Robin Artemis photo gallery

Second month, 11 May - 11 June, 2011

Purple and green. I liked the harmony and symmetry of this outfit with the green nappy under a purple cover and a purple singlet under a green suit.

Growing into 000 size clothes. Sparrow was still in some 0000 until the end of two months, but here at the beginning of Robin's second month he's just big enough for most of the 0000 suits to be a problem. He's the same size Sparrow was, or very close to, but slightly longer in the torso I think so the suits don't fit over the nappy for as long. And I got tired of trying to decide if any suit I picked up was going to still be OK, especially given that we had boxes and boxes of 000-size clothes. So I made an arbitrary decision to retire all 0000-size clothing and move straight into the 000 boxes. It meant I could start trying him in some of the cute suits I'd been waiting for. I took the time to sort the boxes and see what we had - and my gosh there was a lot of 000 clothes. New stuff sent as gifts for him, second-hand stuff I'd picked up and a pile of handmedowns from Sparrow. That's what these clothes all over the bed are.

At some point in late pregnancy I'd realised that I'd not picked up any size 000 singlets. Ngatina very helpfully sent us a pile of singlets and singlet-suits that Aurelius had grown out of, all of which she'd hand-dyed to be bright colours. Most of them were size 000, and this was the day I decided to start using them. Robin still fits size 0000 singlets (or he did at the beginning of the month), but the 000s fit as well and these were such lovely colours I decided not to wait. Especially seeing as we were using only the 000 suits now, it just made it easier to keep track of which boxes things went in and out of. You can also see in this photo how his hair is receding - all that first newborn hair is rubbing off in witches peaks, so he has the same hairline as his daddy at the moment. That gave me the giggles when I realised.

With all the colours to choose from, I definitely think he looks better in rosy colours, things with a bit of warmth to them. This is the jumper that Mum's friend Janet sent us. It was originally for Sparrow, but it looks much better on Robin than it ever did on her. And while it's pink, it's not the horrid bright pinks that the shops are full of but rather a nice rojo viejo, or dusty red. It goes well with the salmon singlet underneath. (I've been talking to Robin in Spanish a lot, particularly with things like colours. He will probably have Spanish as more of a second language than he does German.)

This is the jumper and blanket Janet sent us for Robin. Blue for a boy, and again the jumper is a stormy blue rather than a bright blue which makes a change from all the store-bought stuff. I didn't like him in it as much though, just didn't look right against his gold-tinted skin. A bit of a moot point in the end - he'd grown out of both jumpers by the end of the month. The indigo-and-white-striped suit still fits. I was very pleased with it when I found it because it's nice and strongly patterned without being gendered. Interestingly though it's not a good suit design for him. He's grown into it just a little early, so he doesn't have much head control or neck strength yet. And it only goes on over the head because the only large opening is across the crotch and legs. So he doesn't like going into it very much. It was getting a bit better by the end of the month but at the beginning of the month I just had to put it aside and see if he'd still fit it by the time his head and neck seemed strong enough to deal with that. If he hadn't grown into it for another four weeks the design would probably have been fine. So many subtleties in suit design for this age group!

Robin is modelling several pieces of Maggie's knitwear, in a harmoniously cool-coloured setting. I think these were both handmedowns from Sparrow, though the jumper might have been sent for him specifically (I've forgotten now). I'm definitely not convinced by the cool colours, though maybe it's just that the aquamarine is pale. It's nice to have him rugged up warm though. He seems to like warmth more than Sparrow does - she's definitely turned out to be a cold-weather kid.

I have something to say about this.

Here's the entire outfit. Again, a Sparrow handmedown knitted by Maggie, with purple highlights from the nappy cover and singlet. I quite liked the effect.

Just for the record. We have so many pictures of him in different outfits - this is so that we can remember how roly-poly he was. Like Sparrow, lots of little chubby rolls and tyres all over. He'll no doubt become a bit of a string-bean, and it'll happen so quickly we'll forget he was ever like this.

With so much clothing being worn, there has to be a lot of laundry! I think this might be the first time I'd taken him out with me to hang up the washing. He was awed by the plants and the hanging clothes and the colours and just looking up at things. It was totally fantastic, apparently.

Close up on that expression. There was also much excited arm-waving.