Life after knitting...

Way back in December, after that feverish bout of designing and sample knitting for those Buddy Sweaters, I took a deep breath and decided to quit knitting…for the holidays.

I always have these grand plans for the holidays and in the end, there are just too many chores, expectations, and too little time.  And now that the boys are a little bigger, I thought they would much prefer spending some good quality time getting excited about Christmas than watching mommy go bonkers and pleading to be left alone for ‘just 5 more minutes’ to finish something or another.  So just like that, I tore up my holiday knitting list, put away all the yarn, needles and books strewn all over my house and just put it out of my mind.

And it was wonderful…

For the first time in my adult life, Christmas didn’t sneak up on me.  By the time it rolled around, I was ready.  I accomplished everything I wanted to and had a blast with the boys getting excited about it all: we made all of our own decorations for the tree, made sweet treats for our friends and fun toy gifts for all the little people in our neighbourhood, we baked, we made bread, we celebrated Santa Lucia, had dinner with friends, went to a bowling party, saw Santa, went to Church, had picnics under the tree, opened our advent stockings every night, sneaked out to cafes after dinner for chocolate milk and fanciful deserts.  We even went to see a movie in a real movie theatre! We had our neighbourhood buddies over for a Christmas party and just were really, really merry with no pressure, just fun and smiles and giggles.

And it was wonderful…

Now that Christmas is long behind us, I’m still enjoying the perks of my non-knitting lifestyle: my life is organised, we have fresh laundry (there isn’t even an ironing pile looming in the closet anymore), my house is clean and guest-ready at anytime, I’m reading a book (!), sometimes I even nap with the boys.  I joined the gym with my buddy and have actually been going three nights a week, get to bed at a reasonable hour and am enjoying cozying up with hubby on the sofa at the end of the day.

And that’s why it’s mid-February and I’m still on Christmas break.  It’s hard to get back into the groove.   Actually, I’m not even sure I really want to get back into the knitting groove the way I have been for the past 4 years.  I need more balance in my life I guess and it took a good long knitting break to see that fibre had really started to take way to much room in my life.

I hope to get back into it soon because it did mean a lot to me and I got a lot of pleasure and self-esteem from knitting and have enjoyed sharing it with you all here and on Ravelry.  I guess I just need to figure out a way to not get obsessive with it the way I think I have been in the past and that’s going to be tricky for me because once I cast on, it’s hard for me to put a project down before it is finished.    

But there’s lots of yarn in my knitting chest and there are two perfect little guys in my midst to adorn with loving woollens so it’s just a matter of time, really.

But for now, I’m enjoying the no-pressure lifestyle…

I’ll be catching up on the blog in the next few weeks with all of our holiday adventures.  I’ll cheat a little with the dates of the posts so that the dates match up more with when the activities took place so it makes more sense in the archives.  And then, I’d like to get back into the blogging even if there is no knitting to talk about and I hope you won’t mind terribly ;0)

Thank you for all the kind e-mails and all your support throughout the years, you’ve been good friends and while I haven’t missed the knitting so much, I have missed writing about life with the boys and sharing it all with you. 

I have so much to tell you…

One year already!

I know! It didn't seem right to us either. But we checked the dates and it's true: our little Lolo is 1 year old...already!


Here he is enjoying the yarn cupcake I knit for him from bits of the Bernat Satin leftover from my original Buddy Bags. The cupcake pattern was a happy Ravelry find and is available for free from Ava's blog here. It was so much fun to knit and everyone who's seen it wants one. Dada's might look a little strange with 30 candles sticking out of it though!


I made a few mods: worked 2 extra increase rows for the base (I thought my gauge was off and that it looked small otherwise...but now that it's done and is huge I realise I should have just stuck with Ava's instructions!), I also improvised an i-cord candle instead of the cherry and added a generous sprinkling of sprinkles! Finally, I filled a clean Heinz baby food tub with rice and used it to shape the bottom of the cupcake before stuffing which weighs it down nicely and serves as a fun rattle for 1 year olds!


Julian and I also baked a birthday cake for our little lemondrop. Behold our bee and hive cakes above. We cheated with the cake batter (as we always do) by using Betty Crocker's German Chocolate mix which is by far the closest to homemade I've tried (and I've tried many).

I baked the cakes in metal bowls to get the dome shapes and iced them generously with homemade butter cream and chocolate icings (using this Martha Stewart recipe). The bee also got super cute Sweet Tart candy features with a licorice mouth and host wings and was a total hit with the birthday boy! We just gave him the bee and let him have at it while the rest of us shared the hive.


Julian was a terrific helper leading up to Lolo's big day. In addition to helping bake the cake, he helped us pick out Lolo's gift and even decorated the wrapping paper with a little paint and some potato stamps we made using letter-shaped cookie cutters.


He really enjoyed helping out and getting creative and I think he even discovered along the way that doing something nice for someone else can be a reward in itself. He had such a great time helping us celebrate that I really don't think he felt left out or short-changed despite all the attention Lolo was getting and I felt really good about that ;0)

And Lolo? Well he basked in celebrations all week long long. And we basked in his delight and all the joy and wonder he has brought to our family since the day he joined us just one year ago...

Happy Birthday Lolo bean! We love you beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup ;0)

Nobody's house

There is so much to write about since my last post (my official last day at the office, Lolo's first birthday, a new pattern for Jujube & Lolo, and the insane snow accumulation in my part of the world) and I was going to write about Lolo's birthday, but got sidetracked by this morning's episode of Sesame Street ;0)


You see, my construction obsessed toddler was completely entranced by a little segment of a father building a green dog house with his daughter. Completely. Entranced. So naturally, I put Lolo down for a nap, raided the garage for packaging materials, found my glue gun in the basement and set up our kitchen for a dog house building/painting session for two!

And it was so much fun! We custom-built the house for his toy pup who had been referred to simply as "dog" ever since he joined our family way back in the fall. While we were painting, I tried my darnedest to explain that dog is what he is, and that his name is what you call him (ever notice how the simplest concepts are the most difficult to explain?!).

Well, Julian still didn't have any ideas and every name I offered just wasn't quite right for "dog". So we painted quietly for a bit and let it steep. Then suddenly, eureka!

"I know," he whispers, "we should name him, Nobody! My dog, Nobody!" LOL!!! It was all I could do to keep from rolling around the floor laughing. That boy just cracks me up! I bet mine is the only toddler on the block who's toy pup is experiencing an existential crisis!



Though I must say that I was amused but skeptical at first about Nobody's name, but after playing with him all day, I totally agree with Julian, "Nobody" is just right ;0)

Happy St-Paddy's day!

I quit!

Last Friday the 23rd was the last day of my year long maternity leave, but you won't find me trying to put together some work outfits, checking on my day care arrangements, or planning knitting projects for long commutes and lunch breaks. No Sir-ee Bob, not me!

That's because, I am leaving my job!

{My office back in 2005 before I took my first maternity leave}

Yup! Effective immediately, I am a stay-at-home mom and (when I manage to ignore the financial pressure that comes with making that kind of decision) I am filled with glee and giddiness because as much as I really enjoyed my old job and all it's rewards, I love my new job even more. And I know that I will never have nor can even aspire to a more satisfying, rewarding or enjoyable job then caring for my little guys and being right there beside them cheering them on every single minute of their lives! Because that's the kind of mom I want to be to my two sweet as pie little guys and they deserve nothing less.

{That's me on my last day at the office when I was pregnant with Julian.
I was tear-y because I was already thinking that it might be my last day
at the office and how much I would miss my job...
of course, I hadn't even met Jujube yet!}

I have to admit though that it is crazy scary to think of what life will be like as a one income family. Crazy scary. And yet, in another way, leaving my job was one of the easiest decision I've ever made. I discussed it with my boss and friend (a really understanding mom of 3 herself) a few weeks ago, and when it was done and I hung up the phone, I suddenly felt like I grew wings. Fully free to be the kind of mom and housewife extraordinaire that I want to be for my family. And I am so stinking proud of myself!

This just feels so right through and through. And of course, it means there will still be time for knitting at naptime and designing after bedtime. {I should note that Stephen and I are working really hard at redesigning my new pattern site and hope to re-launch Buddy Bags and make Hickory Dickory Dot available from the new site in the next few days as planned - more on that next time}.

Just because I'm staying home to care for my little ones doesn't mean I can't exercise my business acumen and put my other talents to work, right?

Cheers!

Knitting!

I am thrilled to report that both my kidlets are on the mend! Well, Lolo is still teething and Julian is still 2 years old, but at least there are naps again and that means there is knitting again! And not a moment to soon, I was really in need of some yarn therapy ;0)



I finished Lolo's Get Ziggy (the blue thing ;0) and then put it aside a bit to knit a winged heart tattoo! A what? A tattoo! I wanted to come up with a cool Valentine's day project when the idea struck (perhaps it was a Miami Ink commercial?) and naturally I had to put everything else aside for days while I spent countless hours trying to come up with the right decrease sequence for the perfect heart shape. And the right cast-on, cast off combination for the 'ribbon'. And the right font for the writing. Then it occured to me that I was perhaps falling off my rocker and since I couldn't figure out how to do the wings anyway, I put it down too and sought out something fun to do with the kids...

Turns out that my little town turned the big 4-0 this weekend and being the cool town young family town that it is, the City put together a 40hr winter carnival starting with an evening fireworks display, snow sculptures, fire jugglers, an iglootheque pulsing with dance and techno oldies, and even a bon fire set up by our local fire department. After a few weeks of being cooped up in the house with sick kids, this was just the thing! The weather was fab, our neighbours brought along some coffee and doughnuts to round out the experience, and the kids delighted in being out at night! Julian actually thought it was halloween since that's the only other time he's ever been for a walk after dark. LOL!

The best part, we left our house on foot at 7pm and we're back home to tuck in the kids by 8:30pm. Extra bonus: half our kids fell asleep in the stroller on the walk back home so we got to skip the sometimes tedious bedtime routine and Stephen and I got to snuggle up on the sofa together to watch a movie.

While I knit ;0)

The last 5 days...

In the last five days since my last post, I finished knitting this...

Monogrammed Christmas sweaters for the boys (Lolo's is finished too!)
Knit from Valley Yarns Berkshire on US 9s in my own design.
Really cute, really soft, but pilly as all get-out!

And 7 and a half toddler and baby socks for my Martha-inspired baby sock advent calendar (I know there are just 6 below, you'll have to trust me on the other 1.5!) ...

{1} Stripey green toddler socks in Knit Picks Swish in Dublin and Bare
(34 sts, tubular cast on, 6 row stripes, short row heel, round toe)

{2} cabled toddler socks using quietish's pattern with bulky yarn
(Valley Yarns Berkshire) and size 9 needles for 3yr size

{3} basic socks also in Valley Yarns Berkshire and size 9 needles.
Embellished with duplicate embroidered tree.

Trimmed the tree...


Wrapped a garland around the banister to display my baby sock advent calendar in progress...


Distracted a sick toddler (he's all better now thanks to your sound advice, extra cuddles, tandem nursing, steam/humidity, and lots of extra playtime with mommy to keep his mind off how miserable he was feeling) with an art project! I introduced him to pencil crayons (ooh!) and we made little card stock circles to adorn a tiny tree on the kitchen table. Between this and hours of tea party, he managed to forget that he couldn't breath through his nose ;0)


Helped dig us out of what seemed like 12 million feet of snow!

Survived Lolo's first cold (he barely slept for 3 consecutive nights because the poor thing couldn't breath through his nose which meant he couldn't nurse for more than a second at a time)! Got a cold and beat it myself. Went to Stephen's office Christmas party on Friday night. And hunted down DDR Hottest Party for Wii for my honey (what a lucky boy ;0)

Amazing, eh? I can't beleive I got that much done considering and I'm feeling so empowered that I'm thinking I just might be able to knit 3-4 pairs of mittens, 10 socks, and Joseph in the next week all while making 'green' wrapping paper with Julian, wrapping gifts of course, and going out 2 nights in a row on Friday and Saturday nights!

What? It could happen!?

Jujube's favourite things - a holiday meme!

Another day, another pair of mittens! I just can't stop making them. They're so fun to knit, they use up odd balls from the stash, and they warm up my peeps! Here's a pair for my Jubilee Bubilee.


They're the target wave mittens from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. I knit the medium size at a tighter gauge of 6 sts to the inch on US 6/4.0mm needles and ended up with a 3 year old size. Perfect! The yarn is Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool in red and cream. I even made a string by making a crochet chain with two (super long) lengths of yarn. Easy peasy ;0)


And in the holiday spirit these inspire. I thought of a holiday gift idea meme. It's simple, just put together a little list of the things you and your family loves and include their ages. If you do it, let me know so I can check out your list and get some gift ideas too ;0)

Here are some of Julian's favourite things (he's two and a half years old)!


Top row: Crocodile Creek Barnyard Puzzle (I love their stuff too because they come in sturdy storage cases with handles - we have the dominoes and memory game too!), Alligator Pie book of silly poems by Dennis Lee (published in 1974, it's a classic we all enjoy ;0), Imaginarium wooden blocks (Julian plays with these hours on end every day since he got them at age 1 and a half - they're simply a must have!).

Middle row: Super Makit Toy (retro building set that comes in its own storage box - love that! Bonus: dada loves to play with these too ;0), Mobi Tykelight Buddy (a portable night light that charges magnetically so totally child friendly - he used to carry this with him over to our room at night and light his own way), Balancing Cactus (a cool educational game where you take turns adding pieces trying to balance the weight - Julian likes to make really tall cacti and make pretend ice cream cones with it too!)

Bottom row: Home depot power tools set (we got these for him on his 2nd birthday. He plays with them everyday and often takes the hammer and saw to bed with him!), Ikea Lillabo train set (another favourite and at $20 for the whole kit immeasurably more affordable than Thomas the Train set at a comparable quality - I just noticed they now have expansion packs for this set!), Learning Tower (really expensive but has made meal prep time so much more enjoyable for both of us. It's set up at the end of our counter where I prep our meals and give him important sous-chef jobs to help. It's really stable, safe and he can get in and out of it by himself. It's also height adjustable as he grows!)

Next week: Lolo's favourite things (ideas for babies 8 months and under), dada's favourite things (for the almost 30 year old geek in your life), and my favourite things too (for the almost 30 year old mama and knitter ;0)

Cheers!

Hoot! Hoot!

Every morning at sunrise, the pitter patter of Julian's little feet can be heard across the mezzanine, all the way into our room and around our big bed. He climbs in sleepily and curls up with Stephen, Lolo and I for a little while before daddy is off to work and everyday this summer, he would quite suddenly pop his head up to announce with bursting enthusiasm that he heard an owl! Of course we never saw the said owl. But Julian was just so persistent and sure of himself that we couldn't break it to him that it was actually the morning doves in our maple trees that were hoo-ing like that. So when I came across Lucinda Guy's pattern for Otto the owl a few weeks ago, I knew I had to make one for my Jubilee Bubilee ;0)


Meet Otto the Owl. I knit him with Knit Picks Superwash DK using one ball of each nutmeg, cinnamon and white. I used odds and ends leftover from my peace sweater for the eyes and scarf. He was a cinch to knit up though he ended up limp in the knitting pile a lot because I just didn't feel up to all those fiddly bits. But he's finally done and Julian really loves him. So much so that he actually loved him, hugged him and cuddled with him way back when he only had one eye, no ears and no stuffing! Now that's love, folks ;0)



Here he is relishing in a crate full of apples at a local orchard a few weeks ago. The weather was brilliant and we had a really nice morning of apple-picking with Stephen's sister and fiance who had just gotten engaged the week before. I really had to keep myself from jumping up and down in excitement a lot because I am so thrilled for them! Julian had such fun climbing ladders, riding on a great blue tractor and petting the animals (they had a little petting zoo, too!). And to top it all off, we got to come home with a huge bag full of sweet and crisp apples.

It's amazing how much fun it can be to go out and do things like that with the kids. It's so wonderful to watch them discover new things and delight in every little moment. It really gives you a whole new perspective on the world. We've become so blaze about everything and it just takes an excited toddler to make you see the true wonder that is all around us and that we take for granted daily. I am so thankful for my Jujube and Lolo. They are truly life affirming and I love them so ;0)

Awww...

Peace, baby!

Today is the International Day for Peace and I thought I'd knit a little somethin' somethin' for my Lolo to commemorate the occasion.


Presenting a new annypurls original pattern: Peace, Baby! Because really, when it comes right down to it, what better ambassador for peace than an innocent child wearing a hand knit pullover his mama lovingly made for him while he napped?


I think about peace, a lot. It's the mother in me. We are so lucky to live lives where we have the luxury to worry about stupid things like gauge and matching dye lots. And really, I don't think there is that much more than luck that separates me from a mother who is right now trying to protect her child from the savagery of war while mine are napping safe and sound. I just happened to be born here. That's it really.


During the Lebanon conflict (was that last year or the year before? I forget already) I saw a horrifying picture of a toddler, alone, crying in the middle of the street surrounded by crumbled buildings and the image will forever be seared in my mind. Julian was about the same age as this boy and I recognised that look for fear and helplessness in that child's eyes and I just wanted to jump into the photo, wrap my arms around that boy and never letting go. I imagined it being my son, separated from his parents as this boy was (were his parents injured, or worse?) while bombs dropped out of the sky and men brandishing weapons ran around, not one caring about his poor frightened soul. Just remembering the inhumanity of it all opens the floodgates.


This is not a political statement. It's not about who's fault it is, what's justified, or who's side I'm on. It's about one thing. Peace. It's about recognising that we are all one and that we have a responsibility to those who right now lay in war torn countries or refugee camps and who can only dream of peace.


My little sweater started out as a cute little keyhole sweater for my lemondrop to wear, but my hope is that it turns into a meaningful gesture of support and compassion for those who dream of peace.

Look for more details in the next few weeks as I work out extended sizes from newborn to preschooler. All proceeds of this pattern will go directly to an organisation that supports mothers and children who dream of peace. Whatever I can do...

Peace to you and yours ;0)

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...

It's done!

The anniversary sweater. It's really done!

I started it waaaay back in April 2006 and planned to knit it for my sweetness on the occasion of our second (cotton) anniversary on April 17, 2006. And then I started it. And immediately I knew that was not going to happen ;0) I then reasoned that it would be okay as long as I finished it during our cotton anniversary year giving myself and extra 364 days in which to finish it.

I knit on it a lot. Heck I even knit on it when I was in labour! Now that's dedication!

But man, that's a lot of cables and, well, that didn't happen either. Birthday? Father's day? Nope. Nada. But on the occasion of Quebec's national holiday on Sunday, I finally did it!


I knit the smallest size using just over 14 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton, modified the sleeves to knit them in the round, cast on fewer sleeve stitches (104 instead of 114) and worked sleeve decreases until there were 60 stitches rather than 56. Other than that I knit it pretty much as directed (for posterity did I mention that I used 4.5mm Addi's). I did have a few beefs with the pattern though. The main one was that if you knit it to the letter, that is, same cable pattern on both front and back pieces, the cables and ribs don't line up when you do the 3-needle bind-off. See:


My other beef? I hate how dropped sleeves fit. This is not that pattern's fault. But I wish I had given it more thought and modified the sleeve shaping. But, I digress. It's done! And more importantly, it's very comfy and daddy loves it. Modelled shots are forthcoming though because it's a gazillion degrees these days and it just seemed mean to make him wear it out for some pics so I'm waiting for a less muggy day... In the meantime, here's another shot before I show Julian's last 2nd birthday cake:


After his birthday barbecool with friends last weekend, we had another birthday celebration for Julian's 2nd birthday on Saturday, this time with our families. I baked him a cookie cake with layers of cream cheese filling. Yum! I got it from one of the Kids' magazines, but the recipe is reprinted online if anyone is interested.


We all sang happy birthday to his great delight and then right on beat at the end of the song when we generally blow out the candles, he went in for a bite instead and his cap extinguished the candles. It was a roar! We're still giggling about it. Silly billy ;0)


And now, he has officially entered the 'terrible twos', but so far it's more like the 'terrific twos'! Awwww. I'm counting on him to change the stereotype for all toddlerkind! LOL!

Happy birthday Jubilee Bubilee. Mommy loves you big like the sky ;0)

Ma mere chantait toujours...

Today was a sleepy day chez annypurls. In fact, we had barely finished eating supper at around 7:30 and all three of us were falling asleep watching Sesame Street in the living room. I didn't think we were awake enough for Julian's bedtime ritual so suggested that Julian come sleep in our bed tonight as a special treat. Daddy didn't object. Julian was on his way upstairs as soon as I mentioned it. While we all slept together in the same bed for Julian's first 18 months, we haven't since Julian resolved to sleep in his own big boy bed this past new year's eve ;0)

Don't be fooled by the photo, there's no actual knitting content in this rambling post but since I just finished my second baby shedir I thought I might as well share it. I knit this one from Dalegarn Baby Ull on a US1 and think it will be sized just right for a newborn this time ;0) See my last post for pattern links.

We didn't read stories like we usually do all three of us crowded in Julian's twin bed. It's probably the first night since we bought it about a month ago, that we didn't read Julian's favourite and most requested book, "mimin" (aka Eric Carle's Very Mixed Up Chameleon). We used to read it to him, but now dada and I just lay back and let Julian turn the pages and tell us what happens. It's just the sweetest thing and I hope I never forget these little moments. I hope to be able to store these little vignettes of our daily life with him so that I can recall them to centre myself when he is a teenager desperately wanting a tattoo!

We didn't even listen to the "la-bie" (aka, lullabies) in his room tonight while chatting about all the things we did today. And we didn't even share our usual pillow talk while he rubs his baby winnie's ears and stares up at the leaf canopy above his bed. That's when I usually indulge in stroking his still fine baby hair and remind him of the wonderful day we had, how wonderful and special he is and how much he is loved and cared for by everyone. I can tell he is thinking about them too and always falls asleep grinning. It is my favourite part of every day.

But tonight we did things a little differently. We were all too sleepy to read (even mimin!) or chat about our day. And since we don't have a cd player with lullabies in our room, I cradled my growing boy in my arms and just sang to him, the whole time thinking about how our family is about to change and how these are the precious last few moments where it is just the 3 of us.

This beautiful old french song popped in my head and I sang it to him as he doze off. It goes like this...

Ma mère chantait toujours (my mother would always sing)
Une vieille chanson d'amour (this old love song)
Que je te chante à mon tour (that I am now singing to you)
Ma fille tu grandiras (my child you will grow)
Et puis tu t'en iras (and you will go)
Mais un beau jour (but one fine day)
Tu la chanteras à ton tour (you will sing it too)
En souvenir de moi (in memory of me)

It's so simple but so poignant at the same time. This song used to be the theme song for a chicken soup commercial here in Quebec. It was just one of those background songs you never stop to think about too much. But tonight it really tugged at my mommy heartstrings.

One fine day, this growing boy of mine will become a man and, God willing, a dada with a growing child just as precious and wonderful as he is to us. And they'll have their own little loving rituals. And he will feel exactly the same way then as his dada and I do now: that time is fleeting and that you have to revel in every seemingly ordinary moment while you can because that's where all the love and joy is ;0)