Green Week ~ 2

I actually took this picture almost 2 weeks ago, but it fit the green theme, and also something else I've been thinking about recently.

Namely, birthday season around here. (The photo relates to that because after 10 months of being 5, I finally remembered to take a picture of her holding up her 5 fingers.) James's second birthday is in 8 days now. Eight?! How am I so unprepared? I think it's that February has thrown me off with its shortness once again. I know, I know. It's short every year. And we even had an extra day this year. But a birthday on March 12 sounds so mid-month, you know? So far away when you're just at the end of February...

Anyway, I have no idea what to make for him. None whatsoever.

And Elisabeth's sixth (I know, how can she be six already? don't start me on that...) birthday follows less than a month later (a regular month, at least), on April 10. And I know what I'm going to make for her. But it's kind of a complicated project. So here I am, thinking, "Can I pull off another birthday season?" The answer, of course, is "yes." But it does leave the question of how much sleep mama will get during this month. (Oh, yeah, Easter falls in there, too.)

Do I have a tidy way of summarizing this post? (I like tidily summarized posts.) Is there a lesson learned that can be quickly and patly condensed from this scattered post? I guess not. Maybe just a tiny bit of begging ... cross your fingers for me, OK?

Green Week ~ 1

Emily is hosting a "Green Week" this week. I agreed to participate. I've never done any sort of color challenge before this, so I'm calling it my "first week"! ;)

Since it's still winter here (we had a "blizzard" yesterday), I'm extra challenged, because I don't have any little green buds to share. But I do have a wee one who stayed up way too late last night, and slept in this morning. A wee one who was still very sleepy as he sat on his changing table in his green pajamas this morning. (Yes, that's a seam ripper in his hands. Just ignore that.) All that brightness behind him is the sun reflecting off the massive amount of white outside the window.

In the same windowsill, I have this empty Bag Balm tin. I used to use this stuff on diaper rash with Elisabeth, before I got all weird about petroleum products. So, now I don't use it on anyone's skin, but I still like the green tin. I think I should wipe the last, gunky bit of it out and use the tin for sewing notions. Yeah, I'll do that. One of these days...

Happy Green Week! (I am in a very weird mood today, and I feel like saying things like "yo" and "for shiz." I am trying to restrain myself. It's the cabin fever setting in. I can tell.)

A Guest Blogger!

Thank you all so, so much for your fantastic birthday wishes over the last few days! They have really been a special part of this year's celebration! And now, I'd like to introduce today's special guest blogger...

Hi, this is Elisabeth. These are green butterflies and I made them out of long pine needles and string. And I got the pine needles on our dog's walk.

I also found the pinecones on my dog's walk. I thought that a shop would be a good idea. It would have these butterflies, or a kit to make them.

I took all these pictures with my mama's camera. I found this broken-tipped pencil and a tape measure. I set them up on a piece of paper. It was blank. I thought it would look sort of like my mama was making a homemade pattern. I also think fabric buttons are cool.

One more thing. 10 and 10 are 20, and three 10's are 30. That's how old my mama is.

Bye till my shop is made. ~Elisabeth.

Edited to add: I am not really setting up an Etsy shop for her, but I thought it was so cute that she was thinking about it over the last couple of days.

52 weeks ~ 3

I forgot to do it last week, I know. But here we are this week, with two.

I really do need a tripod. That would help a lot with this project. My arms are only so long. ;)

We're now officially entering my birthday weekend. Celebrating will begin tonight and continue all the way through Monday. Yay!

And thank you all so much for your many sweet comments on my last post. It has me thinking about so many things. I hope to talk more about those thoughts late next week.

from the weekend

Just a few photos from the weekend to share on this Monday.

Special treat: a trip to a 50's diner in the middle of a very long weekend without Daddy.

My girl. In my favorite dress on her. Wishing her face were more in focus, but it was pretty dark out when I took it. Wondering how I got so lucky to be the mama of this amazing child.

Other bits from my thoughts tonight:

~We've been doing some packing and lots and lots of looking at houses, so that's been occupying much of our time and energies. Looking for a rental can be kind of depressing, especially when you want to live here, which is of course not an option as it's some thousands of miles from here.

~In seven days I will be 30 years old! My husband, who turned 40 in December, thinks it's the teeniest bit amusing that I'm getting all excited about this. But I am. :)

~We had a pretty fantastic sunset tonight. I'll leave you with some photos of that.

52 weeks ~ 2

::for 52 weeks, my kids and me::

We have had a weird, long week. It hasn't been bad, but just somehow out of balance. Baby sleep troubles, thinking about moving (to a bigger house, not a different locale ... sorry dear friends!), a couple of headaches for the mama (I so rarely get them that it's been pretty odd), and very few ideas about posting here. And a lot of projects begun, but none completed. So.

Today seems a bit better. Elisabeth and I started reading Little Town on the Prairie today. We'd read all the Little House books through The Long Winter last year, and then took a little pause (mostly because we didn't have the others). We haven't been able to put it down! This has to be my favorite of the books. I love the evocative way that she describes the simple pleasures in keeping a home so well, and the satisfaction of taking comfort in home and family after a day of real work. It has nearly brought me to tears a few times today. (Well, it's been that kind of week.) More than once, I wanted to jump up and rush in here to exclaim to you all, "You have to read this now, friends!" And my real-life friends will chuckle when they read that it has me thinking about a housecleaning kick. ;)

Anyway, I want to leave you (and me) to look forward to the weekend (and the upcoming spring, which is not really so far away afterall) with some words from the book:

"Beyond the open door and window the prairie was dusky but the sky was still pale, with the first stars beginning to quiver in it. The wind went by, and in the house the air stirred, pleasantly warmed by the cookstove and scented with prairie freshness and food and tea and a cleanness of soap and a faint lingering smell of the new boards that made up the new bedrooms.

"In all that satisfaction, perhaps the best part was knowing that tomorrow would be like today, the same and yet a little different from all the other days, as this one had been."

Just Us

I accepted an invitation several weeks ago to join the Flickr group 52 weeks, my kid(s) and me, and have never posted to it. (I have a gnawing feeling that there are a lot of things that I said that I would do or joined -- or something -- that I haven't done. Only I can't think of what they are.)

Anyway, I finally decided that I would start it this week, especially with today being February 1, and the time for me to decompress after the holidays has probably passed. So new projects it is. 52 weeks of self-portraits of me and my wee ones (I think Fridays sound pretty good), and the Virtual Quilting Bee begins this month, too. (And I'd just like to say that I am so flattered to have been asked to join this group. The other ladies in this group are so very talented. It's going to be fantastic.) And "birthday season" at our house is now rolling into gear (mine at the end of this month, James's in March, and Elisabeth's in April), so there will be work on projects for those, and Easter falls into that mix, as well. And, I have another very special something in the works, so stay tuned...

Anyway, Hello, February! Hello New Projects! Goodbye Christmas of 2007! (You were great, and I learned a lot from you, and now you are passed. Thank goodness.)

An Impromtu Party

Ugh. We had a long and yucky weekend ... both kids ended up with stomach viruses, and my husband was out of town. So, yeah, it was a loooooong weekend.

The good news is that everyone seems back to normal today. Enough so that this morning, Elisabeth said that she'd like to have a party for a stuffed bear.

So, this afternoon, we made a cake (using the oatmeal cake recipe from this book, substituting coconut oil for the butter, whole wheat pastry flour for most of the flour, and soy creamer for the milk in the "icing" -- but even after reducing the sugar in the actual cake by almost a third, this stuff was like eating spoonfuls of pure sugar -- I'm not sure if I'd make it again for that reason!) and got down to the business of partying.

Some days I feel so scattered and overwhelmed by all the things that I "should" be doing that I forget to play with my children. But when I take the time to do it, I think we're all better off for it.

All hats, all the time

Last week, when my fingers were so itchy to knit a Thorpe hat, I took my wee ones with me to our local yarn store and we chose yarn to make a hat for each of them. The Thorpe was completed for Elisabeth by the next morning, and then this hat for James was cast on and completed on Friday.

This is one of the "Kim's Hats" (earflap variation) from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I loved it for its simplicity and ease (the decreases were so very basic). It is a great canvas for all sorts of design ideas. I will make this hat again. (Not this week -- I promise, no more knitted hats around here for a little while!)

I do think I liked the earflaps better on the Thorpe, though. And I think I could've knit it a bit longer -- it doesn't cover as much of the neck as I'd like. But otherwise, I love this hat, the random stripes (my method: hmm, I think I'll add a stripe now), the yarn, and the garter brim. (I absolutely love the look of garter stitch. I don't much love the row after row sameness in knitting it -- I like a bit of diversity when working a pattern! -- but the look is so satisfying to me. I think it's just that I really like all things basic and simple.)

The yarn is more Manos del Uruguay (that's what my children chose), in Olive (#55, the green) and Stellar (#110, the variegated). I knit this one on size 9 bamboo needles.

Now, photographing this hat was another story altogether. James doesn't particularly like hats -- not this one, or any other. He screams every time we put one on him (hence the handiness of the ties), even when it is 10 degrees outside (like today). Once we had it on him today for the "photo shoot", and he was happy enough for me to start snapping away, he was running all over the place and hardly stood still long enough for me to get a decent close-up of the hat. So, you may not get a very good idea of how I did the striping. (I do think I will line it, like this one, to maybe cut down on the itch -- hopefully that will help him to like wearing it better.)

Anyway, halfway through January, my children finally each have a decent hand-knit hat from their mama. What could be better? (Other than coming inside for a bit of hot cocoa?)   

Swappy

Since I posted Elisabeth's new hat yesterday, I thought it might be nice if I shared a couple of other hats I knitted in the last year. One was for Alicia's sweet N, and I posted about it here. Alicia posted about it here. Here's one more photo of my wee one wearing it, which I'm posting just to remember the amazing greenness of only a few months ago. (The hat and other items were swapped for this amazing painting for Elisabeth.)

And Erin and I did a swap in November. She has posted about our swap here and here, and I've been feeling terrible about not sharing about it from my end yet.

She sent two adorable Market Totes for my children. A cherry-appliqued one for Elisabeth, and a tomato-appliqued one for James. They hang on hooks by our front door, always at the ready to come out with us on an adventure, or for some important "toting" around the house.

And she didn't leave the mama out, either! I have really loved the clutch that she designed especially for me.

It's really one of my favorite accessories, with all that pink and brown and Joel Dewberry fabric and the fairy flying the kite on the back. Wow. (You can see more of that in Erin's post.) Right now it's where I'm stashing my Tilted Duster money. (Ssssh!)

For Erin's sweet little one, I knitted this hat, which I must say is one of my favorite handknits to date. I always get a broad smile when I see it in one of Erin's photos.

Here it is on my little model, back in late November. I remember this day so well -- he was so unhappy, and such an unwilling model that afternoon. It was really tough to convince him to let me get just a few pictures. He managed to smile a few times for me, for which I was so grateful and I remember just thinking how blessed I am to have such a sweet wee one in my life; so willing to try something to help his mama, and so generally cheerful.

The hat is knitted using some handspun, hand-dyed yarn from cassiemarie. I was so happy with this yarn, and Cassie was so sweet to do business with. I will definitely buy yarn from her again!

The pattern is The Little Flap Cap #109 by Cabin Fever, another super quick, easy, and fun pattern. I modified it slightly (to give it that elfin point) by only working the decreases at the crown until I had about eight stitches or so left, and then knit about five rows plain (I think -- don't quote me on that). I also omitted the colorwork that was in the original pattern since I was using that beautiful variegated/self-striping yarn.

Then I lined the hat using a buttery-hued, lightweight, soft cotton knit. (The fabric was actually a crib sheet that we'd had for 5 1/2 years and never used since our children don't know what cribs are.) You can see the lining in this picture of the hat on the head of the doll Sally, who had no body at that time. ;)

I love how this particular hat goes down so far on the neck -- I thought it looked a teensy bit odd as I knitted it, but once it was on an actual child, I realized how fantastic it would be to keep a little neck warm!

OK, I know it's been about a million photos (and links! the links!) in this post, so I'll just top with this last one:

But I won't end this post without first wishing a happy fifth and seventh birthday to the children of two sweet bloggy friends! Happy day, little ones! (And to you mamas, too.)

New handknits

I first saw this hat over at Leslie's (and she's knitted it a few more times!), and then at Erin's, and then I decided that I needed to knit it up right away.

It was fast and mostly easy. Casting on at the crown with one stitch on each of the four double-point needles was a bit fiddly. And I had never used a crochet hook for anything besides picking up a dropped stitch here or there, so the half-double crochet around the edge was my very first crochet attempt. I have no idea if I did it backwards or not.

But other than the slightly confusing crown and the crochet edging, it was really easy, and I knit it in probably about four hours after casting on yesterday afternoon.

The pattern is Thorpe by Kirsten Kapur, whose blog I had never seen before, but I am really loving it now! The yarn is Manos del Uruguay in Mulled Wine (#118) for the hat and Pink (#01) for the contrast edging. Elisabeth's favorite color, "prune pink", can best be described as the exact purple-pink color of this hat, so she was pretty excited about it. The needles were size 8 bamboo needles and a size I crochet hook.

Next, a new hat for James, and a sweater (and maybe a new hat, too) for Daddy, and a sweater for Mama ... Knitting never sounded so good!

What's Christmas without a few costumes?

I know that I mentioned before that I began all of my family's gift making after sundown on December 22 this year, and the majority of my Christmas crafting involved costumes for Elisabeth.

Elisabeth is one of those children who changes her clothes at least 17 times every day (17 is her own estimate). All of her play requires an appropriate costume, and it's relatively rare to find her in "regular" clothes. Christmas brings all sorts of costuming opportunities -- both in the form of pageants to be in and gifts to receive.

Dressed as an angel at church on Christmas Eve

She really prefers costumes of her own fashioning, but I thought that I could add a few nice pieces to her repertoire. The one thing she was really hoping Santa Claus would bring was a very fancy ballet costume. It was so cute, because she'd be in the backseat of the car, or under the dining room table, or some other somewhat private place, eyes squeezed shut, hands clasped imploringly, and murmuring, "I know you can hear me, Santa Claus. Please bring me fancy ballerina outfit. That's all I really, really need."

So, with a solo trip to the ballet shop to look for costumes out of the question given my over-full plate of doll making, I decided to fashion a fancy ballet costume for her.

I picked up the leotard on the clearance rack at a discount retailer (ugh), and used about 5 yards of tulle and an elastic headband (using Coronita's technique) to make a very full tutu. I added tulle, ribbon "streamers" and glittery buttons at the shoulders, and all in all, there was one very satisfied ballerina on Christmas morning.

Santa Claus also brought a "Heidi" costume for Elisabeth this year. Heidi was a favorite read-aloud last year, and it really captured both of our imaginations.

I really couldn't get the idea of a little Swiss girl costume out of my head, so I came up with a simple blue elastic-waist skirt, a red apron with the trim that really "makes" the costume in my opinion, a gingham kerchief (which Elisabeth prefers tied under the chin), and then just a white t-shirt and a thrifted-by-a-friend green wool cardigan. This costume came together really easily, and the individual pieces are really useful for all sorts of play.

There was one other costume, the most involved sewing project of the three, which came from Daddy and me, but it'll have to wait to be seen here until Monday because we don't have any good pictures of it yet.

January 1

So, I've been thinking, as the end of one year and the beginning of another tends to make people do, and one of the things that I've been thinking about is this blog. I don't really know what this blog is "about", although I suppose it's a craft blog, even though I think my posts are sometimes light on the handmade and heavy on the blabbing. But one thing I know is that, while it may seem obvious from my posting or my lifestyle choices, etc., I have not said in this space enough how much I really, really love my children. I just want it to be out there. If this is some kind of a record of our lives, then the most important thing for me to record, I think, is how head-over-heels in love I am with these two people. Edited to add: I didn't mean to sound like I was having an identity crisis with my blog ("What category do I fit into?" etc.), just that I felt like it was about time to put my intense love for my amazing children "out there" in a way I hadn't before. Don't worry, I'm completely happy with the content of this site and it won't be changing!!!

Elisabeth -- wow, you are a powerhouse. We butt heads more than I wish we did. But your passion is so inspiring, and your gentleness, affection, and sensitivity to your brother is amazing to see. I love your creativity, your ability to become the characters of your play, your enthusiasm for costuming yourself and all of your dolls and stuffed animals, and your blossoming artistic abilities. I wish you would be gentler with yourself about your drawings. A mama wants to be able to save at least a few!

James -- you are my honey-silk, roly-poly, merry little baby. I love how smiling and joyful and downright jolly you are. You are almost two, and you like to tell people that's what you are. "What's your name?" "Two." I know that soon enough, you'll be doing a lot of talking and making (just like your sister) and growing hair and all of those "big kid" things, but for now, I love to just hold you and cuddle you and know that you're my baby.

The two of you have made me who I am, and influence and inspire every aspect of my life, work, and decision-making. I love you. Happy New Year!

Sick in bed

We have not had a good season when it comes to colds. I think it's because my husband is a teacher, and brings things home from his students. (High schoolers seem to be sick a lot.) My husband is on his second awful cold in as many months, I had that horrible one in November, James had his very first ear infection, and Elisabeth is now sick in bed for only the second or third time in her life! (She definitely wins the immune system award in our house -- she is so rarely sick.)

My mom was able to stop by yesterday with a fresh coloring book for Elisabeth (always a nice thing to have when you're laid up), and we also got out some little toys that Elisabeth had been given as a gift for acting as a flower girl in a friend's wedding two years ago. We'd forgotten all about them up on a shelf, and everyone was excited to learn that the little characters were actually finger puppets! Elisabeth's dolls have been her constant companions (along with a big pile of winter and holiday books and her snow globe), and snacks of frozen berries and card games have come in very handy, as well.

All this has me thinking about the rituals that we keep when our children are not themselves -- suffering, under the weather, emotionally distressed, etc. Most of the time I kind of think that those times are isolated and somehow not part of our "real life." And yet, there they are, cropping up and reminding me of the messiness of life. And how important these times of convalescence are: to nourish a sick child's body, to nurture a sorrowful child's spirit, to ease a suffering child's mind. What does it take to do that job? Yes, it takes some real physical things: some eucalytus oil in the vaporizer, a homeopathic remedy under the tongue, a cool cloth on the forehead, a gentle massage of aching muscles. But most of all, it takes time. Time is the best gift I can give my children, when they need me, and even when they think they don't. Time that sometimes I think I don't have. But if I really take the time to be present with my children, everything else seems to fall into place anyway. That time spent is an even greater gift to me.

I love this post by Molly, which she ends by saying that a system is not what is needed to raise our children well. She's so right. It shouldn't just be, "Make dinner? Check. Fold laundry? Check. Nourish my child's body, mind, and soul? Check."

Some of my "to-do's" may go unchecked over these few days. But being a present mother to my wee ones is the greatest to-do of all.   

A Proclamation

We discovered that James had a number of food and environmental allergies when he was a very wee babe. Since that time, I think Elisabeth has struggled somewhat to comprehend the meaning of these allergies that her brother has, what it means that his life experience is limited in ways that hers isn't, and so on. A couple of weeks ago, she announced that she was "allergic to polyester." She may very well be -- it'd be hard to tell in this natural fiber household. But there it was. Allergic to polyester. For some reason this proclamation was both hilarious and bittersweet to me.

So, with my natural fiber obsession (let's just call it what it is, shall we?), I have always needed my wee ones' pajamas to be cotton or wool. Mostly they wear those "must be snug fitting" longjohn-style pajamas since the commercially available alternative is polyester.

Last night, I finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to do for a very long time: sew up some cotton flannel pajama pants. Due to the end of daylight saving time, James was asleep by 5:45, so Elisabeth stood at my elbow while I whipped these up for her from my horded couple of yards of Munki Munki flannel. James will get some this week, as well, and some long-sleeved shirts with owls on them have been requested to go with them. So those will be following along shortly, I'm sure.

PS: I'm still sick -- actually sicker today than I was on Friday! But thank you all so very much for your well-wishes. I hope I'll be back to "normal" (a relative term with me, hee hee) very soon. xo

Dancer in the House

Elisabeth's been hoping to try a dance class for a while, and this fall we signed her up for a ballet/jazz/tap combination class. It may come as a surprise, but despite Elisabeth's intense personality, she is also fairly shy. Her teacher, quite the diva in her own right, came up to me after the first class (last week) and said, "Very serious, this one. (Gesturing to Elisabeth.) Fabulous!"

For Elisabeth, I'd say that the dance experience is mostly about the accessories (ballet shoes and tap shoes? great!). It's very sweet to see her taking her class so seriously and being so thoughtful about it, though.

Newly Sewn

We have a new sewer in our house. Elisabeth has been dying to learn to sew on the machine, and we finally gave it a go this week.

She decided to make a bag to carry stuffed animals around in. I let her choose any fabric she wanted, and any ribbon for straps, and she chose this plain pink cotton and polka-dot grosgrain ribbon. And, ever observant, she back-tacked, turned down the top edge of the bag before asking me to pin the ribbon in place, and even selected a zigzag stitch there at the top -- all with practically no help/input from her mama. (Sob.) I did find myself hovering more than I meant to, but I just couldn't stop myself.

Well, with a new bag, a new coin purse was the next order of business. Again, with essentially no help from me:

I was even a little surprised when she figured out how to cut this buttonhole slit. But it really took her just a moment or two of consideration.

Since Elisabeth is such a budding fashionista, it's probably only appropriate that she's starting young with design and construction. ;)

Dog Days

They call these the Dog Days of Summer.

For some, including my husband, they signal the beginning of school/work once again. I am grateful to have the luxury with Elisabeth and James to savor each day of summer as it slips away without having school as a fixture in our lives right now. Someday perhaps things will change, adjustments will be made ... but for now, August is still summer for the three of us.

We are lucky to have other friends whose children aren't in school (either not yet or not at all) with whom to spend these days, playing, creating, and discovering.

Spinning Some Tales

I was always a child who narrated my play to myself and invented stories with flowery language as I drew. But as I grew up, it seems that lack of use has caused this skill to dwindle.

As a mother, I have come to recognize how much a story created by me, spun forth out of my own experiences and love, can hold and nourish my children. They hunger for the truth that comes from these interactions, from stories that are made just for them. Just as I have tried always to feed them nutritious foods, so too do their souls need to be fed. Spontaneous storytelling seems to feed their spirits in a very special way.

And yet, I struggle with it so much. I struggle with telling a story that is not contrived, but unfolds in a meaningful way. I stumble over words, and with coming up with just the right language to convey a tale beautifully and simply. I long to create images with detail that will go on to live in my children. And it's hard work for me.

And then, on our camping trip in July, something simple, quiet, and marvelous snuck into me. Laying in our tent and looking out at the sky at bedtime with Elisabeth and James, I found for the first time a story that was authentic and true for all of us, a story that seemed to breathe right from the three of us, wove itself into our imaginations, and lived there with us. The story of a chipmunk family who lived in a cozy nest and took a vacation across a field to a tree stump. Oh, so simple. Gentle adventures. An animal family that mirrored our own. Nothing extraordinary. But magical, nonetheless.

Since then, I still find myself struggling with storytelling, but I have a new commitment to learning this art. I've had this book for a really long time, and have thumbed through it lots, but I've decided to finally read it more consciously and really work at storytelling. Yesterday a friend and I were talking about this, and the idea of a storytelling class came up, as well. So maybe we'll try that. For now, I am going to keep working at it. This kind of creating is oh-so-important -- just as important to my children as anything I knit or sew or bake for them.

Most of the photos in this post come from an afternoon last week spent at a park with my sister's girls, telling stories (some made up, some variations on fairy tales, some just pure silliness) and enjoying popsicles together. I learned so much from that afternoon of storytelling with these four little ones.

Storytelling, like parenting (and life, right?) is really about taking chances, putting yourself "out there", and jumping in. Sometimes the results are sheer magic. Sometimes the results are ... well, not. But you always learn something, and it's just about always worth it.

"Owie!"

We've been hearing that word a lot this week. It seems that our little one is really struggling with teething right now. His gums are so very swollen, and he's feverish and sad, which in turn makes the rest of us so sad. Oh, and tired. Poor little guy can't sleep. So neither can Mama and Daddy.

Every child is so different, and the learning curve of parenthood is so steep. Despite our little guy's generally mellow temperament (in contrast to his big sister's very intense temperament), this is our first experience with difficult teething. Elisabeth's teeth seemed to just appear as if by magic. No one ever knew she was teething. And by 12 months old, she had a full mouth of teeth. But with this little boy ... each tooth has been so very difficult. We have gone through tubes of teething gel and bottles of teething tabs, and his trusty amber necklace has been his constant companion for the last 11 months. Not to mention cool wash cloths, an amber-studded teething ring, rescue remedy, lavender oil (one description here -- it shouldn't be used directly on the gums or taken internally) ... And still, teething just plain hurts. It is so hard to be a mama and to look into the eyes of your hurting wee one with no solution to offer.

OK, only 8 oops, I meant 10 more teeth to go. Be brave, little buddy. We will offer you all the comfort we can give.

PS: More on the benefits of amber to teething babies and toddlers here & here.