On Growing Up

No denying it, Nora is growing up. She is going to be two years old next month, which blows my mind. I can still remember her being a tiny 6 pound baby that just liked to sleep on me. Now she runs all over our house, tries to dress (and undress herself), and talks in full sentences. It has been amazing watching her grow and develop. She is so smart and very independent, but still very much our baby girl. 

The other night, Madison decided to take the front off of Nora's crib to turn it into her first "big girl bed." We had been talking about doing this for a while, because Nora loves to crawl into our bed and cuddle with the pillows and blankets. Look at that happy face! She was so excited. 

The first night went ok. She didn't even want to read a book before bed because she was so excited to sleep in her big girl bed. She slept from 7pm until about 1:30, when she woke up with teething pain. We let her sleep in our bed the rest of the night because she was very upset. All in all, it was a good first attempt because she didn't try to get up and play with her toys at all. 

The second night was very different. We have been trying to keep her bedtime routine the same, so that she knows when it is time for bed. She went down fine, but within 15 minutes, she was up playing with her books. I went in, laid her back down and told her that she needed to go to sleep. 15 minutes later, up again and trying to open her door. We decided to put her crib back together and told her that it was a privileged she would need to earn again. Honestly, she seemed relieved to me. She loves her bed, and we have a really good bedtime routine. 

This whole situation made me think about how different every child is. I know some kids who have been able to sleep in a big bed as soon as 18 months. Nora is clearly not one of those kids. She sat up and learned to crawl later than babies her age. She didn't walk at by her first birthday, and first words followed after that. It never bothered us, because we know all babies grow and develop at different speeds. 

We know now that Nora isn't ready for the responsibility of a big girl bed, and that is fine with us. She also has no interest in potty training at this age. We bought her a little potty to use, but she gets very upset whenever we ask her to try it. I had thought that she might be potty trained by 2, but since that clearly won't happen, we'll aim to work on it this coming year. I never want to be the mom that forces these things on her kids, I know she will come around it in her own time. 

I love watching Nora grow up and learn new things, but a part of me also loves that she is taking her time doing it. 

Quiet

You may have noticed that it has been a little quiet over her lately. Part of that is because I have been very busy with Foxglo recently. Things had been pretty slow since my surgery and are now starting to pick up again. That coupled with all the responsibilities of being a wife and mother meant I had to cut down on something. Unfortunately, that meant this blog. 

I have loved posting so frequently this past year, but at a rate of (usually) 4 posts a week, I have gotten a little burnt out creatively. Sometimes you just need to step back, take a break and regroup. 

I'm not sure where this blog will be heading in the future so for now I'm just going to take it slow and focus on the family moments I want to enjoy and remember in the future. I hope you enjoy following along.

Oh and in case you are wondering, the above photo is from Ashland, MA when I was living there in 2011. This was one of my favorite spots to relax.

Learning to Heal

If you've been following along for a little while, you'll know that I was in a car accident in January that broke my arm and wrist, and required surgery to fix them. It's been over two months since then, and I am beginning to get back to normal, somewhat. I am a stay at home mom, so the hardest part of all of this has been taking care of my rambunctious 11 month old and wondering if I am doing a good enough job with my one good arm. Nora is doing great and I have been feeling more reassured lately that we'll be okay. The other difficult part about this situation, is that I run a handmade home decor business, Foxglo. 

I am left-handed, and everything I do for my business is very much 

dependent on that. For a long time I wasn't able to work on my shop at all. Recently, I have been trying to work because I am too anxious not to. I like to be busy, so knowing that there is work to be done and new products to be created, but not being able to do them, is such a blow to morale. 

A couple weeks ago, I picked my embroidery needle back up and began making new products. At first, everything was fine. However, embroidering with a broken wrist is not the best idea. It hurts, a lot more than I expected. My family urged me to take a longer break and I am finally ready to listen to them. Unfortunately, it looks like Foxglo will not have any new product launches as soon as I hoped. This is for the best. It is more important to heal correctly than try to rush it. The work isn't going anywhere and I just need to give it a break.

Because I can't sit still for too long, I did manage to set up my temporary desk a little bit, so at least I have a nice and slightly more organized place to sit and work on the blog. It's the little things at this point.

Find Your Passion and Keep It

I was talking to Madison the other day about my new office. We've been discussing my new desk and how to make it work for my needs. I really wanted to get a light box for tracing, and my mother-in-law had a great idea for creating a desk top that was a light box itself. How cool would that be? I'll be sure to post a DIY once we get into it. As I was telling Madison about this idea I became overcome with the fact that I haven't sketched anything in so long. I went to school for fashion design and retailing, and one of my classes was fashion sketching. I've always been a creative and artistic person, but drawing has never been a strong skill of mine. Well, this class totally changed my idea about that, mainly because my professor was amazing, but also because we used croquis to trace our designs on top of. This one thing was so revolutionary for me because my fashion sketches actually looked like fashion sketches! I've been designing clothes since I was 10 years old and in one class the quality of my work increased tenfold. 

That class created a new found passion for sketching that I had lost for a long time. Even now, it has been probably a year and a half since I sketched anything seriously. As I was talking about my light box desk, I began to think about how important it is to stick with your passions once you find them. After I graduated, I no longer had access to a light box so the convenience of sketching with ease was gone. For this reason, as well as a new job, a pregnancy and a baby, I let my love for sketching slip away from me. 

I plan to make a serious effort to sketch more. It makes no sense to give up on something you love just because it isn't convenient anymore. This is my promise to myself, and I hope that you all feel inspired to keep up with the things you are passionate about. I know that life and responsibilities can get in the way, but you need to make time for yourself and the things you love.

To further inspire myself and you, here are a few of the sketches I did in that class. Leave me a comment letting me know what you are going to make more time for.