Saturday, July 07, 2007

Big week!

I had planned to finish my mystery project, write up the pattern and make it available yesterday but I keep getting better and better ideas for it and can't stop knitting them (plus it's been a really eventful week for my children, more on that later)! They're so much fun to make if I do say so myself. Here's the first one almost done (I need to finish the ladybug embroidery and line the bag):

It's an annypurls original and the pattern for it and 3 other variations will be available in my etsy shop just as soon as I get them done and pdf the pattern. I call it the Buddy Bag. It's a simple drawstring knapsack perfectly sized to hold a child's treasures like a board book and a friend or a snack or even as packaging for a knitted baby sweater to be gifted to a lucky baby or toddler.

Each one will have a different whimsical pocket buddy. Pictured above is the Buggy Buddy Bag with it's leaf pocket and ladybug finger puppet buddy. I just love how it turned out. Love, love, LOVE it!!! I'm still working out the other buddy/pocket combinations (I'm making 4 variations for the pattern). One of these will be gifted to my neighbourette and the other 3 (if I can part with them once their done) will go up in my etsy shop as well ;0)

Here's a preview of the Birdie Buddy Bag (there will also be a Bunny Buddy Bag and a Bear-y Buddy Bag):


Aren't they charming? I'm so stoked and am looking forward to see what kind of response these get. I'm so proud of them!

But not nearly as proud as I am of my two year old delight who yesterday went potty for the first time! We bought it a few weeks ago and started including Mo Willem's "Time to pee" in our bedtime story rotation and doing the same with the Bear in the Big Blue House "Potty Time with Bear" video. We haven't actually tried to get him to use it yet nor have we gone with big boy underwear. He's still little and we're still trying to figure out how we want to do this.


Anyhow, yesterday he came to get me and asked me to take off his diaper so I humoured him. He went to sit on his potty and I gave him a few books to look at and continued tidying up the house. Next thing I know, he's walking around naked in the living room and there was a nice big peepee in his potty! Seriously, my proudest day ever! I mean I was already super impressed with his colouring earlier in the day:


Clearly he was trying to colour in the lines. Until this morning he had been mostly scribbling lines and zigzags on every page with his favouritest crayon - the brown one! Weird, eh? That his favourite crayon is brown? Shouldn't it be red? or Blue? Incidently my favourite is the orange one ;0)

Plus, this week, he started falling asleep on his own in his big boy bed. Same routine as usual except after stories and nursing (yes, I'm still tandem nursing and I don't know how to stop without making him feel less loved than Lolo...help!) I say night night and leave instead of laying with him until he falls asleep. Worked the first time! Not a peep. And yes, I know I'm blessed ;0) Double plus: Lolo started smiling...lots! And cooing too!

So you can see why even super cool knitting took a back seat this week!

More on my buddy bags next time...

31 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the first potty! My kids were almost three before we tried that. I was pretty low-key about the whole thing. Still, it is a life-changing experience.

    My younger son never liked crayons. He would only color with a plain pencil. It wasn't until he was five that we confirmed what we had grown to suspect--that he is color blind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I love the buddy bag! I know I would have been thrilled to have that to carry my treasures when I was a kid (I'd have wanted the ladybug one for sure).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I Love the buddy bag too....SOOOOO Cute!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous9:16 a.m.

    Congratulations on the potty. What a great job (for both of you)!

    The buddy bags look great too. What a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the bags, love the kids...what a great week for you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hooray for his first peepee in the potty! One giant step into an adventure that will last a long time ... My only advise is #1 don't get frustrated, even if he reverts, he won't start school with a diaper on and #2 keep him sitting to pee for as long as possible. My son is fairly clean and careful when he pees, but when he's in a hurry, or half asleep, lets just say it would be better for everyone if he still sat to pee. LOL

    I love the buddy bag! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11:38 a.m.

    Love the bag!

    Awesome news too! We're taking a similar tactic with the potty thing as in no stress. Seems to be working so far, with some reverting but not a lot. I'm jealous about the bedtime though! We still have to stay until kiddo is asleep. Oh well, they won't do that when they're teenagers, right? :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous2:09 p.m.

    I absolutely love the buddy bag! I can't wait to see the rest!

    Thanks, by the way, for the comment you left on my blog about being organized. I actually sat DH down to read it too, it made both of us feel a lot better about the state of things. You are right, the vacuuming isn't going anywhere, but our little bumble bee is... she growing so fast!

    Thats great about the potty and the bed, by the way! He's getting so big!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous5:43 p.m.

    YAY! those buddy bags are SO precious and will be asuch a hit for sure!

    and CONGRATS to little man on the potty! our girls have been venturing in there for a while with much success and we are taking the full on no more diapers plunge tomorrow. i've cleared my schedule for the week :-)

    so happy to hear all the wonderful things you are up to - i check in on your blog everyday, annykins!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow those bags look fantastic, and I love the colors too. The finger puppets are a great addition too. Congrats on toilet training Julian too, what a clever big boy he is.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The little bag is so cute! You're so smart to design them! I'm sure they will sell really well, too.

    Congrats on the new milestones in the boys' lives!

    BTW, how do you create something into a PDF file? I've got a free knitting pattern on my blog (it's a scarf) and I wanted to make a PDF of it but don't know how to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh my gosh, that bag is darling!!! Beautiful job. Your knitting is always such a breath of fresh air to see.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aww, how sweet!!! I can't even imagine life w/o diapers - isn't that crazy? Your bags are so adorable.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Aw, that bag just makes me melt!

    I always love hearing about your boys too. So sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love those bags! Great news on Jujube and the potty!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Okay, that coloring is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen! Brown is one of my girl's favorite colors too. The bags are adorable! We are particularly fond of bugs around here so I suspect I will need to make one for my daughter.

    ReplyDelete
  17. That's great. Congrats on the potty training. At 2 1/2 my daughter was fully trained and in underwear, keep up the awesome work and it'll happen. My nephew on the otherhand is almost 3 years old and he rarely goes over even tells anyone he needs to go. Every child's different and it's such a glorious moment. The bags are adorable too!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. The bags are super cute! Love 'em. And your boy is such a big boy now. My son was 2 when he was fully potty trained during the day. It was easy because he hated to be wet or dirty. Night time was different because he slept thru everything. But if you put the pants on him and talk about how he's the big boy & the big brother, he'll do it pretty much on his own with you reminding him once in awhile.

    And BTW, I nursed but had to stop when I went back to work. So my only advise is to give him a sippy cup now. Big boy comments and how proud you are of him do help. But keep it all relaxed and natural. Maybe someone else has advise if they had more than one nursing.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous2:18 p.m.

    Your Buddy Bags are just too cute! I look forward to seeing the patterns.

    Have you read Hilary Flower's book Adventures in Tandem Nursing? I've let babies #2 and 3 self-wean (and will do the same with #4, due in 8 weeks) and as a result, tandem nursed for 13 months. It was one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I have ever done. I know that it provided a ton of stability for #2 when his baby sister arrived and made the transition much easier. Tandem nursing is an intensely personal decision--you have to decide what is going to work for your nurslings and you. There are people out here who will be your cheerleaders if you decide to continue nursing both of your boys. But way to go to Julian for falling asleep in his big bed all by himself.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:13 p.m.

    First I want to tell you I love your blog. It is the first thing I check when I log on.

    I really love the buddy bags. I have been wrapping my knitted presents in knitted wrapping paper (knitting scanned onto paper), but I LOVE the idea of putting the gifts into little buddy bags. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Way to go with the nursing!
    I quit nursing #1 when #2 was one month old, I had had enough with tandem nursing then ;-) He only nursed at night in the sofa before going to bed and I changed from nursing to cuddling and he really didn't mind. He was 2 years and 4 months old at the time.
    Good luck with quitting, if you want to.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous12:10 p.m.

    I love the buddy bags - I'll definitely get the pattern when you put it up! I also love your penguin square on ravelry...hint hint:) Congrats on the wonderful week, you are blessed with two wonderful children. We're trying to decide what to do to start the potty-ing for our almost 2yo daughter...I'm kind of hoping that we won't have to do much, that she'll just pick it up by watching us and big brother!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous2:58 p.m.

    Anny, you do such nice work. (I'm still waiting for that raglan cardigan pattern that you made about a year ago? Remember that one? White and Cream stripes? Yes? LOL!)
    Boys learning to go on the toilet is a huge deal, I know , I had three of them!
    I now have a granddaughter( she's only one month right now) and I will certainly be working on a bag or two for her when she gets bigger. She'll just love it, I'm sure. Something all little kids love, a place to put their treasures.

    ReplyDelete
  24. That buddy bag is adorable! My kids would love it! I've been thinking about a little back pack but didn't want anything too big, your is perfect... and a little buddy to go along for the ride, very cool!

    congratulations for going potty! Its an adventure:O)

    I blog-hopped here from knitter sue's blog! Love it, I'll deffinetly be back, especially to get that buddy bag pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous10:10 a.m.

    Love the buddy bag. Very cute. Blue just happens to be my favorite color.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wow, you really amaze me with how much you are able to get done! (Knitting, designing, taking care of two little boys, etc.) The bags are really wonderful, I love the combination of functionality with just being fun. And good luck with potty-training we are also in the trenches now, and while it is very exciting it can also be frustrating so best of luck!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous8:55 a.m.

    I LOVE those buddy bags, hurry with the pattern, I want to knit them for my girls for Christmas!

    You're such a loving mama, there's no WAY Julian could feel less loved than your second. Just remember that first children have lots of adjustments to make when seconds come along, that's the way it's been throughout time. Even with all the changes, their lives are made so much richer by a sibling.

    Nursing is such a wonderful gift, congratulations for blessing your children in this way. Good luck whatever you choose.

    Natalie O.

    ReplyDelete
  28. congrats on all your great milestones! what a happy mommy week you must be happy. your buddy bags are absolutely adorable too. very impressive all around.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Those buddy bags are such an amazing idea! How cool! I'm really impressed, and I think they'll sell really well.

    Congrats on your son's first "potty" experience! I remember when my little guy started to go for the first time - I was ecstatic!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I can't understand most of the things. Why are there so many people will like NFL football?
    cheap nfl nike super bowl jerseys
    nike nfl pro bowl jerseys cheap

    ReplyDelete