sweet little visitor

Guess who came to our house tonight while mommy and daddy went out for supper?

She was alert and happy for quite a while before she took this nap.  Papa is a good person to snuggle with because he is soft and warm.

This was the first time that Carmen has been out without Berlyn.  I'm sure that all mothers can remember how stressful that first time was.  She and Berlyn both did very well.

another kitchen window pic

We got a huge snow storm yesterday.  We have so much snow it's ridiculous.  Now that the storm has passed it is really cold out there too.

You can see the roof of the sun room on the right for reference.  And somewhere under that snow is the barbecue.

This what I can see (or more accurately, not see) of the park.

Our neighbor found someone with a bobcat to dig out his driveway to the back lane.  I'm sure that everyone in the snow removal business is having a great day.

While I downloaded these pictures from my camera I discovered some that I took a few weeks ago and forgot about.  We had several days of snow fog and the trees were beautifully covered with hoar frost!

And here are some more pictures of Berlyn from the photo shoot with Campbell Girl photography.

(Doesn't she look like a miniature swami in this one?)

The poor wee one is suffering with severe colic at this point.  I remember those days when her daddy did too.  Not surprisingly, no one is getting much sleep over there and her mom is exhausted.   

I wish that she could again be as mellow as she was when these pictures were taken.

taking it slow

I've been sick with bronchitis for over a week.  While it certainly put a damper on Christmas celebrations it did mean that I wasn't expected to do much.  The worst of it is not being with Berlyn so as not to expose her to these nasty bugs.  I miss her so much!  It's hard to believe that I hadn't even met her at the beginning of the month and she's now such an important part of my life that I can't wait to cuddle her again after a few days of absence.

Anyway, as of today's trip to the doctor I have medication to cure the bronchitis and I should be up and running in time to host our quiet annual New Year's Eve celebrations with family and good friends.  The house is dirty and the dogs desperately need grooming but I don't suppose anyone will hold that against me while we eat pizza and play board games.

Before I got sick, Carmen and I took Berlyn for her first photo shoot at Campbell Girl Photography (on Facebook) whom you may remember I discovered through photos of my cousin's triplets.  It was fascinating to watch Shannon with our lovely little newborn.  Her studio is kept very warm and there are recorded womb sounds playing over speakers so babies are comfortable.  Carmen and I have dubbed her the Baby Whisperer for the way that she kept the baby calm and sleepy while posing her.  As for the photos themselves....... amazing.  

    

I think this is a stunning mother and baby picture of our beautiful girls!

humour me

One more baby pic from yesterday.  Carmen took this one on her camera with the flash so it's nicer than mine.

Looks like they were having quite the conversation, doesn't it?

5 days old

We spent a lovely evening at Geoff and Carmen's.  Berlyn is so sweet!  Didn't use the flash for these pictures so as not to bug the baby so the quality isn't the greatest but the content makes up for it.

Berlyn is such a sweet baby!  She accepted a bottle and soother for the first time from nana so I guess that means that mommy and daddy can now go out for supper or to a movie and leave Berlyn with nana and papa ;)

Carmen and Geoff have taken to parenthood like ducks to water!  Every baby should be so lucky to have such a great mommy and daddy!

(Kudos to Jadielady for recognizing the pink froth knitting-in-progress as the Baby Mine pattern.)

not as beautiful as the new baby but....

very pretty indeed is the new Limited Edition Majacraft Rose that arrived a couple of weeks ago.  I finally had a chance to take a picture of it in good light today.

(And look!  It matches Cooper, the sable sheltie, in the background.)

My wheel is number 21 of 25 wheels produced.  Instead of the usual rose decoration this wheel has Maori engraving on the upright handle, the treadles,

the back of the drive wheel,

and on the bobbin carrier/kate.

If you're looking for one of the 25 LE Roses for yourself, I think Shuttleworks may still have some available.  Mine already has some pretty pink merino/silk fiber on the go.

warm baby

Here are a couple of pics that were taken just before Berlyn and mommy left the hospital.  If you look very, very carefully you will see her homecoming sweater, the Maile cardi, peeking out of all the necessary layers to keep a baby warm in winter in Saskatchewan.

pink froth

In the midst of our joy at Berlyn's birth, we sympathized with our dear friends Rhonda and Al.  Rhonda's mom passed away suddenly last week.  Her funeral was out of town on Thursday.  As we drove there I worked on this bit of pink froth.

Anyone recognize the pattern?

home now

Baby Berlyn and her mommy are home now with daddy.  They're all tired.  I briefly stopped by to take some food for them and snapped these pics with my phone.  I did a little baby cuddling while I was there, of course.

Sorry for the poor photos; I didn't want to turn the flash on and bother babe.

Notice that she fits on her daddy's forearm.  I wonder how long that will be the case.

just call me nana

She's here!  Beautiful Berlyn Dawn was born early this morning weighing 6 lbs. 7 oz.  It was a difficult delivery for both mom and baby but Berlyn is out of NICU and with her mom now.

We are so in love!  There couldn't be a more precious gift!

peas in a pod

"three peas in a pod" was written on the invitation to the baby shower for these tiny triplets.

Beautiful little sweet peas indeed!

Three babies boggles my mind:  three car seats, three cribs, three times as many diapers, etc. but then I realize that there is three times the love and snuggles too.  These lucky babies are much wanted and loved.  And their lucky parents have lots of family to help out too.

Mom and both grandmas are here posing for photos at the shower.

Can you smell their sweet heads just by looking at this picture?  I can.  It won't be long before I have my own sweet grandbaby to cuddle and I can hardly wait.

If you're on Facebook you can take a peek at these little ones on the Campbell Girl Photography page.

another winter storm

Another storm system rolled through here bringing a lot of rain followed by freezing rain followed by a lot of snow.  What a mess!

As always, though, there is beauty in nature.

I took these pictures last night in the back yard.

 

 

Yet another mound of snow on the deck today.

The eaves of the sun room look like they're on a gingerbread house.

I love this Alot!

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

teaching compassion

I was sent a link to this article about teaching young children to be nice to animals and am happy to share it with you.  I feel strongly that children should learn compassion and caring at an early age and interacting with pets is a great way to do it.  We know that children who don't empathize with animals often become teens and adults who are aggressive toward not only animals but people too.

I tried to make my classroom an animal friendly zone so that the children could experience caring for pets even if they didn't have any at home.  Over the years we had a variety of small animals as pets (gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, and birds) and the children had clearly defined responsibility of them (with supervision of course).  I also took my dogs to school on a regular basis (good for the kids and for the socialization of my dogs).  One of my favorite teaching units was based on the incubation and hatching of chicks.  There's something very magical about viewing the chick embryos through the egg shells by holding them up to bright light; it was always a highlight to watch the embryos moving within the shell and see the blood vessels at work.  Once the chicks hatched, the kids would sit in a circle with the chicks in the middle.  They were taught how to hold the chicks safely and they also knew that if chicken poop happened near them, they were responsible for getting wet paper towel to clean it up.  It was a terrific way to teach Family Life Education, Science, and Social Studies in one fell swoop.

For the child in your life, this article has ten great ideas to help you teach compassion and sharing and is worth reading.

The Big Bang Theory Flash mob!

imagine

holy snow, Batman!

The snow finally stopped and this is what my deck looks like.  The sky has cleared allowing cold air to follow the snow storm.  It is -13 C with a windchill of -24 C (-11 F).  Brrr......

snow and then some

We are in the midst of a good old-fashioned snow storm.

I took this picture two days ago on my deck (I'm selling my Majacraft Suzie Pro and the photo shoot was for advertising purposes*).

Here's the same deck now and the forecast is for snow most of the weekend.

Cooper is very, very happy.

The snow is deeper than B is tall.  Good thing he was wearing his little red coat.

As you can see, while the shelties were happy in the snow, Bentley waited patiently at the door to go back into the house.

*If you are interested in the wheel here's a link to my destash page on Ravelry.

loving the outdoors

I have mentioned that Cooper is an outside kind of dog.  When I was working with fiber in the sunroom last week, I looked out the window and noticed this:

fast asleep in the middle of lawn.  He's obviously happy and content out there.

keeping busy

So here it is, almost a month after my last post again.  I have been keeping busy though.

I wove a little blanket for dearest granddaughter as a baby shower* gift.

I think Carmen liked it.

(It was a lovely shower and dearest granddaughter will be a very well-dressed baby!  There were so many adorable gifts.)

I finished spinning two batches of Spunky Eclectic's Little Periwinkles organic Merino fiber.

I wanted long color runs so I spun two separate singles of equal color sequences and plied them together.  They didn't match up completely of course but were pretty close.  I used a semi-worsted spinning draw and lightly fulled the yarn to finish it and I am really happy with how it turned out.  I now have 229 g/593 yds. which should be plenty for a cardi and matching hat and/or socks for our little girl. 

I was scrambling to work through some of my scoured fleece before it got too cold in the sunroom to work there.  A stretch of warm days a couple of weeks ago was enough to finish a good chunk of it (good thing - it's darn chilly out there now.)

 

 This is a Columbia fleece from Val at Wooly Wool of the West on Etsy.  It is very soft and I enjoyed working with it a lot!

I also finished combing the CVM/Romeldale fleece that I had dyed last year.

I have lots of spinning and knitting ahead of me this winter.

 

*Carmen's sister hosted the shower and made this adorable diaper "cake".  Those little flowers were made with sockies and the center supports are glass bottles.  How cute is that?