My Monster turns two on Saturday! I can hardly believe it. It really does seem like yesterday that we were anticipating her arrival, with all the associated anxiety and excitement. Yet I look at E and can't really remember the Monster being that teeny tiny.

I've heard it be described that your babe's birthday is really the anniversary of becoming a mom. We don't think of it that way here. We had a high risk pregnancy and consider the day that we nearly had her at 29 weeks as the day we truly became parents. Over time we've come to see that the decision to even have children is the day you really become parents, but it is hard to see it that way at the time. So while we became parents over two years ago, it is daily that the Monster, and now E, make me a mother.

My little girl loves to "hep" in the kitchen and bake with me. It seemed only fitting that I celebrate this aspect of her development and our relationship by making her an apron for her birthday. I managed to get this together, start to finish, during two of E's naps today. Not bad considering that I didn't have a pattern. I searched around and came up with this site. I found it through an excellent resource for free apron patterns here. The front is a piece of vintage fabric a quilting buddy gave me. The rest is stash. I love the mix of fabrics and see a quilt in them.

While working on the apron I realized that my sewing machine is acting up, so maybe it isn't me. It kept spontanteously changing what stitch I was using. I think I better take it in for some love before I continue on with E's quilt. Damn, and I have two large quilts that I picked up from the long-arm quilter that need binding.