Knitting Zeal

Twinness

My sister has once again successfully produced human life, this time in the form of surprise twins.  They are super cute and very healthy.  I got to visit them yesterday briefly and hold each of them.  I already forgot how tiny and light a newborn feels, especially after hefting my 21 lb baby around everyday.  This is my favorite photo of them so far.   I can almost hear Lilly thinking, "I am so going to poke you hard Anthony for all those months of squishing me in the corner of the uterus.  I am woman, hear me roar!" Her little smile is adorable and his look is the typical boy look--don't bother me, I'm sleeping.  She was 6 lbs, 10 oz and he was 7 lbs, 12 oz.  Not bad for only 37 weeks.  We grow them big in this family. 

Andrew came to the hospital with me, but they wouldn't let him in to see the babies.  He doesn't know it yet, but next summer will be a lot of fun for him and the twins, since they will be so close in age and able to get into trouble with each other.

I need to get cracking on their baby blankets.  I am halfway through his and maybe a quarter of the way with hers.  I had to replace the size 17 needle I was using for hers because the one I had apparently chipped on the join with the cable and kept snagging the yarn.  I was lucky to find a replacement one at AC Moore.  I so rarely use a US 17 circular that I couldn't justify buying an Addi Turbo this time.  Plus, with my coupon, I paid less than $4! 

Andrew and I went to the local store that sells big giant sizes of everything to stock up on more formula and to get gas.  How sad is it that I was excited to only pay $3.93 today for a gallon of gas?  The last time I was there it was five cents more a gallon.  I have no idea what kind of gas it is, but it is the cheapest in the area, so it works for my honda just fine.  Andrew's latest accomplishment today is roaring and screaming for kicks.  He sits in his car seat and just screams repeately with a smile on his face.  I think he is either testing his vocal cords or my patience.  I ignore it as best I can, but sometimes he just makes me laugh.  As we walked around the nice cold store (it is freaking hot outside here, so a place with icy cold AC was great) he roared.  He doesn't watch TV shows or videos to pick up weird sounds, so this must just be an innate boy sound.  At one point an elderly man turned to him and asked him if he was roaring at him.  Andrew then pulled the bashful act and tried to hide.  It was amusing.  His little personality is really showing now.  He is very adventurous and tries to climb and move in ways his body isn't capable of yet, but his mind wants to try.  Bumps and little bruises do not seem to hinder his attempts.  I can't wait until he walks.  We thought life was over once he learned to crawl, but I see much running in my future.

An afternoon swim, with an unexpected visitor

Yesterday afternoon was beautiful outside.  Hot but not humid.  After Andrew's very long nap, he was rewarded with a dip in his baby pool.  Chris captured it on video, and I managed to snap this cute photo of him chewing on a mini shovel.  It was a nice and quiet afternoon.  We have a fairly private yard and can sometimes hear our neighbors, but not see them.  I suddenly heard a man talking in our next door neighbor's yard.  I thought it was maybe the guy who lives across the street, for his accent was definitely Philly style and not our neighbor, who speaks with a heavy European accent (maybe Russian, not sure.)  Suddenly there is a huge German Shepherd in our yard on a long leash.  (There is a break in our fence where a panel was broken in a storm and we have yet to replace it since it means replacing the entire fence.)  Attached to the other end of the leash was a local police officer, who was talking into his shoulder.  He did not see us, even though we were sitting on our patio and quite obvious.  I startled him by saying hello.  Apparently I watch too much crime investigation tv, for if we were criminals or dangerous in any way, he would have been done for, in my opinion.  Aren't police officers supposed to always be aware of their surroundings?  Even the dog didn't notice us.  Turns out he was searching for a man and woman who were seen running up our street (we live on a very steep hilly street) who had been involved in a stabbing in a nearby park.  He was trying to get the dog to pick up their scent, but I am sure they didn't enter our yard, since access from the street is limited.  (Although apparently access from the neighbor's yard is easy!  We better look into that fence soon.)  Nothing ever happens in our little suburb of Philadelphia.  The biggest crime is usually DUIs, shoplifting, or zoning violations.  I guess the UM police department were in full action yesterday.  I didn't see the crime mentioned on last night's news, and I hope who ever was the victim is ok.  It certainly made Andrew's first dip in the pool a memorable event!

I posted seedlings a while ago that I was trying to grow indoors.  Let's just say most of them did not make it.  I'm not sure why, but this sunflower is the only one that survived. Two zinnias also made it, but haven't bloomed yet, and I think I still have some small rosemary plants that are growing.  I ended up purchasing basil and a grape tomato plant, all which are doing well.  I have to pick up pesto ingredients today so that I can use the basil that needs harvesting. 

Brangelina apparently gave birth to her twins last night.  My sister is still holding out, despite wishing that her babies would evacuate thier current location immediately.  She sent them an eviction notice, but they can't read yet, so they haven't responded.  Let's hope they arrive soon!!

I joined two online social/networking groups recently, mostly out of boredom and curiosity.  Facebook is not as interesting as I expected, but there certainly are a lot of people using it.  There are some fun applications to use and I have connected with a handful of people (mostly knitters!!)  Goodreads has turned out to be very useful.  I received an invite from someone I don't know, but I think is friends with someone I do, to join.  It is a great way to keep track of books and find new titles to read.  I keep discovering books I read a while ago and forgot about. 

Happy Sunday!

bootees

So I tried to knit bootees for Andrew for his upcoming baptism, which would match the hat I knit but may not use since it will be August and hot.  I tried a pattern I found on Ravelry, which resembles mary jane shoes, but I thought maybe in white with blue buttons would look more male-like.   After one bootee attempt, I think this pattern will not work for him.  Not only does it look too girly to me, I used larger needles with the intention of making a bigger than newborn bootee size.  The bootee came out gigantic.  Plus, tyring to get socks on the wee one is a big enough challenge with all the kicking.  Trying to button on bootees will be ridiculous.  So, I am tossing out this idea and sticking with plain white socks for the service and bare feet the rest of the day, since that is just cuter in my opinion. 

I am slowly making progress on one of the twins' baby blankets.  My sister is really ready to pop any day now, but the babies will have to make due with just their hats until I get both blankets done.  I haven't photographed the baby girl blanket, but will soon. 

Andrew is not so sure about his new car seat yet.  He was just too heavy to carry in the infant seat anymore, so I sadly put it aside for his new super big boy car seat.  After much research and recommendations, I got him the Recaro Signo convertible seat, which means that for now he can still sit rear-facing until he is bigger and over one year old.  Getting him in and out of the seat is still awkward, but the seat seems really comfortable and he did fall asleep in it last night on our way to a birthday dinner. 

a day at the zoo

Late last week Andrew visited the Philadelphia Zoo for the first time.  We went with his future prom date and her mommy and had the most perfect weather.  I'm not sure how much he got out of it, as viewing animals from a stroller is a bit challenging.  I held him as we walked through the big cats exhibit, so he could see better there.  The giraffes were not outside that day, as they had a new male giraffe added and they were all spending time together to get to know each other.  Maybe there will be little giraffes next year!  (Sadly, Twigga, the oldest giraffe at the zoo, passed away last week from old age.) Eventually Andrew fell asleep for a nice nap.  Not knowing about Twigga's upcoming demise, I bought Andrew a really sweet looking stuffed giraffe as a souvenir, along with some new board books on monkeys.  It was a great day!

Last night I got to go out with just adults and see the Sex in the City movie and have dinner cooked by someone else.  Fun!  The movie was better than I expected.  It was a nice night out.  I came home energized, so I worked on figuring out more baby gates and cleaned the bathroom before finishing a really great novel, Pomegranate Soup.  I think sUsAn had read it and posted about it a year or more ago.  I had written down the name of the book at work and found it on a piece of paper when I moved out of my office.  It was a good story and relaxing read.

I knit another hat for Andrew last week.  Details are here.

Happy Monday!

black outs and thunder storms

Last night we had a terrible thunder storm here with lots of close hitting lightening and winds upwards of 70 miles an hour.  We are surrounded by lots of very large, very old trees, and were fortunate to not have any damage.  Our neighbor's tree split and part of it landed on their shed, but it seems that no structural damage was done.  The thunder and lightening were very loud and one particular strike was immediately followed by an explosive sound.  Within a minute, we had no power.  It was still really hot and humid and was not comfortable sleeping weather for me.  I stayed downstairs in the living room and read by book light for a while and also made a plan for what I would do with the contents of my fridge/freezer if the power did not return by morning.  (Our power company suggested it may take days to return to full power.)  Just as I started to doze, power was restored and I was startled by the sound of the dishwasher resuming it's cycle and the lights coming on where we forgot to turn them off.  It was a nice reminder of how much energy we use and are dependent upon daily.  The house was so quiet without the buzz of electricity running all of the various appliances we keep plugged in.  Except for the humidity and temperature, it was a nice calm. 

Amazingly, Andrew slept through the whole thing.  He was still a bit of a sleepyhead today and even fell asleep while I was preparing his lunch.  Napping has always been an issue with him.  He fights falling asleep frequently and often will only sleep on me for a nap.  It is frustrating at times, but then also nice, as I know he won't always want to cuddle with his mom.  Today I put him in his crib to play while I got dressed.  He protested loudly for a few minutes, but then started his sleep song.  (He sings himself to sleep almost always.  It is rather cute.)  Before I knew it he was asleep and gave me time to put away laundry and dry my hair.  It only lasted about 30 minutes, but it was good enough for me.  Then later this afternoon, when I thought he would sleep after his bottle, he just cried and cried, despite having the sleepiest eyes ever.  In desperation, I put him down in his crib with his nighttime music playing.  After about ten minutes of protest, he started his sleep singing and was out.  He slept for an hour and a half!  It was amazing!  I was able to get so much done.  I made stitch markers for a friend and got dinner started.  He woke up looking much better.  I'm not sure if he went to bed nicely, as I was out tonight and daddy-o got to put him to bed, but I am hoping we are starting a trend for him. 

I recently finished a great book called Garden Spells--a great story that was well written.  My book list is growing a mile long lately.  I am trying to just borrow library books so as to not add to the stacks here already.  We are short on storage space. 

Andrew is loving his new talent of speeding around the rooms by crawling.  His poor little knees are so red!  He has knocked into the coffee table twice already, resulting in some tears, but not too much damage.  He is starting to pull himself up and loves it when I hold his hands and let him "walk" across the room.  He just wants to be mobile so much!  I took this photo of him kneeling the other day--it was too cute, to me.  I love his feet! 

Gardening 101

It was a drippy, rainy day today.  Andrew had a melt-down last night and refused to sleep until after midnight.  Chris is away on a business trip.  I think the baby actually misses him, which is sweet.  However, grumpy baby is not fun to be around.  Tonight he cried himself to sleep--which is so sad to me, but I had to try it.  He wimpered for about 15 minutes then fell asleep and has been asleep for almost an hour. 

To entertain ourselves today, we went to Lowes, where we picked up some peat pots and seeds for a garden.  I used to grow seeds yearly, but with working these past few years, I didn't have the time to maintain and nurture the seedlings.  Since nurturing is my game now, I thought it might be fun to try it again.  Hopefully we'll get some nice plants out of these.  I planted mixed sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, lavender, rosemary, basil, cilantro, roma tomatoes, and sweet salad tomatoes (grape ones.)  I love the smell of rosemary, and it is an annual here, so I have to replace mine yearly.  Every fall I bring in my rosemary plant and try to keep it going on the window sill, but I always forget to water it regularly.  I normally just have african violets and various other succulants indoors, because they are the perfect plants for people like me who forget to water enough.  Let's hope my little seeds grow!

I haven't done much knitting lately...hmm..wonder why?  Someone started sweet potatoes today.  He liked them this morning, but not tonight.  I made my own, that is I baked some and pureed them myself.  To freeze in individual portions without staining my ice cube tray, I scooped the potatoes onto freezer wrap with a cookie scoop.  It worked out nicely.

I'm just so domesticated!  LOL

I have been participating in Postcrossing for a few years now and recently started sending out cards again.  I got a neat one today from Finland of handknit socks.  I had been participating in the Modern Letter Project, but that was a bust, in my opinion.  In the three months that I did it, I received one letter and no one wrote back to my sent letters.  The letter I did receive was fun, though.  Apparently that project is taking a hiatus for a bit and reorganizing.  Seems like they need to do so!

Off to bed I go. 

The Bunny went thata way...

The baby has begun to eat solids...the adventure is just beginning.  After he was practically drooling watching us eat I could take it no longer.  He seems to like his rice cereal well enough and even more so when I added pears.  I planned/plan to make some of  his food, but that hasn't happened yet!  He makes quite a mess, but it is cute. He prefers to hold the spoon himself, but that doesn't tend to work out so well.

Easter brought lots of goodies, a few stuffies, clothes, books and eggs.  Andrew wore his bunny pjs the night before. With his bunny tail butt and his hat, the look was complete.  The photo of him in his exersaucer makes me think he looks like a DJ spinning tunes.  (DJ MC Bunny.)  {Maybe he is copying off of his favorite DJ--DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba, the only kids show he watches on occasion when mommy needs a break and a laugh.  DJ Lance makes Andrew smile.  It is an oddly enjoyable show and provides many laughs for the adults due to Andrew's daddy making crude jokes the entire time it is on.}

Andrew got many new books from the Easter bunny.  He just loves his Oh David book and my new favorite Woolbur. Woolbur is about a sheep who doesn't want to be like the rest of the flock.  He prefers to card his own wool and dye himself.  It is a sweet story about being an individual, with a fiber theme!  We are also reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABCs--a board book version of the original.

For Easter I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and lemon yogurt cupcakes.  Both turned out great and looked festive. I forgot to take a photo of them before dessert, so here is what was left. 

I felt like a zombie on Easter day because of very little sleep the night before.  Andrew was having a hard time sleeping too.  I ended up staying up most of the night cleaning, making iced tea, and baking, as well as blog surfing, to pass the time.  I am still not feeling energized yet this week.  I even felt hung over Monday without the benefit of getting drunk.  No wonder sleep deprivation is a torture device!  Andrew has been better lately, though, at night.  During the day he refuses to sleep in his crib for naps, so I now go to great lengths to get him to nap.  He really needs three naps, but just hates to miss out on the fun.  I actually put him in the car this morning and drove around the neighborhood trying to get him to sleep.  It worked for about 20 minutes.  Then we went out to lunch with my mom--during which he slept the entire time and is still sleeping.  We have a playgroup date in an hour, so I'll have to wake him before then for a feeding, since it has been a long time since his  9 am one.  He slept right through his own lunch, poor thing.  If only he would appreciate the benefits of a nap. 

Tomorrow Andrew is turning 6 months old.  To celebrate, we are visiting the doctor and I suppose another round of vaccines will be waiting.  I can't believe how fast the past 6 months has flown by.  It is amazing how different my tiny baby is now!    

Friday, finally

TGIF?  Since leaving work, every day is the same since I don't have a weekend off anymore.  However, I still do love Fridays, there is just something different about them.  When I worked, I almost always only had to work half a day on Fridays, so it gave me a jump on the weekend. Now I don't get off early ever.  Hmmm, what is wrong with this picture??  LOL

Some favorites for today:

Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips:  they are becoming a favorite and more loved than Baked Lays.  I love the multi-grain texture!

Green Works cleaners:  bought some today and will have to see if they work well.  A tiny step to becoming more "green."

Sleep smiles and laughs:  Andrew still smiles while he sleeps and even has a hearty belly laugh at times.  It is so cute.  Last night he woke up at midnight and talked to his room for about 15 minutes before falling back to sleep.  I watched him on the monitor and let him go.  Thankfully he did fall back asleep!

Sitting up: Andrew is getting much better at this each day and only topples over sometimes.  He is enjoying sitting and playing with toys much more now!

The Jumperpoo--that's right, JumperPOO: because guess what he does when he is in it?  Fisher Price ought to market it as a homeopathic constipation remedy.  It works as well as the Exerpooper toy.

Spring Flowers:  we went to Produce Junction yesteday to buy some hyacinths and some baby dafodills.  I love spring bulbs!  We have tulips poking up all over the gardens and I am just hoping some of them make it and survive the squirrels and bunnies.

LOST:  it's getting weirder and much more interesting.  I'm disappointed that I have to wait over a month for new episodes, though!

It's egg dying time again.  I don't have any natural colored/undyed yarn in my stash, so I won't be dying any yarn this year, just eggs.  I did pick up an extra box of PAAS dye, though to maybe do some dyeing over the summer.  Easter egg dye is much brighter than kool aid dye, in my experience.  If you want to try it, wait until Monday morning and hit the half price sales.

Happy Spring!!

Spring time finally!

Andrew visited the Easter Bunny at our local mall this week.  He seemed to really like him/her, even if he had no clue as to what the heck was going on.  There was no line!  I guess the bunny isn't as popular as Santa. 

Today Andrew and I went out for tea with friends at a really lovely tea shop in Souderton.  It was a long drive, but definitely worth it.  The shop owner was so nice to us and cracked Andrew up.  The tea was great--I had a French caramel creme brulee tea.  The tea sandwiches, scones, and desserts were yummy.   I also had a tiny cup of mushroom lentil soup that was amazing!  I must find the recipe to try to create it at home.  Andrew sat in his car seat for a while, but spent most of the time on laps, being passed from one person to the next.  After about three hours, he was ready to go and fell asleep in the car before the key was even in the ignition.  It was raining terribly, so instead of running the errands I had planned, we just came home and finished napping.

I have too many knitting projects going on right now.  Tonight at knitting group I worked on a monkey sock.  I like the pattern and the yarn, a silk and wool blend from Socks that Rock.  No photos of it yet.  I also have cast on for two baby blankets, but am stuck.  I want to knit a miniature version of clapotis for my massage therapist who is leaving the field and moving south.  I am sad to see her go--she really helped me during my pregnancy with all my aches.  She combines reiki with a therapeutic massage and it is amazing.  I am hoping to find someone else in the area for those occasional massages.  They really help!

Andrew wore his child's placket sweater today from my friend.  It will probably be the last time he wears it because it is so small on him and spring weather is about to be here.   I can't believe he is outgrowing all of his hand knit items already.  It is sad.  I need to work on new ones for the fall. He is growing so fast.  Yesterday he discovered that he has a tongue and spent most of the day sticking it out at me.  He also loves to grab his toes and do some odd baby yoga pose.  It is very cute.

I have to go to bed. This was the only time I had today to write.  I went grocery shopping after knitting and didn't get home until 11:30pm.  Ugh. 

Happy Spring!!  :-)

Friday favorites

This week Andrew turned five months.  In celebration of my (and Chris') survival of five crazy months, I baked a cake this afternoon--pineapple flavored.  It is cooling and waiting to be iced.  Yum.

1. This week I cooked a new recipe in the crock pot that I found on Stephanie's blog.  She is posting a new crockpot recipe per day for a year--what a great accomplishment!  I made this Lemon Chicken dish last night.  I only added slices of fresh lemon to the pot prior to cooking.  It turned out great. Served with rice and steamed broccoli--a tasty and easy meal.

2. Goodwill--I had an idea that I would go to the local goodwill store to buy wool sweaters to felt and craft or to find a great angora sweater that I could deconstruct to use the angora for bunny ears.  Let's just say the sweaters I found, mostly acrylic and cotton, were not so great.  The few wool ones I found were already in lousy condition and sort of grossed me out.  I did discover a great book section and picked up some paperbacks for 50 cents each.  After I read them I'll just re-circulate them.  I also found a tiny little denim jacket for Andrew that appears to be new.  For $2.50, you can't beat it, even if he only wears it a few times.

3. The Mall.  I mall walk weekly and much more prefer to go with a friend and her daughter than alone.  Thankfully they have a Starbucks.

4.  Gymboree.  They are selling babies there this week--ok, not really, but the signs say baby sale.  They have the cutest little clothes and good sales.  It is an addiction.

Not much knitting occurred here this week.  Andrew is teething big time and drooling all over the place, as well as being quite miserable.  I haven't seen or felt the top teeth yet, but based upon his gnawing on everything, I suspect they will appear soon.  A month ago his bottom two teeth surfaced, so hopefully these two will resolve themselves so that both Andrew and his parents can resume peaceful nights and days.  His sleep is once again disrupted.  He seems to have a good week, then an off week.  Or maybe he just has no pattern.  It is funny--everyone asks if he sleeps through the night, like that will make everything so easy. 

Here is Andrew wearing his little felted booties that Sherry gave him at my shower. (They are from this crafter.) They have little needle felted sheep on them.  They are adorable and make me want to try to craft some myself.  Hmmm, like I need another craft project idea.

Happy Leap Day!