Oh, Monkey See......

Well, I finally feel like we are falling into the new rhythm of busy school year combined with The Greatest's new work schedule. There are still a few bugs and kinks to work out, but a new "normal" is emerging. This is good. As I get older I find myself grooving on quiet normal days. It sounds ordinary and boring, and it might be. But trust me, the children find all kinds of new and inventive ways to "mix it up" and keep my on my toes. (Does anyone know how to get crayon out of my lovely new table cloth?)

Sweet Pea no longer fusses as the older children leave for school. Instead she contently waves them "bye-bye" throwing in a few kisses for good measure. She has discovered that life with Mommy is not so bad. There is unfettered access to all the toys, hours of book reading, afternoon swims where no one splashes her, peaceful trips to run errands where she is the center of attention, and even the occasional lunch out. Its not such a bad gig. And despite my best intentions I am beginning to understand why the youngest always ends up so spoiled.

I fear she might be spending just a little too much time alone with me.

Friday, after the older children had left for school, I turned on Dora to keep Sweet Pea company as I attended to a few chores. Sweet Pea usually watches for a bit, joins me in my chores for a bit, wanders back to Dora for a bit. Its all good.

As I unloaded the dishwasher (a favorite chore of Sweet Pea's) her absence was quite noticeable. I peeked around the corner to make sure everything was alright. She was contently sitting on the couch watching Dora WITH MY KNITTING ON HER LAP. I tried not to hyperventilate. The project in question was a shawl with roughly eleventy billion stitches on the needle. I was currently in a middle of short row shaping with picked up stitches, and lots of stitch markers, and did I mention the eleventy billion stitches. If she pulled out the needle, or even dropped a bunch of stitches it would be disastrous. I knew I would never get it back together right and would likely have to start over or abandon the entire project.

Fearfully I crept closer to peek over the back of the couch and assess the damage. I silently prayed that she had simply pulled it onto her lap for warmth. As I drew nearer this is what I saw.

Notice that the needles are in her hand. She was very slowly rubbing them back and forth against one another as she watched TV.

In her little mind she was KNITTING! Knitting as she watched TV, just like Mommy. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed. My sweet baby girl. Could I love her anymore?

It turns out I could.

She didn't drop any of my stitches.

This Episode of Friday Loving Has Been Pre-Empted

Today was supposed to be a very special episode of Friday Loving brought to you by Sweet Pea. But I fear another momentous occasion has occurred that takes priority over cute pictures of her shoes (and they are oh so cute).

Meaty has had a loose tooth for WEEKS. He wiggles it constantly, worrying it back and forth with his finger or his tongue. Every time we caught him sitting there wiggling his tooth we told him to just pull it out. But Meaty is a fearful child. The thought of pulling his tooth out just sounded painful, no matter how loose the tooth in question might be. So he flatly refused to pull it, preferring to slowly wiggle it to death.

The new tooth began to grow in his mouth, peeking through is gums behind the loose tooth. Still he refused to pull it.

He complained it now hurt to wiggle because the old tooth was hitting the new tooth. Still he refused to pull it.

He proudly declared his loose tooth was so loose it would lay flat in his mouth. And still he refused to pull it.

Last night after bed time he came downstairs for one last drink of water. Again he commented on how loose his tooth was. I asked him if I could wiggle his tooth.

That poor unsuspecting child. He so eagerly scurried over to me, presenting his mouth as large as he could make it so I could see just how wiggly his tooth was.

I gently put my thumb and index finger in his mouth. And in one quick tug, before he could realize my plan, I pulled it.

Being the good knitter I am, I can turn any occasion into a reason to knit. In our house, all baby teeth must be placed in a special bag where the tooth fairy can find them. When Meaty first announced his tooth was loose he was not only excited about the impending visit from the Tooth Fairy, he was also proud that he was finally going to get his very own Tooth Fairy bag. When we went to my yarn cabinet to pick out a yarn he already knew which one he wanted.

Pattern: Mandy's Candy Bag

Yarn: Team Feet Sock Yarn, in That Team Up North

Needles: Size 2 Harmony Circulars

Modification: I used really thin yarn on really small needles. The rest was the same.

So proudly we put the newly freed tooth in the bag where it would patiently sit waiting to be exchanged for cold hard cash. The Tooth Fairy is notoriously unreliable in our home. She often takes a day or two to show up. I think the record is five days. I warned Meaty that since he lost his tooth after bedtime he might not be on the Tooth Fairy's schedule. She might not know he lost his tooth, or if she did she might not have enough money on her to get his tooth. But he felt confident that she would show.

And she did! He woke up this morning, no worse for the wear, having survived his toothy ambush. I on the other hand had an unsettling dream that all his teeth were loose and needed pulled at once. He just sat there with his mouth open wide, all those wiggly white teeth just staring at me *shudder* This is why I let Pork Chop pull her own teeth.

This morning he asked me what the Tooth Fairy did with the teeth. I told him I didn't know. He told me I should "Ask the computer. It knows everything."

I'd love to update my blog

But I'm entirely too busy with my new toy!

It is insane how happy pretty little cakes of yarn make me.

Although it would be irresponsible of me to leave you with the idea that all these cakes are little. Some are the size of Sweet Pea's head.

(Don't you just love how she's wearing shoes with her diaper? The girl loves her shoes!)

Yarn cakes make her happy.

*sigh* They make me happy too.

I'd love to tell you all about my new toy and how it came to live with me.....but I've got this beautiful hank of yarn that is just begging to be turned into a cake so I can knit a sock.

Better blogging soon....

And a Beginning

The first day of school has come and gone.

Years from now Bird is going to be all angsty and she's going to look for signs that I just don't love her as much as I love my other children. She will point to the five pictures I took of her first day of school and compare them to the pages and pages of pictures I took of the other children. She will hold this up as proof of my blatant favoritism. She will declare that I didn't love her then and I don't love her now.

The truth is, I didn't take as many pictures because she wouldn't put her hand down and smile.

She will blame me. But the truth is she has no one to blame but herself.

We are getting into the new groove of school. The older children are loving school. Once again Pork Chop feels she has "the BEST teacher EVER!" Meaty has promised to leave the classroom fish alone "when I'm supposed to be learning." And he is well on his way to getting a 100 on his first spelling test. It is so cool, and odd at the same time to see him setting goals for himself at school. He's growing so fast.

But Bird. Oh my Bird. She is my favorite kindergartner EVER!

You send your children to school and imagine them coming home full of stories to tell as you share milk and cookies at the kitchen table after school. The reality of the dream is you ask them how their day went and they say "fine." Any further information about their day must be pull out of them using interrogation skills that would make FBI investigators jealous.

But not my Bird!

She greets me at the kindergarten gate brimming with enthusiastic stories to share. She tells me every detail about her day. She sings me all her songs. She wants to teach me all the games they've played. She LOVES school. And I love her.

The only unhappy member of the family is Sweet Pea.

Each morning she eats breakfast at the table with the older children, just like a big girl. No high chair for her anymore. Then she rushes upstairs with them to get dressed. After she picks out her own clothes and is suitably adorned she toddles to the bathroom to have her hair done, just like a big girl. She is all dressed up and ready to go.

She watches out the window for the carpool to arrive. As the older children rush out the door in a flurry of kisses and backpack she tries to slip past in the chaos. But I see her. And she must stay with me.

Each morning I hold her as she cries and flails and tries to go to school, just like a big girl.

Doesn't she know there'll be time enough for that?

Can't she stay my baby for just a little longer?

An End

Today is the last day of Summer.

Yes, I am aware that the calendar dictates that summer actually extends until September 21st. And at 110, the weather outside would suggest that summer is still going strong.

Yet today is still the final day of Summer.

Tomorrow I release my children into the open arms of the public education system. I'm fortunate. I really like our school.

Once again I stand a jumble of emotions. On one side I am so happy for my children and all they'll learn and do. School is exciting and I am excited for them. I'm glad they have a love of learning and I want to encourage that. On the other side I am hesitant to let them go. I long to keep them by my side, safe and sound, always. They are my babies, why won't they stay babies?

But everyday, despite my best efforts, they grow and become their own people, and distance themselves from their parents in tiny immeasurable ways. One day I will wake up and they'll be gone, and I won't know how it happened. All those tiny ways they grow and gain independence add up. And this is as it should be.

But it doesn't mean I have to like it.

As I look back on this summer I will remember it as one happy summer. I'll forget the bickering and the times I wanted to sell them to the circus, or abandon them in Wal-Mart.

I will remember:

-dinners with friends
-grilled everything
-swimming, swimming, and more swimming
-the smell of sunscreen
-Fourth of July
-the miracles of modern medicine
-peaches
-night swimming past bedtime
-did I mention good friends?

All the truly important things in life: laughter, giggle, sticky kisses, love. They were all present in abundance this summer. I am grateful for the life I have been blessed with.

It was a wonderful summer. I wave it a sad good-bye.

Is it too soon to start counting the days until the next summer?

And some more of the same...

So you might have noticed I seem to be knitting (crocheting, whatever) a lot of hats lately. I am indeed on a hat knitting streak. Which is a little crazy, as the temperatures still hover between 110 and 120 here in the desert. Nobody is wearing a knit hat anytime soon. So why am I knitting all these hats?

It all started with a pregnant lady.

And no, that pregnant lady is not me.

I visit the sweetest lady who was expecting her third child. An impending birth is always an excuse to knit. So I whipped up these cute hats for her baby.

Just two rolled brim hats from Itty Bitty Hats. The pale blue one is newborn size, thin and light, just enough to keep the chill off a newborn's head in the air conditioning. The darker hat is thicker for winter wear. It is 6-12 month size, so I'm hoping they will be able to use it at some point, no matter where her husband ends up being stationed.

These sweet tiny hats got me thinking.

We've lived here for almost three years now and each year winter takes me by surprise. Part of that could be because it doesn't arrive until December, and by that point I'm sure it is never going to come. But it does, in a way, not in a snowy way, but in a put on a jacket and wear a hat kinda way. And each year I find myself digging out the dirty hats from the bottom of the closet that they abused the previous year. By the time I get around to knitting them new hats winter is practically over. I'm not even sure I bothered knitting them new hats last year. (I just checked the archives of my blog. I didn't)

But not this year.

I will be prepared for winter!

I'm knitting their hats now.

That is when the green hats of which we will never speak again happened.

I told Pork Chop that since the green hat wasn't going to work out, I needed her to pick out what kind of hat she would like. I was prepared to go through my patterns with her, maybe spend sometime looking at ravelry patterns with her. She would hem and haw trying to decide just the perfect hat as if her life depended on making the right choice. Then there would be the trip to pick out just the right yarn to go with her hat. It was going to be a big long bonding process.

But the moment I got the words out of my mouth Pork Chop tore out of the room. I watched her, amused, but wondering what on earth she was doing. Did the thought of wearing a hat send her running from the room in horror? She came back clutching my copy of "Charmed Knits" to her chest. She frantically scrambled through the pages until she found just what she wanted.

"This one!" she demanded as she slapped the open book down on the couch beside me.

"In red." she quickly added before I could even begin to formulate a follow-up question.

So Hermione's Cable and Bobble hat it is.

In red.

Pattern: Hermione's Cable and Bobble Hat

Yarn: Don't know, maybe Red Heart? It was worsted.

Needles: Size 6

Modifications: None

Review:

That's right. Another fail. I knit this when my head still hurt. I'm gonna blame the fail on that.

I forgot that this is an adult pattern and Pork Chop, as big as she is, still has a child size head. I should have used a dk or sport weight for the yarn. I sighed in pained frustration as I realized I was gonna have to knit those stupid bobbles a second time in a different yarn. But Pork Chop was undaunted. She calmly flipped the brim up a second time and declared herself cute.

as she airily told me "Isn't that the important thing Mom?"

I suppose it is.

Friday Loving, a day early

I love that I woke up this morning with no headache.

Sounds like a simple thing, but it is the first time I can say that in almost a month. I'm amazed at how good it feels to not be in pain. I've got a whole gaggle of prescriptions to make me normal (or atleast as normal as possible, some things you just can't fix). The pain relievers caused me to spend the first 48 hours on them sleeping, but now? I'm just on the preventative medication which makes my heart race and gives me insomnia. You should see how clean my house is now that I'm on physician approved crack! (I think I might be trying to make up for how dirty my house was while my head hurt).

So I'm loving no pain!

I'm also loving....

Big boxes for the imagination

3-D Glasses

And Spray painting old patio furniture

Although I might have created a monster here. The Greatest loved how the red chair turned out so much he decided he must spray paint the rest of our patio furniture.

I can't complain, it looks fabulous.

C'mon admit it. You wanna come hang at my house now!

Triple Fail

It is a little known fact that I've been known to hook a time or two. One could say I'm a hobby hooker. Jack of all Trades, Master of None, and all that jazz.

Now before my Father has an aneurysm I must point out that "hooker" is merely a pet name in the crafting world for people who crochet. Get it? They use a crochet hook to make things so they're hookers! Get it?!!!

Yeah.

Jokes are never funny when you have to explain them.

Anyways, moving right along from my funny fail,

I know my way around a crochet hook. And when I saw this project

I simply had to try my hand at it. How cute would it look on Pork Chop! I even had some olive green yarn in my stash.

I carefully cast on. I crocheted with all my might, the pattern on one leg, and crochet directions on the other. It had been a while and I'd forgotten how fast things work up when crocheted. This was going to awesome.

And the finished result is pretty awesome.

It just fits the wrong daughter.

I guess gauge matters in crochet too. *scratches head* Who knew? I ought to check it and see how far off I was. So even though Sweet Pea really likes it, this is a fail.

So I thought I would modify the pattern. You know, instead of checking gauge and going from there, I decided to just throw in a few extra increase rows, make it larger so it would fit a larger head. It was going to be easy-peasy!

Yup.

This is also a

So I abandoned this pattern, I mean, if gauge is that important, this is obviously not the pattern for me. I mean, obviously it was to fiddly. But Pork Chop still needed a new hat. One of the things I loved about the pattern was the tiny brim, so logically I turned to this pattern.

That's a friend of mine in the red hat. Isn't she cute? I've always wanted to make one of these hats. This seemed like my chance. My time to shine.

Guess what!

Gauge still matters.

I think I'll go back to knitting hats. *hmph*

So Far Behind

It is hard to get motivated to do anything when you wake up and the fancy-schmancy outdoor thermometer/clock thingie already looks like this:

Yup, that clock says 7:06 am. Later it will look like this:

I don't want to over state the obvious, but IT IS HOT. We don't wanna do anything but swim or lie on the couch watching Harry Potter movies in eager anticipation of the new release this week. I'm so excited to go see it. Did I mention The Greatest is taking me! We can not remember the last time we saw a movie together. Seriously! We actually sat and thought about it, and we thought some more, and we thought some more, and we drew a complete blank. The best we could come up with was Batman Begins, which was released in 2005. Now that is just sad isn't it? So Hooray for hot dates! I can still call it a hot date even if he's taking me to a decidedly non-sexy matinee showing on a Wednesday afternoon right? Not all hot dates have to take place on Friday night right? Oh well, after 11 years of marriage, I'll take what I can get.

But that is all neither here nor there because I really here to show off some Fourth of July photos.

I know, I know. I'm like a week late doing it. And I'm pretty sure there's some statute of limitations on showing off holiday pictures. I think it expires 48 hours after the event. But I went crazy with the holiday crafting this year and I must document the insanity.

See those cute kids?

I just love them. They're so squishy cute! And I mean that in the best possible way.

I love America. And I love the Fourth of July. And I want my kids to love it too.

But Fourth of July has a PR problem. It has fireworks. But that's about all it has going for it. There's no mascot, like the Easter Bunny or Santa. There's no candy like Halloween or Easter or Valentine's Day. There isn't even the promise of Grandma and unlimited deserts like Thanksgiving. Sure, it's got barbecues, but small children just don't get all worked up over potato salad and grilled meat.

Mmmmmm...........grilled meat..............mmmmmmmmmmm...............meat...........mmmmmmmmmm.....wait....where was I?

That's right..Fourth of July.

I want my kids to get all excited for it. I want them to understand what a wonderful nation we live in. Flaws and all, I love it and feel bless to be a citizen of the United States through the happy accident of my birth. But how to get my kids excited?

I came up with the perfect plan. It was so simple, yet so brilliant.

Halloween has costumes. Easter has new Sunday clothes. Christmas has new pajamas.

Fourth of July needed wardrobe!

I had two white pillowcases just waiting to be made into dresses. I found this cute tutorial for a dress for Sweet Pea (side note *when I made it she only offered the dress is 24 month size, she has since added larger sizes. I think the 24 month size is on the small side, but your mileage may vary. Overall it is way cute and a well written pattern, especially considering it is free*). Then, of course, we needed accessories! All in all I made one pair of earrings, three little white dresses, three rings, four bracelets, and five hair bows.

It worked just like I hoped it would. The girls loved getting all fancy in their new clothes. Meaty didn't mind getting shafted with a bracelet and ring (honestly, I could have puffy painted a flag on his shirt or something). We were all dressed up with no where to go.

The Greatest was working so it was just me and the kids. I discovered people just don't "DO" Fourth of July out here. There are no parades. Few events. It was kinda a non-event around here. I think it might have something to do with the fancy-schmancy thermometer thingie. Have I mentioned how HOT it is? Fifteen google searches and four reading of the local paper and I still couldn't figure out where to go sit to see fireworks. In desperation I called a friend who informed me that she knew the perfect place to see the fireworks: her in-laws front porch. It was so kind of them to let me and my invading army of cute crash their family gathering. (Thanks so much Wiffy! Love you!)

And a good time was had by all!

Facts I know and still choose to ignore

I know I live in the desert.

I know things succumb to dry rot out here.

I know any fabric left to the elements has a substantially shorter life expectancy here than it would have had in my old home.

I know that I am an average size girl leaning towards slender.

I know that I weight thirty pounds heavier when I've got a big ball of chubby kid on my lap.

I know all this.

And still.....

When you're sitting in a chair and it breaks, it wounds your soul.

My elbow hurts.

And my pride.

Shhhhh......

Are you as sick of the pool as I think you are? It is time for something new. It is about time for some knitting around these here parts. I have, after all, heard rumor that this is a knitting blog.

As you may or may not know I've got a small mountain of finished knits to show off. A mountain I finished almost six weeks ago. The stack of handmade loveliness sat in my family room for two weeks. I didn't want to put them away because I just knew I was going to photograph them...tomorrow. When I finally faced reality and admitted that they weren't going to get photographed anytime soon I moved them to my closet where they were safer, not completely safe, but safer, from sticky little fingers. On the shelf in a tidy pile they have sat and sat and sat. They've been taking up space in there for almost a month? What were they waiting for? What could possibly be keeping me from shamelessly showing off my fabulously brilliant knits with the world? What the heck was I waiting for?

I, my dear friends, was waiting for a good hair day.

That's right.

A good hair day.

And apparently I haven't amassed enough good karma for one yet. What do I gotta do? Sacrifice a child? Cause I'm almost there people. Almost.There.

So it wasn't a good hair day, but it was a clean hair day. Some days that's really the best I can hope for. The pictures are silly because The Greatest took them. Forgive me, they don't really show off the sweater at all. But you get the general idea.

Pattern: Whisper Cardigan, size M

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace weight

Needles: The pattern calls for sizes 7, 4, and 2. I might have used those sizes. Or I might have used a 6, 3, and 2. Although, come to think of it, I don't remember using a needle as small as a 3, or a 2 on this project at all. I have no idea what I used. I just don't remember the details. I know, bad blogger, no diet coke for me.

Modifications: None that I can remember. But I also can't remember what needle size I used, so I don't think my memory counts for much at this point. It is entirely possible that I might have modified the heck out of this sweater. I just don't know.

Review: First of all, let me just state for the record: The sleeves are actually the same length. I know they look like they're not, but they really really are. You're just going to have to believe me on this. Same Length.

I'm feeling mixed about this sweater. I love the light weight fabric of the sweater. I enjoyed the interesting construction. I love the slight roll of the unfinished edges. I didn't even mind the endless stockinette stitch too much. It made for great TV knitting. And *sigh* how I love lazy-bad TV watching-knitting. And let's talk for a second about the yarn. Oh how I loves me some Misti Alpaca Lace weight. Oh the sheen. Oh the soft. Oh the love. On paper this project is made of win!

I'm just not so sure about it on my body.

I might have been better off knitting the smaller size. It looks alright in the pictures, but after a few movements it starts to slid off my shoulders causing me to have to constantly re-adjust the sweater. I wanted to wear it over sleeveless items in the summer. I know it is hot, oh so hot, outside, but it can get downright frigid in the over-achieving air conditioning. This whisper light cardigan seemed like the perfect solution. It is such a shame I find wearing it too fiddly. I wonder if it will be better in the winter, over a t-shirt, if it would stick to fabric on my shoulder and not slide around so much. I guess I'll find out when it starts to get cold.

In late November.

So as we breathlessly await winter to discover the true wearablilty of this sweater, admit it, size problems aside, that is one fine looking piece of knitting.

Documentation

Sometimes you reach a milestone and you just need to document the event. I don't journal anymore, so my documentation occurs here. I hope you'll indulge me.

We had a milestone event yesterday.

Meaty is swimming!

Yes, I have added another fish to my aquarium.

My son is a special boy. I love him to bits and pieces. But he is also a bit of a frustratingly fearful boy. He doesn't want to try anything new unless he is confident beforehand that he will be good at it. Confidence is not his strong suit. Minor setbacks easily deter him. We've worked hard emphasising the importance of practice to him. But it doesn't seem to do any good. He rarely wants to try anything new. I keep hoping he'll outgrow this little personality quirk.

Now we just KNEW Meaty could swim. We knew he could do it. He's big enough, smart enough, strong enough and co-ordinated enough that he could do it. He just didn't. The only thing holding him back was Meaty. His Daddy has patiently been giving him short little lessons every night. Let me stress the PATIENT aspect, holding Meaty in three foot water, water Meaty could easily stand in, as Meaty shrieks and flails and cries that he's going to drown. At some point, frustrated from watching the lessons, I looked at The Greatest and jokingly suggested we just throw Meaty in the deep end. Well, I was mostly joking.

But yesterday was different. Something in Meaty clicked. Something in his head slid into place and he conquered the pool! Not just above ground swimming, but swimming with his head under water as well. Before yesterday Meaty refused to even put his face in the water and blow bubbles. But not now.

Getting ready with Daddy.

All Set.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming.

So proud!

And he swam all over our pool all afternoon. He was in the deep end. He was in the shallow end. He was above the water. He was sitting at the bottom of the pool. We swam races. He cannon balled. We all laughed with delight and pride.

He asked if we could go to the store so he could get a new pool toy, and I couldn't think of a single reason to deny him a reward. He worked hard, and he earned it! He wanted to go to the store all by himself with Daddy (that only hurt my feeling a little bit). They came back with this.

Predicatably he slept with it last night. As I tucked him into bed last night I told him how proud I was of him.

"Mom, I'm proud of me too!" he declared. And you could see the pride and self-confidence in his eye.

And that is worth a million new pool toys.