brocktopus would rather get into mischief and mess with anything but his toys. He got so many toys for his birthday, but naturally anything important or dangerous is much more interesting. Sometimes he just crawls around looking desperately for something to knock to the floor with a dash of naughtiness. He does enjoy his little pool and getting out the backyard, but it's sort of hard when he's not walking that well and he doesn't like crawling on the grass. Plus, I have to prevent him from eating rocks, hummingbird poops and old birthday cake he finds in the grass from when he sent his slice overboard.

Amy Butler Lounge Pants

I bought the fabric for this project at Hip Stitch months ago and then had no time to actually make them. I wanted them for summer usage, but I wore them for about an hour last night and was so hot I couldn't bear it. I always wear pants to bed, but these just have a ton of fabric, I guess. They are big and wide and long.



They are from Amy Butler's "In Stitches" book. So far, they are the only project I've tried from the book. When Brock was about 8 months old, I suddenly felt ready to sew again and I went a little crazy buying cute sewing books and fabric. Then I felt exceedingly overwhelmed because I do not much like having projects piling up and staring me in the face.



I left them a little long, and with the grass, they just kind of hung up. So I am standing tippy-toes to let them hang nicely for the pictures.

I think my pants look a little dumpier than other people's versions, but maybe I needed to make them smaller.



The book appears to have contrast fabric at the bottom in the photo, but I think it's actually just trim that's sewn on top. There are no instructions for contrast fabric. It's obviously easy to figure out, but when I first tried them on before doing the waistband, I thought I had made them suitable for a giant.



But after I sewed up the waist, they were just about perfect. I just needed a slightly larger hem than the instructions suggested.

I ended up adding elastic to the waist in addition to the drawstring. I just find it more comfortable that way.



Instead of using my sewing machine, I serged the pants together. Then I switched to the sewing machine for the buttonholes, waistband, hems and drawstring.



I think one reason I put this project off for so long is that although the pattern book comes with the pattern pieces, it only comes with partial pieces for this project. You have to then attach long pieces of paper and extend the legs to where you want them. I had bought contrast fabric for the bottoms and did lots of calculations when doing my patterns. Calculations and guessing, really. But for me, those are sort of one in the same.

I made a size medium. They fit, but I think a small would have been better. I am 5'4" and still have some baby weight to lose, so I went a size up. Here are my calculations for the leg lengths with contrast fabric, if it helps save anyone else some time:

I added 19-3/4" to each leg piece. This is your main fabric.
The contrast fabric pieces were the width of the leg pattern pieces and 8" long. I used a half-inch seam allowance to attach the two pieces, using the serger, then I did the rest of the pants.

This pattern is really easy to complete after you get the pattern finished up and the fabric cut. But until it cools off here, or the humidity lessens up and lets my swamp cooler work better, I won't be doing much lounging in these.

A very blustery photoshoot

My friend Sonya Cogan of Sonya Cogan Photography took Brock's one-year pictures. At first, we were so pleased that it was overcast because the lighting was great. But a few minutes in, a big windstorm kicked up. And a windstorm on Albuquerque's West Side means plenty of dirt.

So we didn't get to finish our session, but here are some that we managed from this round.

Asymmetrical folds skirt

Because I haven't had many posts on here lately featuring sewing projects, I thought I'd do a cross-post this week from my other blog.



I found this skirt on interweavestore.com. I always thought it would be really inconvenient to have to download, print and assemble a pattern. It was 47 pages worth, but I simply uploaded to FedEx Office and paid $5 to have it printed. It wasn't even that much trouble to tape together the pages and then cut out the pieces.

I did have some fitting problems around the waist. I think some back darts would help a lot on this garment.

I made some easy changes to improve the hem, which can be found on my other blog post here, along with fabric information.

Overall, this was a quick and easy summer skirt project.

Brocktopus turned 1!

It's hard to believe my baby boy is pretty much a toddler now. We had a huge bash on Saturday, and the dude partied hardy. Despite a house and yard packed to the brim with guests, Brock never panicked and had a blast playing. Here are some pictures:


Just before the party, me and Brock.


Nani and Grandpa brought balloons.


The spread. Doing cold foods (we also had deli sandwiches) really simplified things.


Babies loved chillin' at the pool. Brock is the one in the water.
Incidentally, the children LOVED croquet. They saw the set and dove right in. I thought they'd be like, "what the hell is that antiquated game that doesn't involve a screen?" Nope, not at all.












My grandma got to come! She's been pretty house-bound since breaking both hips and lives in a group home now.




He wore his birthday hat for about 10 seconds and a "1" onesie from Target.


Cake! My mom made some wonderful cupcakes and this cake.




You've gotta have milk with your chocolate cake. In case you're wondering, the best place to set your milk cup is directly in your cake. Repeatedly. Until you've thrown your cake on the ground. Then throw your cup on top of the cake like a little pill.


He put a strawberry on my white shorts at the beginning of the party. By this point, I also had chocolate cake on them.


That Clifford. He's a red dog, indeed.


Mark wore an outfit that matched mine just to embarrass me.


One of Brock's favorite presents was a kitty keyboard that does all kinds of cool things. One of my favorite features is that you can choose the sound the keys make, like banjo, bells, piano and MEOW! The keys meow when you play them. And there are a bunch of built in songs about cats, too. It's awesome.


All that partying requires a boy to kick back and relax with Dad.

Walking (sort of) and talking (sort of)

Little Brocky, where has my fat baby gone? He sat on his ample tush for so long, and then BOOM, he took off and never stopped moving again, except to sleep (which he does like a pro).

The rolls of fat on his sumo thighs have melted away. I think I'm going to try this weight loss routine. Crawl, pull self up, sit down, crawl, pull self up, cruise, repeat infinitely.

Here's a video of him trying to balance without holding on, and just maybe a mini-step:


And one of him yakking away:


Brock's birthday party is just weeks away. I'm excited and shocked all at the same time. My co-worker made these a-w-e-s-o-m-e invitations for me:



And some Brocktopus pics:

Lonely singer/songwriter:



52-card pickup:



Eating rocks:



Happy boy:

Well, he's all grown up.

Brock took his time enjoying just being a bump on a log. But now, the shackles have been released, and the Tiny Tornado has been unleashed.



Brock is on the move. He's been on the move since the day he turned 10 months, I just don't blog often enough. It was like, nothing ... nothing ... nothing ... crawl/stand/pull up/cruise-all-at-once.

This kid is so much fun. He's always happy. He's good-natured. He's all smiles and silly sounds (uh, no "mama" yet, but swear to God, he said "Albuquerque" a bunch of times the other night. Probably can't spell it yet, though). He sleeps like a dream, har har. Seriously, kid sleeps 11-12 straight hours at night, then takes two 2-2.5 hour naps in the day.

He's an amazing little angel, and I can't believe I was so blessed to have this particular baby land in my belleh.

Brock will be 11 months old on the 13th. Can you believe it's time to plan his birthday!?!!?

Here's a little video of him shaking his booty.

Food-a-plenty lunch bag tutorial « Warehouse Fabrics Inc Blog

Food-a-plenty lunch bag tutorial « Warehouse Fabrics Inc Blog