A quick happy note

Since I worry that I only post about my children when they are torturing me, I wanted to do a quick happy post about my offspring.

Right now my two children are playing together in the back yard while I get supper ready. I know, that may not seem monumental to some of you, but it is a wonderful feeling for me.

That's all.

It's what time?

We're doing a bit of impromptu sleep training here at the Loopie house, in case anybody is wondering what I'm doing awake at this frakkin' hour of the morning.

Buddy, who has always been a good sleeper, has been unable to sleep through the night for the past couple of weeks or so. Most nights he wakes up howling some time between midnight and four. My strategy has been to get him back to sleep as quickly as possible by giving him a couple of ounces of milk and sitting with him until he calms down. Easy, but really starting to wear on me (I looked at the calendar and realized that the period of him not sleeping neatly coincided with the period of me being so tired that I haven't been getting any exercise, which makes me even more tired).

Tonight the Hubby got up and spent a good chunk of time talking to the boy, soothing him, stroking his back, without taking him out of his crib. He really wanted me, but allowed himself to be soothed back to sleep by his dada. The Hubby crawled back into bed, we had a few moments of peace, and then realized that the cat was vomiting.

Thinking it fair that we take turns, I got up to deal with the cat. I carefully closed the bedroom door (I should mention that Buddy sleeps in our room) and tiptoed away before making any sound. Not carefully enough.

Half an hour later the Hubby is in his office, I'm in front of my computer, and Buddy is still calling for mama.

On a lighter note, we had an archetypal parenting experience last week. Everyone was up, the children had eaten breakfast, and the Hubby was supervising the children while I took a quick shower. I got out of the shower, saw that Punkin was in her room getting dressed, so I wandered into the kitchen. The Hubby, not looking up from his newspaper, says "the Boy okay?" At which point I looked down and found Buddy, two feet away from his dada on the other side of the kitchen table, doing this:


My son doing his Incredible Hulk impersonation. Pretty damn funny, if you ask me!

a list

I've seen this list a couple of times, thought I would take a stab at it. I had to switch browsers - I can't seem to figure out bold and italics in Safari, but managed okay in Firefox.

I'm pleased with how many of the things on this list I've done, and how many more I want to do. There aren't too many things in knitting that I'm not game to try at least once.

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you’re not planning on doing.

Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting (I have the yarn for this already!)
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn (I don't know about this one, I've never touched the stuff)
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (who knows?)
Scarf
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding (already married, maybe for my own kids someday)
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars (already have the yarn wound and ready to go)
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn (only if my spinning friends give me some yarn...)
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks (got one in progress right now)
Knitting art (not going to weigh in on art vs craft right now)
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom (?)
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Bodily functions, socks, and swaps

No need to be alarmed, there is no connection between the disparate items in today's title...

For those of you who are squeamish about bodily functions the following may be too much information, but I just have to share:

My boy peed and pooped in the toilet for the first time yesterday!
He's just over two years old and I have been completely passive about even thinking about toilet training. It's funny, for my first child I read every parenting book I could find and thought a lot about meeting milestones and whether she was tracking developmentally. With the second child I just figure he'll do things when he's ready, and since I've never had any indication that he is delayed in any way I don't worry about things he hasn't done yet (because the things he actually does give me plenty to worry about!)

We had pulled the potty ring out of the closet a couple of days ago and sat him on the toilet just so he would know what it was. Yesterday he pulled me into the bathroom and picked up the potty ring. So I took off his diaper (and his shirt, which he insisted on) and sat him on the toilet. Sure enough, he peed! So we wiped and I went to lift him off and he said no. So I put him back and he peed and pooped some more. Cool stuff.

Not to leave Punkin out of the glory, today she has pink eye (probably). Not nearly as exciting or celebratory. There's definitely something wrong with her eye, but since she has also had a cold and her eye is puffy her dr's office wants to see her. She has an appointment with the pediatrician at 11:30, which is after the end of Mandarin class but before I have to go to work. Who said weekends were for relaxing?

I have been working on socks lately. The socks for my mother were a big hit, and I've got other socks underway. My next pair of socks I'm going to try knitting two socks on two circular needles, just for fun.

I am participating in Sockapalooza 4, one of many people who signed up this year (so many, in fact, that Blogger can't handle it! We broke Blogger!) I did it last year and enjoyed it, and it's a small enough scale of project over a long enough period of time that I can manage it.

I got an email from my sock pal - too cool! It was a very friendly, excited email, and I was surprised and thrilled to hear from him/her. It's such a strange but fun concept - make something for someone you don't know. It's fun to see how many people have signed up this year, many of whom have never done a swap like this before. (Maybe I'll even update my template - hah!)

I did check out the blog of my sock pal that I am knitting for, which is a strange bit of voyeurism. Last year the woman that I knit for didn't have a blog so I had nothing to go on other than what she had put in her preferences when she signed up. It's a lot of fun to try to find out about someone based on what's in their blog. My giftee has knit a lot of socks, which makes me wonder if I should knit somethingn similar to what she knits, since she clearly likes that style of sock? Or should I knit something completely different? I need to sign up for an anonymous email account so I can email her...

Speaking of blog templates, I'm contemplating signing up for a couple of blog rings: I actually stumbled across a blog ring for librarians who knit - how perfect! Plus I want to check out the grammar avengers blog ring.

In closing, I leave you with a photo of backyard fun:


It's one of Buddy's favorite games, and Punkin's too (although doing it with her is a big more wearing on the legs!) You can see I've been having some fun with my hair, and the Hubby has been busy building a fence. We took down the fence between our yard and the neighbor's yard about four years ago when we were building the studio in the back yard. Our neighbor is a lovely man and we've enjoyed the opportunity to be able to say hello when he is out back. It hasn't been a problem - our neighbor has a lot of trees and plant growth along the property line so there is a nice visual barrier which gives us both some privacy, and Punkin has never been one for wandering off where she's not supposed to go.

Buddy, however, is a different person, and our neighbor has a fish pond. It's small, but big enough for a little person to fall into and get into trouble. So it was high time to build a fence. It's close to being done now, but it's still lacking the gates - one into the front yard and one into the neighbor's yard (with the lock on his side!) As my dad used to say - close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades, but the Hubby hasn't had a chance to design and build the gates yet. So I stay pretty vigilant when we're out back - I'll be glad when the barrier is complete.

Busy day today, must get to it!

Projects

but not the knitting kind.

Through a freak of scheduling, this week I have two afternoons off from work when the children are at school/daycare. This never happens.

I have been a whirling dervish of activity. Whever I have time away from the kids I struggle to choose what to do of the approximately 14 bajillion things that I need to get done at any given point. I also struggle with choosing between doing something just for fun and doing all that things that I should do.

Having two afternoons in a row made me all a fuddle of choices.

In the end I did a little of both worlds. On Tuesday I spent the afternoon doing this:



We have an old-fashioned style linoleum tile floor. If it's cleaned regularly (which it usually isn't) I can do a quick mop and go. It occasionally needs a coat of polish to smooth the surface. Once in a long while, when it gets really grimy and worn down, it needs to be stripped and polished. Nasty chemical stripper that has to be applied to a small section, left to sit for a few minutes, and then scrubbed to within an inch of its life. Rinse, and repeat. For 2.5 hours.



It's not a great photo, but look at how the light squares on the left are much grubbier than the light square on the right? Yeah, that's what I spent 2.5 hours doing.

After that I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening putting wax/polish on the floor: spread on with a mop, let sit for 30 minutes, repeat. All while juggling the kids, dinner and bedtime (solo, 'cause the Hubby was out for the evening).

So, so, sore the next day. Muscles in my back and arms that I had forgotten I had.

Needless to say, today I felt almost no compunction to do anything that I "needed" to get done. So I worked on a sewing project that was lingering:



I've been working on this for a little while, and I'm thrilled to have it finished. It's an Amy Butler messenger bag, and I like it a lot. The choice of fabric/color is very uncharacteristic for me, but this fabric just jumped right out at me. The lining is a small-scale pink floral - I know, me? Pink? Who'd have thought it?

What you can't tell from the photo is how heavily engineered this bag is; there are all sorts of pockets and zippers and pouches. It was fun to make and I'm going to enjoy using it.

Sorry for the crummy photo, but it's night and that's the best I can do. Hopefully better photos will follow someday.

It was a fun project. The pattern was very well done, with only a few points that I didn't like the way they were handled. It was strange though; at one point I realized that I was sewing only straight lines! When was the last time I sewed something with no curves? Ever?

I have been knitting:



This is a swatch I did for a sweater for Buddy. It is a Dale pattern in Dale Baby Ull, one of my favorite baby yarns. I bought the yarn at the Full Thread Ahead superbowl sale in 2006. I'm making the size 3, the largest size in the pattern (Buddy is 2 years old). I made on change based on the swatch - I switched the light and dark greens and it looks much better. It's a cardigan that I'm working in the round, I'm about 3/4 of the way to the armhole opening. I'm working one yarn in each hand and finding it very soothing. I don't do a lot of colorwork and I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this project, but I'm finding it relaxing and very satisfying.

Tomorrow I'm back to my regular work schedule, which includes Saturday this week. I'm glad to have gotten so much done in the last couple of days, it felt good to accomplish something.