Spring Blog Cleaning + 8 Months

Ok, so you may have noticed that I changed up my blog design.  The sun came out yesterday and I have my seedlings in pots waiting to sprout, so I guess I just felt all "springy" and wanted to take a departure from the "antique" look.  I post more than just 1860s stuff on here anyway.  I love the wide-width blog layouts, but there's a little part of me that is afraid people will have to scroll back and forth to see my site.  Let me know if you have any problems with that.

Victoria is 8 months old tomorrow!

She had her first bath "alone" in the big tub last night and was tickled pink.  :)  In this photo (don't ask me what she's doing with her tongue), you can see yet another two teeth coming in -- these being on the bottom.  That makes 8 choppers.  Wow.

In other news, she's now sitting up on her own.  I didn't even realize she was doing it until one day she was on her stomach, playing.  I looked away for a minute, then looked back, and she was sitting up and reaching into her toy basket.  No crawling yet, but if she happens to be standing against something she can hold on to (usually my shirt or the coffee table), she'll stand up all day long.  Seems to have no interest in crawling, scooting, or creeping no matter how much we put her on her hands and knees or crawl around on the floor with her.  She has found her lungs and loves to Yell Loudly.  Or squeal.  Or giggle.  You should hear her giggle.

I love that kid.

Snowbaby.

{ Victoria's first snowfall. A rarity way down here in sub-tropical, balmy Central Texas }

Separation Anxiety.

My husband and I are heading out to "the farm" (perhaps I should say "cow pasture"?) this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and -- much to their immeasurable delight -- Victoria will be staying with Granny and Pa for the weekend. The farm is to the south-west. His parents house is to the north. We were thinking we should take her to their house on Friday morning before heading out to the farm, but it seems silly for us to drive all the way north, just to turn around and go south again, when we know for a fact that his parents are more than willing to come pick her up and bring her back.

The most logical thing to do is let Keith's folks come get her and take her back to their house.

But I'm having a bad case of separation anxiety. It's not like I have any worries about them keeping her -- they're so blessedly attentive, Victoria will have tons of fun stuff to do, new people to see, and places to go. His mother, in particular, has raised 4 children and is wonderfully good at comforting/rocking/loving little babies. But it's Monday...4 whole days before the event...and I'm already having pangs at the thought of not having her around me for 2.5 days. But I've let her stay over for 1.5 - 2 days before, and had the same sort of anxiety at the beginning too, so I know I'll get over that part.

Strangely, the thing I'm most worried about is -- if they come pick her up -- Victoria freaking out and crying for me as she is being driven away from her home by someone other than me or her dad. The thought of that kills me. But she knows her grandparents; she really enjoys them. She's just never left her home in any other car except ours. But maybe babies don't really care about such things, so long as she knows who she's with...?

Maybe what I'm actually worried about is me freaking out when they take her out of my house and away from me.

I just don't know what to do with myself when she's not nearby. There must be a point, though, at which your child needs to learn that she can feel safe with other trusted adults when mom or dad isn't around.

But what do I know? This baby thing is new to me. Do I need to just chill out? :/

Of Petticoats & Pasta.

In my quest to actually complete a sewing project (my 1895 Skirt), I have -- alas -- finished all the long seams in all 9 gores. (Remind me again why I picked a skirt with gores as my assignment? Nine gores? On a hand-cranked 1895 sewing machine?) They were pieced and sewn together late last week, and the gores fitted together rather nicely for a custom drafted pattern. Was feeling rather impressed with myself.

Until I tried it on. I had a slight fitting issue (the fabric, where it's on the bias, stretched a little) but it's easily remedied. It was seeing me in a skirt usually worn with a corset on my flabby uncorseted form which gave me the biggest shock. My somewhat decent-looking, after-baby-but-still-breastfeeding body had apparently gone on an extended vacation without giving me any notice whatsoever.

Despondent, I put the whole project away and scrubbed the bathrooms and kitchen.

• • • • •

With kitchen and bathroom now sparkling, I decided to upload the pictures so those of you who are interested can see the progress. The little pleaty things in the front are where I'm going to have to take the skirt in. The panels are on the bias right there and the waistband just didn't fit. I kind of expected it with linen. It's strangely slippery, movable stuff.

The skirt definitely needs underpinnings (even though it's lined) -- and a ruffled petticoat is just the thing to lift my girly spirits. I mean what girl doesn't love ruffly underthings? C'mon.

So that's the skirt progress as it stands now.

Dieting is next on my list.

• • • • •

Speaking of dieting, my darling consort gave me KitchenAid's pasta attachment set for my birthday. I know! What a sweetheart. So guess what I made today? I'll give you a hint:

Took hardly any time at all, seriously. The dough is super-easy to make and the attachments made short work of producing lovely angel-hair pasta. Oh, and I tried out the ravioli attachment, too. Uhm. Let's just say I need more practice. Thankfully I didn't waste ALL of the dough on ravioli.

Ciao!

Progress.

{ stitching on my ca. 1895 wilcox & gibbs }

Well, I got the lining all cut out (on Tuesday night) and got all the linen pieces cut out. I had to piece the side bottom portions of the back, but it still looks good - and authentic. They would have done it back in the auld days. I've decided to stitch this up using my wilcox & gibbs machine. I don't have a treadle for it, so I'm doing it by hand, but it's quieter (much!) and I can use it on the kitchen table, right next to the room where Victoria is sleeping so I can go comfort her several times per evening while she transitions to sleeping in her own bed.

Besides, who doesn't kinda dig the idea of sewing an 1895 pattern on an 1895 model machine?

Etiquette Between Husbands and Wives

Let the rebuke be preceded by a kiss.
Do not require a request to be repeated.
Never should both be angry at the same time.
Never neglect the other, for all the world beside.
Let each strive to always accommodate the other.
Let the angry word be answered only with a kiss.
Bestow your warmest sympathies in each other's trials.
Make your criticism seldom, and in the most loving manner possible.
Make no display of the sacrifices you make for each other.
Never make a remark calculated to bring ridicule upon the other.
Never deceive; confidence, once lost, can never be wholly regained.
Always use the most gentle and loving words when addressing each other.
Let each study what pleasure can be bestowed upon the other during the day.
Always leave home with a tender good-bye and loving words.

-Hill's Manual for Social and Business Forms, 1888

Just A Post.

Just decided to drop into blog-land for a moment so I can relax a little. I'm in the process of trying to help Victoria learn how to go to sleep by herself. Sigh.

She hasn't been a terrible sleeper; she's only been waking up occasionally -- at 8:15pm, 9:00, 9:30, 10:15, 11:30, 12:00am, 2:30, 4:00, and then of course we get up at 7:30 for the day. And she ain't crying to be fed, either. She's crying because she's always rocked to sleep and when she wakes up, she doesn't know how to relax and go back to sleep. She also cries because she expects us to pick her up whenever she cries in her crib -- Keith and I are both at fault here. It's automatic for us, has been since day 1. So she never has a chance to put herself back to sleep, and what do we do once we have her in our arms again? We rock her back to sleep. And I've come to realize that this is simply a habit that I've gotten her into because I LOVE to rock my baby and could spend all day just rocking and cuddling and singing to her. But it's important to me, at 8 months old, that Victoria learns that it's ok to fall asleep (and fall back asleep), while knowing we're still there, and haven't abandoned her.

So this is Night 1 of Victoria's "sleep training" (bleh). Yes, I had to let her cry. Some people may not like that idea. But to each his own. I say whatever works. Besides, I didn't just give her a bath and feed her and then dump her into the crib. I followed my normal bedtime routine (including rocking) and let her get to sleep. It was when she woke up that I made a point not to pick her up. But I didn't leave her alone to cry. I patted her and sang/talked to her while she cried. That. Was. Hard. Thank the Lord for earplugs. But then in 30 minutes, she had reduced to an agonizingly pitiful "sniffle sniffle cry" and then drifted between sleep and awake every minute or two. I felt like the worst mama on the planet.

Then magic happened. She opened her eyes, lifted her head and looked up at me, then after a few minutes of shifting to get comfortable, she dozed right on off by herself.

45 minutes of awfulness. And as of this moment, 50 minutes of quietness.