Tuesday, July 3, 2018

June Staycation

As I've mentioned before, I have some maternity leave that I need to use up before Baby L's first birthday, so I took a week off in June to just stay at home and hang out with her (which is exactly what the extra leave is for!  Mommy-baby bonding!) I contemplated a little trip locally to Oman or even just to Ajman, but decided with our little family still getting back into a routine from our trip to Houston, it would be better to just stay home.

We installed padded flooring and babyproofed in Baby L's nursery so she could have a bigger space to play than just our living room rug. She absolutely loves it!
Mommy, I'm trying to sneak out!
This was a relief for the grown-ups too, when she's in the nursery, we don't have to worry about her chasing daddy's electronics and the padding is a lot easier on adult knees for crawling around. Win-win-win for all of us!

We also celebrated Baby L's 10-month birthday. She will no longer let me pose her for pictures with sweets, so we let her hold one of her favorites, a carrot (second only to the delicious avocado from her 9-month photos.)

After our return from Houston, Baby L has also (finally) gotten into a pretty consistent 2-nap-per-day routine. This meant I was able to work on some sewing projects. I found a hole in the seat and foot seams of one of Baby L's almost-new pajamas, so rather than tossing it, I cut it up and sewed a little cap for her. I'm not used to sewing with stretchy knits so it's pretty lopsided and crooked, and made with love. I also made Baby L a "bapron" since she likes to rip her bibs off and throw them on the ground. The bapron has arm holes and ties in the back so she can't rip it off and she can't choke herself with it.
I modified the pattern in this free tutorial to include a pocket

My baby girl looks like an adorable little boy with her cap! Made from this tutorial here.
I finished a project of fabric letters that I started while I was pregnant. She mostly just likes to throw the letters around, which is fine - we're happy to get her familiar with letters early!
Yay! Letters!
The final sewing project finish for the week is a new ironing board cover. I accidentally burnt a hole in the cheap synthetic one that came with the ironing board, so I quickly sewed up a new one with some extra fabric I had in my sewing crates. I wish I'd taken a picture of the cover before we threw it away!
I bought a mystery fabric bundle from Craftsy which included this weird crow fabric...but it makes a great ironing board cover!

A lucky thing for me staying home this particular week was that Baby L started walking. It started with toddling little steps between Miss J and myself, and by the time I returned to work on Sunday, she was taking little steps and standing on her own.
Baby crash helmet to protect her head from the super hard tile floors in our apartment
We wrapped up super fun week at home with some visitors from Houston. My first friend in Houston came to visit her daughter, who works for the US Consulate in Dubai. We invited Johnnie, her daughter, and both their husbands over to enjoy a delicious Filipino meal of pancit and lumpia cooked by Miss J. It's always good to see Johnnie, and great to make new friends in Dubai as well! Of course, as usual, I forgot to take pictures. :-( It just means we had such a great time that we couldn't be bothered with silly things like phone cameras!!