Merrick's special Day

**please note; my good camera is still, yet again, in repair, I appologize for the photo quality**

One year ago I gave birth to my darling little boy. I still owe you his birth story... Soon!

I'm happy to start our birthday ritual for the first anniversaire for Merrick. I makes it extra special for Mariann and will be totally the norm (yet still magical) for him. And Mariann enjoyed it as much as Bébé frère!

As gift, I think I spoiled myself more then the kids... I bought already cut stalkers and stained them with watercolors. It looks so great in their playroom and Mariann loves to make the puzzles... For now Merrick enjoy tasting all the pieces!

I made one for each element. The little wooden sun was painted by Mariann on Ostara and Merrick loves chewing on it. I put it there in infase the fact that he was born in Summer, on a very hot and sunny day :)

We already had the playsilks and wooden animals.

And here's Mariann gift, which she was very very proud to give!
I cut 3 rectangles and ran them throught my sewing machine, then I asked Mariann to embrodery each page with each colors of the rainbow. It took about 4 baby brother's naps, she would keep her interests for about 3-4 pages at a time. I then handsewn two pages together so the wrong side don't show.

We can see a little bit of the necklace I made. I took blue glass beads and a pentacle charm (for protection) and some hazeltree beads I made from wood harvested in our own backyard. I simply cut each beads (with a tool I just can't find the english word in my head right now...) and a nail and hammer. Right now it sits on my work table, waiting for me to re-do it. Shirring elastic was not a good idea, apperently!

I don't really have a great picture of the crown... I'll take one later.

So, I've embrodery his initial in blue, like his eyes, and sewn felt oak leaves, the king of tree, nothing less! It represents well the time he was born, I find. On the side there is a spear and a branch of wheat which represent the day he was born; Lughnasad or Lamas, the first of the three pagan harvest festival. On the other side, still with felt, I sewn a wooden shield and an axe, symbol of his name, which means Powerfull Conquerer or Ruler of the Sea, and which as value him the nickname of Little Viking by his godsfather and Mamie. All the growling, and the fact that he's so blond and chubby, only added to it!

I also made them paint on canvas, of course Mariann loved it, as always... But Merrick, not really. We still have 2 great paintings on the wall!

And here he is in a tunic I made the very day. I actually took picture to built a tutorial to show you how. And no, it was white no more by the end of the day!

We had our family for super and he even got a spoon of chocolate ice cream. He got a booster seat and was so proud to sit with everyone at the table!

Do I have a 1 year old boy already??

Hope all my pagan friends had a great Lughnasad! We made a corn bread yesterday and it was pretty good with mapple syrup. I'll share the recipe soon.

Possibilities

I promised you a sunset so here it is.

While we're getting settled and cozy in our new- old house, me and Papa have the feeling it's not really home. We're being constantly reminded that it's not ours, and all the repair that needs to be done in here is still waiting, wainting ... The workload on the land is too big. At least now with Papa helping, the in-law can have a little rest... meaning, he's not obligated to start working at 5 am and stop at midnight...

Mariann birthday cake; The roof is fondant, the stairs a mint-chocolate and the trees a almond paste. The rest is buttercream and it was a chocolate cake. Yum!

Papa's talking of going anyway, not waiting to know if he's accepted and just go, try another career option and try again for med school at the end of the year (it'll then cut our choice of city from 4 to 1).

And you know what, I'm pretty tempted myself. The city we would go as a great reputation, community wise. A lot of place for families. Here... Well. People are getting older and older... And many of the ressources and activities are planed for tourists. There's a lot of nature, but little activities to do. I think we know all the park in a 50km radius by now!

And I admit; What is really tempting me, is that there's a Waldorf community nearby where Papa wants to go. (one of the few in Québec). There's a Waldorf public primary school (it's free) and, from what I have heard... It's a great place to call home.

But, it's all up in the air, right? Oh, the possibilities!

~~~
and to reply to Wulf: Yes, Mariann took that picture of my calf :)

Mariann's special day

On July 7th, we celebrated Mariann's third time around the sun.

In our new play room, on a piece of green silk, I've put some cake and strawberries I did a while ago, fairy wings, got the idea here: http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/making-fairy-wings.html,. On the chair, a tutu (1" elastic with attached stripes of tule) and another one for Victoria. What's in the wooden box?

Birthday crown... I'd like to refer you to this inspiring post: http://frontierdreams.blogspot.com/2009/05/wool-felt-birthday-crown-tutorial.html

I chose the strawberries because Mariann loves them, a lot! She was born on the time they came out, because here they come out a lot latter then USA. So I have this sweet memory of being into labor, on the patio eating strawberries my in-law just picked for me from his field.

The face that makes all the work worth it:

In a little wooden box, I've put a little wooden set (the kind you get in dollar store an assemble yourself) with a pipe-cleaner fairy and a peg baby.

....I really wanted to get her a wooden doll house and furnish it with natural stuff.... But my mom bought one. I was so frustrated I cried. So I'll make her one for winter solstice instead.

I made her a memory games out of felt. Very practical when you have a baby brother that eats everything.


Mamie came to play with us.

And we had friends in the after-noon to share pops with!


... It's hard to get a crips picture of fairy costume try-out...

Une fouaise maman? (Do you want a strawberry, mom?)

Please Welcome Baby Merrick!

Thanks to all the ladies that got back to me for the birth stories! I'll have something to post every 2 days for a month! How great?? I'm gonna get back to you all somewhere this weekend!

So many of you guest why I haven't post the blanket like I said I will...

On August 2nd, after 2h of labor and 5min of pushing, was born little baby boy Merrick, weighing 7lbs 13 oz and measuring 20".

He's a very healthy baby, and he eats A LOT.

We are a drained, sleep deprived, very happy couple!




I had another episode of latent labor Sunday, so we decided to sleep at my mom's who lives 2 streets from the house of birth.

I'm very glad we did! My contractions slacked for the night, and they started back at around 7am.. Well, I realized how regular and strong they were when Mariann woke up.





We entered the House of birth at 8h30 and the Baby was born at 9h07.
He remained nameless for 3 days, but we decided on Merrick before we left the house.





Mariann loves her brother baby, as she says.
She's also able to say his name, 'Yick!

She loves to kiss him and pat his head full of hair!
She showed no sign of jealousy yet, and she even went straight to her big girl bed without stepping out once last night, even if she spent 3 days sleeping in a park at my mom's.

So now I'm gonna get some rest !

Watch for the first birth story soon!

oh, and I'm sure some of you are gonna ask... My pack pain is GONE!!!! yay!

Sharing my research on birth and newborn blessings

Since the baby was almost there yesterday, today was all about getting the house clean and ready for the little human being. Later tonight I plan on having a cleansing ritual for every rooms of the apartment. I'm also gonna craft some pentagram to put under the crib mattress when it'll be up.

so, going with my research, I found this really interesting article. I haven't done a naming ceremony for Mariann... And I thinking of doing one this time. And yes, we are still totally out of names!

Apparently there are several general "rules" about having a naming ceremony:

1-Choose an "everyday" name c.i. the one on papers and a magical name that is whispered to the baby's ears for only the close circle to know.

2-Present the baby to the 4 guardians to ask for protection.

3-Wait for the umbilical cord to drop before having the ceremony; Else the baby is still symbolically attached to the mother.

4-Should there be non-pagan, tell them what is going to happen some time ahead.

5-Hold the ceremony outside if weather permits it, or in a big enough place (that should be consecrated).

6-Have the godparent/guardians/mentors to assist the ceremony.

7-Parents prepare and say words about commitments to the child and its future. Parent can tell why they choose the mentors, and themselves can read something about commitment at their turn.

8-Parents say a word about why they choose that/those name(s).

9-Have the other guest making a circle around the parents, baby and mentors. When the ceremony is over, "pass" the baby around for each guest to kiss him/her.

Well... that is too complicated for me! And even more for my atheist BF. I'll be most likely to do the presentation to the guardians on my own, and only keep the text reading part as for why we choose the name and the godparents. I also somehow better like the term "Naming day". Feels less formal :)

Birthday Cake!

As promised, birthday party pictures!

Oh my... She turned 2 today! 2 years back, at 3:31 am, I gave birth to this wonderful little human being. She was all pink and strong :)



Now she's all grown up, having her own personality and adding lots of joy to our life.

She acted shy when we sang her Happy Birthday!


..She was really exited about the lion and antelope on her cake!
Daddy was more exited about the turtles chocolate making the "rocks" and a friend of mine ate all the green licorice...

The cake itself was 2 ready made preparation (butter and pecan) easy enough! And for the third layer (rocks) what was supposed to be the cake... a rainbow angel cake that went flat ahah! But it served well anyway. The icing was those canned ones they sell next to the preparations, and I've added food coloring to it.


We were supposed to eat outdoor but it rained really bad!


Mariann enjoyed it anyway...


Now, I have a little logistic problem with my pictures.... my computer is full and won't take any more pictures so... the post ends there. Hope you enjoyed the cake!