Sparrow Lorelei photo gallery

Cuteness and clothing in the fourteenth month, 9 June - 9 July, 2010

A lot of photos I take just because Sparrow happens to look particularly artistic or cute or pretty right at that moment. Nanananana, she's got the Look; as the song goes. This page is mostly photos in that category. There's not necessarily any particular story behind them, unless it's to show off some of the interesting clothing people have given her to wear.

This photo is one I thought of sending to Charles Vess, the artist who drew the picture book Sparrow's reading. She didn't use to like this book particularly, but it became a favourite this month once she started reading books herself. She'll happily pick it up and look through the pages. I like reading it as the rhythm and poetry of the words is delightful, and it's full of animal pictures.

"I'm busy reading, Mum, don't bother me." She gets quite absorbed when she's got a book. I don't know where she gets it from :-)

And this is our straight-out-of-the-bath hairstyle designed for the time-poor but sensual modern urban lady, modelled for you today by Sparrow.

She was having a serious conversation with me while wandering around in these overalls.

It's cold weather. Two beanies at once! She hasn't worked out how to get them both off at this point, though it didn't take her too long. It was funny though - she'd try and take her hat off, and succeed, and then she'd realise she was still wearing one.

Here's a hair clip she got for her birthday. She had enough hair to try putting it on. James was able to clip it on, and she found it a little bemusing - there's something on her head, and she can't see it, and it doesn't fall off when she tilts her head...

...and this is the look of betrayal she's giving her daddy when she finally got it off herself and saw what was stuck to her head. She seems so disappointed in him that he'd put it on her head *again*. She'd already taken it off, didn't he know that? Between the two of them they managed to break this clip this first time we tried it, so she's never had to suffer it again. It's fixable, but neither James nor I have got to fixing it yet. In the background is the Biene Maja book that Sparrow likes.

I thoguht I'd see if the blue booties still fit. They do, they stretch well, but they don't stay on any better than anything else. We're still trying all kinds of things to keep her feet warm while she's wandering the house and getting better at walking everywhere. I do like her in this blue combination.

New clothes. I though I'd try some of the size 1 things again, and the long-sleeved shirt here was almost too small. That happened quick. She needs long sleeves this time of year, and most shirts have such thin or tight cotton they really can't keep her warm even so. Thankfully we have many good jumpers. Right now she's got the long sleeved light mint green skivvy, the blue turtle t-shirt that I'd been looking forward to her wearing, and the purple pants. The pants are from the bag of clothes that carer Joanne's sister passed along to see if there was anything we'd like. Most of it was way too pink and girl-ed up, but these weren't too bad. It solves the problem of having something on her legs, but these pants are a bit like the cotton skivvies - they don't really hold in much warmth. They don't seem to really work for midwinter. They'll be good in spring though when it's as much wind chill that you're protecting yourself from as it is the plain cold. I really don't like cotton clothes in this climate, they live up to the name "death cloth" especially when wet (and she wets her clothes every time she takes the cup off me to give herself a drink!) so it's wonderful that we have so much for her to wear that isn't woven cotton. She's playing with these overalls, she pulled them out of her cupboard herself and carried them around with her off and on for a couple of days. She really liked the fastenings, they were her favourite toy for maybe two days.

If you look carefully at her forehead you'll see a large bruise, around the size of a fifty-cent coin. Yes, it's a bruise and not a shadow. She had a lot of bruises on her forehead this month - just as one faded she'd get another in around the same spot. It's so hard being a little baby without a lot of walking experience, especially when well-meaning parents keep trying to put things on your feet to keep them warm. I hate putting stuff on her feet as it does increase her number of trips and falls, but her toes get SO cold sometimes! So there were bruises from camping chairs and door frames - especially door frames, because she'd turn around to go some other direction and forget they were there and walk straight into them. This really large bruise is from one of my heart-attack moments. I'd gone out into the patio to put the laundry in the washing machine, and apparently the kitchen door hadn't quite latched properly behind me. It looked like it had, but the latch wasn't fully caught. Sparrow had been at the far side of the house and busy but suddenly came running to the door to see what I was doing. She was wearing a toasty-warm monster suit with sewn-in feet, they skidded slightly so she tripped just as she got to the door instead of stopping cautiously as she usually does, and fell forward into the door and it swung open and she tumbled right on out and down the three steps there. So many things had to go wrong for that accident to happen, it pretty much counts as a miracle. She caught herself a little so it wasn't too bad, but she and I were both a bit shocked for the next few minutes. And she already had a bruise in that spot too so it would have hurt extra. Poor thing.

Wearing the jester hat. James and I really like this hat but it doesn't stay on her. I think it's a little heavy so she can't forget she's wearing it and has to take it off. Pity, it's very warm and comfortable. She has started trying to put hats on herself occasionally. Right now she is trying to put another hat on her head, but is failing because the second "hat" is in fact a bootie. I watched her spend five minutes one day trying to put a sock on her head and getting confused that it wasn't working.

Sparrow found my red lacy top in the floordrobe and kept pulling it out and carrying it around with her. She even managed to work out how to get the shoulder straps over her head so that she could "wear" it. I decided that she was definitely showing an interest in red, and in fun clothes, so I should make her a red dress of her own. It just happens that most of the clothes that fit her at the moment are all blues, greens aqua and purples - all colours *I* like, but the only red thing is one red jumper. So we were definitely lacking red. Time to go to the fabric store! The red lace they had wasn't really what I wanted, but they had some disco sequin fabric that Sparrow took a distinct liking to so that was even better. She happily carried the roll of fabric around the store for me while I looked for a couple of other fabrics I needed, though I did have to wind it back on a couple of times after it had been waved enthusiastically. This is in the fleecy section of the store, I'm looking for fabric to make a Purple People Eater dressing gown for her. She helped me choose the one that she was going to enjoy wearing the most, though I don't think she knew that's what was happening.

Here we are at home, and I've laid some of the fabric out on the floor to study while I think through the pattern (I'm just drawing one up rather than using a commercial one, much cheaper and quicker for something like this). Sparrow is still carrying the disco sequin fabric around - it's emphatically hers. The fabric on the floor is a nice flannelette printed with skulls and crossbones, so it will make a nice warm winter dress that's not too girly that I can pass on to Danny Oz and Sharon Moseley's little girl when she gets old enough. I also got plain red flannelette which is what I'll use as a base for the sequins dress.

The main pattern pieces cut and safety-pinned together so I can check the fit and curves before I stitch it up. Yep, should be right, a little big but that's a good thing. Now, there's just one problem... I can't get to the sewing machine, it's still buried under piles of stuff in the spare room. Oh well, guess I have something to do next weekend.