Parenting Lessons Learned

It's hard to believe I've already been a mom for one and a half years! Time really does fly when you're having fun. :)

True to form, I have a list (a Google Document) that I routinely update with things I want to remember for a potential future parenthood round 2 - things that went well (or didn't) with our now-toddler daughter, as well as things I was needlessly concerned about (or not concerned about enough). Now obviously every kid is different, and what works with one won't necessarily work with another, but still - I feel like it can't hurt to try to be prepared (my motto for pretty much everything), which is why I started making this list anyway.

And then I thought - maybe other Type As like me would also be interested to hear my takes, just in case they experience something similar. I could make this a blog post! So here we are.

This public version of my list is only part of my list - the things I learned and pieces of advice I have to offer that I thought would be most universally applicable/adaptable for different kinds of families with different parenting styles (though I'm sure even in this curated list my parenting biases shine through).

Without further ado, the eclectic assortment of parenting experience/advice I've (so far) accumulated:

• Buy newborn size diapers. I knew I'd be having an above-average-size baby (she ended up being 8 lbs 10 oz at birth), that newborn size diapers were only recommended up to 10 lbs, and that size 1 diapers fit well starting at around 8 lbs - so I figured if we wanted to use newborn diapers at the beginning it would only be for a few days before we'd switch to size 1s anyway, and that the diapers we took home from the hospital would more than cover those few days. Alas, I was wrong - in my parenting inexperience, I severely underestimated 1) how many diapers a newborn can go through in a day, 2) how long the umbilical cord stump can stay on (our daughter's didn't come off until the pediatrician took it off at her 3-week appointment), and 3) the fact that all babies lose weight during the first 24 hours - and can take 2-3 weeks to get back up to birth weight again. The newborn size diapers have that little cutout for the umbilical stump (at least, the Huggies brand does), but size 1 diapers don't. For that reason alone (but also because our daughter hovered around the 8 lb mark for several days longer than I thought she would), we ended up using newborn size diapers for at least 3-4 weeks - which necessitated running out and buying a couple boxes past the freebies the hospital gave us.

• If you're breastfeeding, use diaper rash cream/ointment after every diaper change for the first two months. I bought diaper rash cream/ointment for each changing table (we put one upstairs and one downstairs), and another set for the diaper bag and car. One and a half years later, we haven't used it all; since our daughter started solid foods around 6 months old, we've had to use it maybe once or twice a month. BUT I do wish we'd used it more frequently when she was a newborn, especially those first few months. Breastfed babies have soft poo, and a LOT of poo (at least ours did - I swear, nearly every diaper we changed had some poo) - and when they're pooping that frequently, the bum is sure to get irritated. Just trust me on this. Better to over-cream/ointment than not do it enough, and then have to make a pediatrician appointment to get a prescription for the high-quality cream/ointment stuff.

• If you are concerned about any aspect of breastfeeding - call a lactation consultant! I thought I was doing pretty good with everything, and knew what I was doing - but when our daughter hadn't gained back to her birthweight yet by two weeks, our pediatrician recommended we either call a lactation consultant, or supplement with formula. We started with the first (and ended up also doing the second) - and let met just say, the lactation consultant we saw was so amazing and reassuring. Yes, it turned out, I did know what I was doing - but it was great to hear that from a professional... and get tips for how to do certain things even better. In those hectic early weeks, it was such a relief to get that professional reassurance. And most insurances (including ours) cover up to two sessions! Ours was an at-home consultant (it was January 2020, just before the pandemic), and she came over and watched me do a feed in our own living room. It was great! And then she was available via text when I had follow-up questions during the next couple weeks after that, too.

• It is okay to supplement with formula. I dreamed of "exclusively breastfeeding," so it was really hard for me to hear that it might be a good idea to give our daughter some formula. I worried that there was something wrong with my breastmilk (quality-wise and/or quantity-wise) that made me "unfit" to breastfeed. I worried that she would struggle with differentiating between the bottle and breast (and would prefer the bottle). And I worried that if I started supplementing with a little formula, there would be no going back to "exclusive breastfeeding" at a point in the future - like once you start formula you can never go back again. Thankfully, all those worries were completely unfounded. We gave our daughter one bottle of formula a day for a few weeks, until she was back to birthweight and her bilirubin levels were back to near-normal levels (she had a bit of "long-term" jaundice). She took to the bottle just fine, and didn't have any confusion between the two. And when she was healthy, we dropped the formula, and she was just as content to go back to exclusive breastfeeding... Of course, if it hadn't worked out that way and I hadn't been able to continue breastfeeding after all - that also would've been okay. My mother formula-fed me in the '80s, and I turned out just fine. Breastmilk, formula - it doesn't matter. Fed is best. (Looking back with several months of hindsight, it really does seem silly how much we worried over something so minor - but that's life parenting a newborn, I guess. Every decision seems so fraught, because their little lives seem so fragile.) 

• If you want your baby to be able to drink from a bottle, keep giving bottles once they are introduced. For a bit after we stopped the formula, we still gave a bottle (for one feed per day) of pumped breastmilk, both so my husband could help with feeding, and so that she would continue to be competent with bottle drinking if we were to need to leave her in someone else's care while we went out for a date night or something. We did that once (her aunt babysat her, and gave her a bottle) - but then the pandemic hit, and socializing/leaving-the-house-at-all were out the window, and when the only reason we were giving bottles was so my husband could do a feed, it just didn't seem worth it anymore. I still had to pump while he was giving her the bottle, to keep my milk production up, and it was more work to pump and clean all the pump parts (and bottles) than to just breastfeed instead. So for a few months, I exclusively breastfed. No more bottles... but by summer 2020, things were opening up again, and there would be occasions (rare, but still not never) when I wouldn't be around for a feed (e.g. if I had a doctor's appointment). And when my husband tried to give her a bottle - she refused it. Thankfully, she was almost 6 months by that time, and once we hit that milestone, if she was hungry when I happened to be out of the house, my husband could just feed her some food purees instead until I got home (since I was only ever gone for an hour or two at most anyway). Not using bottles had some perks (we never had to wean her off the bottle!) - but definitely some drawbacks, too. For one thing, I had to do every. single. feed. Even the ones in the middle of the night. Every night. For another, what was the point of having an "emergency supply" of frozen, pumped breastmilk if she was never going to drink it? (I creatively used it to make a bunch of frozen food purees instead.) And finally, to this day she does not like drinking milk from a cup, even now that we're trying to do cow's milk now, rather than breastmilk or formula. Even adding chocolate or strawberry flavoring to it, she will not do it. I suspect she wouldn't have that aversion if she'd had milk more frequently from sources other than me.

• Replace your breast pump parts regularly! You're supposed to get new parts and switch them out every 3 months. This includes the flanges, filters, tubing, and collection bottles. I figured it was just a "recommendation" and didn't really bother being super vigilant about it at first - the pump still worked just fine, so why change them? But then I caved and gave it a try - and it was worlds different. I thought my pump was working just fine with old parts, but I was wrong. It's like changing the toothbrush head on your electric toothbrush - you know how it feels crazy powerful that first week after you replace it, and your teeth have never felt cleaner? Suddenly I was getting like twice the amount of milk I'd been getting before. Of course, with everything else going on with parenting, it's easy to lose track of time and forget when it's been three months - so make it an alarm on your phone/calendar app! (And if you're noticing any issues, or see any cracks in the plastic, definitely feel free to change the parts out even sooner!)

• Once your baby starts eating solid foods, make sure you clean the food bibs really well. (I'm talking about the plastic bibs here, which are easy to wipe food off of. Teething bibs are another story.) We just kind of wiped the food bibs off after a meal, or washed them in the sink when we did the rest of the dishes at the end of the day. After a few months of this, we noticed black spots on the little velcro strips - mold. We tossed the bibs and bought new ones, and this time we did two things differently: 1) We still usually waited until the end of the day to thoroughly clean them, but in the meantime, we didn't just throw them in the sink with other dirty dishes to sit in water. We kept them separate (and dry), on the counter, until they were ready to be cleaned. And 2) whenever we did a load of our daughter's laundry (so once or twice a week), we threw all the bibs in the washing machine with her clothes, and then hung them to dry.

• Keep nursing pads stocked until you are completely done with breastfeeding. Once I had my supply well-established and we were past the first couple of months, I (wrongly) figured I wasn't going to have any leaking problems anymore. I even returned an unopened box to the store. But then she started solid foods (and so she nursed a little less); and then we moved her to her crib in her own room (and so she nursed a little less); and then we did some sleep training so she would sleep better through the night (and so she nursed a little less)... and every time one of those transitions happened, and my body had to readjust to a new schedule, there would be at least a day or two of leakage problems. Needless to say, I ended up buying another box to replace the one I'd returned.

• Don't be afraid to sleep train! - and to get help from a sleep consultant. Figuring out how to get your child to sleep is HARD. Especially because - it keeps changing! What your little one is capable of, and the amount of sleep they need, keeps changing as they grow up. And so many things disrupt sleep - Developmental milestones cause sleep regressions! Teething causes sleep regressions! And everything you read online is contradictory and different. Sleep training (which for the uninitiated means helping your child learn how to put themselves to sleep without relying on nursing or rocking to sleep) comes in many forms, and there is countless debate about what process is best - but the truth is, ALL of the processes involve at least SOME amount of crying. And it is SO hard to hear that crying. But just because your baby is crying doesn't mean they are in Major Distress - it just means they are acknowledging that their routine, and the process that they used to use to fall asleep, has changed; they can't speak yet, so the only way they can communicate is crying. We tried sleep training a couple different times, in a couple different ways, and kept struggling to stay consistent until we finally hired a sleep consultant to give us reassurances (and hold us accountable), throughout the process. And it was SO worth it. Our daughter is now an amazing sleeper (knock on wood), with very little effort on our part other than "suck it up and endure hearing her crying a little more than usual for a couple days".

• The ideal two-nap schedule is: naps at 9 am and 1 or 1:30 pm. Most kids do two naps from about 7-8 months until sometime between 14-18 months, when they drop down to one nap. This was one of the things we learned from our sleep consultant - there are natural time periods when a baby of that age is more likely to be tired, and thus more easily able to fall asleep for a nap. If you can line their napping schedule up with those times, napping won't be such a struggle every day. And wouldn't you know it, a few small adjustments to her napping schedule so that she woke up for the day around 7 am, took her first nap starting at 9 am, and her second nap starting at 1 or 1:30 pm (depending on how long the first nap was), and she was sleeping SO much better.

• Teething does not always follow the "schedule." On two separate occasions, we took our daughter to the pediatrician, because she was having symptoms of teething, but "according to the schedule" she shouldn't have been teething again yet. The first time was around 9-10 months, when she seemed to be teething on and off for about 6 weeks straight, as her 4 lateral incisors came in. We thought there was no way she'd STILL be teething 6 weeks later, right? So we brought her in to see if maybe all her ear-tugging and rubbing was due to an ear infection. It wasn't. The second time was just after she turned a year old, when she was swallowing so much saliva she was wheezing a little. It seemed like she was getting her first molars in, "but how could she be?" we reasoned, when she wasn't "due" for molars for at least another two months? Again, we were wrong; it was just teething... I can't tell you the number of times I searched for teething schedules online, to check when her next teeth were "supposed" to be coming in - And it seemed the more I looked at those charts, the more wrong they were for our daughter. Her teeth did not come in the "right order" or during the anticipated time range - especially the older she got. For example, her bottom canine teeth came in first, even though the top canines are "supposed to". According to the chart, the bottom canines typically come in between 17-23 months; hers both came in early, at 13.5 months. At 1.5 years old, she now has all 20 of her baby teeth.

• You don't have to listen to age recommendations for food or toys. Because many of our daughter's teeth came in early, before the "typical range," she seemed ready to try other foods sooner. When she was 10 months, I was feeding her snacks and meals marked "12+ months" and now at 18 months, I've already been feeding her some snacks marked "2+ years" for a few months now. Unless there's an ingredients-related reason to wait (like not giving anything with honey in it until after 1 year old), the age recommendations are really just that - recommendations - and you can feel free to ignore them. You know your child best, and what they're capable of. I was always around to supervise when she tried something new, and if she seemed to struggle with it too much, I'd wait a couple weeks or months before offering it again a second time. Same with toys - the age recommendations on a box are there either 1) to tell you what age range MOST kids would get the MOST out of that toy, or 2) for liability reasons (e.g. just in case a small part broke off the toy and became a choking hazard). Our daughter had a crawling tunnel at 9 months that she loved to army-crawl through - but according to the box, the recommended ages were 3+ years! Then there were other toys we got her that were certainly a little advanced to what she was able to do when we first introduced them - but she found other ways to play with them that she enjoyed, even if it wasn't what the toy manufacturer intended. We got her a little car ramp toy marked 18+ months, which we gave to her when she was a year old. She could not put the cars on the little ramp herself at that age, but she loved watching us put the cars on the ramp for her, and she liked playing with the cars on their own. There were four cars of different colors, and she liked lining the cars up with the different colored ramps that matched the cars. She played with the toy that way for a few months, until around 15-16 months old, when she was finally able to line up the cars to fit them onto the ramp, so that she could play with the toy by herself as intended.

• Be prepared to waste food. Lots of food. Advice for feeding toddlers is like: "Offer a variety of foods, so they are introduced to a variety of flavors and textures!" "You may need to offer a food upwards of 20 times before they're ready to try it - so even if they don't like something the first time, don't give up; try again!" "Every meal - AND snack - should be balanced, with protein/dairy AND fruit/veg." "Give your kid options - they'll be more likely to eat if they're choosing what to eat!" "Don't force them to eat. Offer food and then let them decide how much to eat." All of those are great advice - BUT they also necessitate food waste. Keeping the house stocked with fresh fruits so that I can offer a banana or a kiwi as a snack, means sometimes the bananas (or kiwis) won't get eaten in time before they go bad. And that's not even counting the balanced plates that are prepared, only for them to refuse any of the things on their plate (even if they're things they asked for). I knew there would be some food waste, but I gotta say - I was not prepared for just how much food would end up in the trash every day (or, to our vet's chagrin, the dog's mouth). You either have to get creative for how to store and repurpose leftovers, or you have to just give in the inevitable food waste, try not to feel guilty about it, and get used to taking the trash out more often before the trash bags start to smell.

• Children develop at their own pace - and that's perfectly okay! Our daughter was not an early walker, or an early talker. (I blame the pandemic and our limited ability to socialize and take her out places to see other kids for at least some of that - but even during non-pandemic times, there are still always kids who walk or talk earlier, and others who walk or talk later, so who knows.) There were even times when her doctors expressed some concern that she wasn't hitting certain milestones soon enough - but from our standpoint, I was much less concerned. She likes to do things on her own, and if we tried to push her to practice cruising or walking, or tried to prompt her to repeat sounds or words after us, she would have zero interest. I knew she was capable; she just didn't want to yet. I could see that she was making progress in her own way, at her own pace, and was perfect fine with that - so I tried to be fine with that too. :)

I'm sure there's a ton more lessons I've already forgotten - but at least that list is a pretty good start. :)

Interior Design - Nursery

My last several blog posts have been all about how I created the artwork that ended up on my nursery walls - three little woodland animal watercolors (two owls and a fox), and two quotation paintings with a yellow patterned background. I already teased how the artwork looks in the room a bit in those earlier posts, but today I'd like to show how the artwork fits within the whole finished room, including all the nursery furniture.

When you first walk into the room, this is your view - crib on the left (complete with a Harry Potter owl mobile I had custom made on Etsy and fox-themed crib sheets), rocking chair on the right (complete with yellow patterned cushion I also had custom made on Etsy), and a wooden dresser/changing table combo on the far wall. The two quotation paintings are hanging on the same wall as the changing table, up in the top two stripes of the ombre painted walls:

Pivoting to the right, you can see the side table next to the rocking chair, the curtains (which match the yellow patterned rocking chair cushion), a yellow storage ottoman/seat, a wooden bookcase, and the three woodland animals I painted, hung diagonally. (In the months and days before our baby was born, our dog Ginny spent a lot of time sleeping on the rug in the nursery while I was in there organizing everything.)

I'm pretty excited about our custom closet (which we got from the Container Store and installed ourselves), so permit me a couple photos to show it off too. :) On the top shelf, I bought colorful storage boxes from Bed, Bath, and Beyond to house all the larger sizes of clothes our baby wouldn't need right away. There's plenty of space to store extra diapers and wipes on the left side of the closet. In the center are drawers I organized for everyday clothing essentials - shirts, pants, onesies, sleepwear and swaddling blankets, and accessories like hats and socks. There are also several shelves and short clothes hanging areas that aren't being utilized yet (room to grow as our baby starts having bigger clothes, and more of them!).

Of course, these photos were all taken before our baby's arrival, when everything was still well-organized. We've accumulated a lot more stuff since then (more clothes, toys, etc.) so those closet shelves are starting to look a little more full! We've also made some small tweaks to how some things were organized, as we learned what worked best for us in taking care of our baby. But in general, I think we did a great job getting everything we needed and getting it pretty ready and organized ahead of time. :)

And I have to say, even with all the time I've spent in this room over the last few months, I still love the yellow walls with their ombre stripes, the watercolor paintings I created, the wooden nursery furniture I picked out, the custom (and oh so comfortable) rocking chair cushion (which sits on the rocking chair my grandmother used to rock her four children, including my mom, when they were kids), and the little fox and owl accents throughout (the crib sheets, the mobile, the toys, the toy storage bins, the owl table lamp, etc.). It's such a cheerful, beautiful room, and I love spending time in here, taking care of my baby.

Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings Finished

Last week I showed you the beginnings of painting these three 8"x10" woodland creatures for the nursery; today's post is all about finishing them up and hanging them on the wall!

Here are the three watercolors, still taped to the gatorboard - freshly finished, and still a little wet!

You'll remember from last week's post how I used a wet-on-wet technique to get those little white spots all over the feathers and fur of these creatures, to give them a little texture. I used that same technique to finish off the head and body of this first owl. The texture on the feathers and the little legs were created with wet-on-dry (which is why the brushstrokes are visible).

For the fox, I used the white-splotchy technique only on the lighter yellow areas, and the light orange body. For the head and tail, I kept it nice and dark. I achieved this color with a mix of brown, yellow, and red. I did go in and add a bit more pigment in some places while it was partially dry, but I did this with extra pigment, not less pigment, so the end result was darker areas (the areas still wet in the image below) rather than lighter splotches.

I added some wet-on-dry brushstrokes to this owl's wings and legs as well, plus some for its light colored belly.

Here are all three finished paintings, once they were dry, trimmed to size, and framed:

I really love how these guys turned out, and I think they fill out the space perfectly!

Next week I'll show off more photos of the nursery - the larger quotation paintings finally hanging up on the wall, and all of the furniture in place. (When I finished these paintings and took these pictures, there was only a couple bookcases, a yellow storage ottoman, window curtains, and a rocking chair in the room. It was September, and we didn't yet have our crib or changing table.)

Nursery Art: Three 8x10 Woodland Animal Paintings in Progress

As I was putting together our baby registry, I found a lot of great woodland themed items that I wanted for our nursery - a Harry Potter owl crib mobile, an owl humidifier, a fox night light, etc. So I decided our nursery would have a "light" woodland theme - among the yellow ombre wall stripes and the green somewhat-floral area rug and the wood colored furniture, there would be just hints of woodland creatures among the decor as well.

There was a space on one of the walls that was just screaming for a bit of (small) artwork - a space between the window and the closet that was just the perfect amount of room for a few 8"x10" paintings. So I found some cartoonish owls and a fox that I liked, traced those designs onto watercolor paper, and made them my own!

Below are the three paintings in progress, taped down in the order I planned to eventually hang them on the wall - with one owl on either end, and the fox in the middle. I worked on all three paintings concurrently.

I started with some lighter colors first - the pale yellow and pale orange areas, as well as the green of the far right owl's eyes. I selected areas that weren't touching, so that the paint wouldn't bleed into the next section while they dried.

I used a wet-on-wet technique to blend a sort of ombre effect on the first owl's wings, as well as to add texture to all three paintings (though especially the fox and the owl with the green eyes). I painted a section, waited a couple minutes for it to partially dry, and then, while it was still somewhat wet, used a wet brush to dot the pigment, which left behind white circles when it dried.

Once those areas were dry, I started adding more details to the already dry areas (such as some dry-on-wet brushstrokes on the owl's feathers), as well as working on adjacent areas. I painted the owls' bellies, beaks, and pupils, using shades of orange and brown to match the rest of our nursery decor. I also painted the paler orange areas of the fox - the belly and little blushing cheeks.

I used the same wet-on-wet technique I used in the first round to add texture to the bellies of all three animals.

There was only a bit left to do - the head and body of the first owl and the head of the second owl (both of which would be a darker brown), the head and tail of the fox (which would be a darker orange-red), and the dark black pupils of the fox. I did all of these in the third round through the paintings.

Check back next week to see how I finished off these cute little creatures, as well as to see how they looked framed and hanging in our nursery!

Nursery Art: 22x30 Laini Taylor Quotation Watercolor Finished

Last week I showed the process of painting the pattern in the background of this 22"x30" watercolor, completed for our nursery back in September of last year. Today, I'll show you the photos of the letters being painted, as well as what the finished product looked like.

As with the first quotation painting, I used a mix of dark green and black watercolor pigments to get this nice, dark, rich color for the letters, because I wanted them to stand out from the busy background.

Once it was dry, I unstapled it from the gatorboard, and then trimmed the edges off so it would fit into the size frame I wanted. I custom ordered the frames - white metal, no mat, and no-glare acrylic on top, to protect the painting and make sure the quotations were still easily readable underneath, not obstructed by glare.

Here are the two finished quotation paintings, leaning up against our yellow nursery wall, waiting to be hung up! (And a dog thrown in for scale reference!)

I also painting three smaller watercolors for the nursery - a fox and two owls, to go with our subtle "woodland" theme. Next week's blog post will be all about those paintings!

Nursery Art: 22x30 Laini Taylor Quotation Watercolor in Progress

Back in September, I created two large 22"x30" watercolor paintings of quotations for our nursery. The first was a quote by J.K. Rowling; the second was this quote by Laini Taylor: "You don't know yet what you're capable of, but I'm willing to bet it's extraordinary." Today's post is all about the process of starting to paint this second quote.

As with the first quote, I started by stretching the paper. I soaked the watercolor paper in the bathtub, stapled it to gatorboard to keep it flat while I painted, and then added a yellow wash of color. Even though it was very bright yellow, it was much paler when it dried, due to how saturated the paper was. It doesn't add much, but it does add a bit of dimension to the background, so that the "white space" leftover when I paint the pattern isn't actually completely white.

Here is the paper after that first yellow wash of color:

Then I started to paint the pattern. Because I wanted it to match the first painting, I used the same three pigments: bright cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, and a brownish-orange for a bit of dimension. This pattern was more complicated than the first, so it took me a lot longer. It was also not as cleanly divided into rows, so I followed the pattern a bit more organically as I went, instead of going straight up and down.

I was nearing 5 months pregnant at this point, and starting to be somewhat uncomfortable sitting too long - my back would start to hurt if I spent more than an hour or so leaned over this painting. All told, it took five days to complete the pattern, working about an hour each day.

Here is what I completed in that first hour:

And the second hour:

By the end of the third hour:

By the end of the fourth hour:

And finally, the pattern was complete!

All that was left now was to paint the letters of the quotation - which I'll show pictures of in next week's post. :)

Nursery Art: 22x30 J.K. Rowling Quotation Watercolor Finished

Last week's blog post showed the first few steps of this watercolor-in-progress - stretching the paper, putting down the first wash of color, and painting the pattern in the background. Today's post will show the last steps: painting the letters of the quotation.

I used a mix of dark green and black pigment for the letters because I wanted something really dark, so that it would easily stand out from the busy background.

Here is the painting with half of the letters finished (you can see how the paint on the word "born" is still wet):

And here is the finished painting (with the paint on the word "grow" still wet in the second picture):

I was so happy with how the painting turned out! Once the painting was dry, I unstapled it from the gatorboard, trimmed off the edges with staple holes, and fitted it into a custom frame I purchased.

Below is a photo of the finished painting, leaning against our yellow nursery wall, ready to be hung up (plus a sneak peak of the second quotation painting I did - which I'll show in-progress photos of in next week's post)!

Nursery Art: 22x30 J.K. Rowling Quotation Watercolor in Progress

As I explained in last week's post, I painted this watercolor back in August and September, hanging it in the nursery long before our baby arrived to use it. It features a quote that I found inspiring, and which I hoped would inspire my future child (and me, when I was in the room for some late-night feedings and diaper changes): "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." - J.K. Rowling

After planning out the composition on the computer and tracing it onto watercolor paper, I then erased some of what I'd traced. Once watercolor paper is wet, you can no longer erase any stray pencil lines because the water "sets" the graphite. So I lightened up the pattern traced onto the background a bit, knowing that I would be painting the pattern yellow. (I knew some pencil lines would still always be visible, but that didn't bother me. They're only visible if you get really close to the painting and look for them.) The lettering I kept rather dark, since I knew I'd be painting the letters dark anyway, and my paint would cover the pencil lines there.

Once it was ready, I then soaked and stretched the paper. For smaller watercolors, I typically just tape or staple the paper down without pre-soaking it, since I can count on it not getting TOO wrinkled once it gets saturated with water, since it's a small piece of paper. But for larger paintings like this one, which was a full sheet of watercolor paper (22"x30" in size), I knew I needed to soak it first. Below is a picture of it soaking in the bathtub for about ten minutes:

I then stapled it with a staple gun to gatorboard, and brought it down two flights of stairs to my basement studio. There, I put a lot of yellow watercolor pigment down quickly, before it dried too much. I tried to make it a really saturated yellow, because with that much water, I knew it would dry a lot lighter. The middle two pictures below were when it was still wet; the last picture of this set is how light that yellow background was once it was dry.

After that first layer was complete and dry, I started in on the slow process of painting the pattern. I used two colors of yellow (cadmium yellow and lemon yellow), as well as a brownish-orange pigment to give the background a bit of depth. I blended these three colors together with wet-on-wet technique as I went through the background row by row.

Here is the painting with the background pattern complete:

Now all that was left was to paint in the letters to finish it off! I'll show the photos of that step next week, as well as how the final result turned out.