The little ones birthday ...

So my little one turns 1 soon. This is a big day for my better half and me. Now only are we excited as we are for all birthdays - honestly, I am as excited about birthdays now as I was when I was 5. Scarily excited! But it is also exciting because we managed to keep this little person alive. As we were leaving the hospital with our newborn baby I had my serious doubts.

Now he has figured out how to feed himself and he is an expert crawler so worst case scenario, he'll figure something out. After the little one has finished his dinner, he had a good share of my better halfs dinner (crawled up close to daddy and charmed his way to his sandwiches). Yeah, I am sure he'll be okay.

With my baby almost 1 year now, I worry less (I'll start again in a few years when he ventures out in the world on his own) and I enjoy my baby more and more. I am so loving having this little person in my life. I highly recommend those little people!

But anyway. Naturally I am planning for gifts for the little one and I have already purchased a pattern to make him this lovely stacking ring. Isn't it great?




While I was looking around for ideas for decorating the little ones playcorner I also found these two great ideas for a childrens room.



I really like the activity mat since it is so simple and lets the child use his own imagination.



Cool storage for all the paper a creative child need.

By the way ...

How can you not smile when you see this?

The little one gets his own place

As I mentioned yesterday, I am stii trying to figure out this mom-thing. One thing I do know, however, is how to shop at IKEA. And that was exactly what my better half, the little one and me did! We were on a tight budget, but we still managed to get some cool things for the little one and his new friend, Aja.

We rearranged the living room, moved a lot of furnitures and ended up moving half of them back again. To contain all of the little ones toys we got out an old Billy bookshelf, that had been standing up on the attic from the former tenant. We took off the back and covered it in a 70'es-style wallpaper. The wallpaper is from an add campaign they did at the better halfs company. He got the roll of wallpaper as a farewell-sorry-we're-going-bankrupt-gift


This is the finished bookshelf filled with all the little ones toys. He is not even a year old. Where did all these things come from?


And this is how his play corner looks like. There are still a few more things to be done - like getting up some big colorful dots on the one wall and making some cozy, brightly colored pillows for them to play with.

Being a mom

On Monday I start as a daycare mom. I guess that would make me double-mom. I think this mom-thing is a bit complicated at times, so the thought of being even more mom than I already am is a bit frightening.

I am still waiting for the magical book on mothering, but here is what I have figured out so far:

Moms have magical vision. In a dark room where you can barely make anything out and you are more than likely to fall over your slippers in the dark, that is where moms excel. When the little one starts crying not only are they able to get out of bed without falling in anything, but they are able to detect the missing paifier where ever it may be hiding and return it to the crying baby within a matter of seconds. Strangely, if they then decide to visit the bathroom or have a snack in the kitchen they will most likely walk into their nightstand on the way there.

And moms will put their little one before themselves. Even on things that are very very important to the mom.

That is pretty much all I know. The rest of the time I am just improvising as I go along and hope for the best.

So I am slightly worried now that I am now going to be a double-mom but I still haven't figured out motherhood. So I decided to compensate - big time! Yes, we've spent the last two days making a little super play corner for the child I am the mother of and the child I am going to be the daycare mother off. Pictures will definitly follow!


This is not the super play corner, but it did serve as my inspiration. Picture courtesy of NieNieDialogues.blogspot.com


For now I will sit and enjoy the sight of playful colors, sparkling lights and toys galore - and relax my tired and sore body. Those pieces of furniture sure were heavy!

And we didn't go running today

A brand new me

This year I made them. The dreaded new years resolutions. I realized I haden't been running or doing any kind of sport since I was 10 weeks pregnant - and the little one is now 11 months. And the extra weight I gained after I stopped nursing him is still firmly attached to my body. So whether it was the arrival of the new year or just me facing facts I am not sure. But the result was a long list of goals.

The list included the typical: More exercise, eat healthier, read a good book a month (the term "good" is not really defined, but it definitly excludes anything with murders, gossip or Bridget Jones-like!) and use money wisely. On the list is also learning to cook 3 vegetarian dishes, make 3 new soups, make a decent batch of cupcakes (it doesn't fit in the healthy living, but I feel that it is an important lift skill that I ought to master!) and be more positive.

So in keeping with my new goals I put on my running shoes yesterday, got the little one dressed in loads of layers to keep warm, and invited the better half to join me on my trip. He was all excited. He loves running and runs quite often. Shall I add that he didn't change into running clothes, since we both knew that this was in no way going to make him sweat - not even a tiny, tiny drop. So the little one warm and cosy in the baby jogger, the better half in big winter jacket and hat and then me looking ready for action! I like to think that I looked something like this as I ran:


I didn't! Not even close to that.

We ran one lake, one little, itsy bitsy tiny lake - with breaks in between and as I came home and collapsed on the floor I could literally feel the room spinning. I had given it my all.

And that felt good. Really good.

And looking at my list of goals and seeing that I am actually making changes, doing better, becoming the super version of me, that is nice. Very nice

I think I like this goal-thing.

And I already know my goal for 2010: To look like the picture!

Christmas gifts

This year the better half and I wanted to make homemade christmas gifts for everyone. And no, we didn't do as well as we would have liked to. But we did manage to make some things we really liked.

For the sister of my better half: She is a boats builder in Mallorca - how cool is that by the way? I suggested a little boat mascot. The better half got excited about the idea and wanted to make her a designer boat, with waves crashing around it, Cordelia waving with one hand on the wheel and fish jumping around the boat. Not really what I had in mind. After some discussing, drafts, we ended up with this little ship, designed by my better half and created by me.



For my dad I made a simple scrapbook with pictures from our life. On each page I wrote something I was grateful for about him. I made the covers of the scrapbook myself and was quite content with the result, but also surprised at the amount of time I ended up using on the project. This is the only pictures I have of it, but I will certainly try and get some more later.


And Cordelia also did a homemade christmas gift for the little boy. She built this from scratch with her own design. The little one loves it! And the better half too cause it just looks so darn cool.


And finally for my stepbrother who loves all things Japanese and builds latex-swords, the better half made this picture for him. The text means "King of Swords" and is in Japanese. Thank you, google translator!