Fabric : Fibre : Family
Well, the broadband is down Chez Stitches so this is a quick post from the iPhone.
Today Button’s adoption was approved. Although she’s been ours in our hearts since the first day we met (which is a year ago next Thursday), today the courts agreed with us.
We are overjoyed.
One down, one to go!!!
3 days in to The Boy being home, we are slowly establishing a new routine.
Despite having to take a reciprocal saw to our old sofa to enable us to get it out of the sitting room. Then having to remove the sitting room window to enable us to get the new sofa in!
And despite Button developing chickenpox yesterday.
As I type they are both having a nap, having played happily together all morning. They are as thick as thieves already and totally inseparable. We couldn’t have asked for more.
So, my mind is turning to sewing. Maybe, just maybe, I could squeeze a summer skirt or two into the mix over the next few weeks (especially as Mr S is on leave for another week). Hmmmmmmmmmm, where are my patterns????
Button and The Boy were together in foster care for a couple of months before she came home to us.
That was 11 months ago.
Yesterday they were reunited:
Today they have been getting used to being at home together:
When we dropped The Boy at his foster carer’s tonight, Button’s parting shot was “come back”. We only have two more sleeps until he is home. It looks like we’ll all be glad when he is.
Finally, we have met our little boy. 
He is wonderful…and worth every second of the wait for him.
We are overjoyed.
Tomorrow he and Button are reunited after 11 months. As she says… “how exciting”!
I promise better pictures (not iPhone pics).
Are you scratching your head?
Do you think maybe it’s that the sun is shining in Lancashire?
Perhaps you’re wondering what happened to the new fringe? (This photo was taken pre do!)
Still not getting it?
Ok. I’ll help you out. If you look to the right of Button…just between her and her Daddy…do you see the gap?
No?
Really…that small gap the size of …ooooh, I don’t know….say…a 13 month old little boy.
Do you see it yet?
Ah…there it is….:-)
Well, that gap is soon to be filled. The social worker meeting we had today was Panel for Button’s brother and they said yes! We’re just waiting for the ratification (and you’ll remember how long that took last time), but if all goes to plan he’ll be home in about 3 or 4 weeks.
We’d hoped to bring him home last year but there were paperwork issues that meant that couldn’t happen. But he’ll be home soon and our family will be complete.
We are overjoyed.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a hair cut, dear reader.
When I say “a while” I mean several months.
When I say “several” I’m probably talking more like six or seven.
I was convinced that Alice Who is a Cat had been nibbling whilst I slept, but maybe the lack of acquaintance with the hairdressers scissors may have something to do with the tatty lack of style that topped my head.
Button was in a similar predicament. We’ve been growing out her baby hair but it had reached the stage where we were holding her fringe out of her eyes for only an hour a day until she pulled the clip out.
It would seem to be an easily resolvable issue. Get. A. Haircut.
But, dear reader, we live in Backwater Central. And whilst there seems to be eleventy million hairdressers in our small town, there isn’t one of them I really trust with my hair. One of the local ones is renowned for taking the tips off your ears at no extra charge.
But our gym has a rather nice looking salon and I’ve never seen anyone leave there in tears. So we bit the bullet and made an appointment.
At this point I should let you know that Button has only had her hair cut with Mummy’s embroidery scissors to date. So as we arrived at the salon I was slightly nervous. She’s howled like a banshee at the dentist and I was hoping we wouldn’t have a repeat performance.
I needn’t have worried.
She loved the hustle and bustle of the salon. And having her hair washed.
She hardly wriggled at all and we love the end result:
And I got a new do too:
I have much to be grateful for
Today I had a long list of things to do. Most of them fairly easy to box off. All of them pretty mundane:
1. Now the roads are clear (ish) again, get my lardy arse to the gym and start doing something about it. Check…not a huge workout but definitely better than nothing.
2. Do my roots…4 weeks since the last colour and I look like Mrs Badger. Check…Badger tendencies at bay for another couple of weeks.
3. Organise Button’s birthday get together for the weekend. Check…messages sent to all concerned to let them know it’s going ahead.
4. Laundry. Check…this is easy enough to work around other stuff. Although I’ve still two loads to do. Which begs the question…just how much laundry can three people create?
5. Ironing. Are you serious!!!!!
6. Fix my embroidery frame to stop it whizzing round and releasing the tension on the fabric. Check…Turned out to be a 1 minute ‘remove washer’ fix. Hurrah!!!
7. Study.
8. Finish sewing the face fabric panels together for the kitchen curtain.
Hmmmmm!!! 7 and 8 are where the problem arose. In the form of a tiny, blond time thief who flatly refused to have a nap and screamed the house down if you tried.
So I managed all of about 20cms of hand sewing on the curtains. They are starting to feel never ending. I’ve only managed to get two of the three seams sewn on the face fabric. The lining is still a crumpled pile of fabric. And the pole arrives tomorrow.
So…we did what any sensible girls would have done at this point:
We twirled!!!!
We played with Timmy and Yabba and Dolly.
We read books about a cake baking Bunny.
We ate birthday cake.
We tickled.
We ran up and down the hall shrieking like a banshee (obviously I passed on that particular one).
What the heck…tomorrow is another day.
Today is 8 months since I first held my baby girl in my arms.
Yesterday was her second birthday.
Whereas most Mums look back to the day their baby was born, I look back to the day I walked into the sitting room at the foster carer’s home and she looked up at me and stole my heart with one smile.
The little girl who proudly confirmed that yesterday was indeed her “birfday” and that she was most emphatically “two”, with accompanying fingers just in case you were in any doubt, is a world away from the timid baby I first met.
I thought I loved that baby more than it was humanly possible to love anyone. Today I know I was wrong. Each day, as my little girl leaves babyhood behind, she steals another piece of my heart. It’s a piece I’m happy to give.
Each day I love her more.
I know her daddy feels the same.
Happy birthday Button.
When there are negative temperatures outside and evil Mummy has hard floors throughout the house, what’s a girl to do to keep her toes warm?
Hand felted and embroidered slippers courtesy of the ever lovely Himmelbjerget. What more could a girl ask for?