we got a flip video camera for christmas!

alden's obliging laugh from valerie soles on Vimeo.

and...

after christmas from valerie soles on Vimeo.

so i was dreading our trip south for christmas. thanksgiving was filled with tears, coughs and saline drops and i was convinced that this trip would be a repeat. i am so happy to report that it was not! we had a wonderful time with the whitmores, the soleses and the steiner-kozels! photos to prove it are up on flickr.

alden kept a fairly routine schedule the whole long weekend and has even started napping on his own with some consistency. of course, i type this as i'm bouncing him back to sleep after he woke up alone and refused to settle down again. eh! part of that may be that we're experimenting with cloth diapers again and he isn't used to the insult of cold, wet pee against his tush.

several days old. forgot to upload it. old news!

we had a visit from aunt karie, who had lovely, shiny adornments to admire and gnaw on. we also had a visit from quite a bit of snow, which irritated our delicate noses and sensibilities. we are not, apparently fond of cold, wind or the sprinkling wet. but really, who is?

sir has however, quite taken to his snowsuit and sleeps in it very nicely on walks. at home, he has discovered how to dismantle his playmat for ease in chewing and as perhaps you may have gathered from the above video, he cannot be left alone for one second. spring and warmer weather cannot come too soon.

no offense, winter. happy solstice!

i've been working in short sessions on a christmas stocking for alden. here is an in-progress shot, for your perusal. it will have two thin layers of organic cotton batting and i'm thinking i'll hand-quilt it with some colorful (yellow?) embroidery thread. the whole thing will be sewn together with bias tape, but i'm still trying to decide between the plain, unbleached organic cotton that i used for his name or the red and white gingham that will line the inside. the gingham is super cute, but kind of thin, so i think if i used it as bias tape, it would need to be doubled up, which might be a real pain. hmmm.

*******

today we went to fort greene, to meet up with erica and leon at lena's studio sale. after a nasty run in with a broken bootlace, resulting in me unintentionally bonking alden on the head, resulting in frightened tears from both of us, resulting in us leaving a bit later than planned, we then waited 20 minutes for the g train, resulting in us just missing erica and leon at the sale. boo! we caught up with them on the street, but alden's and leon's schedules were not in sync (oh babies!) and our planned brunch was not to be. mama's consolation prize was that the mociun dress she'd been coveting all summer long (since before our dear boy was even born) was there in her size and at a RIDICULOUS discount. papa swooped in to meet us and now i am the proud owner of this lovely dress, which is perfect for nursing:

alden at today's baby group meet up.

plain old white onesie (the way we likes 'em) by carters
grey wool blend leggings by mama (from the aforementioned shrunken sweater)
monkey socks by oilily
crazy bill cosby sweater by clayeux, via ebay (my favorite place to buy fancy, secondhand baby clothes)
puffy snowsuit (an incredibly useful hand-me-down) by absorba (hehe)
super amazing crochet blanket by marcie! thank you thank you, we get so many compliments for it.

after a lovely late afternoon nap yesterday, bun decided that his true bedtime should be 2 am. hem hem. unfortunately no amount of bouncing or singing can lull a wide-eyed baby to sleep. he just sat on my lap and laughed at me. true! naturally, it was no laughing matter today when he just couldn't settle in for an afternoon of rollin' on the floor with his pals. i managed to get him to take a little nap, but when i tried to sneak a feed in (the only way he'll nurse in public is if he's sleeping) he woke up and was none too happy with me. eh! he fell asleep on the way home and when i removed his puffy starfish snowsuit self from the ergo, he was so far into dreamland that he didn't stir one bit when i set him on the bed. i will admit that i left the starfish in his suit and made myself a cup of tea before sidling up to let him nurse. not even our ridiculously loud buzzer (which was rung for an unnecessarily long amount of time by mr fedex) could awaken him.

i will also admit to gently waking him up while he nursed so that he could play and perhaps stave off bedtime just a bit. that lasted maybe half an hour, then we hopped in the tub, which he LOVES now, and then it was jammy time and now he's asleep in the moby. and it's not even...oh wait, yes. it's five o'clock. well, i've always been something of a nightowl. 2 am isn't such a bad bedtime, eh?

alden had a lovely, social weekend after a week of being cooped-up recuperating. on saturday we went with papa to the brooklyn bambinos winter party, held at zablozski's in williamsburg. it was fun, even though our cookies were a major bust. baking with a baby is tough, people. i must admit that i feel the need to redeem myself on this topic. they were that bad! we also had a rough morning before the party, though alden was a super champ and being incredibly charming and cooperative. sometimes mamas have meltdowns too, you see. it turns out that my old standby, the grey sweater dress that i wore throughout pregnancy and that just so happens to work very well now with black jeans shrunk comically in the last wash and is now unwearable. yes! sigh. also, i couldn't find my brush. poor papa. you can imagine what a fun day he had between mama's morning tears and having to endure a baby social. eh!

but! the dress fiasco wasn't a total wash; i just finished making alden a pair of wooly leggings from the sleeves and hem! so now little man is pretty much all set for winter. above is just a glimpse of the puffiness he must endure when it's cold out. the snowsuit is excellent, handed down to us by a friend of aunt josie. it's just a wee bit big still, so bun's hands don't reach the openings which drives him NUTS. luckily, once he's all bundled into the ergo, the idea of being restrained becomes more appealing and he settles down, but i must admit to having been incredibly nervous upon first venturing out with him like this yesterday. we were both bundled extravagantly and he was screaming. i felt like a shrieking trash heap. like something from a frightening children's fantasy movie from the '80s. note the soothie, strategically placed.

in other news! alden loves the letter D. each morning is brought to us by the letter D, as we awaken to a melodic string of das and dadas and undas. i'm sure ian would be quite proud, of only we hadn't been referring to him as papa. not sure what da or unda is, but it's charming to hear.

oh! and just last night, we witnessed a roll to the left! ollie lou's been rolling from his back to his tum, via the right side with purpose and enthusiasm for a while now, but never in a leftward fashion until last night. it took a minute and involved a bit of struggle on his side, but tadaa! he did it! and again this morning! now if only he could remember how to flip from front to back, which he used to do quite well. my guess is that he'll be crawling before that happens. he's already pivoting (the the left only) and swimming in place, trying desperately to reach toys that have rolled out of his grasp. the baby proofing will have to begin soon, though if we're moving in march, i'd almost rather just pack things away in boxes. hmm.

we are siiiiiick. we have been siiiiick for too loooooong.
we grow weary of feeling weary. here is yet another poor quality video of our high quality (if slightly snuffly) baby. see the mess? yep. mama's sick, ok?
see the light streaming through the window in the other room? the other room that never gets used anymore, because it's the studio? the other room where all of my fabric is getting dusty and at least one plant has died from neglect? that should be the bedroom instead, huh?
anyway. the video!



alden thinks it's funny when we pretend to be asleep and then pop our heads up and gasp, so that's what's going on here.

in other news, we went to the doctor on tuesday and it was horrible and once i get the insurance stuff straightened out, we're switching practices. they prescribed bunny an inhaler. an inhaler! with no diagnosis. his breathing isn't labored and from all accounts, he has a cold. i filled the prescription, but haven't administered a single puff yet. i can't bring myself to give this stuff to a baby. my baby. especially since it was prescribed by a doctor who spent *maybe* three minutes with him. we're running the humidifier nonstop, boiling large pots of water for steam and taking steam baths in the bathroom. and since returning from our trip to virginia, he has quit the nursing strike and seems to be trying to play catch up. so yes. dr. mama says steam + milk + rest. hopefully we'll be all better for the baby group holiday party on saturday.

it's time for some poorly lit and kind of boring videos of alden!

the first two are from last week and/or the week before. the last one is from today.

as you can hear, from my irritating and constant narration (i would prefer to have videos of *just* alden...will work on keeping quiet) i made the sweater this morning. it's from an old sweater of mine that i loved loved loved, but either it has shrunken substantially, or i was only a few years ago no bigger than a petite 11 year old. anyway, it was never going to fit me again. so here it is on my little boy! yes, it's a tad girly, but i like to think that it's a tad girly in a paul smith sort of way. i think on a going out day (he has a juicy cough at the moment, yuck) we will pair it with his black and white gingham Hooray by Cynthia Rowley shirt and his Oilily thumbprint detectives overalls. that might dude it up a bit. we shall see.