The Love Rat 2.0

I promise that I'm not going to just rehash every blog post I did a year or two ago. It only seems that way, now.

Anyway, you remember The Love Rat, right?

Well, since he was supposed to be a bear and not a rat, I thought I'd try to make him again:

Yep, still very much a rodent. Maybe it's the pattern. Maybe I just haven't been able to master curves on a sewing machine.  I mean, look, the ears aren't as rounded as the first go-'round.

I tried tweaking a little at the neck to give the head more definition. And, as you see, I've given her button eyes and even embroidered her a little nose and mouth.  And I sewed joints for the arms and legs (just a strait stitch across after stuffing).

Still, she's cute. Wonder what The Boy will name her.

Also, while I'm here . . . bonus sewing show-offery!

Check out these cool pillows I made out of remnants! I just did a patchwork of fleece squares that I had laying around from having made a bunch of those tie-together fleece blankets, and then I made the back out of some t-shirt knit material I had left over from making infinity scarves for Christmas. (Thank you, Pinterest!) Then I basically just sewed them together the same way I did the baby blankets, only I stuffed them with fiber-fill first before I sewed them up and did the trim.

Fun.  Cute.  Easy!

One Step Back

Alas, The Boy caught the flu last week. Then The Working Dad caught a stomach virus over the weekend. And now, The Working Mom finds herself down with a sore throat and general exhaustion. (The Working Mom, therefore, is not working today, but taking a rest.)

All this is to say that the New Years Eve Eve Resolution sort of went out the window last week as quickly as it had flown in a week before. Gained back two pounds...sigh...and feel generally bloaty.

Still, set backs happen. This is not failure. And tomorrow, I will climb back up on that exercise bike and recommence. I've got sparkley, new nail polish that Santa left in my stocking that is destined to become my 10 pound milestone pedi. Onward and upward, friends.

Getting Your Girl

Several months ago, I read an article on Slate.com about parents who were visiting reproductive endocrinologists in order to do genetic testing, and other manipulations, to ensure they would get a girl baby.

I have more than one friend who has confessed initial disappointment that their baby-to-come would be a boy. So I know there's the possibility for sex preference out there. For me, I was just so relieved to hear that the amniocentesis report said that the baby was healthy I honestly did not care whether he was a boy or a girl. But I know that lots of people do care, at least initially. As the character, Brian, on The New Normal said in a recent episode, "Everyone has a preference."

But I know that the preference is typically fleeting because those friends who have confessed initial disappointment at finding out that they were having a boy also disclosed that they soon came to love the idea of a son. And, this is even true for a friend with multiple sons and no daughters. She may have hoped for a girl, but she is content with, and happy with, boys.

The Slate article describes that these women dream of sharing their girl-stuff -- like shopping and clothes and crafts and dolls -- with daughters, so much so that they consider aborting male fetuses. First, I reject the notion that boys can't go shopping or do crafts or play with dolls. (Just asked my brother who played a lot of Barbies with me 30+ years ago.)

And second, honestly, at times, it seems like a reporter in search of a trend piece, and not a real trend. But then the tales have wafted across the Pacific for decades of the Chinese preference for boys and selective abortion of female fetuses that the story sounds a note of truth. And I wonder about the psychology of someone who would reject a child based upon gender.

I love that reproductive endocrinology exists. Without this miracle science, we would not have The Boy. I also love that genetic screens like amniocentesis and preimplantation genetic diagnosis exist. They give parents peace of mind, or at least allow them to prepare in advance for problems if they are detected. (And yes, the opportunity for early termination, if that is their choice.)

But there is something very unsettling about using these technologies just so mommy can have a tea party with her little girl. I mean, honestly, grow up. To the extent people are really even doing this, they are manipulating nature for the trivial opportunity to put bows in their children's hair. In reading the article, I silently wished tomboys on the lot of them.

Now, excuse me, I have to go play race cars, now, and feed crackers to the teddy bears.

The MILF Project Redux Status Report

So MILF, you may recall, I redefined as "Muscle Isn't Like Fat" back in July, when all was new and hopeful and I'd just started working out with a trainer and had not yet attempted a middle-aged cartwheel.... The MILF Project is my ongoing attempt to lose the baby and reproductive endocrinology weight. (Of course, the American Pie definition of the acronym might also be apt, but this is a PG-13 operation.)

I'm on Day 5 of my New Years Eve Eve Resolution and I thought it might be helpful to my progress if I did occasional status reports of my successes, failures and general progress. Keeps me accountable to make an occasional public confession.

So exercise-wise, I've done pretty well: I've done 30 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 minutes of weights and abs Monday through Thursday of this week. My goal was five days of at least 30 minutes of exercise a week, so I'm on my way to making that happen.

Sleep: check. We've been getting to bed before 10:30 every night this week. (Heck, last night, we were in bed just after 9!) Some nights, we read or play Words With Friends past 10:30 (totally old married coupledom), but at least we're in bed and can just lay the iPad down and go to sleep when we start getting drowsy.

Now, the food thing...yes, there have been downfalls...chicken fried steak, ice cream, a few other sweets, champagne...a beer (with lemon, yum!).... But I'm doing better making generally healthier choices. And I've also been eating less meat. I have flirted with vegetarianism at many times during my life, mainly because if I think about what the meat used to be, it makes me sad. (Except for fish and shellfish...they're just not cuddly enough to draw my sympathy. Sorry, tunas, clams and lobsters of the world!) Plus, any observation of what goes on in the meat industry is enough to turn anyone's stomach. I probably will never be completely meatless, but I would like my diet to be "meat less." And I feel good (physically, but ethically too) this week having consumed less flesh than last week.

So the net result so far: I've lost 4 pounds! I know it's "water weight," but weight is weight and, heck!, that means I'm 40% of the way to my first pedicure! Woo hoo! Happy weekend, friends!

The Secret, Inner Life of a Toddler

I've actually thought about this subject since the day The Boy was born. What goes on in his head? What is he thinking? What makes him tick?

I wonder if we really think about the personhood of the child we're making when we undertake to make a new person. It's crazy, isn't it? We decide we want "a baby." But what we've made is a person. That person thinks, reacts, feels, analyzes, daydreams, supposes, assumes, wonders, hopes, and fears all separately from us, outside of our control.

I find it a little unsettling . . . because I know that some of the things that happen in my head can be dark and scary. I don't want that for The Boy.

But then, yes, I do . . . Because I want him to be a person, a great person. And that's what happens in the heads of even the greatest among us, sometimes dark and scary things.

Too, I may be upended a bit by the notion that this little body who was, not so long ago, a part of my own, is so separate and distinct, independent and decisive. Once, I made every decision for the two of us, when we were one. But even now, at age 22 months, that's not true.

His brain is magnificent. Although he cannot form real sentences yet (oh, they're just almost there), he understand everything he hears. He sometimes gets our joked . . . he makes his own jokes. He understands what goes with what and where. He has preferences. Recently, he asked (in his toddler way) to have a picture of himself and his three-year-old cousin in his room.

If I can see all of that (and more) going on, what else is also going on? I want to know everything he thinks. And that's the heartbreak. I can't know. He's not 100% mine anymore, not even now. He is so much his own person, and I can only know that part of him that he will allow me to see. Every person has his or her secret place where no one else can enter, even my sweet little boy.

Simple Sew Together Fleece Baby Blanket

I made a blanket for my nephew-to-be for Christmas. (Thus, I have waited until after Christmas to do this post so as not to ruin the surprise.) I have made a lot of those tie-together fleece blankets in my day, and they look great! But I end up getting blisters on my fingers from tying all those knots, and they seem to take forever.

So I decided to try my hand at sewing a fleece blanket instead. This one you see below (my nephew's) is actually the second one I've sewn, the first one being for my son. I find that the blanket comes together in about two hours and looks quite neat.  It's nothing but simple straight stitching and turning right-angle corners, which is right up my novice seamstress street.

So, here we go!

Step One: Buy two pieces of fleece. You can get whatever size you want for your blanket, but I get two yards of 60 inch fleece. This makes a nice sized blanket big enough to make a pallet on the floor, and it will still be a good size for a bigger kid to cuddle in later on. I chose a pattern and a solid color for my fleece.

Step Two: Cut off the selvedge edge from each piece.

Step Three: Pin the two pieces together with the "right" sides together.

Step Four: Sew the two pieces together, leaving a six to eight inch opening in the seam.

Step Five: Clip squares out of the corners. Be sure not to cut too close to (or through) your seam.

Step Six: Turn your blanket inside out. Be sure to push your corners out so that they're clean and "pointy."

Step Seven: Turn the edges of your opening in and begin sewing around the blanket on the outside, leaving about an inch of an edge. This does two things. It closes the hole where you turned the blanked inside out, and it creates an instant trim edge.

That's it! You're done! Happy sewing and happy new year!

New Year's Resolutions

I dislike New Year's Resolutions.

On the one hand, they seem like a good idea:  out with the old, in with the new . . . full of hope for a better and brighter year.  But they end in guilt and self-recrimination when they inevitably go unfulfilled.

Nevertheless, after starting on my MILF Project at the beginning of the summer . . . and being derailed from it by an ill-advised cartwheel at the end of the summer, nowish is coincidentally a good time to pick up fresh again.

So call it my New Year's Eve Eve resolution:  I am back on the wagon to lose the baby weight and get my 37 year old figure back before I turn 43!  (Thirty-seven = the age I was when I married The Working Dad . . . plus, it's a workable goal, you know?  Not like trying to look like I'm 18 again.)

New plan, friends, starting tomorrow (because why not start on a Monday):

• Stop eating crap.  That means less white stuff, especially sugary stuff, but starchy stuff too.  (So I'd better get to eating up the rest of it before midnight tonight!)
• But no strict dieting.  I rebel against prohibition and end up eating a whole bag of Funyuns or something if I tell myself I cannot have it.  (But saying to myself, "you ought not to have it," is a lot easier.  It presents an element of choice, kind of . . . .)
• Exercise at least 30 minutes at least five days a week.  (This means getting up early to do that, and that's okay, if I do the next thing, which is . . . .)
• Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. (I fall asleep on the sofa anyway by that time, so I might as well be in my bed when that happens.)

And, too, I have set rewards for myself for when I have met certain weight loss goals:

• 10 pounds:  Congratulations, Working Mom, you've earned yourself a pedicure!
• 5 more pounds:  Woo-hoo!  Looks like it's time for another pedicure!  (Also, Working Mom, by this time, you might want to consider starting to run again, but don't push it if your cartwheeling injury to your tushy is still bothering you.)
• 5 more pounds:  Twenty pounds?!!!  Wow, you get to go shopping for a couple of nice new items of clothes for your slimmed down self.  Give your good friend and CAbi Rep a call, and buy something pretty!  (Oh and, hey, go ahead and have another pedicure, you've earned it!)
• 5 more pounds:  Is it pedicure time again?  I think so!  Plus, you've met your goal, have a manicure too!

Yes, pedicures . . . an infrequent treat for me, and something that I can definitely hang out there as a carrot.

So that's 25 pounds that I want to lose.  Losing exactly that much weight would get me to the weight I was when I married The Working Dad.  And I mean, exactly the weight that showed up on the scales on our wedding day . . . weird, huh?  (There are some things that you just will always remember....)  Those 25 pounds are 10 pounds of baby weight and 15 pounds of reproductive endocrinology weight.  And today, on New Years Eve Eve, it seems totally possible.

Happy New Year, Friends!

P.S.  Another resolution, of sorts, that I have made, is to write more frequently on this blog.  There have been a lot of things happening in the news and the world that affect parents, working women, and women in general, and I would love to explore them through writing.  I will try to do that more in the new year.  Good for the soul to examine one's heart through words.  In public . . .  Anyway, they have a Blogger iPhone app that I'm going to try out as a tool to use for more frequent posting.  Cheers, everybody!  Stay safe in the New Year!