Muffin Fest and KCW Day 1

   Ever since he hit 3 months old a couple weeks ago, my Smooshy has decided he doesn't sleep. Correction: He sleeps only when he wants to. Every once in a while he sleeps GREAT! He naps well, falls asleep for the night at a decent hour, and only wakes 3-4 times in a night to eat. Usually he would rather spend hours every day screaming and flailing to keep himself from falling asleep, biting me when I try to nurse him to sleep because he's smart enough to know what I know: The moment he latches on he will fall asleep, and he just cannot have that on those days. I am so sore. SO sore. By night he's usually so exhausted from fighting it that he falls asleep early, but wakes 7-8 times to eat during the night. Not exaggerating. 7-8. On those days I have spent most of the day holding and rocking a screaming baby, so as soon as he's asleep for the night I set to work with my mountain of work, and end up going to bed very late. OF COURSE those are always the nights he's up almost hourly, too. It's just a bad-bad-bad mix. But I cannot even be annoyed. He's so sweet! He doesn't cry during the night. He nurses, he smiles, he coos, he plays with my hair, strokes my face, grabs my cheeks with both chubby hands and kisses all over my face in the dark. So I am exhausted- so very exhausted- but so blessed, and so loved by this little source of exhaustion.

   Last night was a night I stayed up late to get stuff done. Midnight, to be exact. Because I'd been busy with him all day, and really just needed to do something I enjoyed. I love my children desperately, and I am so blessed I have the honor of being a WAHM, but I still need to do things for me. I still need "mama things." I need my cup filled. A couple weeks ago a sweet friend asked me to Target for a 'walk around drinking Starbucks and looking for all the red stickers kid-free' date after church, and while we walked she said that she could tell being Mama had been rough for me lately, so she was glad she was able to get me out of the house for a little break. I so love sweet friends like this. But I digress. Yesterday was the first day of the summer edition Kids Clothes Week! The gist of KCW: crafty mamas spend so much time making things for others, that during KCW we purpose to set side one hour every day for one week to sew for our own children. There's a fun theme, encouraging and inspirational blog posts leading up to and during each KCW, and we post our projects to try and encourage and inspire one another. It's run every season, and a fun thing I try to allow myself a couple times a year. Last night I decided to start with my oldest. She is about to turn 10, and fast becoming a 'tween.' She appreciates everything I knit and sew for her, but on the rare occasion that we stop by shops with such goods, she is increasingly drawn to the more grown-up styles than the sparkles and ruffles she's liked since toddlerhood. I looked through my fabrics and decided to go with something that, to me, said, "I'm a teenager," in a fun way. I had no idea if she'd like it or if the fabric combination would even look good, but I set to work with high hopes, enjoying the silence of five sleeping children for an extended period of time. I used the size 12 of the BIMAA pattern by Lou Bee Clothing on Etsy, with the hoody option, and extended the sleeve cuffs by twice as much as the pattern called for. My girl has long arms like her mama. I put it in her room when I was finished so she'd see it in the morning. When I came out of my bedroom this morning, bleary-eyed and covered in white curdles of dried baby vomit, she stood in the living room wearing the hoody, beaming from ear to ear. SUCCESS! She said she felt so grown up. Her 7-year-old brother said she looked way older than 9. He thought she looked like an adult. That made her smile bigger, if that was even possible.

It's perfect. The black and purple polka dots fabric is Doodles cotton interlock from JoAnn's, and the lime chevron is a thin cotton/lycra blend I bought from a fellow WAHM who was destashing some fabrics she wasn't using. SO glad I made the sleeve cuffs longer, or it'd be too short for a long, lanky girl. Now everyone else is begging for a BIMAA. Not sure I can handle three more all-nighters like Smooshy and I pulled last night, but I'll try.