Baby's gift

Yesterday I did a little bit of sewing. It's for a baby girl that was born about a month ago now - a live, healthy baby, yahoo!

This is the sun ray toy by the fabulous Joel, of the outstandingly creative blog Made by Joel. Parents, go there right now!

I've been wanting to sew it for ages, and in the end it took about two hours. It was meant to have circles of velcro in the middle - so deliciously scratchy for baby to finger and feel - but at the last minute I realised I had none, so bits of felt and rickrack it was.

I chose different textures and colours for each of the rays from my scraps suitcase, and knotted the end of some to facilitate gumming and goobering by baby. Inside the middle circle I sewed in some scrunchy plastic bag for a little added amusement.

I wish I had discovered sewing when my own children were smaller!

Along with the sun ray we'll be giving the new(ish) baby this gorgous soft, woollen hat. I found it at the Salvation Army, but it looks in such good condition that I hope its source is acceptable.

I adore babies. I find their beauty incredulous - the creamy skin, the suede heads, the plump cheeks, the big eyes. The purity of their smell; I used to stand in Anna's room and inhale her honey scent. I didn't bath her for a couple of days after she was born because I didn't want to wash off her smell. I used to sniff Jack's head for his smell of sand and feathers. (Excuse my animalistic, possibly canine ravings; I've noticed over the years that I smell things more than most people.)

Miss Interested-in-everything, 12 weeks old.

Their brains astound me just as much. Their rate of learning, their curiosity and drive, their wordless yet enormously effective communication skills. I stood for ten minutes having a conversation with a 10 week old recently: I squealed, chatted and performed in the way we instinctively do to babies; she gazed and smiled and peered at me, inducing more and more crazy squeals from the funny, soppy woman she had turned me into! I was completely enchanted.

Then I said goodbye and slept all night.

(post script: I wrote this post on Tuesday and now it's Friday, and I'm about to press 'publish'. But I have to report that I washed that sun ray toy, and red dye ran from the rick rack through the fabric. So this weekend I'll be unpicking and restitching.... oh dear.)