Forgive The Silence

Thank you for your lovely comments following my last post. It is difficult finding the right words and blog post subjects for the one after your baby has died.

We're doing ok.

I think that's probably the best way to put it. They say the pain of losing a child never goes away, it just becomes a little smoother aorund the edges, and I couldn't have found a better description.

We have decided to leave Spain, well as a matter of fact we had already made this decision at the end of last year but the plan was that Joshua would be with us. It has been for various reasons, mainly for additional support through family and friends as Mr Frog is originally from Dublin. Also we had made contact with the Jack & Jill Children's Foundation, a wonderful organisation providing care and support for children with neurological development issues. Sadly Joshua never made it to Ireland, but we arrived 8 days ago and have now more or less finished unpacking the boxes. We are in the lovely countryside of County Wicklow, but only 40 minutes from the centre of Dublin, our new house is lovely, the school is great, the sun is shining (that probably won't last long) and we're slowly recovering from the strains of the last 12 months. We are taking things easy and are being kind to ourselves, which is the most important thing at the moment.

So on the eve of our first St. Patrick's Day celebration on the Emerald Isle, here's to the future. Let's take it an hour at a time.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Shona Duit!

In The Arms Of An Angel

Our beautiful boy Joshua Rafael passed away on Saturday 22 January. He never fully recovered from the pneumonia at Christmas, and that combined with all the problems from his prematurity and complications at birth just meant that he had fought for so hard for so long, but it was not meant to be. He died peacefully at home in our arms.

We have had 10 months and 3 weeks with him that were filled with laughter and tears, worries and hope and he will always be part of our family. We will forever miss him and love him, but we take with us his fighting spirit and the knowledge that no matter how hard the situation was, he showed us not to despair  but just to hold on and cuddle him.

Godspeed little man, sweet dreams.

Comfort Food For A Better New Year

Eight days into his battle on the intensive care unit, Joshua is a little more stable but still on the ventilator. The doctors have reduced his sedation and we try to spend as much time with him as possible. Christmas and New Year has gone by in a bit of a blur but we still maintained some of the traditions for Luca. Today we made some comfort food - pancakes with sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.

I have also spent some time with my sewing machine - in these last days of uncertainty, sewing is like therapy and it is very rewarding to come away with a result, something that brings colours into our everyday life. I will put some photos up in the next couple of days.

In the meantime I wish everyone a Happy and most of all Healthy New Year 2011.

Say A Little Prayer For Joshua

Our little boy Joshua was diagnosed with Bronchiolitis and Pneumonia and admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve. During the course of the afternoon his condition deteriorated and he was transfered to the pediatric Intensive Care. On the morning of Christmas Day he had to be intubated. He is now stable but still fully sedated, we're hoping to see an improvement in his condition in the next couple of days but he is still fighting for his life.

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Christmas ...

Christmas Potato Stamps

We've had a lot of rain recently - I know, a lot of people have had snow but that won't happen in our neck of the woods, but let me tell you we've had rain. A lot. And so we had to find things to do inside. The other thing that has happened is that this year we have none of our Christmas decoration. I don't fancy going out buying a lot of things just for this year so instead we spend time making things. It's a bit limited what you can do with a 3.5 year old - he is really into MAKING things but that doesn't mean you can make the most complicated things. So we opted for potato stamps:

First press cookie cutters into potato halves, about 1cm deep. With a knife take off the surplus of potato that is outside of the cutter shape. I wouldn't recommend using plastic cookie cutters, the metal ones are just easier to get into the potatoes.

Get colours, glitter and paper ready ....

Once finished, let your stamps dry fully.

Cut out and place in a heavy book overnight to flatten them. Then stick around your fireplace, voila.

And if you're still looking for some last Christmas cards, print off some free ones here at Dawanda. Christmas stress? Pah!!  [frantically buys last-minute Xmas presents online with no hope in the world of receiving anything before the end of January]

The Race To The Finishing Line

It's been a bit of a mad month - first I decided to re-open my frogs+sprogs shop and on Dawanda. I didn't really expect very much to happen, but how wrong was I ... several of the lovely snuggly blankets are now in the post, as well as a few of the funky crayon rolls. I hope their new owners will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Then there was the advent calendar project .... and since I had now dusted off the sewing machine, I decided to go for option no.1 and voila ....

I am quite pleased with the end result - I know it still has a number missing, but the little man hasn't noticed so far, and to be honest I doubt he will. I'm planning to stock these in my shop for next year so I'll soon start working on them.

And last but certainly not least there was the Christmas Swap organised by the lovely Louise over at Sew Scrumptious. I was lucky to be paired up with Louise herself, and the directive was one christmas card, at least one handmade christmas decoration and some Christmas chocolate. Her parcel arrived a few days ago and look what got: (apologies for the poor photo quality, it was evening time and I managed to get photos done just before other half launched himself onto the chocolate):

 

The cutest little christmas stockings with my sons' initials:

A gorgeous fabric wreath:

And some more chocolate ... but that was gone by the time I finished the photos.

My parcel is now on it's way over to her, here's a little preview.

I now have one project to finish before Christmas and am also working on lots of new product ideas for the shop. Surely an excuse for some more fabric buying?