Adventures in sewing

My forays into the world of sewing have become fewer and farther between, but whenever I dust off my sewing machine, I remember how much I enjoy creating and fixing things. This week I pulled out the machine to sew a few girly sheets for the very masculine pack-n-play that will sleep our baby girl. This is the collection, including one sheet on the "mattress":

...and the five finished, folded sheets on top of the ugly boy pattern they will be covering.  It turns out I'm too cheap to buy the cutest fabric, because then the homemade sheets would be more expensive than the store-bought sheets, and that's just ridiculous.  But what I made is cuter than I what I could buy, for half the price.  I am satisfied.  One night while I was serging around the edges of the sheets, Zach sat down beside me and asked question after question about what I was doing.  That was fun conversation, even if he was mostly interested in sewing mechanics.

The pink flannel with stars and moons is fabric I've had since I was learning to sew in 2000.  This week, when I pulled it out to finally use, I didn't have enough material for two sheets, or for one sheet and a blanket top, or even for two sides of a blanket (not really sure why I bought the amount I did), so I made a sheet and four burp cloths with the coordinating yellow flannel I also had on hand.  They will be cuter when washed, since the edges will curl and fray.  I have more burp cloths than I will ever need, so these will be baby shower gifts.

With my rotary cutter and mat already out, I decided to tackle a project I've had in the works since August: making Lexi a tutu.  Voila!  The vast bolt of gifted purple tulle has been returned to its rightful owner, and another project is off my list...just in time for Lexi's birthday!

Then I made...um...these band thingies...to pull in the middles of Lexi's curtains, which give them a more interesting shape and let a lot more light into her bedroom.  I was glad to find the curtain fabric remnants in my stash so I could create this quick and easy fix for something that's been bugging me for a while.

Lexi took it upon her self to create this lovely and colorful mess while I was sewing:

With the sewing machine out, I also mended several things, including two pairs of Gavin's footie jammies (I replaced the feet bottoms in his favorite pair; he is thrilled); Zach's and Tyler's watch bands; Lexi's tights, and three bibs.  Now I am gearing up for Lexi's birthday, which is next Monday, and another creative project involving these borrowed items:

Stay tuned!

Lovin' Little Lexi!!!

She's here!



We'll post more details and pictures in the next couple of days but we wanted to get this out ASAP! Stay tuned.

The sun and the daughter

Of all the things I love about Colorado Springs, I love the sun the best. This city is almost continually bathed with golden rays, even when it's raining or snowing or very, very, cold. The perpetual sunshine has the ability to infuse happiness into my soul when it doesn't want to be sunny.

And on May 6, when the 9:00 temperature is 60 degrees, it also beckons me to enjoy its warmth. This morning we ran off to playgroup at the park, a luxury I have not enjoyed for months. It was just lovely. Sunshine and friends! Here are some pictures.

The play structure was a huge hit, and I was pleased to see that Gavin was mostly safe to climb and slide on his own. He went down the slide again and again and again!

We also survived a park outing without any sand fights! Both boys enjoyed themselves in the sand...thanks to the tools a thoughtful Mommy provided!

I took these photos in our back yard yesterday afternoon. Gavin had so much fun and the pictures are adorable, so I'm posting a few.

This action shot of the big boys is the best I could manage...they were playing kickball with a neighbor friend and having a blast together. Hooray for happy afternoons.

As for the daughter portion of this post, suffice it to say that five Bartles (along with a few other Bartles and non-Bartles, I imagine) are getting super anxious to meet our Little Miss. I was disappointed to discover at this morning's OB appointment that I have not progressed further than I have, but I'm getting some pre-labor action that I hope will develop into something real!

Meanwhile, I found some delightful young-mommy-themed articles online today that I thought I'd share. While all those I've read were amusing, this one particularly resonated today. Enjoy!

Poll results

Those of you following our tongue-in-cheek naming saga might be interested in the results of the Normal Mormon Husbands poll administered on our behalf. After 245 votes, the results are as follows:

Sarah Kate: 72 votes (29%)
Alexis Paige: 64 votes (26%)
Autumn Taylor: 50 votes (20%)
Lindsey Nicole: 32 votes (13%)
Allison Kennedy: 28 votes (11%)

We appreciate your participation in his humorous exercise! The Garry-Heidi naming jury is still out and probably will be until Little Miss makes her grand entrance. For now, Garry is still pushing Shyloh (it helps his cause that Gavin can sort of say it), Tyler votes for Lindsey, Zachary likes Sarah, and I favor different names on different days. My current favorite is Kate.

I keep having doubts, however, that this baby is actually a girl. I'll believe it when I see it. Until that happens, I think I need to have a boy name in my back pocket.

{Almost} famous?

Last year I started following a blog written by a guy who calls himself the Normal Mormon Husband. The first post I read on the NMH blog, entitled "Pregnancy Brain," had me laughing out loud, so I became a fan. I enjoy the author's dry humor and the way he highlights issues common to a lot of parents raising families in the LDS faith. Little did I know that a bit of my personal life would one day be a subject put before his readers.

Last week NMH issued a call for people who needed mediation on something silly and inconsequential. As a joke, I submitted a comment, explaining that Garry and I have had a long-standing debate regarding the name of our first-born girl. Since we've been married almost eleven years without producing a female offspring, this has been a lengthy debate indeed, but we now find ourselves faced with the need to resolve our little dispute. Seriously, I asked for mediation to give myself (and Garry) a laugh. The truth is that I really don't care what other people think; Garry and I are grown-ups and can decide on our own what to name our child, thankyouverymuch.

And then NMH responded. He wanted to do a mediation post on our great name debate. Garry and I thought this was hilarious (and so did my mom and sister, who follow the blog and saw my comment). And so NMH and I exchanged a few emails and Garry and I had a few laughs. We were honestly interested in what the public thought of our "great dilemma," and a baby name poll on the NMH blog seemed like a fun way to get a bunch of opinions.

This morning the post appeared (and yes, this was the "delightful blog post" to which I alluded earlier this week). It was funny. It generated lots of comments. In addition to many of the NMH's opinions and witticisms, it included a side-bar voting widget with five name options we picked for the purpose of his post.

Here's the problem: in my zeal to avoid tainting the public by exposing The Name in Question, I gave the NMH a liberty he shouldn't have had -- the power to skew our poll. He unilaterally axed the name Garry and I have been arguring about and didn't allow it to be voted upon! Lest you think we feel a great injustice and hold malice toward the NMH, let me be clear: we still think the whole thing is pretty silly and inconsequential (see the end of paragraph two), not to mention quite amusing. The blog comments alone have made for some very entertaining reading!

I fully intended to let the issue die with that post, since the poll is meaningless without The Name in Question. We had our chuckles, and we know that sometime before May we'll figure out what to name our little girl. However, I have already gotten several emails from friends (and one even posted about our "star sighting" on her blog), so I figured I'd better offer a direct link -- and the background story -- to my dear readers and see what you have to say!

Are you ready? Check it out: Normal Mormon Mediation: Name That Baby! Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know you did.

So NMH, if you're reading this, thanks for our 15 minutes of Normal Mormon fame! It will be fun to see what the poll results are in a week. But if you want to know what the REAL results turn out to be, you'll just have to follow my blog. Because we can name our baby girl ourselves, thankyouverymuch.

So there's this box I've been filling for eight years...

...and in May I get to open it!

Hooray for super fun ultrasounds!

Be still, my beating heart

Today I had the privilege of hearing
this,
and for that moment,
my world could not
have been more perfect.

{I'm really excited for May 25.}

The bean

Our little bean has a heartbeat! Hooray! I'm not quite as far along as I'd hoped -- just seven weeks -- but I'll take it. Our official due date is May 25, 2009 (does that seem far away to anyone else????). Maybe our pattern will hold and Baby will arrive two weeks early.


It's always good to know I'm puking for a good reason. But speaking of the puke, I'm grateful for another blessing in my life: good insurance. I filled a prescription today that should knock out the morning sickness. Retail price for 30 pills (technically a ten-day supply, but I hope to stretch it): $704.89. (And that's the generic drug!) My cost: $10.00.

P.S. Note the warning at the top: "If you experience nausea or vomiting while using this medicine, check with your doctor." WHAT??? I love that an anti-emetic may cause vomiting.

Here's another amusing --albeit unrelated-- picture.

This afternoon Tyler played at a neighbor's house. The friend's mom walked him home and informed me that Tyler and his buddy cut each other's hair. I laughed it off (much to the mother's relief), but even though Ty isn't missing a pigtail or anything, I'm still not sure what to do about his bald spots. His hair is pretty short, but I'm not crazy on the skin-head look on four-year-olds. Any suggestions?