Likka's first birthday - today

Today Likka turns one. Wow. Where did the year go. But I'm happy it did, toddlers are way more fun. We celebrated Likka's birthday with the family on Wednesday and with friends yesterday. We kept things simple, even the cake was decorated with just a pile of mini marshmallows and candy on the sides. Likka got to eat a few marshmallows and then those were all she wanted to eat.

Today we are leaving for the annual crayfish party at our friends' cabin, that is why we celebrated Likka's birthday couple days beforehand.

Tetrahedron

In between of making more cushion covers for the boat (yes those are still unfinished) I made three tetrahedron bags for Likka to play with. The tetrahedron bags have dried peas inside. These as many other of my crafts was inspired by Hupsistarallaa. Norsis had made similar for her son over a year ago. The pattern is from hääräämö blog. I tried to find similar pattern for you in English, but with a quick look I could not find one, so the pattern link is now just in Finnish, but the pictures are pretty good, you might not need it in English anyway.

Lacy diaper covers

At a close by town center I saw a woman/teen wearing lace shorts, maybe these, or similar. Those shorts inspired me to make another set of bloomers for Likka. I have had scraps of lace just waiting in my crafts stash and now the pants were a perfect use for those. I used the same pattern as I did for the previous bloomers. Some of the lace scraps I had were just a centimeter wider than I needed, just perfect, no leftovers anymore.

There is lace covering only the bum. There is eight pieces of lace, which of only two are exactly similar. Not all the lace I had was white, there is also yellow, pink and blue lace. The pants turned out bit more funky than I had envisioned, but that is ok, I like funny clothes.

Mattress cover

When I made the toy basket from the cradle I was left with a mattress with no home. I could not throw the mattress out, like I cannot with any craft item, and needed to place it somewhere. It does not fit in my crafts cabinet and so I decided to recover it with nice fabric and give it to Likka to use. She can later perhaps lay on it, while drawing, painting or "reading" or what ever children happen to do while then don't run around.

I covered the mattress with the carrot fabric from an old sheet which I have used before on Likka's stuff too, like for her duvet cover. The black zipper is from an old shirt of mine. So far Likka has not been too interested in the mattress, so I hid it in the toy basket. It's there out of the way but available when even these sort of things like pillows and mattresses start to interest her.

Mamelukes

Babies and dresses are a bit difficult combination. Since babies don't tend to stand upright, at least not all the time, the dresses do not drape nicely over the bum. Instead babies crawl in various ways and try to eat the hem of their dress. If you don't dress the baby with pants or tights the diaper can be seen. Not that the diaper is such a bad thing to see, but I feel like it bit ruins the look of the dress and tights or pants are a bit too much on a hot summer day. And that is why I made Likka underpants to wear over the diaper. I had the lace and the fabric already at home and used a bit modified pattern from an Ottobre magazine 1/2013 pattern 2. I think they look super cute on Likka and my dad asked if they sell lace diapers in stores nowadays, hilarious.

In case you are wondering about the title. These style of underpants are in Finnish called mamelukes (mamelukit). I do not know why.

Rainbow quilt

A very good friend of mine is having a baby on late July and I wanted to make something for the baby. I made a quilt for Likka before she was born and in use I noticed that a quilt (or any blanket) is very convenient to have for a baby. You can use it in between the baby and a hard floor at home, friends' places, at hobbies. And so I made a quilt for my friend's soon to come baby.

My friend is a railway engineer and so I was tempted to use pieces of the train sheet I still have left. Then I used various other fabrics I already had at home. I did not bother to make all the pieces the same width, it is much easier to sew them together if the pieces do not need to align. I was not going to place the pieces as I did, I actually cannot even remember how I was planning to arrange them at first but once I laid them on the floor this rainbow arrangement looked the best.

At first I was thinking of hand stitching the front to the back, because the last time I made a quilt I really disliked machine stitching it together. But it seems the hand stitching is even more annoying. I gave it a shot first but it was slow and boring and I soon lost my interest in it. In order to get the quilt done I went with the machine stitching, still I did not like that either but it was done faster.

On the backside of the quilt I draw washing instructions for the quilt with a fabric pen. Since the quilt is for a baby to lay on the quilt might need to be washed quite frequently. Hope my friend's soon to come baby enjoys the quilt.

Long planned bib

Over a year ago we were in Stockholm with a friend celebrating Easter. At that time I was expecting Likka and when we visited Tiogruppen store and saw all the oilcloths sold there I naturally thought of making a bib for Likka. It took slightly longer than I assumed to actually start the bib for her, but now it is done. I used a pattern from an existing bib and sewed bias tape on the edges. I was going to have the straps which are used to tie the bib on the back of the neck from the same bias tape, but I did not have enough of it and used some random white ribbon I had at home.

Likka has used the bib already so it does not look brand new anymore. I forgot to take photos before she started to use it. I do have some more of the same fabric, I could make another bib or even two from it or I could make something else. 

Pink sweatshirt

Not sure Likka needed this, but I made it anyhow. I guess it's good for colder summer evenings. On day she can wear a sleeveless top and then when evening comes I can just dress the sweatshirt on her. I have had the pink fabric for quite some time. I am bit surprised I decided to make the sweatshirt for Likka from that fabric. In theory I dislike dressing girls to pink (and boys to blue). But it is not the colour I actually dislike. I dislike that girls are only dressed as princesses and boys as superheros. I really don't mind the occasional soft pink dress on Likka if it fits the occasion, but for everyday, that is not my cup of tea. But I think this sweatshirt in hot pink and with the dark blue accents and the stripy lining makes the shirt look very perky and bold. It's not too girly.

Anyway... I love how it turned out. Not only does it look really good in my opinion but I love that I was able to make it look so professional, I'm really proud of it. I finally figured out how to use the double needle and used it on the hem of the shirt. Also the rib knit on the hood is perfectly stretched. There were so many details on the shirt which made me learn new sewing techniques and I think I was able to learn them well. I'm happy I made this, it makes me proud.

Pattern from Ottobre magazine 1/2013 page 12 in size 74 cm

Cloth diapering 4-8 months

I wrote about our experiences about cloth diapering from the first 4 months of Likka's life. Those experiences were good and we have continued to use cloth diapers on her. We are also still using the cloth diapers on her for the same reasons described in the earlier post. But I wanted to write another post about this subject since we have changed the style of the cloth diapers.

Previously I liked to use a separate cover and diaper insert on Likka. Those were handy because I most of the time was able to use the cover many times and only wash the diaper insert. But once Likka learned to turn from her back to her belly and started to move much more in general too it became quite impossible to dress those diapers on her. Once I got the insert on place she had moved already so that the insert was not where it was supposed to be anymore. It was quite a struggle. 

The set of used diapers I had bought also had all-in-one diapers and pocket diapers and we started to use those. I also bought more of all-in-one diapers later. Now we only use all-in-one diapers and pocket diapers. We have some diapers that are closed with velcro and some with snaps. I prefer velcro. Ever since Likka did learn to turn on her belly it's been a miracle if she stays on her back for even two seconds, for some reason the need of turning is so strong that I cannot keep her on her back, it's just impossible. And closing those snaps while she lies on her belly is really difficult. I have learned to dress those velcro diapers on her even when she lies on her belly. Velcro on the other hand does tangle in the wash and it wears out over time but so far all velcro diapers we have are working fine even after many many washes. And remember that we bought those used.

If I would need to buy all the cloth diapers now I would solely buy pocket diapers with velcro attachment. All-in-one diapers are handy too but those take forever to dry. We have a few all-in-one diapers that have flaps, that can be opened and that way dry faster. But pocket diapers dry even faster, the insert is usually made of bamboo or similar and flat once opened. It takes only a few hours for those to line dry when with the all-in-ones it can take more than 24 hours. We do not have a dryer so this is big issue for us. Sure the pocket diapers do need to be filled before use, but I have not found that to be a problem.

As you may also notice we have placed the diaper changing pad now on the floor of the bath room. That is maybe not the most ergonomic place for diaper changing but whole less stressful. When Likka was about six months she had started to move so much that we actually had to hold her down so she would not fall off from the changing pad. Few more bending down for us beats broken skull of a baby.

Toy basket

So far Likka does not have a huge quantity of toys but enough to over flow a small basket. In no time she will have doubled and tripled the amount of toys she has, even if I personally would not buy any toys for her.

I personally think it's easier to put stuff where it belongs if the stuff fits there well. So I decided to have a bigger basket for Likka's toys. Since it's bigger and therefore heavier to lift I wanted to add wheels under the basket. My dad found wheels from his supplies and I already had the basket. I wanted to make the bottom of the basket sturdier and so I also got a piece of plywood from my dad. I want the basket to be so sturdy that it can hold Likka when she is older (heavier) in case she crawls in it.

The wheels I attached with screws and nuts. I drilled holes through the basket and the plywood and then tightened the screws. The nuts are now inside the basket and bit pointy, not sure if I should cover them somehow.

I did place the lining of the basket inside, which I had done before, and it does cover the nuts a bit, that might not be enough though. Love the basket. If we declutter the items inside once in a while this basket should be large enough for quite some time.

~ ~ ~

You might remember the basket when we were using it as a cradle. Likka had not slept in the cradle for a while and so it was time to let go of it. 

Float of toys

On our backyard is a small creek or maybe I would call it a ditch. It collects rain waters from the streets, that means the water is not very clean, and that is why a ditch sounds more appropriate. The ditch runs underground and comes on surface next to a children's playground. All sorts of toys float on the ditch once in a while. When I see toys floating on it I usually take out my rake and rescue the toys from the water. Previously I've thrown the toys to trash or taken to the playground of our apartment building. But now I'm keeping the toys for Likka. We already have a ball and a shovel for her.

(Of course there is also trash on the ditch, when I see them I pick those up too and take those to our trash bins)

Yet another pair of baby mittens

I needed to knit something so I made a pair of mittens for Likka. Because of the horizontal stripes with purl knit these would be in Finnish called train mittens, I guess because the stripes remind of tracks, not sure though. But anyway these stripes for some odd reason help keep the mittens on. The knit makes these flexible like an accordion and also the cuffs are long so even when Likka tries to pull these off, she wont manage to fully do so.

The palm side of the mittens is straight, no stripes. If you are real pro like me (heh), you can knit similar just by looking at the pictures, but in case you are not here are the instructions. Although these instructions are not most detailed, so not for a beginner.

Using superfine yarn create 30 stitches with 3,5 mm needles. Divide on three needles.
*knit, purl*  *_*repeat for 15 rows
*knit five rows, purl five rows*  *_*repeat four times
knit five rows
*knit, purl*  *_*repeat for 10 rows
^knit four rows
*purl 15 stitches, knit 15*  *_*repeat four rows*^  ^_^ repeat three times
Knit making a decrease on every needle until four stitches are left per needle. Cut yarn and pull through all sixteen twelve stitches. 

Apron for a baby

I was in Ikea the other day for a lunch with a mommy friend, it was quite an ex tempore visit so I did not really think through that we would have actually needed something from there. I should have bought a painting apron Måla for Likka from there. Not that Likka paints, but many of our friends wear that apron on their kid when they feed them. The apron has sleeves too so it protects the clothes way better than a regular bib.

Likka has now started to practise eating, so far it's not going very well. She has tasted quite many vegetables already, but from most of them she has not eaten more than a molecule. She might have eaten a full spoonful of sweet potato in the course of a week, maybe. Which means most of the purees given to her squirt out from her mouth and onto her clothes. I've also let her 'eat' on her own, she likes to chew cucumber sticks and I've gived her some salad, tomato and avocado to try. But it's awfully messy ofcourse. So we could have used that Måla apron.

Then I decided to make one. I had some PUL fabric left from making the diaper covers and so I used that. The apron turned out ok, but it is bit difficult to dress on Likka, the fabric is not very slippery so the sleeves are slightly difficult to pull on. I should have made bat sleeves for the apron, then it would be easier. Also the apron could be slightly longer, so it would protect Likka's pants too. Anyway once it's on it does work quite nicely, but it won't fit her for long. I guess I could make another one but I don't have enough material anymore and I'm not going to go and buy any, the material alone is more expensive than the ready made apron in Ikea. So I guess I need to make another trip to Ikea sometime later. 

I forgot to take before shots of the apron alone, so here it is after eating or tasting just one slice of tomato. Beautiful.

Long overdue installation of a wall hook

After months of consideration I added a wall hook next to the terrace door. Back in November I noticed a need for a wall hook or some other way to keep the blankets and sleeping bags used when napping Likka on the terrace cradle. I just threw the sleeping bags on the floor when I took Likka inside from her nap. I did occasionally fold them but usually I did not bother.

I did consider also a basket, but that just takes too much floor space on an area which does not really have much room. I decided on a wall hook, but then I had to decide which one to get. I considered all sorts of hooks, even design ones like the Hang it all or the Muuto Dot. All those desing hooks are nice for sure, but I didn't need anything fancy and just wanted something that suits our home. 

In the toilet and bathroom we have wall hooks, which are original to the apartment (you can see two of them in this picture), those are fairly plain and common, but have prooven to be good in use and seem to be practically unbreakable. Remarkably those hooks are still in production. The size has changed a bit but the style and material is same.

So I bought one wall hook finally from a home improvement store. I screwed it on the wall, it hangs fairly high since the blankets and sleeping bags are quite long. When we do not need the hook anymore next to the terrace door I can move it to the bathroom or Likka's future room or any other place and it should suit to that place too.

Better safe than sorry

So far Likka does not move much, but suddenly one day she will somehow crawl/drag/walk to a place where she should not be allowed to go. Our neighbour mentioned about an insident where their first born had somehow managed to move herself into the kitchen and had eaten some dishwashing detergent, which is highly irritating. Their kid did not get injured, but ofcourse they had to visit the hospital because of that.

With that story in mind we moved the dishwashing detergent to a higher cabinet and now I also moved the laundry detergents higher in the cleaning cabinet. They were kept on a quite low shelf before.

There are many things in our home which we might need to move higher or reorganize as Likka grows, but now atleast these chemicals are out of reach of the little hands.