No Name, No Date

The little pumpkin has completed one month, and still goes without a name! That may sound weird but naming one's own child is the most difficult job. one day you decide something and next day you just don't like it😥. Naming others' kids , on the other hand is as simple as suggesting all the fancy names you can think of, and they'll choose whatever they like. I am saying so with the experience of someone who has suggested names to a baby girl born two days later after pumpkin . From a multitude of lovely and fashionable names, the parents chose one and pumpkin's baby cousin has a name 😚 .

Oh, and also, however this little pie sleeping in my arms is one month old, his due date is still 10 odd days away! You see, he was supposed to be born in first week of September. Both the kids, Coco as well as the little pumpkin are born at 34 weeks, due to different complications each time. So whenever I come across mothers who have given birth on expected due date or even later( God bless you, wonder woman.. you exist!!), I secretly admire them for this sheer superpower of not having complications before term. I, on the other hand, seem to have another skill. Bringing preterm babies ( and raising them well, as per records till now, fingers crossed) is my thing 😊

The above picture? Just a click of a paper giraffe, a few kids were making with me last year, nothing actually to do with Coco or pumpkin. It is there because it is cute🤗

Two Pumpkins

When the lazy woman was a new bride, she was really lazy and one glorious late morning, after the elaborate breakfast at her marital home was over, she bolted the door of her room which is conveniently constructed on a different floor than where the most of the household stays. She then snoozed away to dreamland as the late October noon's Sun shone on her window, keeping her cozily asleep.

During that nap, she had one of the most vivid dreams of her life, the memories of which still thrill her in a pleasant way.

In her dream, she heard a knock on the door of this same room and when she opened it, two huge yellow pumpkins were there, tumbling and shaking as if they have some form of animated life. 'Hi there, we're here!', as if they were trying to say, very happily moving to finally have found the right address. The lazy women knew instinctively that they were named Veeru and Badal, the pumpkins were! 

I woke up, my hair raised at ends. It may sound most unreasonable to you, but I thought I had seen my two kids. And when Coco was born a few years later, half of the dream came true too. On the surface, I was not sure about the second half, but it stayed with me in my heart of hearts. 

It still feels like a surreal dream to the lazy woman, but yes, the other half has actually come true. As I write this post, the little pumpkin is dreaming dreams in his little bed, making faces and little sounds. So, Yeah! Coco is a big brother now to a little boy. Together these two pumpkins are keeping my heart warm while the rain is pouring outside, cooling down the surroundings by many degrees.

Little Miss Pinky!

The lazy woman has got rather active hands which do not like to stay still even during her laziest lounging-in-the-sun sessions. She is also constantly on the lookout for interesting new projects. Knitting for fashionable little girls figures very high in her list of interesting projects. So, when she heard a very good news of the long awaited arrival of a baby girl in one of her husbands' senior colleague's home, she shed a few tears of joy right there in her bean bag and then it was all cheer and laughter at the prospect of yarn shopping for a new project in Coco-land.

All the internet was rinsed thoroughly for the cutest available pattern and I settled for this pair of booties. Then the hunt for a matching hat began and was met with success a short while later. A pattern for sweater was also searched for, but after a lot of search generated not much, I decided to make a simple front open sweater knitted from neck downwards, and make it a little wider at the base to make it look fashionable and not boxy. 

I am not happy with the yarn that we get in Indian markets, whether for babies or in general. I do not find the colors or the texture attractive but have to make do with whatever is available. I went to the market and with great difficulty and little inputs from Coco's dad (which rather confused me) chose baby pink and purple in Vardhman's Baby Soft. 

The booties were ready quickly and so was the hat. The sweater stayed rather neglected and was knitted in many installments as a result of lazy woman's busy social calendar in December. It was lying in my closet for at least two weeks under piles of sarees from the Putti Parade that I mentioned in the previous post. Finally, when I realized that winter will be over and the baby will grow big before the sweater is finished and delivered, I hurried up and finished making it and decorating it with little crocheted flowers, after a lot of brainwaves about buttons and ribbons and what-nots. 

After everything was ready, it was duly taken out to the lawn for a photo shoot and at least a hundred pictures were clicked before pack up. Meanwhile I stared at the lovely set and drooled at all the cuteness a lot. I promised myself to keep making such sweet little things every once in a while to keep in touch with my love for cute little things. With a lot of love and care, I packed the entire set in the same plastic clear jar in which the yarn came, and mailed it the next day.

What I Did Last Winter!

Ours is a large family and the numbers of relatives runs into at least high 3 digits. So there is an abundance of occassions especially weddings and arrival of new babies. Every time a little one is born in a relative's home, my in-laws visit them with gifts for the newborn and the new mother. These gifts include clothes. And if it is winter, there have to be warm clothes for the baby.

She is an avid gift-giver, my Ma-in-Law. Her gifts have to be unique and useful. She knows that I am a knitter and thus I am commissioned to accomplish the task of knitting cute baby sweater sets. Please note that red is her preferred colour for baby sweaters.

This past winter, though Coco was quite a handful, I was required to work my needles again. It was a welcome change in my somewhat still routine and warmed me in drab Delhi winter. So, here is the main sweater, semi-ready after much brainstorming over yarn and colour and pattern and such. The wide yellow stripe is not really flattering, or is it? We will see. 

                                                                                 Here we go with some little red things to do this...

                                                           Of course that yellow stripe was a road, on which these red cars were to whizz by! What did you think, the roads could not be yellow with black footpaths in Babyland? The car pattern was thankfully taken from this blog.        

                                                                                                                                                       

                                                 

The little sweater now looks happily cuddling itself. It is time to move on and prepare matching accessories... 

So much tangled confusion of yarn isn't it? And we are calling it an accessory?

Well, of course, its a teeny-tiny bootie for cosying up those little feet. The Zebra Crossing of yellow Babyland roads ;)

Of course, a sweater set is not complete without a hat. And a sweater with cars has to have a hat with a car.      

After the set was ready, it was time to pack and give away, but not before my customary photo shoot of the above items to my heart's content. I laid them out onto my quilt, and clicked away.

Clicking and taking an eyeful in, touching and smiling, making mental notes here and there about what I should change or improve the next time I take up such a project.

Loving the way the laces are jumping up looking cheerful.

The last picture, taken hastily and blurred slightly, but generally able to look like what I had in mind at the outset. Oh, knitting for babies is the best. They have so much scope for bright colors and cute patterns, and they are ready in no time, the small sizes. I do not know whether babies wear them or not, however I would love to see them wearing it, but I sure do know, handmade gifts of this nature are a rarity nowadays and make good keepsakes.

Stealing moments

 

Coco keeps me so busy, as any mom of a newborn will be familiar with, that despite imagining all sorts of topics to post, and writing them mentally, I have not even been able to see how my postless blog looks. Endless sessions of nappy changing hardly allow me time to eat or take a bath, catching forty winks is a luxury and being seen with a laptop….ooo! blasphemy!! But this lady here is determined to share with you a few moments of stolen time.

Anyways, the 6 week old has been visiting the hospital for his vaccinations as well as to keep his appointment with the pediatrician (or pedestrian, as Coco’s dad would say; another famous story in my household). It is really heartening to find out that he has put on a kg in less than a month, which is really important  since he was born a mere 2.4 kg. But it takes a very strong person to see the injection piercing their baby and not feeling queasy. Now I know why the bond between a mother and a child is so special. Each day I notice something about my baby that reminds me of my mother and I realize how she feels about me. Now I know my mom better. I love her even more. And I must say, every child needs a mother, even the old ones.