Two Little Peas In A Pod

We're all at the beach, having a little vacation. Of course, these Little Bobbies have been entertaining Grandma. Here they are, posing on the sofa:




That's Little Ruby on the left, and Little Pearl on the right.



Little Ruby comes in at a little over 9 pounds, and Little Pearl is over 10 pounds. So Little Ruby has tripled her birth weight, and Little Pearl has doubled hers. Fat babies!




Of course, Little Ruby is still extracting revenge for being so mistreated while in the womb:




See the sneaky litte smile? See Little Pearl do what she does best? Holler, that is. There is a reason her nickname is Holler Head.

Yard Work, Bobbies, and More

Hello again. Long time no blog. School over. Gardening begins. Cooking, maybe. Laundry, definitely. Bobbies, absolutely.

Here's Little Pearl in the cutest little hat (this was on her 4 week birthday--she's now 8 weeks old):




And the divine Little Ruby, wearing hers:



Someone has stolen Little Ruby's hair...she's sort of bald on top. Little Pearl, however, has been nicknamed WigHead, since she has SO much hair.

These darling little bobbies spent all day with me yesterday. Their mama returned to the J-O-B on Monday and since I have no J-O-B until the end of July, it is all-out bobbies, gardening, and sewing until then. Yes, I said sewing. As soon as I post this, I'm hitting the shower and the highway to Joanne's Fabrics. Even though I haven't been sewing I have been dreaming about it and reading everything everyone else has blogged about and I have a list of 14 new patterns I MUST buy, and I hope to come away with a carload of fabric, too.

We have a massive landscaping project underway as a result of last year's tornado. We are having damaged trees removed, a retaining wall rebuilt, a walkway relaid, and lots and lots of planting. It's a good thing this little person arrived just in time to teach Pa how to use the posthole diggers:



They are planting tomatoes. Yes, that's right, they are planting tomatoes (and squash) in Grandma's flower garden. Pa says that way he knows they'll get watered, because I water that flower bed religiously every day. It's already 96 degrees here, with a high this afternoon of 98, and nary a drop of rain until next week sometime.

One really nice thing about having a garden space is the ability to walk out the door and come in with a homegrown bouquet, like this one--gardenias and eucalyptus.



And in the She's Really, Really Stupid category, how about this one? I was spray painting some wrought iron plant stands with black spray paint late Monday evening, and the slightest little breeze was cooling me off while I worked. When I went up on the porch and flipped my sandals off, I found this had happened:



And no, that's not dirt. It's paint. I guess I'll wear socks to Joanne's.

Wish me luck.

Bobbies!

Oh Happy Day!

They're home, in a great big bed.




Only one word fits here. Angels.

Here's Little Ruby, getting ready for the ride home. See how tiny she is?

"Yo, Grandma, what IS this thing? Help!"



Here's a very happy mama.



And what does The Princess think of these two bobbies?




That one picture tells the story. Pure delight.

And I love this last one. Little Pearl is pinching Little Ruby--getting even for all those times she was kicked in the head.....




We are blessed.

Everything's Coming Up Babies...

We're still here, chilling out at the hotel, and things are going wonderfully. It seems like these little babies get bigger every day.

Here's Little Ruby, who likes being my roommate:



And I actually caught a picture of her with her eyes open!



"Yo, Grandma, I need some food here, woman!"

And Little Pearl (who is really not quite so little) is chugging right along, getting plumper and cuter every day. If this doesn't look like a lump of sleeping sugar, I don't know what does:



Now she's all stretched out, and ready for some food! With the eyes open! This has been my lucky day for baby pictures, it seems.



We're still set to go home on Wednesday or Thursday since everything is fine with both little babies. Over the weekend The Princess came to visit and she is fascinated by "the bobby" (which is her word for "baby"). We can't wait to see her reaction when not one bobby, but two bobbies, come to her house to live!

Keep those good thoughts coming. Thanks, all.

Another Quick Update

Little Ruby is being discharged!

Little Pearl didn't get a Get Out Of Jail Free card yet, so the mama and the daddy and Little Ruby and I are taking over a couple of hotel rooms for the next several days while Little Pearl gets up to speed. We're going to hang out and wait for Little Pearl, since the NICU is not local (yall do remember that our hospital got blown away in the tornado?), but is about an hour's drive away.

At any rate, when my daughter called me at school yesterday to relay the news about Little Ruby, a plan was quickly hatched as to how to manage all this. One, they didn't want to leave Little Pearl, Two, they didn't want to leave Little Ruby, Three, they needed another Grandma, since the Other Grandma is taking care of The Princess, and Four, they are beginning to get a little frazzled.

Yall cannot IMAGINE how mad I was. I mean, really. They wanted to know if I could take a few sick days, check into a nice hotel, hang out in pajamas all day, eat restaurant meals delivered to my door, bring along a little needlework project and a couple of books, and spend lots of time rocking Little Ruby, holding Little Ruby, changing Little Ruby, snuggling Little Ruby, sitting and gazing at Little Ruby......it's enough to tick off anyone, right?

So it's 4 a.m. here, and I'm up and gathering my things together. Then I'm off to pick up the cradle and baby things and I'll be heading out. I do plan on taking the laptop, as I'm pretty sure we'll have internet service.

I just need to figure out how to get a rocking chair in my car. I have a small one that was my Mama's that she always used for rocking babies, and my sister suggested I take it with me. Good idea. It may have to ride in the passenger seat with me, seat belt and all.

Wish us luck! And keep those sweet thoughts coming for our little babies. We appreciate each and every one.

Update and a Skirt

First off, I want to say thanks to all of you for your sweet comments on our new little babies. They are sweet and delightful already, and we can only wonder what joy they will bring us in the years to come. Today Little Pearl has her IVs out and is getting supplemental feeding (breast milk) through a gastro tube, since she's not quite strong enough to suckle well. And Little Ruby has graduated to a regular plastic isolette bed! She Who Was Pregnant With Twins continues to get better every day, and went out to eat supper at a real restaurant for the first time in months. She and The Daddy Of Little Girls are staying in-house in a hospital hotel room now that she has been promoted out of medical custody.

Here's another member of the family, Lulu, who joined us here last week:




She came from here. Although I ordered a size 1-2, she actually measures a 3-4 in the chest; so I can't dress her up in little stuff like I had hoped, but she will be really handy for draping, designing, and deciding on proportions. See?



This is the first part of the Festival skirt. I had put it together and then all these Fashion Critics that hang out over here decided it needed piping in the skirt seams. So I took it apart and added piping. As usual, they were right. Here's a close up of a seam:




The skirt will be gathered onto a bodice of some sort--still playing around with that part. The skirt will have three more pieces attached at the bottom-a flap, a band, and a ruffle. And yes, I had to take all of THAT apart, too. I just love me a seam ripper!

Again, thanks to all of you. Keep those happy thoughts coming our way, if you will.

Two Little Bitty Girls

Here they are! On the left is Little Pearl, at 5 lbs 1 oz, and on the right is Little Ruby, at 3 lbs 10 oz:



Both are healthy and nursing, and Little Ruby is really fiesty. She's gone completely wireless, and is wearing an Indian feather on top of her head. She loves her Mama! Little Pearl seems like she will love her Mama, too; today was her first try at nursing. And we can't tell if they are identical or not. It seems to me like Little Pearl has darker hair, but maybe she just has more of it since she's a bit larger. And they were born on Thursday night and almost made it to 34 weeks gestation--my Blogger clock must be in the wrong time zone, or something

Here are Grandpa and I, each with a handful of little babes with bows in their hair:




And here they are, sunbathing at the spa with sunglasses on--Little Ruby:




And Little Pearl:




We are blessed.

On the sewing front, I did start a project mid-week before all the excitement kicked in. Here's what it still looks like, all in a heap:



This one is Festival, and that's what we're going to have when everyone comes home from the hospital!

A Bird A Day

She Who Is Pregnant With Twins has been confined to bed rest. During the holidays she went to the not-so-local hospital (since ours was blown away by the tornado) not once, but twice. The first time it was due to kidney stones. She had two of those, too. The second time was due to contractions. After a couple of days under observation, she was sent home on strict bed rest until the babies arrive. So she's at home, eating ice cream. To console her I have started cooking again. She will eat anything, and lots of it, as long as there's ice cream to go with it. I have a feeling we are ALL going to gain a lot of weight.

To help mark her progress, I started stitching birds. These birds, in fact:





This design is Birds in the Bower by The Goode Huswife, from 1999. I've had this since it first came out. I'm working it on 32 count Dirty Sands linen with DMC thread. Here's my progress so far:




My goal here is to stitch a bird for every day she's on bed rest. It's just a way to mark off her progress while she grows babies. I'm already 3 birds behind. Sheesh!

I'm off to stitch a bird (or two). Send good thoughts our way, if you will. They are much appreciated!

A Lovely Little Thing

Here is one of the patterns I found for The Twins on Saturday:








I think the smocking in the center front is a very sweet look. And on the back, there is a large deep pleat on either side of the back opening. The drawing doesn't depict that pleat so I was very surprised to see it on the pattern.



Other things I like about this pattern (most of which you really won't know about until you open the pattern and read the instructions: four different sleeves, collar variations, hem treatments on the sleeves, and the full A-line shape. Since this is a single size pattern, it was also nice to find that it is printed on regular pattern tissue, like the Big 4, so no time will be lost tracing the pattern. That's a very big plus in my book. Very professional pattern pieces with clear markings, seam lines, etc. Excellent directions, too.

Things I wish were different: There is no separate instruction sheet. The directions are printed on the pattern tissue itself, and will be somewhat dismembered once the pattern pieces are cut off. Tissue is fragile, and keeping up with separate bits of instruction tissue will be a challenge. Yall know what I'm talking about--you have seen pictures of my sewing room!

I will also change the shape of the hemline when I make this one. More on that later.

And the final thing I will change is the back facing. Although I know it is standard practice in heirloom sewing to place the opening edges on the selvedge, thus eliminating the need to finish the raw edge, I just don't like that. It's personal, I guess, because I prefer a finished edge there. So I will make an adjustment for that when I cut out the pattern.

After thinking about this for three weeks, I think I will make the first one in white, with white smocking. But lace? no lace? what to do, what to do....

Details!

The Pregnant One went to the doctor for the poking and prodding, only to discover that he said, "hmmmmmmmm....................". The belly measured for 9 weeks, which was pretty much ruled out as possible. So an ultrasound was done, just to see........

There are two. Two babies. Two sweet little babies. Two sweet little babies that will cry, smile, peepee, poopie, and love their grandmother.

But what will they be?

They are fraternal twins, not identical twins (there are two sacs, you see, so that means there were two eggs, therefore fraternal twins)....I learn something new every day. Isn't life wonderful?

So the possibilities are:

1. Two Baby Girls
2. Two Baby Boys
3. One Baby Boy and One Baby Girl
4. One Baby Girl and One Baby Boy
   

I threw those last two in there just to see if you all were paying attention.

I have a huge dilemma here. What do I make? White? Pink? Blue? Should it be smocked? Tucked? Lace? No Lace? Any way you look at it, the best odds at this point is 50/50. I'm open to suggestions here, please, because my mind is just blown away by the possibilities of Dresses! Bubbles! Short Overalls! If you know of a good pattern that would work well for a Baby Boy or a Baby Girl, please leave a comment or a link to it. Thanks in advance!

I have been doing some housework. And some knitting. I've been working on this design, from the Fall 2007 Interweave Knits. It's by Lily Chin:




It's a very simple cardigan type thingee, worked in moss stitch. Perfect knitting while watching Design Star. Or Tim Gunn's Guide To Style. Or when your mind is blown away by the idea of Twins.

This would be warm, but not overly so. Since we have only two weeks of fall here (late January) and only two weeks of winter (early February) this would be wearable. How I wish I lived in Vermont, where I could wear this in June and knit with wool all year long. I like the 3/4 length sleeves and the basic lines. My idea is that if it fits, I can make it again and use a pattern stitch on the body. Goodness knows it's high time I used all those Barbara Walker books lying around here. The bottom ribbing is K2, P1. Simple. Here's a picture of it sunning itself on the back porch:








And a close up:




This is the Cherry Tree Hill wool I got in Vermont this summer. I love how the purl stitches are all pebbly. This stitch really shows off the yarn colors.....compare the moss stitch section to the stockinette front band and you can see the striped band effect versus the pebbly moss stitch effect.

Speaking of that front band, I'm not so sure I like it. It curls (like I knew it would!) since it is stockinette. Even the inset photo in the magazine shows a bit of curl. I'm trying to decide whether to leave it and keep going or to rip it and use the bottom band rib up the front edges.

Any suggestions? Anyone out there made this yet?