First Halloween

Even though Conor is only a month old, I felt like I would be a bad Daddy if I didn’t celebrate his first Halloween.  R took Conor out for the day Sunday to run errands and visit his cousins Aaliyah and Maxim and Auntie Erika. This time allowed me to dip into the fabric stash and make the little man a Halloween costume.  This year he was a Garden Gnome!! I chose this because well its cute.. and also Garden Gnomes are rather stationary, kind of like Conor.

He was pretty cuddly and irresistible 

It wasn’t so difficult.  First I used the red felt to make both his hat and his boots.  The key is to measure the circumference of his head, create a tall cone and then sew the straight edge and turn it right side out.  The tutorial I followed is here. It is very good to give you a base to work from and can be used for any size.

Now everything else I basically made up.  I sewed his blue jacket, and didn’t have yellow buttons so I painted buttons to look a bit more magical. I used a soft fleece for his jacket and sewed it in a size that was about twice what he needed. This allowed me enough room to belt the jacket and create the Gnomey over sized coat.

The finished product. 

Rather than sewing pants, I opted to use a pair of pants that currently fit Conor.  I could have made him pants.. but the reality.. they are just pants, use what you have.

I made a basic black belt  by sewing black fabric into a rectangle, and made it about 4 inches longer than what Conor’s waist is, and added Velcro for the closure. This was so that I could adjust according to his waist etc as needed. I then embellished the belt with yellow felt to create the buckle. I cut a square the same height as the width of the belt, then folded it in half and cut out the middle. (like making a paper snow flake). Rather than sewing it on I hot glued it.  That is what is great about using felt, it glues really well. Technically the hat could have been glued too rather than sewed.

I wasn’t going to buy boots and paint them, and well.. he is only a month old, he doesn’t walk.  So I used the same red felt that I made the hat with, and created his red booties.

I had white faux fur that the fabric store called “rabbit fur”. I used that to make the beard and eyebrows.  The great thing about the beard is that once I hand stitched each end to the red hat, the beard actually becomes the chin strap to hold the hat on.  I opted to hot glue rectangles of the fur on to the hat to act as Gnome eyebrows.

That was it!  Easy peasy. It probably took me an hour and a half…

We only went trick or treating to a couple of houses, just to say we did. He went to Auntie Jenn’s house and our other neighbours.  Can’t wait until next year, he’ll be a year old and we can hit a few more houses!!

Happy Halloween!!

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Back to Work Tomorrow…

Tomorrow I return to work, after the most amazing 3 weeks of my life.  Three weeks of baby snuggles, a full heart and feeling as though everything you have dreamed of has finally all come true.

It is hard to believe that just a few weeks ago I was anxious knowing that I would be out of the workplace for 3 weeks.  Now, I’m most anxious knowing that I’m leaving Conor and that I might miss something.  He and I have developed a routine, a rhythm and a connection that I can’t explain.  I know his every squeak, noise and when he’s upset he immediatly settles when placed in my arms.  I was worried that it might be a difficult transition of him, that it was going to be difficult for R to adjust to being a stay at home Dad.  Then tonight after fighting sleep, I went into Conor’s room and saw him sound asleep on R’s chest and knew immediately everything was going to be ok.

This is going to be a great opportunity of R.  He is going to get to experience the joy and fun that I have.

Our little monkey is amazing, he is already wise beyond his age (all three weeks of it). When snuggled up with one of his Dad’s I just see his future, the chance to give him every opportunity, and when he stumbles he has two loving Dad’s to pick him up and cheer him on to keep going.

I knew we always wanted to be parents, but now I completely understand the unconditional love, the feeling that you want everything for your child and the shift from your needs being first to suddenly your needs are those of your child.  Parenthood is amazing, and we are rocking this.

Yes I return to work tomorrow, but everything is going to be ok. I’m letting go of my need to handle everything and realize that this is a great opportunity for Conor and R to really bond.  All is good. Back to work tomorrow.. thank goodness for FaceTime, texts and telephone calls!