Hoodie Towels

Seeing as how the Sul will be turning 2 in about two months, I decided it was time to stop smashing him into his baby hooded towels (even though I love them and they are soooo cute).  I am sure most normal parents would have stopped using these long ago, but I am not normal.

As luck would have it, I came across this pin on Pinterest.

So I went to Kohls and got 3 big ones towels with coordinating hand towels and then gathered some ribbon I already had.

I followed all of the the steps as listed in the tutorial.  However, I did not do any pinning, I am too lazy for that.

Here is what I had:

Note to self:  If I were to ever make these in the future, I would try to find hand towels without that detail a few inches from the edge as I think it would look better to not have that showing.  Since posting these, I have decided to do some quick appliques over that area so you won't even know it is there.

I had to embellish them a bit more and cover up the hand towel detail.  Now this is the final product.

Holy cow, aren't they cute!  They are killing me!

I must admit, I broke 3 or 4 regular needles in my machine sewing these.  Once I burned through all of those, I found some more heavy duty needles and I was able to finish the last one without any needle breakages.

Then it was time to test them out!

Fun in the bath!  Extra points for you if you can spot the hemangioma!

Someone was not happy with the photo shoot so this was the best I could do for a shot of how long it comes down.

It actually drags on the ground a bit when he is standing.  So I figure he can use these until he is about 10.

This project gave me a great idea for a homemade Nemo costume!

Monday Funday

When I woke up this morning, it was a dreary, rainy day.  I was super pumped for a lay on the couch, watch movie day.  It was not long before the sun was out and it was too nice to stay indoors.  So Sully and I took a trip to Babies R Us (that store gets me just as bad as Target).  After our attempt at an oil change failed, we headed home to fill up the pool.

Buds.  (see how nice and clean the water was initially?)

Snack break!

Can you spot the hemangioma??

Running away...

And succeeding.

Parched after all that running.

And the water is gross...

Shortly after this pic, Sully was upset about the way I offered him some more watermelon and he flung the container and spilled most of it on the ground.  And we promptly cleaned up and the fun ended.

PS Is it ok for dogs to eat lots of watermelon?  What am I in for?

Hemangioma update!

I just wanted to give you a close up of what Sully's hemangioma looks like at almost a year.  It is fading, fading, fading bit by bit as the months pass.  It is strange to think it won't be there someday.  (I am sure there will be some mark that you will be able to see if you look real close)

Newborn

1 month

6 months

And now, almost a year.

Seriously, someday I will wake up and it will be gone...and I will be sad.  It is part of what makes Sully, Sully.  Uniquely him.  Ahhh, I won't fret too much about it, Sully is very unique in many ways.  There is not one thing, feature, personality trait that defines him.  I won't have to worry about him not being him because his hemangioma is gone, faded...

I also want to update you on the Name Bubbles.  Yup, they are still on all of the items I placed them on and have stayed there through countless hand washings and dishwasher runs.  I love those things!

  

Tears...

It finally happened.  Someone said something so mean and rude about Sully and his hemangioma that it made me cry.  I still can't believe it happened.  Sully and I were having a great day.  We headed over to my friend's house to meet her week old little man and brought the new parents some food.  The new little guy is so adorable and sweet and Sully was so good and smiley and giggly.  Afterward, we went to super Target for stuff and groceries.  (BTW, I scored two hot pink food and water bowls for the cat in the dollar bins)  We were at the check out when it happened.  There was a mom(sister?babysitter?) with two kids behind me in line.  Naturally, I had a ridiculous amount of stuff and was waiting for it to get rung up.  One of the kids behind me in line, a girl, probably about 7, was talking to her brother about Sully.  She got this sour grape look in her face and said to her brother, "Look at that baby.  He is NOT cute.  Look at his head!"  I was in so much shock that I didn't do anything and tried to just brush it off.  I mean, she is 7, give her a break, right?  Well, about 60 seconds later, she said the exact same thing to her brother, again with the sour grape, disgusted look on her face.  Now, I am not her mother so it is not my job to make sure she is well behaved and not being rude or a jerk but the mother(or who ever the adult with them was) was too preocupied with texting or facebooking on her phone and was totally oblivious to what was going on.  All of a sudden, a burning, hot gob of protective mother raged bubbled from within and I had to say something in defense of my sweet boy.  "What did you say?" came out of my mouth before I knew I was thinking it.  The girl looked away and sort of tried to hide behind her brother.  "What did you say?"  I again questioned.  No response from the girl but now the adult with them looked at the girl and asked her the same thing.  Again, no response, just looking away and hiding behind her brother.  "Did you have a question?"  I asked.  Yeah, there was no way she was talking to me so I went on, "It is a birthmark.  It doesn't hurt him and it will some day go away."  Still no response from the girl.  The adult with the kids said "oh, yeah, you know about birthmarks, I have two on my stomach."  As she went back to her texting or facebooking.  "Sorry" the adult said very insincerely as she was busy with her phone.  I decided to end the conversation at that point.  Clearly the girl was embarassed and probably learned her lesson to not say such rude comments.  As far as the adult with the kids, she was not offering up any sort of parenting at that time.  The backs of my eyes were burning and I was just trying to hold it together until I could get the hell out of there.  I paid for my junk and groceries and hurried to my car, in the rain. 

I am worried about him getting teased about the hemagioma.  Obviously, he had no idea he was getting talked about that way today but someday he will.  I don't know why kids have to be so mean but I know I won't always be there to deflect their comments or call them out on it.  I can't control others behavior, only how I react to it.  And at some point, it won't be about the hemangioma but something else ridiculous and superficial.  I only hope that I can give him enough self worth and that he has enough self esteem to be able to shrug off any rude comments.  I also hope that I can instill compassion into him so that he can empathize with others and accept differences in people.  And I hope that I can be mature enough and even tempered enough to react in a polite and respectful way when it occurs in front of me because rudeness on top of rudeness is not the answer.

Sully fell asleep in the car and I soothed my hurt feelings with a DQ cherry dipped cone (my fave).  Then I thought of the Flight of the Concords song "Hurt Feelings" all the way home.  Yes, we will be alright...life goes on...there will be another day. 

Hemangioma

"Oh, what happened?"

"Does he have an owie (I have no idea how you spell that word)?"

"What is that (as they point at his head)?"

These are the most common comments that I get when I take Sully somewhere.  These comments are not confined to acquaintences but are extended from strangers of all ages.  At first it really bothered me and I felt self-concious about my baby (if that makes any sense).  In fact, I often stared at it, rubbed it, pressed on it in those first few weeks that it seemed to be growing so big so fast.  No, he was not born with it but it is still considered a "birthmark".  Here is a not so good pictoral documentary of the hemangiomas growth.

Three days old, the day we left the hospital

One week old

Two weeks old

Four weeks old

Five weeks old

Six weeks old

Three months old

Six months old

In the beginning, it was just a little red dot.  I thought it might have been from the internal monitor they had put on his head.  But the red mark never went away and it just got bigger and darker and then raised.  Once it started to raise, I knew what it was immediately.  I had seen them before on my cousin and my niece.  I also knew that it would eventually go away and that it was benign and did not hurt him. 

Here are some facts about hemangiomas:

-30% of hemangiomas are present at birth

-a hemangioma, aka strawberry birthmark, is an abnormal overgrowth of a collection of blood vessels

-they are not hereditary (although I question this as I had 2 cousins with them, one of Clayton's siblings had one and our niece had two of them)

-there is no known cause of hemangiomas they but are often seen in premature babies (I would not consider Sully premature but he did arrive 3 weeks early)

- it is not a result of any sort of trauma in the womb, during the birth or after the birth

-eventually the blood vessels stop growing and shrink down to normal size, causing the hemangioma to disappear

-50% of them are gone by the time the child is 5, 60% are gone by the time the child is 6, and so on

-hemangiomas grow the most during the first 8-12 months of life

-when the hemangioma is growing it will appear very cherry red and shiny and raised, when it is involuting it will appear paler in the center and flatten out and turn more purple in color

-hemangiomas are the most common birthmark in children

-they can range in size from small, like Sully's, to very large, encompassing most of the face

-they are most commonly found on the face, neck and trunk

Sully's hemangioma has not grown since he was about 6 weeks old.  It has gotten more purple in color and flattened somewhat so I think it is in the involution phase.  We have to be careful not to allow him to scratch it as it will bleed a lot from trauma from all the blood supply to that area.  It is so a part of him now, I could not imagine Sully being Sully without that hemangioma.  Since it is here to stay for a little while, I see it as an opportunity to educate others on hemagiomas.  Hope you all learned something!