The Slippery Slope, or How Elizabeth became "Bitsy"

The baby's progress from Elizabeth Carolina, to Lizzy, to "Bitsy," was tragic but perhaps inevitable.

Elizabeth Carolina was a name I'd held in reserve for eight years; it was almost Mary's name.  But Mary was so roly poly and pink, so clearly a Mary, that "Mary" edged out "Elizabeth" and "Elizabeth" was saved for the hypothetical second girl we might end up having one day.

Why Elizabeth?  For Elizabeth Bennet, of course.  And she would be called "Lizzy," of course.  Except that my husband doesn't like the name Lizzy.  He prefers "Betsy," which is okay, I guess, except that it's not the name of my favorite character in literature, ever.

So after the baby was born he called her Betsy, and I called her Lizzy, until one day we both started referring to her as "the itsy-bitsy baby," and that was pretty much the end of the whole thing.  

I keep saying, look, we have to stop calling her Bitsy.  It's undignified.  But habits are hard to break.  And at this point, if we called her anything else, I don't think she'd know to whom we were referring.

Two exciting things that happened

One:  Mary filled the waffle iron with mayonnaise, thinking it was leftover waffle mix.

Two:  I finally finished the bloomer/shorts from this Oliver and S. pattern.

This project took me about three weeks to finish.  I know.  I have a lot of excuses of varying legitimacy.  But I think the main reason is that I forced myself, at every step of the way, to read the instructions, to slow down, to think, to go back and correct my mistakes.  Whatever muscle it is that governs patience in me is horribly out of shape, and this was a real work out.

I used a linen very much like the fabric in the original pattern drawing because I liked the color, and a vintage cotton for the bias trim on the pockets.  The whole thing is kind of wonky, but it fits and it's cute and I'm happy to finally begin work on something else.

These were the best photos I could get.  My model refused to stand still for more than a second.

What I've learned:  I shouldn't try to sew after watching an episode of "The Wire," because then I find myself muttering things like "S***!  This fabric frays like a mother******."

Hello again!

When you put off blogging so long that the infant subject of your last post is old enough to have a favorite color (yellow) and a full set of very sharp teeth ... then you know you've put off blogging for too long.

I just want to add that Miss B has styled herself for this photo shoot.