white apples . a blog

for the little one

This pregnancy has been entirely different from my first one. I have had more symptoms - nausea, aches & pains, other little discomforts - that were absent last time. But most notably, I have a toddler to take care of now. With my first pregnancy, I was entirely mindful of the life I was growing each moment of the day. Every thought and action was colored with this new experience, every meal, every work day, every movement. Truly, though I worked about nine hours a day, I had an extravagant amount of free time - time to sit and contemplate my pregnancy and my changing body and this growing baby and this new life we were embracing.

Now we are completely immersed in that life, and my days and hours and moments are full of motion and planning and doing. Whole sections of the day fly by when I completely forget that I am pregnant. And so, between playing and cleaning and cooking and grocery shopping, between snuggling with Juni and flipping pancakes and chasing deer out of the yard, I've been trying to set aside some moments of pause. Moments to sit and be mindful of this baby, our son, her brother, to feel his movements and let the joy and anticipation and excitement wash over me as though he were the first and only.

Yet another difference this time around, a good one, is that we already have most of the requisite baby gear and accoutrements. With Juni, there was a long list of "stuff" to accumulate and assemble and arrange. Now there are just a handful of things that we truly need. And thanks to my tendency at the time to dress little baby Juniper in rather gender neutral colors, we don't even need many new baby clothes. And so, I've been focusing my nesting efforts on making handmade things for our little boy.

 

These are two receiving blankets I make a while ago. I couldn't believe the amount of blankets Juni ended up with when she was born. I thought it was ridiculous at the time, but we used and loved every one of them. Babies and snuggly blankets just go hand in hand, especially for those Autumn/Winter births.

Taking a cue from her blog, I used Anna Maria Horner's luxuriously soft Little Folks voile for one side of the blanket and her warm and cuddly Folksy Flannels line for the other. The binding is bias cut from her solid voile collection (as it turns out, making and attaching bias binding from voile is not as trivial as I thought, mistakes abound). The blankets ended up being around 34"x44", perfect for swaddling up a brand new little baby. As you can see above, Juniper has determined that they are snuggly indeed.

one and a half

Last week, Juniper turned 18 months old. 

Sometimes I wake up before she does and I watch her in those last moments of sleep. I see her little baby face, relaxed and peaceful. I see the way her cheeks fall all over themselves, the way her mouth scrunches into a little "o", her arms splayed around her head, her knees twisted into impossible, yogi positions. This is the same sweet baby that I have been looking at for eighteen whole months - her breath, soft and whispery, her long lashes dancing around her eyelids, her fingers clenched into chubby little fists. 

But then she wakes and she laughs and I can't see a trace of baby in my one and half year old Juni. She is all giggling, squealing, pointing, tumbling, running toddler, bursting with life, always in motion. In comparison, I am slow, always three steps behind my quicksilver girl. 

It is a cliche but true - they grow fast. I am barely over saying goodbye to my chubby baby, and I know soon I will say goodbye to the little toddler as well. So I hold tight to all the small, sweet moments with this amazing, loving, delightful, hilarious, sweet little girl. She changes and grows with each breath that we take. All I can do is keep up as she barrels headfirst up and out into the world. Hopefully, she will look back every so often. I'll be there.

 

bring me my pad thai

raspberry jazzberry razzmatazz berry

I look forward to berry season all year. I love the little jewels - warmed by the sun or straight from the fridge, boiled down into jam or baked up into a pie, scattered on yogurt and granola or sprinkled into just poured pancakes. We eat a lot of berries in this household and this Raspberry Buttermilk Cake is one of my favorite berry incarnations when I'm looking for something easy and comforting and Summery-sweet. It is simple and rustic and delicious. It requires no special occasion or fancy ingredients. This is just the thing to whip up during Juniper's mid-day nap. I eat the still-warm slices with my hands, standing over the kitchen sink, waiting to hear her stir. Sure, forks and dessert plates will do if company is over, but this cake isn't that fussy. It begs to be wrapped up for summer picnics in the park or impromptu trips to the beach. I sneak slices as I walk by the kitchen table, the dog licking up the crumbs as I walk by. Juniper just eats it by the handful.

bedtime stories

Often the sweetest part of the day is the gentle wind-down at Juniper's bedtime. Snuggles are essential, as is a good story or two. Cozy blankets, much-loved stuffed animals (Blue Dog, Pink Cat, perhaps a Bunny or a Bee), the sound of the wind outside our poorly insulated windows. Also, good pajamas. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time shopping for Juni jammies. They are often too expensive or too garish or too polyester. They rarely fit over her overnight cloth-diapered behind. One-piece or two-piece? Footies or footless? Chub-squeezingly tight or chemically flame retardant? These are the silly things that can occupy a whole afternoon or two in my world.

As it turns out, those afternoons are better spent making ridiculously adorable Oliver + S Bedtime Story Pajamas. The kimono style is pretty simple to assemble; each of these jammies took me a weekend to finish (working in spurts here and there). Plus, Oliver + S patterns are very detailed and well-written - perfect for a beginner. No need to google every other term or worry that obvious steps have been omitted from the directions. 

The fabric above is from Amy Butler's Belle line and the fabric below is from Michael Miller (ack! The hedgies! I love them!).

 

 

Juni loved the hedghogs as well. Especially that one... right there on the arm.

more beginnings

Almost two years ago, I began this blog with a glimpse of the 22-week Juniper bump. Here we are, not quite two years later, with another wonderful adventure ahead of us. Here is a our sweet boy, 22 weeks along, due to join our little family on October 20th.

a tisket, a tasket, and a sundress

Several weeks ago, my mom bought Juniper one of these hand-woven Blessing Baskets. It is perfectly Juni-sized, appropriate for holding all manner of snackies, treasures, and toddler detritus. She runs to get it whenever we head out of the house for an adventure (eg. supermarket shopping, errand running, park going). On any given day, she can be found at some bustling Durham locale, swinging her arms, basket in hand, searching for something to collect/destroy/grab/sniff/adopt.

The summery sundress is one I made from this absurdly easy and gratifying Sew Baby pattern. Perfect for piecing together on a lazy weekend afternoon, it is a simple, one-piece pattern that criss-crosses in the back and buttons at the shoulders. For this reversible dress, I used two fabrics from Heather Ross' lovely and sadly out-of-production Mendocino line. I love the seahorses and those little fish!

 

The Cheeks. They are Chubby.

gonna be filled with strawberry love

"It could solve all the problems of the world, that pie... [it's] a thing of beauty — how each flavor opens itself one by one, like a chapter in a book. First the flavor of an exotic spice hits you, just the hint of it. And then you're flooded with chocolate, dark and bittersweet, like an old love affair. And finally strawberry, the way strawberry was always supposed to taste but never knew how."

The quote is from the movie "Waitress" - a quirky, sweet-tart little confection of a movie about, among other things, the transformative power of pie. The focus is less on eating pie and more on the act of creating a pie from scratch. Of pouring all your love or anger or helplessness into something made with your own hands. The above pie description is so captivating and irresistible that I immediately wanted a slice of strawberry chocolate pie. Not just any strawberry chocolate pie. I wanted to taste that very pie. The one that made Andy Griffith's character compose an impromptu ode to something enchanting and sensuous and delicious.

more than just a blanket

 

One of my favorite memories from childhood is toting around my favorite blanket. It was white and fluffy and had colored letters printed on it for learning the alphabet. The stuffing was horrendously misshapen. The material was worn thin and soft. It made forts and capes and caves. It was a cloud and a raft and a magic carpet. Throw in some cozy pajamas and a good book and I was a happy little girl. In fact, not much has changed.

Juniper loves to snuggle up with a blanket. She carries them around the house building little nests here and there. She buries her face in the fluffiness. She curls up in the folds. She hides underneath, giggling, squealing, willing us to find her. A few weeks ago, I made this Juni-sized blanket just for her. The design is based on the Easy Lap Quilt from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. And it was, indeed, fairly easy, with long strips of fabric to create the patchwork top and a coordinating pattern for the back. The adorable fabric is from the Folksy Flannels line by Anna Maria Horner and the lining is a soft organic bamboo batting. The whole combination makes for a warm, cozy, girly little blanket for my sweet snuggler.

  

 

Of course Juni loves to share, so Sydney gets her fair share of blanket snuggles as well.