Pondering

Isn't it the worst when one is knitting a project and as the project nears completion it becomes unclear whether one does in fact have enough yarn to complete said project. And why is it that the closer one gets to discovering whether one will in fact run out of said yarn the faster one tries to knit the project? It is as if a tired knitter thinks she can finish said project before the yarn realizes it wasn't long enough to finish said project. As if the yarn has a time limit and if she can finish the project before the buzzer goes off she'll have enough yarn. And when said knitter gives in to exhaustion and goes to bed for the night with only two rows (two very very long rows, taking half an hour to knit at a time rows) and a bind-off to knit she will inevitably wake to discover the ball of yarn has shrunk overnight and is in reality too small to finish her project. My fingers are crossed as I try to carve out an hour or two to knit today. But my heart holds no hope. I fear I shall run out of yarn three-fourths of the way through the bind off. It will be a photo finish, that's for sure. I'll keep you posted.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Well, with the broken camera and all I'm feeling limited on my blogging options. I can blog without pictures. It will only get boring after the first three or so posts. I like to write. I think my writing can be interesting if I've had more than three hours of sleep that night. But I don't think it's strong enough to stand on it's own without some photographic support, either of the knitting or kidlet variety. As a second option, I can blog with my slightly blurry pictures. Hey, my kids are cute, even if their edges are fuzzy, as seen here. It's not the worst option in the world and no doubt one I will frequently employ. I will have to put disclaimers by the pictures that it is indeed the pictures that are bad, not the viewers eyes. I wouldn't want to be responsible for causing anyone to have unnecessary eye exams. Or, as a third option, I can blog about some of that stuff I never got around to blogging but took great pictures of in anticipation of blogging. It's kinda a win/win proposition. I still get to blog with great pictures, and show off my fine-ass knitting. Where's the downside to that? (Actually I thought of a downside, but I'm not pointing it out, let's pretend all is right with the world) For now, for reasons that are all my own despite the downside, I'm going with option number three. Let me present: Tiny Baby Pants!

Photobucket really sucks since they upgraded. As usual, you must turn your head to the side for maximum Awww potential.

That is Sweet Pea at the hospital all dressed and ready to go home. Each child has had a special outfit to come home from the hospital in. Upon outgrowing said outfit the outfit has been cleaned and preserved for future generations. (Funny side note, Bird was nine and a half pounds. She came out of the womb already having outgrown her coming home outfit. I had to send The Greatest home for a new outfit. His choice in heirloom outfits is decidedly different than mine. But such is life.) I decided my sweet desert bunny would come home in something hand knitted. I fell in love with the idea of baby pants. Sweet tiny baby pants. I started with this pattern. But removed the pocket and added picot edging to the hem and waiste band. After all, I was having a girl, she could come home from the hospital in pants, but they must be girly pants. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine(back before it became Shine Sport) in Apricot. I originally bought this yarn to make a sweater for me. But after several failed attempts I banished the yarn to the back of my stash. Soft cotton pants for my baby seemed like the perfect new life for this poor yarn. I still love the color, but it never knit into anything that looked good on me. I guess it wanted to be baby pants all along. Add a matching hat and you've got a cute outfit. I also knit the baby socks using the birth foot prints from my other chidren as a guide, crossing my fingers that they would fit a newborn.

And they did! The socks featured a tie at the ankle mimicing the tie at the waiste on the pants. They also featured a picot edge at the top, but all that is covered by the pants. You'll have to trust me, it was all co-ordinated and super cute.

As a newborn Sweet Pea wore these pants often. As a tired Mother I washed these pants in the washing machine with the normal laundry (warm, super hard cycle to get out all the kid dirt, instead of cold, handwash cycle to not ruin the hand knits). to my delight they survived and came out better. All that beating made the cotton baby soft. I love these pants. And the best part? They're now capris!

This picture was taken on Mother's Day. One of the last pictures I took before the camera gave up the ghost, or autofocus as the case may be. These pants are enjoying a longer shelf-life than the usual coming home outfit. But the yarn seems up to the task. And when they're well and truly outgrown I shall weep just a litte, then pack them away for Sweet Pea's children.

Is it bad that I love little knitted baby pants so much I've already knitted a 12 month size pair of juju pants, just waiting for the winter?

Ready for some Baby Cuteness?

Does it get any cuter than this?

I can take pictures with my camera if I turn it to manual focus, which as you can see, I'm not very good at. The children rarely hold still long enough for me to really get the focus right. But my baby is so cute, she looks good even when she's slighly fuzzy around the edges. I'm sure if I knew how to work the other fancy thingies on my camera I might get better at the focus thing, but that seems like it uses a lot of brain power. I don't have any spare brain power lying around right now. Mostly I'm just hoping I can get the camera fixed for my birthday. Until then I worry about all the events that will pass us by without a decent camera. *shrug* Such is life.

The hat is my own design. Sweet Pea loves the pool, but needed something to protect her poor noggin from the desert sun. I live in fear of a baby with a sunburn. A cotton hat seemed like the perfect solution. Just a basic hat with a picot edge and a large pink flower simply because I can. I mostly winged it and I'm thrilled with the way it turned out. It's actually cuter than it looks in the pictures, but with my mad camera skillz (yes skillz with a z! cause I roll like that) that's the best we're getting of my mad knitting skillz for now. I love it so much I slap the hat on her head anytime we leave the house. It makes her smell vaguely like chlorine, the poor child. Someday she will need therapy for all the things I have done to her in the name of cuteness. But except for the hat I let her skinny dip, so there's that on my side.

Speaking of rolling, Sweet Pea has taken up a new hobby: rolling! She can roll from her back to her front. She can't quite make it from her front to her back. She starts then it feels too much like falling so she stops. But she can roll from her back to her front like nobody's business. She rolls then waits for the applause. If we make the mistake of averting our eyes from the Sweet Pea show for a second and fail to cheer she gets very upset with us. And she isn't afraid to let us know. So my days are now spent watching her roll, cheering, and rolling her back onto her back, and doing it all over again. It's not the most exciting show, but who can resist this sweet face?

For my Bird

Happy Birthday to my big girl Bird!

I'd like to show you a picture of her on her birthday, looking so big and cute. But I can't. She broke my camera last week. My expensive-takes amazing pictures-love almost as much as I love my children camera. I haven't forgiven her yet, but I'm close. After all, it is just a camera, and she is my very special Bird (ok, maybe I have forgiven her, but I'm still sad about it).

So while I can't show you birthday pictures I can show you a few shots I got when we were swimming with The Greatest's Grandmother last week, before Bird broke my camera.

And photobucket is being a brat, so you're gonna have to turn your head to one side to see them properly. Grumble, grumble, grumble, stupid photobucket, grumble.

There are so many things to love about Bird. I love all my children, but as any parent knows you love them in different ways for different reasons. Here are just a few things I love about Bird

She's so funny, just naturally bubbling with giggles. She's joy personified.

She's my dreamer, we often say she floats through the house in her own little world.

She's got the biggest imagination I've ever seen. She's rarely a little girl, she's always a puppy, or a baby, or a walrus, or a baby walrus. She loves to pretend.

She's got an amazing ability to wrap people around her tiny finger. It's funny to watch The Greatests friends, these hardened Law Officers, fall all over themselves to do something Bird has asked them to do. She's the only person I have ever met who can successfully bat their eyes. I must teach her to use this power for good.

She loves everyone, and everything. Her world is truly full of sunshine and rainbows and soft puppies, and all things that are good.

I'm so proud of the little girl she has grown into, this tiny princess of mine. She is smart, and funny, and brave. She can be shy, overwhelmed, and quick to tears. There is so much she is going to learn in this world, and so much she is going to bring to this world. I'm grateful everyday that I get to be a part of it.

Happy Birthday Bird!

This is all the baby's fault!

Today I have officially reached my limit. I know it is hard to stay on top of everything when you have a new baby. But really. Things are just getting out of control around here.

It started with the baby clothes. At four months old and over 13 pounds there is just no need to keep newborn clothes in her limited closet space. So the clothes sorting commenced. Only a few tears were shed as I packed up the impossibly tiny wardrobe of my last newborn child. Out came the 3-6 month clothes, looking so large compared to the newborn things. My baby is getting so big.

Once her clothes were all neat and orderly again, lined on her shelf in neat pastel piles, I looked around the room and was stunned. In sharp contrast to the neat shelves the rest of the room was, to put nicely, a disaster area, possibly one requiring federal funds for the relief effort. I then realized I had made a monumental mistake. I had made a clean spot.

I looked around the room with a critical eye. Dust, dog hair, piles of paper. It wasn't pretty. To escape what was before me I left the room (if I can't see the dust, it doesn't exist right?) But this too was a mistake. Each room was worse than the last. Tiny fingerprints on the walls. Legos everywhere. And the shedding animal hair. Do people really live like this? Do we really live like this? My eyes were open to the truth. My house needs a thorough cleaning. I thought I was keeping up with the daily work fairly well, but I now realize I'm not.

I will return when the house is clean. If I include the time I can't spend cleaning because I am nursing the baby, or cooking for the other children, or taking our necessary daily dip in the pool

I figure the house relief efforts should only take three weeks. Or was it three months? I was never very good at doing math in my head. And since I can't find a pencil head math is all I got right now. If you don't hear from me soon send a rescue party. I'm probably lost in the garage searching for Bird's summer clothes. And please equip the rescue party with yarn. I might be huddled in the corner mumbling and trying to eat my hair. A condition like that can only be cured with yarn therapy. I will need lots of soft soothing yarn. Yarn and magic erasers. Thank You.