This Old Knit

A selection of favorites

2012-01-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

Maegwin has been getting into watching Journey on Youtube. Yep, you read that right...Journey. She especially likes this video and will ask me to "turn on Steve Perry" which is something I assure her is most likely not in my power. hehe She also enjoys all of the Iso videos which is an oddly adorable dachsund doing very mundane things to great music. My favorites are Iso takes a bath and Iso on the couch (which also reminded me why I love Ben Folds Five).

I've been getting some knitting projects done. I finished up those fingerless mitts that I talked about for Mom and will give them to her when I see her next. I also finished a hat for Maegwin's friend Emma which turned out really cute and I hope to make one for Maegwin soon.

Things were pretty whacky at work this week and while I am a patient person I found myself being really ill-tempered. Hopefully this weekend will give me some time to unwind. Enjoy!

CA trip through Thanksgiving

2011-12-30T16:20:00.000-08:00

We packed up the essentials and went to Mom & Kevin's house for a night. That day both Maegwin and I had fevers so we really weren't very good company. We spent most of the time on the couch watching Netflix and cuddling under a comforter and we went through a fair bit of wood keeping a fire going so we could stay warm. I think I also went through roughly three jumbo boxes of tissues. Maegwin napped a lot and sweated it out on one of Auntie Laura's giant teddy bears.

Maegwin also worked on doing the sticks juggling that Aunt Laura was showing her while we were there. She definitely enjoyed playing with them!

That night I actually sent Josh out to buy a vaporizer because I was having so much trouble breathing. It did help though we steamed out the walls of the room we were in. I'm glad we had it though. We had a rough time and he did a lot of walking around cradling Maegwin and her menagerie of creatures. Of course, the beloved Moo and in this photo some random lamb.

On Wednesday, we went back to Grandpa's house to make Thanksgiving dinner for him. Josh's sisters came up also and Josh made his first turkey. It turned out great but sadly I didn't get many pictures on this day because I was helping and wrangling Maegwin as well. I baked some of my bread too.

The girls packed everything up into multiple meals and froze it so hopefully we've stocked the freezer for a while. We also got a chance to play Carcassonne with Josie and Matt while both of the kids took crazy long naps. We had such a great time with it. Matt & Josie got it for us for Christmas and we look forward to playing it again. I really enjoy those kinds of games that have a dynamic board that is either built up or changes with each time you play it. We really need to get our board game night up and running again.

Thursday we went over to the other set of grandparents' house and celebrated Thanksgiving as well as all the November and December birthdays. I think October too since Josh's was celebrated. Maegwin enjoyed hanging with all the gals.

She of course was feeling a bit better by this time as I was getting worse. I swear children are like small traveling petri dishes. Maegwin got tons of presents but she didn't quite get it at first I think. She thought we were saying pretzels which she had rather enjoyed on the plane ride out. Each time she'd open something up she'd say "Where are the pretzels?" and look very disappointed. Once I told her with greater enunciation she was much happier.
She got a tea set from her great-grandparents.

Which she happily shared with Aunt Jean and Aunt Wendy's puppy.

She was quite a good hostess.

She read with Baby Lily.

She also seemed very fascinated with her clothes. She loves the babies at her daycare whenever she gets to see them.

One down, one to go

2011-12-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

I've got one mitt down and one to go! I might do this yet...to distract you all, please enjoy this lovely picture of Maegwin putting on her jammies by herself. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day tomorrow and to all of my friends and family I can't be with, please know that I miss you and am thinking of every one of you.

I'm crazy

2011-12-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to Maegwin's 2 year check up. She is 35 inches tall, holding strong in the 75th to 90th percentile on height and 25.2 pounds, so 25th percentile in weight. Everything else is fabulous and the doctor said she was advanced on her verbal skills. Yay!

After we went, she sacked out in the car for all of 20 minutes to drive home and then flatly refused to nap until 3 pm. By that time I was really ready for her to go to sleep as she became progressively more grouchy. There is something about getting a toddler down for what you know will be a long nap. It makes you ponder crazy things and feel fairly invincible in the fact that you were able to tame such a wild creature into submission. My bright idea? Take something from my More Last Minute Knitted Gifts book and whip it up for Christmas. Simple right? My plan was to turn this yarn into these fingerless gloves. Wagers, anyone?

wow-seriously

2011-12-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

I see that I have not written a blog post since October and frankly judging from the state of my house I'm not surprised. Work has taken us by the feet, whacked us around a bit, and left us in a state of disarray. Add into that mix two bouts of bronchitis for me (the most recent of which was during my one and only vacation of the year, but I digress) and you have the makings of a crazy couple of months. Maegwin is quite cheery, continues to thrive, and seems largely uneffected by the chaos. They say that disorder is the sign of a brilliant mind so I just chalk it up to us raising her to do magnificent things.

We went to California over the Thanksgiving holiday and on the Friday before we were heading out, both Maegwin and I had stuffy noses and mild coughs. No big deal, thought I, it's just a cold but I'll pack my rescue inhaler just in case. I had just recovered from the first batch of bronchitis, which took a little over a month and was finally back to going to the gym. Our flights took a total of ten hours travel time, with a stop that was not included on our original itinerary in Denver. Be warned, if you don't have to change planes Southwest doesn't consider it a stop and thus doesn't add it. In the Vegas airport Maegwin insisted on walking. We were all the way on the other side. She walked until we got to the A terminal and then started crawling and eventually just sprawled on the floor. She looked as defeated as I felt. I had the bright idea to put her on our roller bag and she rode happily, waving to everyone like a beauty pageant winner. We finally got into Oakland and noticed our car seat was not on the jetway...we had gate checked it so it would be right there for us. No worries, said the flight crew-if you checked it through it went down with the luggage and you'll have to pick it up down there. Ok, we loaded up and headed down with Maegwin in the Ergo. Let me pause to say the baby carrier was probably one of the greatest inventions ever. On to the baggage claim! Out came all our bags and we waited and waited but no car seat. A nice man standing next to us said that car seats come out in the irregular luggage area. We headed over there and saw several men just standing around waiting. We asked them about our car seat. They all looked at each other and said there were no car seats on the flight. I lost it then. Why did we bother to gate check the darn thing if they were going to lose it anyway? I had visions of it sitting on the jetway at the Denver airport in our "unpublished" stop. We started stomping toward the lost baggage office and I happened to glance to the side at a cordened off area. There was the car seat (minus one strap padding)! There was no mistaking the bits of sunshine cereal stuck to it so I knew it was ours. We grabbed it and headed to the rental car place. Everything seemed to go ok until they sent us out to the kiosk to pick our car. It was pouring down rain and dark by this time. The woman was working two counters alone and basically told Josh to go find the mid-size cars in the lot. We had no umbrella and I had on some felt flats that were more like wet wool slippers at this point and a very wet baby in an Ergo. Seriously, Dollar, shame on you! He came back ten or so minutes later and we loaded up and made it to Grandpa's house to settle in.

Maegwin made herself right at home and started stalking "doggy Emma". She loved her instantly and the entire trip as soon as she woke up she asked to find doggy Emma and Grandpa.

We got a rare Maegwin and Mommy photo.

Then we just hung out that evening. It was nice to decompress after the flight and my head was hurting and the cough was getting worse by this point. Oh, I also brought my neti pot and I can't sing its praises enough. I believe without it I would have been at the emergency room because that sinus infection would have gone to bronchitis much sooner.
Maegwin played with Emma's toys and entertained herself as any self-respecting two year old can do.

By the time our two days were done and we switched to Mom and Kevin's house, Maegwin and Grandpa were fast friends.

More on days 3-9 later as I have to go attend a two year old climbing on a coffee table.

Signs of fall

2011-10-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it is already October. Where has the time gone! We've been so busy the past month or so that I haven't had any time to keep up with blogging. Josh has been working 60 hour weeks on a pretty regular basis and while I am home, Maegwin is quite demanding of my time. Certainly not a lot of time to blog. The only free time is naptime and I use that to try desperately to keep our house back from the brink of unhealthy and to sneak in a tiny bit of knitting time. I haven't knit anything for myself in a good long while but I have made lots of baby hats. I'm currently working on a set of little bear hats with earflaps for my friend, Danielle, who is due to have twins any day now. She's in the hospital on bedrest so they could be here anytime in the next two weeks. I only have flaps and the brim of one hat done so I need to get cracking.

One of the things we did in September was attend the Wool Gathering. As every year that I have gone it was full of wonderful things. This year I have my eye on learning to spin with a drop spindle so I got three different types of wool to learn with-blue faced leicester, merino, and shetland. I'm excited to see how each behaves differently. They are all beautiful natural colors and I hope to make some mittens from them for either me or Maegwin when I'm done. Just need to find a class to go to so I can learn!
Maegwin explored all the different sheep areas:

She told me "You want a sheep?" which means "I want a sheep." We're working on pronouns right now.

She especially loved these little guys with their multiple colors and little horns:

She nicely asked if she could pet the angora bunnies:

And a fiber snob is born!

She loved the alpacas. She kept asking to see the pacas and pet the pacas.

After all that excitement she fell asleep in the Ergo and let Mommy browse the market. So considerate of her! The weather was gorgeous and was very inspiring with just a hint of the fall to come.

The day before the Wool Gathering we drove up to a Cleveland suburb for my friend, Todd's wedding. It was a very long day but we had a good time. I didn't take very many pictures but I did take one of Maegwin on the dance floor. She and the little girl behind her did laps around it for about 30 minutes!

Last weekend we went to a fall festival in the area with my friend Mary and her daughter Emma. We were both pregnant at the same time and the girls are only a few weeks apart. They had a great time.
Maegwin wanted to play in the corn pools.

Once she was in she had a great time putting corn in a bucket.

All was going well until a rather large 12 year oldish girl got in and nearly kicked Maegwin in the face. She also started loading up the bucket and dumping it on top of her. I had to intervene and I moved her to another pool. She barely fit inside the thing so I'm not sure what she was thinking.
We moved on to the pumpkin patch where Maegwin had to try out all the pumpkins to find the right one. Thanks to the parking attendant for giving me those free tickets so we could get free pumpkins!
The first one was too heavy.

I caught her in mid-run to the next one.

She and Emma were very thorough in their quest.

We decorated our pumpkins which I couldn't get pictures of because I was busy helping. We were covered in marker when we were done though.

I thought this one was great. They look like a dynamic crime fighting team or something.

Maegwin had a great time running away from our best efforts to photograph them together.

Emma was highly amused at her antics.

They played peek-a-book around this wastebasket.

And squatted down for a chat.

Maegwin zonked out on the way home. We had a great day and presented our decorated pumpkin to Daddy when he got home from work.

On the knitting front, I finished a test knit for my friend Gwen. She plans to offer this pattern as a kit with enough yarn to make the adult size and kids' size of it. They are super cute! Still have to knit up the kids sample for her.

I also finished a Santa hat Christmas ornament which was promptly absconded for Ken. I imagine I'll have to knit another one.

I finished this fun little mousie that is part of the Spud and Chloe at the Farm set. I'm working my way through the animals. I have the dog's head and body knit but not sewn together, the mouse, and a chick and egg (but Maegwin has taken them somewhere and I can't find them at the moment). Mom is helping with the piglets but I don't know what her progress is.

I knit a pumpkin hat for a co-worker, Seth, who was having a baby in October. They weren't finding out the sex so I made it more generic. They ended up having a girl about two weeks ago.

I basically have the rest of my knitting time tied up through Christmas. I want to make some stuff for a Christmas swap in the Itty Bitty knitting group on Ravelry, the rest of the farm set, some of the fairies from the holiday Knit Simple issue, four more baby hats, one baby sweater, a stocking for Maegwin, and the kids' test knit for Gwen. Whew, when I write it all out it seems pretty nuts!

Well Einstein woke her up so my free time is over.

For all fans of Zoolander

2011-09-15T17:50:00.001-07:00

Maegwin made her first look. We call this her Blue Steel. hehehe

knipicks sale and other goings on

2011-08-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! After a month long absence I'm back for a short catch up session. We've been super busy with work. It seems that we alternate weeks where we work late so the other one is frantically trying to catch up on things. I did manage to get my fair isle mitts done and I'm pleased with how they turned out. Sadly it has been too warm to wear them but far be it from me to hasten summer's departure.

With it being so hot we haven't spent as much time outside as usual, but our garden has certainly done well. We're winding down on cucumbers, the tomatoes seem like some ripen everyday but we have to stay on top of it to get them before they go too far, and the squashes are just starting to be ready for harvest. A few days ago I harvested three butternut and three delicata squash to start curing. Once they are done they should last for about five months, though I doubt it will be that long before we eat them.

I also got three melons though I don't think they were quite ready yet so I'm letting them ripen on the counter for a bit. We started a batch of pickles and they're pickling in the basement for another week before we can them. I'm excited to see how they go. We sort of threw in a bunch of spices and we used some white and some red wine vinegar to get extra flavor.

On the knitting front I've been sneaking things in here and there. My big finished object of late is the baby set for Josie's baby due in September.

I used the Flower Hat and Cardigan pattern by Susan B. Anderson from my Itty Bitty Nursery book. It was fun to knit but the yarn was a bit of a pain just because it was nubby and the nubs sometimes didn't want to pull through so I'd have to do fiddling to get them in the loops properly. It was worth the trouble, but I don't know that I would use the yarn again. It was Queensland Cotton Soft Wave. I did the flowers and vine with Spud & Chloe sweater which is amazing. It is my go to yarn for baby knits now as it is machine washable, super soft, and comes in a huge range of colors.
I'm working on the Spud & Chloe at the Farm set. I've finished one mouse, the body & head of a dog, and an eggshell for a chick. I'm just making a piece here and there between other things. Today I cast on for a baby hat for a shower this week at work. It will be the Cherry-O pattern from Itty Bitty Hats and I'll share as soon as I've finished. After that I have two bear hats to knit for a set of twin boys due the beginning of November and a pumpkin hat for another boy due in mid-November. I'll have another to knit for in December due to a friend of mine who had her first son about a week before Maegwin (she said apparently she likes December babies). I want to do something special for her though and she is having a boy. I'm thinking of doing the same sweater as above but in blue with a sailboat and maybe have a rope wrapping down around the buttons with a little anchor at the end. I dunno, I'd have to design it so it will take some time and thought. Whew, so many babies!

Maegwin has been really getting into summer fruit and we're having a piece or two a day. One in the morning on the car ride to daycare for her breakfast and then one on the way home. Their snacktime is around two so by the time we pick her up at six she is ravenous. It's a nice change from the crackers she was usually snacking on. We also found some soy bites, thanks to my friend Shelly, so we have been incorporating those into our food as well. They are really delicious!

We also rounded out Maegwin's room by adding the papasan chair I had in the nook and buying her a table. She insisted on helping put it together.

She took the screws and put them into all the holes very meticulously.

We asked her if she knew how to do it and she gave us this look like "Yeah, of course this is how you do it."

It was pretty fun to watch her get so excited about it. I put the stools together while she and Daddy worked on the table.

She insisted on using the wrench and trying to screw things in herself.

We had a good time doing it together. Unfortunately she is still too short to get up on the stools herself but I see years of fun in the future with it.

Of course when we were done, we had to do a victory dance.

I've also recently attended the Knitpicks sale at their warehouse. We got there super early because Mom's group heard that last year they let people in early. No such luck this year so we had about an hour and a half to kill. The unfortuate thing was that it was blazing hot at noon and I had no sunscreen. Since I had got in a car with Mom and Aunt Lynn, I didn't have my usual store of useful things that I keep in our car. I had to settle for putting my Sling RePete bag over my head and hoping for the best. I'm sure I looked like an idiot but I didn't get a sunburn so I call it a win. We finally all started lining up and we were the second group in line. We heard that there were only 18 boxes of yarn and the line was back as far as I could see. They also had lots of books and some bags. There was a fabric sale going on as well in a different section of the warehouse. I went straight for the yarn boxes and was surrounded within seconds. They basically cut small holes in the tops of the boxes and many of the skeins had no labels. As you can imagine within minutes of the crazy frantic pawing everything was in tangles. I managed to get a bag of blue wool and some Risata sock yarn which is what I wanted then I got the heck out of there. It was just too crazy for me. I don't understand the mania of shopping like that. I headed to the book area which was much more serene. My strategy for getting people to move was recommending books to them that I saw them with which I already own and could vouch were good. They would then take the book and move on, leaving me with a nice open space to peruse. I think I bought about 20 books at $1 a piece and a few hardcovers at $3 a piece. As I was going up to check out I saw a Namaste Bitty Bag on the $5 table. It just had a broken strap but apparently that was enough to dissuade people from purchasing it. Not me! I regularly get my shoes repaired so I knew I could take it to the tailor and probably fix it for a few dollars. (I was right-I dropped it off subsequently and they are going to fix it for $8). Overall I'm glad I went but probably wouldn't again.

ABC

2011-08-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Our little Maegwin has a few new tricks up her sleeve. First, she's learned to say her ABC's though she gets a bit muddled after S.

She can also count to ten but we've yet to catch this on video. She learned it from Daddy while I was working late during close week. So amazing! We don't know if she is advanced or not but she is the only one who talks in her daycare room. The teachers say she is what keeps them sane because at least they can chat with her during the day. hehe
We've started getting tomatoes out of the garden, roughly 10-12 every couple of days. They are so delicious! Mostly we get cherry tomatoes and romas but we've had a few beefsteak and orange smudge ones as well. It's a delicate balance of leaving them out long enough to ripen but not long enough to start to rot in the heat.

We also have about ten butternut squashes on the vine and four delicata squash as well as four or five melons. They are hard to find in among the vines but the vine is still covered in blossoms so we expect a good crop. It's so nice to actually get things from the garden this year and it was just the confidence booster we needed to keep going. At least we've managed to get the animal problem enough under control that we can harvest things. Next year should be even better!

We are also enjoying the development of Maegwin's sense of humor. She can find the silliest things to do with everyday objects. For example we were cooking a few days ago and had her in the high chair nearby so she could watch the action. She wanted the bag from the onions and kept calling it a hat. Silliness ensued.

She was being very sanitary while cooking.

Then she started posing.

What a crazy girl!

We bought some markers to draw on the windows..but Maegwin had other ideas.

It's ok, they're washable and she had a great time.

I think we've started a trend though because her daycare reported that they were using paint and she kept asking to paint her belly yellow.

I finished my fair isle gloves I talked about in my last post and they are awesome. I love them!

I don't know what I was so scared of-they weren't that hard at all. The most difficult thing is letting the floats be loose. I used some grey and pink alpaca gifted to me by my friend Gwen that matches a scarf she knit for me. Yes, Gwen, I finally did something with it! I've already cast on for a pair of socks in fair isle for Mom's Christmas present and they are even easier. That left hand is getting the message that it doesn't get to slack off anymore and has to work for its knitting living.

A quick note

2011-07-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

Our little Maegwin had a brief stint with the potty. We know it is early for potty training, and really just got one for her to get used to it because she was talking about her diapers a lot. The first night she sat down and bam-she used it. The whole next week she told us when she had to go and we duly assisted with her getting her pants down and diaper off. Oh the excitement was palpable. But then Josh had to go on a trip for a week. I don't know if it was the break in her routine or not but she is now totally uninterested in the potty. Bummer, but honestly the fact that she used it at all shows me she has the concept and I'm sure she'll gain interest again. She's now in a room at her daycare where there is a potty available so when we do start training in earnest it can be consistent.

She had her 18 month checkup and was 23 pounds and 33.5 inches tall. Her head circumference was essentially the same as last time which the doctor said was good. So she's still in the 99th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight. I heard someone say that by their second birthday children are 1/3 their adult height. If this is true, Maegwin is on track to be at least six feet tall. So hilarious since I'm pretty short.

The garden is doing well and we've harvested some cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and carrots. There are growing butternut squash on the vines now and tons of blooms on our melon vines. The groundhog has only continued his devastation on the broccoli and we think it is a small price to pay for our produce. The corn is finally growing but next year we are definitely not doing corn and beans together. I'm sure the Native Americans did it differently but I think we should have let the corn get a headstart.

I'm still continuing my knitting (of course) and have completed a few baby hats:

as well as two socks, though from different pairs. I took a class on the last day of Maegwin's and my week sans Daddy and learned how to do fair isle knitting. I'm pretty jazzed about it because it isn't as hard as I dreaded it being though actually making my left hand work during knitting is a weird feeling. I also finished Maegwin's monster but he doesn't hold a candle to Moo or her Elmo doll...at least for now.

He got plenty of amoxicillin though so he's very healthy thanks to Maegwin's tender ministrations.

It's late here and I have an 8 am meeting tomorrow but that's the news around here for now.

A sad farewell

2011-06-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't written for a bit all. There have been many developments in wee Maegwin's life and some knitting but we've also had a huge loss. Arguably this blog's most devoted fan, our beloved Nana, passed away and I just haven't felt like writing anything. Many times I had no wish to blog but knowing how much joy it brought to her I would force myself to take the time to write and format a post or upload pictures or videos. We hated being so far away from her, especially in these last few years when she was so ill. We're happy she at least got to meet Maegwin in person last year and that we could keep her up to date with all the goings on through the blog and frequent phone calls. We all loved her dearly and she will be sorely missed.

I'll try to blog some this weekend. There is news and it involves a potty and one very determined little girl who is quite advanced.

Art and catching up

2011-06-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Maegwin continues to amaze us. She is now making sentences of sorts! She says things like "Daddy hold me" and "Daddy go work". She also can tell us if she needs a diaper, knows all her body parts, and lots of animal sounds. She is starting to be able to repeat back parts of stories. One of her favorites is Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. She will ask for it and talk through what the monkeys are doing. So cute! She also loves pretty much any kind of art. Often we'll find her with her crayons coloring on pages. We also do art time in the morning on Sunday after breakfast. It gives me a much needed break and a chance to do some dishes and cleaning. I caught some of the action a few weekends ago.

I love how she is so deliberate and has to dip her brush between each color.

Not much paint actually gets on the paper. A lot of time is spent just moistening the paint.

I also got out to take some pictures of the garden. The groundhog is mainly eating the broccoli which is apparently their favorite food according to the Ohio Wildlife person we had come out to assess our garden. I'm happy to let him eat that if he leaves our other stuff alone. Next year we might plant some broccoli outside the fence as a sort of trap plant to keep them away altogether. I know this works for deer. We learned that groundhogs climb trees-just in case any of you were unaware. Our brilliant plan to save on stakes by incorporating trees at the corners of the fence apparently gave him nice easy access to our buffet. Oh well, live and learn.
Here's an overall shot of the garden.

This is the onion bed in the back, the nibbled broccoli and carrots in the middle, and salad greens in the front.

Those are our tomatoes in the back. This is the biggest we have ever grown any and they have green tomatoes on them. We are so excited! The middle bed is green beans, some spent peas, and edamame. The front bed is red cabbage, brussels sprouts, carrots, and broccoli.

In this one the back is red romaine lettuce and garlic. The middle bed is potatoes, which are doing great. The front bed is black beans and corn. We are trying to grow them together to see how they do. The beans are growing faster than the corn currently though. Hopefully it will catch up soon so the beans have something to vine on.

We also have melons, butternut and delicata squash, and cucumbers and summer squash but I didn't get a very good picture of them. They are all at record size for us as well. We are really hoping for a good harvest this year.

Some special messages

2011-06-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

Oh hi everyone! Maegwin here! I just wanted to send some wishes to my favorite Nana to help her feel better. Smooches!

Easter recap

2011-05-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

Up until now I haven't had time to share all the great pictures we got of Maegwin's first egg hunt. Last year she was far too small to really get it but this year was just right. There was an Easter egg hunt hosted at her daycare which we thought was great so we all packed into the car and drove over to Dublin to enjoy the festivities. They had juice, coffee, and donuts and various crafts for the kids. We were disappointed that only one other family from Maegwin's room made it to the event. We hoped to get to know the other parents better. The Lil Dreamers room had their own area for egg hunting though so it was nice for Maegwin to get the hang of it without having to fend off the other children. It was very rainy all morning so the area was quite muddy and wet but she didn't care at all.

Maegwin immediately found two eggs.

She happily banged them together for a while. I think she would have done this rather than look for more.

Eventually we persuaded her to put them in the bag. Mommy forgot any kind of basket so we improvised and used my knitting bag. Thanks Go Knit pouch!

She was so careful putting them in. It was super cute.

Her friend PB also helped find some eggs. We bought him on the way because we got to Dublin early and had to kill time. He can go in the bath too.

We caught some of the action after we got her to put the first two away.

Once she figured it all out, the egg hunting was fast and furious. She would find some and start calling for the bag and for Daddy.

You can see how wet and dirty her pants were by the end. Miraculously her sweater was spotless.

She enjoyed showing her eggs to the other baby she encountered.

It was a fun time and we all enjoyed it.

Catching up on the knitting

2011-05-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

I have woefully neglected sharing all the great things I have finished knitting lately. Along with that traveling came a whack of knitting to keep me sane in airports and on planes. It was funny the amount of knitting I thought I could accomplish vs how much I actually did. I often found myself tossing in the yarn for "just one more project"-terrified that if I got delayed or stranded I would run out of knitting. On my trip to Dallas alone I packed yarn for three pairs of socks, a pair of handwarmers, and a sweater. Really, in two days? I amuse myself sometimes.

First up-some lovely mystery socks from the Sock Knitters Anonymous group. This was the March mystery pattern and I really love how they turned out. I used some Dream In Color Smooshy that I got in a swap in the Spring Tickle colorway. They were just the ticket to chase away the last vestiges of winter and remind me that green growing things were just a few short weeks away.

Next up-a fun cardigan for Maegwin. Mom went through her stash and gave me a bunch of yarn she had bought to knit things for Maegwin. Despite her best efforts she can't keep up with our little growing weed alone so our knitting powers combined should keep her covered in handknits for a while. This was a yarn called Kool Kotton and I have it in two colors, grey and mint green. I started with the grey to have something that went with lots of outfits. The pattern is Cardigan Rose which is a very low cost pattern from Knitpicks. She really likes it and the size I picked seems to be perfect. I found some cute little monkey buttons at the Sewing Rabbit Etsy shop. Check it out-she has some really cute stuff.

I caught her in action while unpacking a drawer.

Sitting in the sun.

Helping unlock the door to put the dogs out. (She really can't unlock it-heck I barely can half the time)

And her favorite activity-watching the dogs wander around the front yard.

Next I signed up for a cupcake themed swap in my Itty Bitty Knits group on Ravelry. It's a really fun group of people and the assignment was to knit the cupcake pincushion and hat by Susan B. Anderson. I love her stuff so I was totally in. We could then add cupcake themed stuff to the package as desired.
My pincushion was a total hit with Maegwin who promptly ran off with it while I was posing it for a picture.

The cupcake hat took a turn on Maegwin's doll since it was a newborn size. This was also my first crochet cherry and picot edge. The cherry turned out great, the edging not so much. It isn't like the picture because I made a mistake but it took so long I didn't have the heart to redo it. I think it looks ruffly.

I also knit a cupcake washcloth as an extra. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I packed everything up along with a cupcake cookbook and sent it out yesterday. It was the Hello Cupcake book which was the prequel to the What's New, Cupcake book that I already had. I also ordered a copy for me. Not only do I find these books inspirational but Maegwin also loves looking at the pictures.

Until next time, stay cool everyone!

Totally random

2011-05-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

This post is probably going to be all over the place. I realize that there was no post in April and there are a few reasons for that. I was traveling every week for at least one day and sometimes two. This put the house into an amazing amount of disarray not so much because being gone one day a week was bad but because at the beginning of April I was gone a few consecutive days and it just sort of piled up little by little. When I was home I tried to give all my energy and focus to my family, cleaning up the aforementioned mess, and getting the garden and plants in shape. Here are some things I discovered along the way:

1. I can work for 21 hours straight in a pinch. Yep, you read that right, two-one not one-two hours. This consists of getting up at 3 am to go to the airport, signing in there to work until I get on the plane, then working once at the office until 1 am.

2. If you check into your hotel at 1 am, there may only be one room left and even though you specifically reserved a non-smoking room it will be a smoking room. They will ask if this is ok because they know you can't say no at that point. I did say that I had no choice except to go back and sleep at the office which got them to throw in free breakfast, but I digress.

3. I have the most awful luck with travel. A whole group of us were making these trips and my flights were always delayed. ALWAYS. If I flew with co-workers, they were sucked into the miasma that is my bad flying karma. If I flew alone on a separate flight I'd be stuck for hours in another city while they all arrived on time and got a normal amount of sleep rather than four hours between checking into the hotel and going to work in the morning. I do not know why this is, but it is how it is. Pieces of planes broke (luckily always before we took off), tornadoes happened, etc.

4. I hate flying Delta or American. Their seats are small, they assign seats so I could not sit with people I knew, and their seat belts are odd. The last part is annoying because it causes an issue with my knitting. You see, gentle readers, I am a two circular knitting kind of gal so while I knit one set of circulars dangles. Those circular needles just happened to fit perfectly into the weird holes on the seat belt and this scraped the coating off two of them before I realized it. I was able to use my trusty nail file to make them somewhat bearable so I couldn't (shudder) not knit, but they are basically ruined and will need to be replaced. Delta and American also do not have as good of frequent flyer programs as Southwest and flying to Dallas is a lot of points to miss out on. Just sayin'.

5. Airport food is crap. There are a few exceptions to this but by and large it is crap. When I was trapped in Chicago O'Hare I had the time to go to Macaroni Grille and that was good. I got wine and it made me at least pleasantly buzzed enough to not care yet about being delayed for three hours. They also have a great bookstore.

6. Airports have a complete and utter disregard for nursing mothers and sick people. Columbus has no family bathrooms once you go through security. Thus whenever I was delayed and had to go pump, I had to go all the way back out and stand in the stupid line again. The other bit is from when I was stuck in Memphis. There was a girl in the bathroom who was throwing up for literally forty minutes. I called for paramedics. The airport's solution was to send a policewoman. She got her a bottled water (not bad) and said for her to take her time. We later heard her going in and telling that same girl she had to get on her plane. Uh...ok lady, she can barely stand at this point and has been vomiting for forty minutes. Don't you think maybe she should go to a hospital not on a plane? That ride for me went on to be the most turbulent of my life with lightning, thunder, and sheeting rain all around where I had to focus on not vomiting (and I have been known to sit on a boat in the middle of a tropical storm calmly eating a sandwich while others toss their cookies overboard) so I can't imagine that poor girl. Sometimes people really suck.

Anyway, long story short the travel is done until at least July and we decided that we should not travel to Texas during the spring. Lest you all think things are total crap, there was time to get adorable pictures. Maegwin spent a lot of time outside while we pulled down the old fence destroyed by the deer and erected a new and improved fence. She got acquainted with the gnome.

She pointed out his nose and eyes to Mommy and Daddy. She is quite good at that.

She spent time picking the grape hyacinths that shoot up wildly and randomly in our yard this time of year.

She selected a stick to practice her ninja fighting skills.

It was just a little big for her (this is a branch that fell off one of the trees).

That's about all the blogging I have in me for right now. I'm nursing a double ear infection and am pretty tired today. Next time: the first Easter egg hunt and what knitting I've finished during my long blogging hiatus.

New discoveries

2011-03-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

I don't have long to blog. The family is on the way home now. I wanted to share some recent developments though. We put Maegwin in a pillowcase the other day because she kept putting it in front of her face. She had a blast playing peek a boo with the opening and being carried around looking out.

She also has been doing a lot more standing independently when she's not paying attention. As soon as she figures out she isn't holding onto something she freaks out but it is only a matter of time I think. We taught her about the stairs the other day though of course she is still gated away from them. She did really well going up and down with us spotting her. I love how she is wearing her sunglasses around her neck like aviator goggles.

I've also done some baby knitting. Two more of my co-workers are having babies (well one had hers on Saturday a week early) so I knit hats for both of them. They are having boys so I had to find something appropriately boyish.

Pattern: Apple Hat from Spud & Chloe blog
Yarn: Louet Gems Bulky (I got this for free from a grab bag!) and bits of Knitpicks wool of the Andes in Avocado and Timber for the stem and leaf
Needles: size 7
I ran out of yarn to wrap the stem because I cut my end too short but I think it still looks fine

Pattern: Stripey Stocking Cap from Itty Bitty Hats
Yarn: Blue Sky Organic cotton in Circus Peanut and Azul and Knitpicks Simply Cotton (also organic) in Marshmallow
I omitted the last stripe sequence because I thought it was already pretty long and I'm glad I did. This is my first time using this method to make a pom pom and it was the best one I've ever done! I cut a piece of cardboard 1 inch wide and pretty long and wrapped it 40 times. Then I pulled it off carefully onto a piece of yarn and tied it tightly around the middle with a double knot. Trim the ends and wham! instant pom pom.

Just heard the door shut so I'm off!

Revenge of the sickies

2011-03-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Yep, for those who haven't heard we were all sick again. It started out with Maegwin (aka Patient Zero) developing a cough. That lasted for about a week and then came the fever. Nothing that would really register on a thermometer but her head just felt warm and sweaty. This was February 25th or so. I was heading to work and Josh called me to turn around because she was coughing and crying and her nose was running and she just couldn't go to daycare. I stayed home with her for two days and on Saturday I got the dreaded cough. It progressed in much the same way until Monday when I couldn't go to work. I worked from home most of that week, with a few horrid half days in the office. The next week I wasn't any better and started getting weird stomach cramps and nausea. Turns out I got a secondary infection whilst on antibiotics (we all went in and got them for our sinus infections). So then I was on anti-nausea meds which knocked me for a loop. I was really starting to improve and then on Sunday the stupid nasal drainage started up again along with some coughing for good measure. I've sort of resigned myself to being sick but at least this time around I feel functional. I made it into work today and it wasn't agony being there. Hooray! All this to say, sorry for being away so long but I'm about to placate you with pictures of Maegwin.

She has been so amazing recently. She is really focusing on trying to talk and babbles constantly. She points outside and says "side" in a very sweet way. She also FINALLY says Mommy. Squee! The first time she really said it, she was snuggling with me in the morning and laid her head on my chest. She looked up at me and said "Mommy, mommy, mommy" very softly. It was the most adorable thing ever! She also now says "Ah Dah" along with her sign for all done. So many more words are discernible that Josh and I are amazed by her everyday. She is also really developing a personality. Her daycare teacher says that art is her favorite time of day and they literally have to pry the markers from her hands when it is over. She loves bobbing her head to music. She takes care of her babies by hugging and patting their backs.

I recently got some photos of her while she was enjoying a cracker. As you can see, she is getting quite a bit of hair now and is taller. She outgrew a lot of her pants and we had to go stock up on some more from Once Upon a Child.

At first she was pretty serious...

but then she started to think this whole camera thing was pretty funny.

It's very funny to get close to the lens when Mommy is trying to focus.

It's hard to catch her in full smile mode.

We also put her in a pillowcase and played peekaboo. She had a great time with that and kept pulling the pillowcase closed again so we could open it and look in. We have a video also but I haven't uploaded it yet. Here's a preview though.

In non-baby related news I finished another pair of socks. I know, right? I'm starting to get drunk on the knitting power of two, count them, TWO pair of socks within a month. Nevermind that I've been knitting on them for way longer than that. The whole act of casting them off suddenly made me think I could knit everything in sight. I proceeded to cast on two more pair of socks (one of which is going to be frogged because it is too tight), a knitted monster for Maegwin, and knit more on the sweater I'm working on. It's nice to feel really motivated again and that I'm getting things done.

So here they are for those interested in such things.

Pattern: Supernova by Chrissy Gardiner-part of the patterns I'm getting as part of the CSK project she is doing. All the patterns will be in a book she will publish later this year. It's a really neat concept I'm excited to help with.
Yarn: Craftsmeow Soft Serve in Neopolitan-it reminds me of those Brach's coconut candies
Needles: Knitpicks size 2 as always
I love them and how well they fit! I knit these mostly in airports while traveling to and from Baltimore, while sick, and while pumping at work.

In gardening news our seedlings are doing amazing this year. We bought seeds from a new company and are impressed with how quickly they came up and the germination rate. We are planning to up-pot them sometime this week as most already have "true" leaves. Josh has also been working on dismantling the raised beds and re-assembling them with more space between. Last year we didn't make them far enough apart to get the mower between and weed whacking that much area just didn't happen. We figure we'll only lose one bed's worth of space and it will be worth it for the convenience of being able to quickly mow through. We'll write a separate blog about the gardening efforts when we can get some pictures to go along with it.

Some things never change

2011-02-27T12:13:00.000-08:00

We're sick here yet again. Maegwin was out Thursday and Friday and yesterday I started developing a sore throat. Oddly no other sinusy symptoms so I'm wondering if maybe it is strep throat since I have sore glands, muscle aches, headache, and a ridiculously sore throat. Maegwin had a cough for several days and a low grade fever that we could never get to register as much on a thermometer. I'm hoping we can get in to the doctor tomorrow to see what is going on since I don't want to use up all my vacation time being sick.

Maegwin spent some time sleeping on Daddy after a warm bath and it reminded me that some things never change.

Maegwin at one day old:

Maegwin at 14 months old:

Just a quick one

2011-02-21T18:04:00.001-08:00

For all you knitters and crocheters out there wanting to go to college, Jimmy Beans Wool has a scholarship. I had to share just in case.

More more!

2011-02-19T05:21:00.000-08:00

Warning-this post has lots of videos. I've been trying my best to capture Maegwin doing her signing and was able to get at least more. It started out being a video of her playing with Planck but of course she stopped as soon as she saw I was filming.

She really loves the Zany Zoo and I caught her playing with it in this one. It was from Grammy for Christmas and has lots of different things to do. Here she shows me her baby and goes in for a close up. Pardon the chocolate face-she stole a malted milk ball from me.

I also finished some socks! I started knitting these back in July when my friend Gwen came out to do the Knitters' Connection show. As a show of appreciation for her staying with us, she let me pick out some yarn and I selected one of her new bases, a very soft merino silk blend. I wanted to do something intricate with it to really show off the yarn but unfortunately that meant that they took me forever. (I of course was also knitting a certain blanket in there too).

Pattern: French Quarter Socks by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Mousse by Craftsmeow in the Cherry Burgundy colorway
Needles: size 2 circs
Notes: I found that the toe decreased way faster than I was expecting so if I were to knit these again I would do another full repeat of the chart before working the toe. As it is, I decreased down to 10 stitches on each needle before grafting. The toes are a bit more pointy than I usually like but I didn't want to rip the toes out on both sides. I had grafted with sixteen left on each needle for one but didn't like how it cramped my toes so I ripped and reknit. Love the yarn! It is soft and shiny and a beautiful deep color. I think these will be my new favorite socks.

With my needles freed up I am planning to cast on a pair of lace socks today and probably a knitted monster for Maegwin. She has been looking at the pictures in my new book I got-The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. She points at them and hugs the book so I think that is probably an indication that Mommy needs to get busy.

This weekend will be busy also with seed planting. We're a little late getting started but we also plan to direct sow a lot of things this year like beans, corn, peas, and carrots. Basically we just want to start our tomatos so we get plenty of time to up-pot them and get them nice and sturdy before they go out. Maybe this year we will actually get some produce from our garden besides potatos, onions, and leeks. I think with the scarecrows we will have a fighting chance against the deer.

Vacation day 3

2011-02-13T06:53:00.000-08:00

So, just a little update on what I got done of my list. I finished the sweater for my boss's baby just in time to present it next week. It's even blocked and dry. Hopefully today when we are out running errands I can drop by the Archivers store and pick up some nice wrapping paper.

Here's the details for those who care about such things:

Pattern: Louise Cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits
Yarn: Baby Bee Sweet Delight Pomp in the Iris Dream colorway
Needles: size 4 Knitpicks circular

This is the second pattern that I've knit from this book and so far I've been very pleased with how easy they are to follow. There was one wonky bit after I rejoined the sleeves that I think the smallest size had a mistake. I recounted my stitches multiple times and had the right count but then the next row called for one less stitch so I just decreased it. I'm guessing there was probably errata out there for it but I was knitting much of this on plane trips to Baltimore so I didn't have internet access at the time to check. I love all the little details on these vintage patterns though. The great stitch pattern on the neckline and the picot edging are just so sweet!

The yarn was definitely nothing to write home about. I got it in a swap so I wanted to use it and I didn't want to add more yarn to the stash even if it was for a planned project. The label said it was bulky weight but it was sport weight at best since knitting it up on a size four needle yielded a very normal looking fabric. If it were truly bulky that sweater would be able to stand up on its own knitted at that gauge. There's also a little sparkly strand plied with the yarn and it is really easy to miss that strand or separate it while knitting. I had no idea what my boss or his wife would want in terms of garment care though so I went with something that could be washed easily and would hold up well.

I found the buttons at JoAnn Fabrics and I think they are just perfect for it. Nice and simple with a good roundness-I think they look a bit antique like little pearls which fits in with the vintage aesthetic. While I made the 0-3 month size I think the A-line shape gives it lots of room so hopefully she'll be able to wear this for a good long while.

I also accomplished getting my two yarn stash shelves a bit more organized and am working through repairing my sock heels. I grafted one of them but I did it too tightly so I have to rip the graft out and redo it loosely. I'm excited that my repair worked though. I basically picked the strongest row that was above the hole, which turned out to be the row where I rejoined for knitting the gusset. I figured it would be just as easy to rip back to the heel flap and reknit the short rows and then graft together. It worked great! Many thanks to the Knitpicks ladies for their wonderful youtube videos on sock repair. While I didn't use their exact techniques, they did give me the confidence to rip back my knitting and repair. Now I will have three pairs of socks back in my drawer as soon as I get through it. Like they said you may as well put in 15-30 minutes repairing when you probably spent at least a week knitting the darn things in the first place! For anyone who is curious, here are the links to the videos.

Introduction
Patching: Part 1
Patching: Part 2
Swiss Darning: Part 1
Swiss Darning: Part 2
The Accidental Hole: Part 1
The Accidental Hole: Part 2

I spent yesterday with Mom and Maegwin doing a stamp camp which I hadn't been to in a while. Maegwin was so well behaved and took a huge nap in the middle so I got all my cards done. All I have is one gift box to assemble. Really I didn't think I would get that much accomplished so I was very happy. We went to dinner after and Maegwin charmed the pants off of everyone. She sat in her high chair and said hi to every person that passed by. Her cheerful sweetness is infectious! She's been doing lots of baby signs for us and I'm trying to capture it on video so as soon as I do I will share it with everyone. She can do more, milk, all done, mommy, daddy, please, and thank you. She gets this huge grin on her face while doing it too. I think she is happy to be able to communicate her needs to us and be understood.

More to come soon! Hopefully tomorrow I will have a new pair of completed socks to share.

Vacation

2011-02-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling pretty burnt out and overworked and decided to take a few days off to recharge. No big plans-I'm just staying at home and cleaning. I do have a stamp camp planned to go to this weekend and I think Mom is coming up to see Maegwin also. Otherwise it's all about relaxing. I even had Josh take Maegwin to daycare today so I get six hours of alone time. Here's what I want to do:

-repair three pairs of socks that have holes in them
-finish the foot of my French Quarter socks
-sew the buttons on the baby sweater for my boss's baby and wash and block it
-cast on my February SKA socks
-work on my January SKA socks
-reorganize my stash and knitting books (mainly my basket that is full of scraps)

I know, I know, this is a crazy amount of stuff to do and fat chance I'll get it all done today, but hey I've got four days!

Progress so far at 8:49 am-all seams sewed on the baby sweater and grafting on one pair of socks in need of repair. I'll check back!

Cloth diapering-all the details

2011-02-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a quick jaunt to Baltimore-up at 4 am and back home at 11 pm, so tiring! I finally have some time to sit down and write this post.

People ask us all the time about cloth diapering. How does it work? Is it hard? Is it messy? Does it smell? What do you do with the poo? All valid questions and things I will endeavor to address. We were happy to learn just last week that we inspired another family at Maegwin's daycare to switch over to cloth. They saw Maegwin's diapers and said "What are those?? We want them!" I will try to include links as well to all things we use in this post so if anyone is interested they can purchase or explore.

First let's do a bit of calculation. Looking at the average cost of a disposable diaper between name brands and generics we've come up with a cost of about $0.25 per diaper and about $0.05 per disposable wipe. So for our purposes we will assume at each diaper change a cost is incurred of $0.30. Knowing this we can now compare the cash outlay for cloth diapers vs. disposables.

Cost of disposables:
Newborns need to be changed about 12 times per day

2 months x 12 diapers/day x $0.30 = $216

Infants need to be changed about 8 times per day

10 months x 8 diapers/day x $0.30 = $720

Toddlers need to be changed about 6 times per day

12 months x 6 diapers/day x $0.30 = $657

Children who are potty training need to be changed about 4 times per day (Pull-ups cost more but for our purposes we'll assume we're just using the same diapers)

18 months x 4 diapers/day x $0.30 = $656

Total cost for diapering a baby through potty training = $2,249

Cost of cloth:
2 dozen flannel wipes = $22

Diaper sprayer = $45

Cleaning solution (we use a solution of 1/2 witch hazel & water)-about one bottle x 3 months
$1.00 x 44 months = $44

Diapers-48 one size Bum Genius diapers (we find this is plenty to go all week without washing diapers)
$204 per 12 pack x 4 = $816

Laundry detergent-150 oz bottle Seventh Generation Free and Clear = $20

Total cost for cloth diapering a baby through potty training = $947

That's a savings of around $1300 and if you have more than one child, the same cloth diapers can be used for the second one!

There are many choices in cloth diapering today. What typically comes to mind when I say cloth diaper is the old reliable prefold diapers. These are the squares of cloth that were probably used by most of our grandparents and maybe even parents depending on one's age. My mom used them for both me and my sister. The type of diaper we use is commonly referred to as a pocket diaper. It has a waterproof shell that can be stuffed with various sizes and absorbencies of liner.

We use the Bum Genius brand one size diapers. They have a set of three snaps that allow sizing to accommodate from around 8 lbs to 35 lbs. We have basically used ours since Maegwin came home from the hospital since she was over 9 lbs when she was born.

We used the small size for quite a while and are still on the second set of snaps now with Maegwin at 20 lbs 10 oz.

She still has quite a bit of room in them so I don't think we'll have to go to no snaps for a while yet.

Each diaper comes with two inserts-the infant one for the smallest sizing and then a larger one that snaps down to fit either the second or third sizing positions. Right now we double up and use the infant insert and the longer insert as well for maximum absorbency.

The real elastic around the legs and at the top around the back also help the diapers fit better than disposables and seem to keep in poo better as well. Maegwin has never had a "blowout". At most she had mild leaking when we didn't realize she needed to be changed. The diapers go on with velcro for the version we have but they are also available with snap closures. I personally prefer the velcro closure because I think it allows for better custom fitting to the baby.

For wipes we use flannel and have a few bamboo as well.

I prefer the flannel because both sides are soft and can clean whereas the bamboo have an offside that isn't very soft.

They are also handy for cleaning off glasses, shining shoes, wiping faces and hands, dusting, cleaning off dvds, etc. We started out using the Bum Genius bottom cleaner, but then I read that we could just use witch hazel and water. That works amazingly well and is much cheaper. I did reuse the bottles though and mix them about half full of water and the other half witch hazel. We refill the bottle about once a month and have more than enough for spraying on at every diaper change.

So what to do with those dirty diapers? Well, if we're at home once Maegwin has been changed we take off the diaper and put the velcro on the laundry tabs inside.

This protects the velcro when the diapers are being washed and saves time when going to launder them. I don't have to spend a lot of time moving the velcro to the tabs and potentially missing some.
We have a diaper pail for dirty diapers with two washable Bummis bag liners. We got the diaper pail as a kit from Cottonbabies.com and it came with a carbon filter and two deodorizing discs. They seem to currently be out of stock so I can't provide a link.

It easily fits a week's worth of diapers and we have it right in our bedroom and never smell a thing.

Ok, now to that burning question of what about the poo. Did you know that it is actually against the law to put untreated human feces in the landfill? Technically you are supposed to shake the poo off disposable diapers into the toilet. No one does this of course-they wad them up in a little ball and toss them in the trash. So if the diaper is poopy, we rinse it off first. Oddly our diaper sprayer came in an order by accident but we liked it so much we called the people at Cotton Babies to have them charge us for it. It fits on the toilet with no special tools and has really good spraying capacity. Bonus-it helps when you're cleaning the toilet out too!

If we're on the go when we change Maegwin, we have two Bummis wet bags that we alternate. They come in great colors and hold up to six diapers easily. We've also used them for wet swimsuits when we went to the pool and they worked great for that too.

They have a wrist strap with a snap so they can easily be put onto a stroller or hook. Our daycare hangs them on the door of the bathroom there.

Next step-Laundry! On Saturday we take out the bag from the diaper pail and head downstairs. I pull out all the inserts and unsnap them to make sure they get completely clean. I throw the diaper pail bag and wet bag right in with the diapers. We use Seventh Generation Free & Clear which is the same laundry soap we use for everything. The important thing is just that it is dye free and doesn't cause buildup on the diapers.

Rather than the normal amount of soap for a load

The diapers call for 1/8th of that amount per load.

Do not use fabric softener as this will decrease absorbency. We actually use white vinegar on all of our clothes because it doesn't damage the fabric. They will be just as soft and don't smell at all.
They need to be washed initially in cold water and then washed a second time with hot water and a double rinse. Once that is done, we separate the shells and liners. The liners can go in the dryer and the shells should be air dried. We have a stacking rack we got from Bed Bath and Beyond that I also use for my hand knits and other delicates.

That's pretty much it! It's super easy and we are very happy with our decision to cloth diaper. Our doctor says Maegwin has some of the least diaper rash she has ever seen and was so impressed with the diapers that she took down the information to tell her sister about them. We have some reusable liners for the times when Maegwin does have diaper rash because diaper cream will stain cloth diapers and make them repel water.

Final note: cloth diapers are adorable. People will randomly ask what they are and comment on their cuteness.

Our only complaint is that clothing is now made for fitting the trimmer silhouette of disposables so we often have to size up pants/onesies/etc to accommodate the diaper. Small price to pay though.

White n' Fluffy

2011-01-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! Maegwin here to bring you a late breaking story. Fluffy white objects have been falling to the ground for several days recently and this investigatory journalist went out to see what it was all about.

Maegwin: We've just arrived on the scene and set up and let me tell you, it is bright out here!

Mommy: That sounds like quite a story, Maegwin. What can you tell us about what is going on out there?
Maegwin: Well, I can tell that this substance seems to mound up well.

Maegwin: I've dug down through several inches now and the grass seems to still be fine underneath.

Mommy: I see, so you would say this is more of a coating of some sort?
Maegwin: Definitely. I seem to be able to brush it off my mittens and onto my coat and blanket here.

Mommy: Fascinating. So this substance is cold, fluffy, and seems to layer over the grass.
Maegwin: Yes, that's right Mommy. Let me show you a little bit of the action out here.

Mommy: So what you are saying then is that this is in fact snow?
Maegwin: I believe that is what we've narrowed it down to. Either that or a whole lot of powdered sugar and frankly it doesn't taste like that.

Mommy: Well thanks for bringing us this report Maegwin! We're all very glad that winter now indeed looks like winter.
Maegwin: Absolutely Mommy! Dead brown grass and trees don't make anyone happy. This is Maegwin signing off.

The year of the ones

2011-01-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

As 2010 drew to a close and 2011 made its beginning, we spent a quiet day at home in contemplation.

Winter decided to give us a few days of warm weather too. Seriously-50 degrees in January? All the snow melted and left us with a whole lot of blah to look at. Maegwin and I have been battling our first daycare related colds and not up for much other than watching a lot of mindless TV. Don't believe me? We're up to Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Today is the first day that Maegwin has been able to breathe well enough to really feel normally playful. On the bright side I've done a lot of knitting finishing this week. I'm hoping it is a good sign for the year to come.
First on the finished list: the blanket of doom (aka Josie and Matt's wedding gift). I wove in the ends today and got a chance to drape it about and take photos. I'm very proud of how it turned out and hope that Josie and Matt will treasure it for years to come.

Pattern: Saffron Cables by Kathy Zimmerman
Yarn: Knitpicks organic cotton in Malted Milk
Needles: size 9 Knitpicks
Mods: I did four repeats instead of the called for three because Matt is tall and I just wanted to prolong the magic-NOT! I ended up using about 20 balls of yarn which equates to 2378 yards. Yes guys, we love you that much. I started this in February 2010 and I find it fitting that the last end was worked in at the end of 2010. Here it is, all stretched out.

Second up: Vine and Leaf beret for my sister.

Pattern: Vine and Leaf Beret by Angela Hahn
Yarn: Knitpicks Risata in Spicy
Needles: size 2 Addi Turbos
Mods: I added a full repeat of the chart before decreasing. My row gauge was off and I honestly didn't feel like changing yarns once I realized it. This was a late Christmas present idea. I made her a hat last year but it ended up being too small. She has a large head, which she freely admits. I made the largest size this time and added extra room. It is currently blocking on a dinner plate and I hope this one turns out better than the last.

I have a few petals left to sew on the top of an upside down daisy hat for my friend Michelle's baby who is due January 14th. I should have that one done by the end of the weekend. I cast on for a sweater for me and I think 2011 will be the year of selfish family knitting. I want to knit at least a few sweaters, pairs of socks, and hats for me and Maegwin. Josh might get something too but he hasn't asked for anything. Maybe by next Christmas I will be feeling generous enough to knit some more gifts for people. It's not that I don't love you all, it's just that I need some me knitting.

2010 was definitely a rough year for us but it has ended on a more positive note with all of us fully employed. We've successfully raised a human for a year with no major mishaps and she continues to amaze us each day.

Her newest thing is hugging and kissing the dogs. They aren't sure what to make of it since her kisses are open mouthed baby kisses and it probably looks like she is trying to bite them from their perspective. They tend to scatter when she comes near. She hugs and cuddles her babies and us. So sweet!
She is still adjusting to daycare and going through some separation anxiety. We're down to crying just as I hand her over to the daycare people rather than as soon as we get in the building so hey it's progress, right? It did make Christmas a bit rough because she wouldn't go to anyone so pictures are just of her alone.

Since we were able to get her to bed tonight at a reasonable hour, I'm going to take advantage of some primo knitting time. May you all have a safe, happy, and prosperous 2011!

One year old

2010-12-20T15:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Maegwin's birthday and she is now officially big stuff at one year old. We had a small celebration with some family but it's really been a week of celebrating. All the great aunts and uncles and great grandparents have been sending gifts so we've had no end of things to open.
Maegwin looked at all the tags.

She thoughtfully gave one to me to open.

She's still working on figuring out how to rip the paper off. Maybe she will become an unwrapper like her Mommy.

She was so amazed that things were actually inside the boxes.

We love seeing her get so excited about her new toys.

Gone are the days when she won't smile for the camera. It's so cute how her whole face lights up.

I wonder if as she gets older she'll feel bad cramming everything into one part of the year. Maybe we can have an un-birthday pool party in July when she is older.

Finally the time was upon us to celebrate in style. Maegwin took a monster nap in the morning to prepare for her big day. She helped decorate cupcakes, insisting that there can never be too many sprinkles.

Then she waited patiently as the cupcake came towards her, beckoning with her wee hands.

She thoroughly enjoyed having her own fire to look at.

She blew out the candle (with a little help from Daddy).

Then the carrot cake eating commenced.

We checked out the icing and agreed it was a good consistency.

Forget hands, faces are much easier.

Cupcakes-for the discerning baby gourmand.

We opened some presents.

Then we went to a really great restaurant called Northstar Cafe. They do all locally sourced and organic ingredients. I have to say it was one of the best vegetarian meals I have had since moving here. All in all it was a great first birthday.

Today we had our 12 month well baby check up and got five shots. Maegwin was so brave! She now weighs 19 lbs 8 ounces and is 31.5 inches long. She is still off the charts on height and very skinny. Next time, one from Maegwin!

Delicious Discoveries

2010-11-20T05:25:00.000-08:00

Oh, hi! Maegwin here again. Now that I'm a big girl-I was 18 lbs 10.5 oz and 30" long at my last checkup-I've started having lots of solid foods. Anytime Mommy & Daddy are eating, I want to try it. So many tastes to explore! And boy, they sure have a lot of good things.
I had yogurt after my bath-I like the YoToddler apple with cereal but I also like blueberry or vanilla.

It tastes better if you spike your hair with it.
I also like Mommy's bread, curry, steamed vegetables, Daddy's lasagna, Mommy's 17 bean soup, crushers, and just about anything else I can get my little hands on.
The other day I discovered something very amazing. Mommy was eating a small round object she called a "Joe-Joe" and she gave me a bite. It was so good I wouldn't let go. She tried to take it from me but I held on really hard and gave her lip and cried like the world was ending. Nothing would ever taste that good again! She finally said nothing was worth such a fuss and let me have it. Oh, but it WAS worth the fuss.
It all started innocently enough by nibbling on one side.

Then the outer coating started to melt and it felt squishy so I mashed it in my fingers a bit to explore its texture.

It was really fun! But why should my toes miss out on all that delightful squishiness?

I thought, "Hey, this is kind of like fingerpaint!" So I rubbed it up around my eye to look more dashing-like a pirate.

I enjoyed that Joe-Joe until there was nothing left and then Mommy peeled off my pajamas and we had a bath since we were both covered in chocolate.

Now Mommy & Daddy say that Joe-Joes are secret things they can only eat when I'm asleep. Daddy tried to eat them the other day and he put the package back in backwards with the sealed end facing out. That didn't stop me! I just pulled that plastic right out, got my Joe-Joe, and crawled off to eat it. Silly Daddy, I'm a human not a dog!
I also discovered that Mommy uses yarn to make that stuff she is doing. She was knitting on that blanket for Aunt Josie and Uncle Matt (she says she is almost done) and I thought I would help. I could see she had a ball of yarn on the floor that was all balled up. I took it over by the couch where I had spread out my various tools.

I even spread out a wipe so it wouldn't get dirty.

Then I got to work until Mommy caught me but she laughed so it was ok.

That's all for now! This is Maegwin signing off.

My first attempt

2010-11-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

at rosemary focaccia:

Not bad, eh?

I'm back-sort of

2010-11-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

After a long blogging hiatus I'm back. We had one of our computers die and it took a while to figure out what was wrong. We tried keyboards (nope), dvd rom drives (nope-although my computer really needed one because I was using the one from my first HP computer I got back in 2001), and finally a hard drive. It turns out that Josh's data drive was actually the problem so it's coming out and I have my own computer back.

I also have been so busy with work that when I get home I want to spend what time I have with Maegwin instead of blogging while ignoring her. I'm on a special project that I really hope will help propel me to a management position or at the very least fill out my resume for when I apply for one. All is going well so far and I'm getting a laptop and will be traveling to Baltimore next week. It's just for the day but in February it will be for several days during close to help transition people to SAP. I'm good at training others and helping with acceptance & transition to new systems so I'm sure it will go well in the end. Things are pretty tight around here money-wise too so a promotion definitely couldn't hurt. :p

Back in September (wow has it been that long?) we ventured forth to California for my sister-in-law, Josie's, wedding. It was an action packed couple of days and it was so nice to see everyone. We got up at 4 am and my co-worker Todd came and gave us a ride to the airport. What a trooper! We were totally out of it waiting for our flight and we breezed through security so we had like two hours to sit around and wish we had just slept longer.

Maegwin was really great on both plane flights despite being rather sick on the way back. People even commented on what a good baby she was. When we first landed on Thursday we headed to Mom & Kevin's house to drop off the luggage and then we were off to visit with Nana and Grandpa. I of course forgot my camera but thank goodness one of Grandpa's friends came over and had one that he let us borrow. He and his kids also brought a really cute outfit for Maegwin and a coat that she will be able to use all winter. Thanks, Mohan!
She met Aunt Josie who she thought was so funny she literally laughed for a good ten minutes at her. We think it's because she looks like Daddy.

Then Maegwin met Aunt Amy-who I made a joke about being short. Sorry, Amy! Josh says you are a good sport. hehe

She loved hanging out with Nana (Bisnonna?).

But that Great Grandpa was shifty-he's a character.

We spent several hours there and were so tired when we left that we were literally keeping each other awake driving home. The highway was still full of cars. Ah, California how we miss you!
The next day was all about the rehearsal and the dinner afterwards. I actually didn't take a ton of pictures this day because I was furiously knitting on the blanket for Matt & Josie. I didn't get it done but it was nice to just sit back and visit with people. I did catch Maegwin learning lots of stuff from her cousins Claire & Emma. She looks quite studious, or perhaps she just wanted Emma's cookie.

She also spent some time playing on the little piano that we brought home with us along with a ton of fabric books. Thanks to everyone who let us borrow them. Maegwin loves them all!

We crashed out pretty early everyday but it made it much easier to shower in a houseful of people since we were up at 4:30-5 am before anyone else was making a peep. I also don't have a lot of wedding day pictures but Maegwin loved all the activity and watching everyone getting ready.

We hung out together while pictures were taken. The sun was too bright for us-we've become quite vampiric here in Ohio.

By the time we got to the church Maegwin was sacked out for all the professional photos but I think she looked cute slung across her daddy's shoulder.

I did a reading which I feel like went well and then it was on to the reception. No pictures again-though we have some great photo booth ones that can be found here and here. That's really the only family shots we have so I want to order some at some point.
The last day of the trip was the only one where we had free time for a few hours so we headed out to the city and met up with some friends. Jeremy, Cara, and Mike were all able to come out to brunch. We went to Andalu where there are bottomless mimosas and really fabulous omelettes. I had the gourmand. Yum! I miss good vegetarian food that isn't just "here have a dinner roll and some mashed potatos and corn or this nice iceberg salad".

Cara's boyfriend is nice and looks like one of the guys from Mythbusters! It was so nice to see everyone and we even dropped in on Jared. We sort of cornered him in his condo so he couldn't get away.

Maegwin spent a long time playing with a cat toy there. Then we headed home to pack up and visit a bit more. The next morning we headed out and really didn't leave ourselves enough time. We barely got through airport security and to our gate before they were boarding. Thank goodness for family security lines or we would have missed our flight.

Whew! Ok, that's enough typing for now. I am down to the other border on the blanket so I hope to have it shipped out before Thanksgiving. Really that's better than I did with Amy's wedding blanket and it will have taken a bit less than a year to complete. Laura, no getting married and asking me for a blanket for at least another 10-15 years. Long enough for me to forget and think it is a good idea again. Next blog I promise to share what I've been up to on the knitting front and some photos of Maegwin's first discovery of chocolate covered Joe-Joes. Oh and in other good news this week I can finally wear all of my pre-pregnancy dress pants so I'm very happy to have my work wardrobe back and be the same size I've been more or less my whole adult life.

Maegwin does it by herself

2010-10-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Oh hi! Maegwin here! Mommy has been so busy working and working that she is letting me show you all the amazing things I can do.

Daddy and I like to share nectarines and one day I took it and ate it all by myself. See, what you have to do is grab it and it's best to scare it into submission.

Next you can bite into it and enjoy its juicy goodness.

They are pretty neat if you look inside of them.

Settle in for the long haul, they take a while to eat if you are a baby.

I also learned how to drive the car. I could use the turn signal and everything!

Make sure to put your hands at the 10 and 2 position and have Daddy nearby to push the pedals for you.

Oh yeah, I can also use a spoon to feed myself. It's pretty easy though sometimes I like to turn it upside down more than the other way. Grammy made me the sweater I'm wearing and I love it. It keeps me so warm!

I've been pulling myself up to standing and now I can take steps if I hold onto someone. It's really exciting!

That's all for now! I think Mommy will write about our trip later.

Iowa or bust

2010-08-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks! Two weeks ago we ventured forth on the open road to the family reunion in Iowa. The trip took about nine hours and Maegwin was great for about the first seven. The last two were a bit of a struggle with many stops and one of us riding in the backseat. Once there though we met up with everyone in the hotel banquet hall and the flashes went off like mad. It was like the paparazzi! Maegwin was definitely the star (of course she was the only baby there so she had no competition). Throughout the weekend she spent time with all of her family and I don't think I had to hold her unless she was nursing or occasionally while sleeping.
She spent some time with her great aunts Jean and Wendy:

She snuggled with her great grandma:

She gave great uncle John some bowling pointers:

She also bowled with Daddy while in the Ergo but someone else has that photo...
She snuggled sleepily with Grandma (sensing a theme here?):

She hung out poolside with the family and took her first dip in the pool:

And she put on a pretty party dress and showed Grandpa how to dance on tables & chairs:

All interspersed with frequent napping at the hotel room:

We had a great time and I'm so glad we were able to make it out. It's nice that she'll have lots of familiar faces to see in a month at the wedding.

We also had another development over the last week. Josh came back from the other room to find that Maegwin had developed a new skill:

Oh and not only can she pull up to standing from sitting, she can do it one-handed!

Gnomecoming-part II Gnomeageddon

2010-07-18T06:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, not really but I'm going to try this post again on my own computer where I know what the hotkeys will do and can see Flickr without waiting minutes for pictures to load in. Seriously, I am glad I don't really remember how slow dial up was. :p

So yesterday Maegwin and I went to the Farmers' Market after our Mommy & Baby yoga class. We had a great time and found a lot of good stuff. Our intention was to buy a tomato, granola, apples, plums, and anything else that struck our fancy. I sauntered over to the apple vendor who had no less than ten varieties of apples with him this week, most of which I had never heard of or tried. There was a woman there sampling an apple. She proceeded to tell me right in front of the farmer how it was SO tart that it wasn't good for ANYTHING but sauce or pies. She didn't say this just once but multiple times. Now, as a rule I don't believe anyone who is a. without an internal speech filter and has no clue that they are insulting a person's wares literally in front of their face and b. assuming they know what I like. The farmer was obviously noticing because he started warning people it was the first harvest and they would change over time. I asked him for a sample of the same apple the woman was having and oh boy, IT WAS AMAZING!!! Like the perfect cross between a Granny Smith and a Fuji. It had the right crispness, tartness, and flavor. I felt like turning to the woman, who was by this time continuing her antics with someone else, and saying "Whoa there Nellie! Not all of us like our fruit tasteless and insipid. Why don't you go find yourself a Red Delicious and leave the nice man alone?" Of course I didn't (see point A. above) but I contented myself with singing the praises of the farmers' apples, especially the Wealthy variety. It is apparently an heirloom variety you don't really see anymore. He definitely noticed because he loaded my bag up with apples well above where the others were and I had at least two maybe even three pounds in there. We also got a great loaf of wheat bread from Lucky Cat bakery in Pataskala, OH which is very close by. We tried a loaf of her focaccia last week and it made the most fabulous egg salad sandwiches. Finally I got some cheese. Oh the cheese! I selected a chive & garlic chevre roll, which we enjoyed on egg, avocado, and tomato croissants for breakfast, and some ranch cheddar curds. They were both so delicious and came from Blue Jacket Dairy in Bellefontaine, OH-near where my mom & dad live.

So here I was with a couple pounds of apples and some peaches from last week's market that we didn't get to. The peaches were still good but at the point of ripeness where you have to share some special bonding time with your kitchen sink as you crouch over it to catch all the peachy juices. While I love a good peach, they were just unmanageable to eat. I had read on the Smitten Kitchen blog about a peach blueberry cobbler and had an idea. I would make a peach apple crisp. She suggested cutting a small cross in the bottom of each peach and dipping them in boiling water for 30 seconds to remove the skins. I tried this and oh my goodness! If any of you knew about this little piece of wisdom, don't tell me because honestly you've been holding out on me. This sort of thing should be shouted from the proverbial rooftoops. Not only did it make peeling them a snap but it also made it ridiculously easy to remove the pits. We are definitely keeping it in mind next time we make a peach or nectarine mead.

I made a triple crumble topping recipe because honestly there can never be too much crisp.

As you can see, my favorite cookbook is a little *ahem* well-loved. It basically comes apart in sections now. Really it is an advantage since I can just grab the part I want and I know which sections I use the most because they have batter on the pages I like. I also could throw out the meat sections if I had thought of that before just now.

The crisp turned out so good that we both ate two helpings and had to stop ourselves from eating more.

At last week's farmers' market I also stopped into the garden store that is one of the hosting locations (they let the farmers use their patio). I had seen a lawn gnome in there last year that I fell absolutely in love with. Let me preface this by confessing my abiding adoration for lawn gnomes. It is the only word that I know how to say in four languages. I have loved lawn gnomes since I was a child and always imagined that when I had a house it would have a gnome. The one I found was the ideal gnome with the perfect mix of mischievousness and sweetness in his expression. When we went back to purchase him though he was gone. I special ordered him three times but to no avail. Well this year when I went in there he was. I went back to talk to the owner and bought him. She found my special orders, tucked away in the catalog by her temporary help from last summer, and apologized profusely for not getting it for me. Good thing I was persistent. Let me just say he is heavy! He's made of solid concrete and we had to go back and pick him up so Josh could carry him.

My mom also bought me a smaller gnome that has a little lantern to absorb sunlight all day and glow at night. I keep forgetting to look and see if it works. He is nestled up amongst our shasta daisies, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans, and bee balm by the house. I love looking out and seeing him there while I do dishes.

The garden is finally really taking off after the magical combination of rain and hot weather we've had. I literally planted the corn like three weeks ago and it's already over a foot tall.

This patch has corn, black beans, and butternut squash in it. We had, or thought we had, bad luck with the butternut squash seeds this year. We had given up on all the ones that didn't germinate and threw them out on the porch to be torn up and added to the compost. Well, we got busy and honestly forgot about them. When we looked out there the other day lo and behold they had all sprouted! I guess they just needed rain and sun and a lot of time.

The green beans are all the way up their teepees and the limas are climbing. The peas are on the smaller lattices and have flowers on them so we will soon be enjoying sugar snap pea pods.

Our potatoes have completely filled up their plot and we will have gallons and gallons of them this year I think.

The tomatoes have also finally got a foothold and I think after getting rid of the baby groundhog that was trapped inside the fencing and installing pinwheels to deter others, they might finally make it to give us tomatoes this year. They aren't as big as other people's but we grew ours from seeds so I think this is about where they honestly should be this time of year without the benefit of a greenhouse.

We've been harvesting lots of arugula (seen here in the middle of the front plot) and our cantaloupes are filling in. Our cucumbers are also just starting to get on their lattices.

The asparagus ferns are growing, but we won't get anything from them until next year. This year is all about strengthening their root system.

Whew, that's what is going on around here for now. I think I got most of my initial post re-created. See why I was mad that I lost it?

Gnomecoming

2010-07-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

Well I had a post all written but it got deleted. I'm pretty pissed off right now so more later I guess.

Sigh, stupid blogger has an autosave so I had a great post about how we went to the farmers' market and how I made a crisp and all about how awesome the stuff I got was. Sadly hours of work just went down the drain with a little tap of the backspace button on this stupid laptop I am using because Josh's computer decided to die. See, this is why I don't post all the time. When I make a post it takes me literally hours to get all the formatting right, think of what to say, lay it out, etc. It is the reason that I try to comment on all the blogs I read. I want people to understand I know the hard work they put in and that I appreciate it. Anyway, this is going to be picture heavy and not nearly as witty as the one I just wrote. Maybe I'll recreate it later when I'm in a better mood.

Maegwin has been sitting up though not on her own. We put her in my chair with the Boppy and her expressions were priceless.

I think this one looks like she is doing ballet arms.

Yeah...sorry I'm just not in the mood to write now. I'm going to go knit.

This one's from Maegwin

2010-07-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

Oh, hello! I'm Maegwin and I wanted to take a few moments to speak to you about the importance of good oral hygiene. Even though I don't have teeth yet, I know it is never too soon to start practicing.

It's essential to use a soft bristled brush. Most dentists don't even know why they make any other kind. (I've seen Daddy wash dishes with a toothbrush so maybe that's what they're for.)

I use Preserve brand toothbrushes. They're made from recycled number 5 plastic-that's yogurt cups! They're good for your teeth AND the environment.

Equally important is toothpaste selection. Hold the tube thusly and twist off the cap using your newly developed pincer grasp.

If you haven't mastered this skill, just bite it off.

After a thorough brushing you can congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Knitting along

2010-07-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

Fair warning for those who only come here for baby posts. I really don't have any new pictures of Maegwin or much of any news. She continues to be adorable and the joy of our lives. No progress really on talking or crawling; she still scoots around in circles. I'll even frontload the blog post with her so that those who have no interest in my knitting can flitter away knowing that I haven't put anything else of interest to you in this post.

Oh and lest ye all think that I don't love the dogs anymore, I caught this moment on film. Their other beds were in the wash so they improvised.

Ok-are they gone? All of you still here, you know what I'm talking about. The good stuff-the knitting. Not that baby stuff isn't good stuff. Of course it is. I've got a wee case of cast-on-itis and thought maybe sharing what I've got going might help.

First up, Hippo from the fabulous book Itty Bitty Toys. This is my first toy attempt and I'm really enjoying it. I've got the head and body sewn together and am working on the arms. The pattern calls for holding two strands together while knitting. This has a two fold benefit of both using up sock yarn (of which I have a lot) and also of giving a mighty interesting mottled look. The yarn is Knitpicks Imagination in the colorway Gingerbread House.

I found some bamboo stuffing that I'm very happy about but I think I should have stuffed the body a bit more. Maybe once the arms and legs are on though it will be fine. It did make for easier sewing on of the head.

Second on the needles is my first crochet project, Santorini. Yes, I am that crazy. Not only did I just learn crochet but I thought "hey, I can totally knit a sweater so I'm sure I can crochet one". I've managed all of one row so far but I knit the gauge swatch about ten times so I feel pretty confident that I both have gauge and know the stitches. It's in a lovely white cotton/tencel blend that has a nice drape and has apparently withstood getting ripped out ten times. Rowan's crochet book has totally changed my focus and I now am looking for ways to combine knit and crochet.

Third on the needles is French Quarter Socks in Burgundy Cherry Mousse from Craftsmeow. She still has some of this yarn at her Etsy shop so go check it out. It is shiny and soft and a dream to work with. I'm making the 72 stitch version and though the pattern calls for size 0 needles I got gauge with a size 2. I'm thinking that perhaps Anne Hanson of knitspot must be a looser knitter than I am. This pair of socks is for the July Sock Knitters Anonymous challenge. I'm still a part of this group on Ravelry though I've yet to complete a pair of socks this year. It seems that Maegwin keeps getting in the way. ;)

Fourth on the needles is Josie's wedding afghan. I'm on the second repeat and everyone compliments it when they see it. I'm doing three to four rows a night and should still be on target to complete it the weekend before we head out. If I can get ahead of the game I will try to do so but there are so many distractions, both knitting, work, gardening, and housework related.

I'm still part of Stashdown in my Yarn Snobs group on Ravelry. I ended Q1 and Q2 in the green and am heading into Q3 with a lot of projects planned to complete. Yardage out only gets to be counted when a project is cast off so there will be lots of that if I can get all aforementioned items completed.

Knitters Connection

2010-06-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

Things have been quiet here on the blog because things have been not quiet in our lives. We've been so busy! Between the garden going into full swing, weeds constantly needing to be beaten back, sickness, and a visit from my friend Gwen there hasn't been time to sit down and chronicle it all. This is week two of wellness and I am so glad to be off antibiotics. I had to have three courses of them for separate issues (a sinus infection, an ear infection, then another sinus infection) and Josh had to have two. Maegwin had a fever of 102 at one point but fought it off like the tough cookie she is. I missed my sister, Missy's, graduation because I had to stay home with the sickie but that's ok.

We've been working on solids though they are more for play than true nutritional value. Maegwin has mastered eating about a tablespoon of food and has tried rice cereal, avocado, banana, butternut squash, and yesterday sucked on a brussels sprout. We're also working on drinking from a cup and have been using one of my smaller milk storage containers to fill with water. She has a lot of fun with it.

She had her six month checkup yesterday and her stats were:
length: 26 inches
weight: 15 lbs 15 oz
head circumference: 44 cm
The doctor said her head circumference shot up from last time so we have to monitor it and measure next month and call her so she can chart it. Right now she said it isn't a cause for alarm since it is in same percentile as the rest of her body. It would be more of a concern if we had another spurt. Of course I'm imagining the worst now but she said she is very active and alert and is right on target with milestones so it should be fine.

For the last two weeks my friend Gwen was visiting from the Bay Area. She came out to sell her yarn at Knitters' Connection-a local yarn show. I was quite disappointed that this year the show was only half the size of last year and many of the vendors I loved last year didn't come back. I was hoping to see Jennie the Potter there again and buy one of her pendants or mugs or yarn bowls as gifts. Oh well, I'm not sure I would go to the show next year. Gwen signed up to get on the waiting list for the Wool Gathering in September and I volunteered to work her booth with Mom if she gets in. Hopefully that will help her make a profit this year and it's a fun show. Maegwin got to help out on Saturday at the show after our baby yoga class. She kept knocking the cards off the table so we gave her a sample sock to play with.

She must have taken the Ice Cream Sundae name of the yarn literally.

Then she posed with it-all her idea. I didn't help at all.

She decided that was pretty funny, probably because we were all laughing so hard.

I'm pretty sure we were bringing more people to the booth but I don't know if we distracted from the yarn.

My mom got in on the baby action. I think she was probably Gwen's best customer at the show.

Daddy came to pick her up after working for a while on Saturday and they gnawed on his badge together.

After we were done breaking down the show we all went to Buca di Beppo for dinner. I can't recommend the place enough if you are in the Columbus area. They serve family style and the food is delicious. We all shared one dessert and it was enough for Mom, Aunt Lynn, Gwen, Josh, and I to all have some. Maegwin had a great time playing with spoons though she did hit herself in the eye once.

Gwen gave me some yarn for helping out at the show. I got some of her Mousse yarn that I think I will start with to knit the French Quarter socks next month. I have to finish up this Hippo toy I'm making for Maegwin and I'm still going at it on Josie's blanket.

I also learned how to crochet while Gwen was here and started a summer top with some cotton/tencel yarn in white. It's the one on the third row down all the way to the right.

Garden fence complete

2010-05-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

The garden fence is complete and today we had the dogs in there. They loved it! Yesterday while Josh worked, Maegwin and I hung out on a blanket. We alternated between sunglasses on and off (though I got no photos of her with them on). The sun hat doesn't really fit so I had to roll it back to keep it off her face.
First we rolled off the blanket.

Then spied the bright green, tasty looking grass.

Mmm, don't mind if I do!

Into the mouth it goes...

Ooh I'll try that blade next!

Conclusion-delicious.

Obviously staying on the blanket alone was not an option so we layed together and looked up at the leaves.

They were pretty cool.

Then we snoozed for a bit in the shade.

All in all, it was a great time outside. She took a really long nap today so we got the chicken wire laid out to have on the ground and fold up along the fence. We also twist tied it all to stakes on one side. It got ridiculously hot though and we came in. I have no pictures-I was working too hard. We'll take some when the brutal sun goes away. We bought a bunch of plants to put out. The plan is to line the fence with marigolds and geraniums to repel pests. We also have some foxglove to discourage deer. There is sedum that we will put out probably along the far side of the house to start spreading over the area where the geothermal pit was dug. We also bought shasta daisies to fill in the area under the tree next to the paver patio. Between those, the black-eyed susans, and the cone flowers the area will look great by the end of the summer.

vegetables & such

2010-05-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

We were all laid low by sickness. I had a sinus infection which after my first course of antibiotics turned into an ear infection bad enough that I almost ruptured my ear drum. I'm just able to hear out of my left ear now. Josh had an upper respiratory infection and Maegwin had a perpetual runny nose. Good thing we all see the same doctor. Now that we are feeling better I wanted to catch you all up on the happenings of the house.

This week our seedlings have started exploding from their little containers. It is so funny how we went from just a few random brussels sprouts to literally tons of plants. Our tomatoes, green beans, soy beans, peas, beets, and cabbages are up. We are still waiting on the lima beans, summer squash, butternut squash, and black beans to peep up their lazy heads. I think I wasn't watering quite enough at first to really soak the seed coats on the harder beans so they are behind. We are a bit delayed from stuff we would buy at the nursery but honestly we had a late spring this year so we will probably also have a late fall. Or so I hope...

Josh finished building all the raised beds and they look really good.

We've already planted our leeks and onions. It is amazing how quickly they shot up. We got a medley this year so we can decide which ones we like the best to plant in the future. There were so many onions in the set that we could not plant them all. The closer plants in this photo are the leeks and the further ones are the onions.

And for some close ups....leeks:

and onions...

We also FINALLY had a weekend without rain so we used our newly acquired tiller (it's an attachment for our weedwhacker, isn't that cool?!) to till all the beds and plant our butter lettuce and seeds for arugula, romaine lettuce, more butter lettuce, and spinach. Crossing our fingers that all the subsequent rain will make them come up soon.

The strawberries and asparagus are in the perennials bed. As you can see, there has been some nibbling already. Need to get that critter fence up!

Yeah, yeah you say...all well and good but what about that adorable baby? We're sick of all these garden pictures! Patience is a virtue my friends. The heavy snow and lack of below zero temps for much of the winter made our herb garden (and the weeds) go nuts! Our chives, oregano, thyme, and mint all survived and are spreading like wild.

Maegwin and I have done two weeks of Mommy & Baby yoga and she LOVES it! The whole time she is rolling over, laughing, chattering to the other babies. It is so nice and I plan to keep going with it for as long as we can. The first week three of the other women invited me to breakfast and we hung out for a few hours at a restaurant called Northstar in Clintonville. It was really good and I'd never have known it was there if I didn't go with them. So funny because it is just down the road from the farmers' market we go to regularly. It has been open for three weeks now but we haven't made it out there yet. I was going to go this week but the weather is crap and I didn't want to trudge around in the rain.
Maegwin graduated to the exersaucer and she has so much fun in there. Her favorites are what I call the "baby slots" and this sort of gummy circle with a star on it. She bends the stick down and gnaws on that thing like there is no tomorrow.

We also tried solids a bit this week. She was intrigued by the avocado though I'm not sure if she liked it or was just puzzled by it.

The rice cereal on the other hand was a total no go. She hated it and made very unhappy faces.

We concluded that she probably is not quite ready so we're going to wait a few weeks and try again.

In knitting news, I finished a little sun hat for Maegwin to wear. It was quick and used a skein of yarn that was the second one I ever bought.

I'm also making progress on the wedding afghan for Josie. I'm about 3/4 of a way through the first repeat. I plan to do four repeats of the pattern plus a border to match the one on the bottom. It is actually five feet across so I only took a photo of one section.

Why yes, those are little cupcake stitch markers. I made a little visit to the Wee Ones store at Etsy. If you knit and haven't looked, go now. Her stuff is too cute! I also learned how to spin. Ok, I attempted to learn how to spin. All the history of spinning was very interesting. We learned how to prep fibers, how to spin, and how to ply yarn once you have spun singles. Here is my sad little skein of yarn which took me 30 minutes and a lot of frustration.

It's not very even but I'm told that once I get better I won't be able to spin like this again though I might want to.

I might buy a drop spindle in October when we go to the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs but I probably won't be buying a wheel anytime soon. I just can't justify the expense when I'm not very good. What's that you say? You won't get good if you never practice on one? Probably true, but I'm told that all the skills you use with a drop spindle are the same as for a wheel and they are more affordable. I'll put that on my wishlist with a sewing machine, eh?

We got an estimate on getting the final bit of knob & tube wiring taken out of the house and it came in under what we thought which is great. The electrician is coming tomorrow morning and while he's at it he's going to replace the rest of our non-grounded outlets for free! We had enough extra from our budget that we got an estimate on getting the ductwork extended upstairs for our geothermal. Right now, the upstairs gets a bit hot in summer and cold in winter (as Mom & Laura can attest to) so we want to get that all fixed up before Maegwin moves up there. That bid was very reasonable also so we just need to get it scheduled. It will also add value to the house to have a central heating/air flow.

I think that is all the interesting happenings here. Tune in next time for the critter fencing and the firepit improvement. Dun dun duh!

When will it stop raining on weekends?

2010-05-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

So sorry I have been remiss in posting a blog, we just get busy doing other things and these things take time. We finally got to start our seeds a few weekends ago. We also planted our onions, leeks, and strawberries. Something has been nibbling on the strawberries already so we need to get a move on getting the critter fencing up. I think we've found a good compromise solution with a meshy sort of fencing for the top and then chicken wire on the bottom and fanning out onto the ground. That is supposed to deter those animals that would dig underneath to get in. So far the damage is minimal and we didn't expect to get berries this year-we more planted those to start establishing the patch. The seeds are doing well under their light. So far we have a few cherry tomatoes, soy beans, brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas, and broccoli. Hopefully more will come up as the week goes on.

As you can see we used a lot of egg cartons we had saved. They work great for keeping in the moisture and they also stack! It is definitely a technique I would recommend and we'll be using it again in the future. I just wish we had thought of it sooner and saved more. We eat a lot of eggs. Our potatoes will definitely be ready to go out by the time we hit our frost free date. They have some pretty long sprouts already. They look like some kind of weird alien life form.

We took Maegwin for her four month check up. She is doing really well and is still measuring off the charts on height at 25.5 inches and I believe is somewhere around the 75th percentile on weight at 14 lbs 3 oz. The doctor said she is growing like a weed! We finally caught a video of her laughing and it cracks me up everytime I watch it.

and more...

In knitting news, I finished a sweater that had been a year in the making. I wore it to work and decided it was really about three inches shorter than I'd really like it to be. I dutifully ripped out the bind off and added three more inches. I decided I should wash it again to even out the stitches and block it. Something happened in the washer which I still don't really have an explanation for. I've washed countless knitted items in there on handwash. I have a front loading washer and I use wool wash. Long story short it felted...all except for those three inches I added on. So now I have an unwearable sweater. I was so upset about it. Once it sits in time out for a while maybe I will cut it up and make a pillow or something. Right now I don't want to see it.

After that incident I had to do something fast to make me feel better about knitting so I cast on for a sun hat for Maegwin. That turned out great and was just the one day project I needed to use up some cotton that had literally been in my stash since I learned to knit.

The yarn is Blue Sky Organic Cotton and the pattern is a free one called On the Sunny Side. (Ravelry linked for those so inclined). Still working on the wedding afghan and it is coming along. I had to take a break to let my thumb heal which is now totally back to normal thanks to a cortisone injection.

I was down with a sinus infection last week and am slowly improving with the help of antibiotics. They really are wonderful things. I'm so used to not being able to take any medicine now that it was almost luxurious to have my symptoms addressed. I'm feeling better just in time for the start of Mommy & Baby yoga on Saturday. I'm really excited. May is a super busy month overall for me. I'm signed up to learn how to spin on May 16th, Mothers' Day is this weekend, stamp camp was last weekend, and somewhere in there we will be filling out the garden more. I'll probably blog tomorrow with pictures of what we do in the garden. In the meantime, I leave you all with this cuteness to ponder.

Getting through spring

2010-04-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Whew we've been so busy the last two weeks! We finished building the raised beds and put out cardboard on the new beds to start killing the grass and get the worms to move in. Saving all those boxes from buying baby stuff paid off. We also saved all our egg cartons and toilet paper tubes for the last several months. They made great little seed starting containers! I spent last Saturday planting seeds for squash, tomatoes, parsnips, black beans, sugar snap peas, and beets. We set our seed potatoes out to start chitting and they are taking off like crazy. Mom came up with Sarah on Sunday and it was very helpful so we could get some things done outside while Maegwin was visiting with Grammy. Our leeks and onions are now filling up one bed and Josh turned over the perennials bed so we can put in our strawberry and asparagus plants hopefully this weekend. We also put in some more phlox around the pond and a really pretty lungwort plant. I'm amazed at all the perennials we planted last year. They are coming up so wonderfully and fuller than last year. Hopefully we can plant our lettuce, spinach, corn, and cabbage this weekend.

Maegwin is also getting so fun. She is pushing up and creeping.

She also figured out how to pull her little frog toy and make him sing. She is so funny...she will sit there with her little hand on it and wait for the song to end before pulling it again. We were dancing when she activated it so now she looks at us each time she pulls it as though saying "Dance, monkey! Dance!"

She's really grown into some of the stuff her Grammy knit for her which is great, but at the same time sad. I told her she has to stay small a bit longer. :p She wore this sweater last week and looked so big:

She also wears her little flower hat a lot and it is perfect for spring since it is made from cotton so not as hot as the wool ones she has.

Friday is her four month well baby check-up so she'll get her next set of vaccinations and we'll find out how much longer she is and how much she weighs. I'm excited!

Our wild yard

2010-04-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we worked on getting the raised beds done. I spent a lot of time pacifying Maegwin but I did lift a few boards. I can really tell whenever I do manual labor how much strength I lost not being able to work out more strenuously while pregnant. Lifting 40-50 pounds used to be no big deal but now it is a struggle. Oh well, small steps I guess. We took a few pictures throughout the day as things progressed. We opted to just do the first two layers since we didn't really have the funds to build them all the way up. It will still be nice though and we love how the beds are more delineated. We're losing about a square foot on each but we are also adding three new beds this year for a total of 11.3 (a smaller perennial bed).
Here's a shot with two of them completed:

Maegwin and I chilled on the picnic table for a bit. We moved it closer to the house. Actually we found this picnic table back in the trees behind our house. I'm guessing at some point someone didn't want it but it is in really great shape and we love it.

Then we went for a walk around the yard to see all the spring flowers coming up. One of the things I love best about our yard is that we don't do much at all with the lawn part. We let whatever grows come up. No planting grass seed and fertilizing and agonizing over how green it is. This results in some wonderful surprises and lots of forage for local wildlife. One whole section of our yard looks like a meadow full of beautiful tiny pink and white blossoms.

The bees were already hard at work in this section. We have a bunch of honeybees that live in our backyard and some bumblebees that live in our shed. According to wiki, they should find a new spot every year but apparently they really like our shed. Josh was pondering killing them off because they do kind of swoop around when we are out gardening but they are endangered and great pollinators. They are also not aggressive so we are going to let them be. Who wouldn't want pollinators living right next to their plants? This photo also gives a good idea of how many different kinds of little plants make up our yard.

There are also grape hyacinths everywhere! I love these little flowers and each one I see makes me smile. We put out lots of tulip bulbs last year too that are just starting to bud so hopefully in another week we'll have a beautiful show of color.

Our forsythia bushes are putting on quite a show this year. The one in the back is covered in flowers. The ones by the driveway aren't as bloom covered but we also didn't really trim them last year. We will this year as soon as they start leafing out. That way they will set their buds on the newer growth.

We also have this mystery plant that comes up every year. I have no idea what it is but it lives by our creek near the daffodils. I'm guessing it must be something native to Ohio. Clues anyone?

By the end of our meanderings, Josh had quite a few more beds done. He also hacked down all our wild blackberries and mowed over the patch. We want to put in some other berry bushes there or a small garden area for Maegwin once she gets a little older. I used to really love planning out my little garden and growing flowers from seeds when I was a child so I want her to have the same experience.

This week was pretty hectic with work. It was my first quarter end back and I ended up pulling a few long nights to get things done. Some of the things I had passed off needed to be fixed so that took extra time as well. Maegwin went home with Daddy every day and she did great. One little victory this week was that I fit into one of my size 4 pre-pregnancy skirts! It was a little snug by the end of the day but I didn't care. I was really happy about it. I can't do the pants yet but I'm definitely getting closer. Maegwin and I are starting a Mommy & baby yoga class on May 8th that goes for six weeks on Saturday mornings. I'm looking forward to doing yoga again and it will be a nice thing to share with her. My friend in Columbus is also enrolled so I'll know someone starting out. Maybe I'll be able to meet some other moms and socialize. I'm super excited about it.

This weekend will be all about cleaning out the weeds from our bed with the pond, finishing up the raised beds, and getting our leeks and onions planted out. We got stuff to start our indoor seedlings that need a full month's germination so we'll start those and probably set our seed potatoes out to start sprouting. We may also put up the critter fencing depending on how much time we have. So much to do!

Thanks to all the family for the little Easter presents. Maegwin really LOVES the Hug and Miss Spider's Tea Party books. I'm working on sending out thank you notes, but as you can see things have been a bit crazy here. We're having a good time with it though. Maegwin is now rolling over from her back to her tummy and she pushes herself up to 90 degrees and is doing a bit of creeping. Her four month well baby check up is on April 23rd so then we can find out how much more she has grown. I know I've definitely put some of her clothes away that no longer fit her and we're into the six month stuff I bought at Once Upon a Child before she was born.

We bought our tickets for Josie's wedding so Josie, you can't change the date now! hehe We're excited to see the Bay Area again and honestly we've been talking a lot about all the food we'll eat again. Ohio leaves something to be desired in terms of ethnic foods.

Preparing to garden

2010-03-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

Whew, long time no blog. We've been very busy here. A few weeks ago I met up with one of my friends from my December mommies group on Ravelry. Turns out she lives here in Columbus! Her baby, Emma was very cute and we had a great time sharing our experiences. The babies chatted for a few minutes and then zonked out for the rest of the visit. We definitely need to do it again when they are a little older and can interact more.

Last weekend we finally bought the lumber for our raised beds and had it delivered. We're adding two more plots this year and putting up critter fencing around it all to keep animals out. I read in one of our magazines about putting chicken wire along the bottom and swooping it out onto the ground to discourage digging animals. We're definitely doing that. Hopefully the groundhogs won't be back this year. We haven't seen them all winter so I'm keeping fingers crossed. Mom and my niece, Sarah, came up to visit while my sister moved. It was nice to see them. Our neighbor had her grandkids over so they came by and all played. The kids decided to make crowns for the dogs and spent lots of time carefully gathering supplies from the yard to make them with. Planck was the most patient of them all. As long as he is getting attention he pretty much lets you do anything.

The little face in the upper right corner is my niece. Here Planck turned his head to show off his hydrangea, twig, and pine needle topper.

They ran the dogs all over the yard and they were TIRED by the end of it. They all slept so much after the kids went home.

Remember when our wee Maegwin had to have a blanket in her swing so she wouldn't fall into the leg openings? Well, no longer.

She also chats quite a lot with us. I got a video of her, of course just as I had poured myself a bowl of cereal and Josh was on the phone with his family. hehe

Too cute! She laughed today while she was in the tub with Daddy and it was too precious. I ran in but she stopped just as I came in the room. We found her a bouncy seat recently. She loves the one at her daycare so much. I want to knit her some toys to swap out for the ones on the toy arch though to keep it interesting. The one at the daycare has an octopus with dangly legs that she likes to gnaw on. I'm going to try to design one like that. It should be pretty straightforward, I might even publish it for free on Ravelry if it doesn't suck.

My thumb is still not any better and in fact the pain is progressing into my wrist now. My doctor is referring me to a hand specialist to get cortisone. Fun, fun. I've had it in my other hand for a cyst so I'm not looking forward to it especially but it will be nice to use my hand and not have excruciating pain again.

Today Josh was home with Maegwin just having a Daddy and daughter day. She did great with her bottles and drank a five ounce one at lunchtime! I'm so happy to see that. When I got home we all went outside and hung out while Josh laid out the lumber for the raised beds. Hopefully we'll have some pictures to share soon. Maegwin loved being in the warm outside and feeling the sun. She was in her bouncy for quite a while after she ate. We're very happy with our little family!

Death of a coffee maker

2010-03-20T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today we mourn the death of our coffee maker. Each day for five years it faithfully produced cups of coffee for us-grinding our beans and filling our kitchen with its delicious aromas. We bought this one when Josh and I moved in together back at the beginning of 2005. It has recently begun not realizing its top isn't closed and beeping incessantly for 10 minutes or so. Today it only brewed half the water in it and shut itself off. Time for a new one. ;(

We had recently gone to get a shoe solution for our closet since now we both are employed (meaning we both need dress clothes) we rearranged. We now share all the closet space and my pants get to hang down instead of being on a bar intended for shirts and muddling around with my shoes strewn all over the closet floor. The reason I mention this is because I used the 20% off coupon we got in the mail for that item. Imagine my dismay when we now needed to make a large purchase. Well as I was grudgingly cutting out the $5 coupon from the Bed Bath & Beyond flyer I noticed that if I signed up for e-mail notifications I could get a one time 20% off coupon. Bingo! We went out and got this one instead which doesn't have the flip close lid for accessing the grinder. We think it will not wear out like the other one did. The salesman said we should bring our old one in and they might replace it. We still might do that but honestly after 5 years, I'm not holding out much hope. If so, we can have it as a backup.

We were all over town today. Spring has sprung and we're ready to tackle getting the raised beds built and ready for all our produce. I got the notice from Heirloom Acres that our seed potatoes and onion sets are on their way. We can't wait! We already have a lot of our seeds and have been saving up our egg cartons all winter to start them in. We didn't want to buy the pricey sets this year and these will still decompose quite well.

Yesterday I volunteered at the Salvation Army summer camp at Greenwood Lake. This is my second time going out there. The first time I was six months pregnant with Maegwin. I pulled off tons of old wallpaper in the main lodge and helped a bit with painting the cafeteria walls. I couldn't do that for long though because of the fumes. This time we were working on the ceiling tiles in the cafeteria. The original plan was that they would give us poles and rollers to just roll the paint on. Well, that didn't work so we started taking them each down, painting them, and putting them back up. I'm amazed we got it all done but I was so tired! After I picked up Maegwin from daycare and headed home I was literally fighting to stay awake. We got home and both sacked out in bed until Josh got home. It was fun though. I really like the mission of the camp and the people that work there are so great. It's nice that our work has an emphasis on volunteering and lets us take a day to do it. Hopefully I'll get some pictures to post up here when I go to work on Monday.

Oh, and Aunt Jean, Aunt Wendy and Cousin Michael-thanks for the awesome stuff! That not a meat eater onesie had us cracking up. She should fit into it just in time for the family reunion. hehehe

Hoodie!

2010-03-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post...it's 8:40 and I need to get things ready for tomorrow. I finished Maegwin's hoodie and it came out great! Luckily it fits perfectly. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't. Thank goodness when I started it way back in September I made the 3-6 month size. Maybe somewhere in the back of my head I knew she would be a big baby.

Pattern: Jasper Diamond Hoodie from Vintage Baby Knits. Ravelry link
Yarn: Knitpicks City Tweed DK in the Romance colorway
Needles: size 4 addis and Knitpicks interchangeables
Mods: None really
I love this yarn and would happily knit with it again. It is very soft and warm, but feels like it will hold up really well. It stood up to me ripping it out multiple times. :P This sweater was my first with set in sleeves and my first hood. The hood is made using short row shaping and then grafting along the back. It makes that adorable point. :) The hood reminds me of gnomes and if you know me, you know I have a thing for lawn gnomes. All in all I love the sweater and I think she'll get lots of use out of it as we prepare our garden for the season.

Now it is all blanket all the time until it is done. Ok, ok I might do the Niles & Cleo dolls for Maegwin as a breather. They are too darn cute.

Home sick

2010-03-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

This week is my second week back at work and to celebrate I got sick. :P Thank you to my boss's boss for bringing in a lovely head cold so I could catch it. Luckily we had a few extra days built in so I could be sick and still go to the family reunion and Josie's wedding. Anyway, I'm home today and wanted to blog to catch everyone up.

Working and having a baby is hectic! Basically we get home at about 6:30 and have two hours before we have to go to bed. In that time we have to rinse out diapers from daycare, pack the daycare bag for the next day, wash & make bottles, wash out my pumping stuff for the next day, pack my lunch, prep the coffee, deal with the dogs, eat dinner, try to bond a bit with Maegwin...oh yeah and try to relax. :p We've been pretty stressed and tempers are running high but luckily we both have a good sense of humor and can recognize when it is the situation and not each other that is unnerving us. It makes me sad that we get Maegwin in her cranky tired stage though. She is so smiley and happy during the day but she cries almost every day the entire ride home and is so done by the time we get here that she nurses and goes to sleep.

Nursing her at lunch has worked out well so far. Everyone at work is being very supportive of me being back and adjusting to working pumping into my schedule as well as going to nurse Maegwin. Honestly that hour in the middle of the day is helping me keep my sanity. I ordered more diapers today so I won't have to do laundry during the week and we've switched to doing all our ironing on Sunday so it's not part of our morning routine. Josh has gone back to doing all the dog outs and feeding in the morning so I can focus on getting Maegwin and I ready.

The daycare is really impressed with her cloth diapers and wipes. Everyone says they can't believe how easy they are. We get a daily report of all her activities. She had a bit of trouble at first with bottles and was only taking an ounce or flat out refusing them. The last few days she has consistently taken them and drunk the whole ounce. Yesterday she even drank two ounces! I plan to send her tomorrow with two ounce bottles to see how she does.

So far today we've been pretty relaxed. A couple of nursing sessions and lots of napping. That's good because I don't have the energy for much else. The house is a mess and I don't even care. :p Einstein was checking out Maegwin in her swing today. She is getting so much better at reaching for things.

I have a doctor's appointment in a bit to get my thumb looked at. It still isn't getting any better and I'm pretty sure I shouldn't just be taking ibuprofen all the time. I'm going to see if they will let me weigh Maegwin on the baby scale to see how much she has grown. She doesn't have a checkup until April and I'm curious. She is now in some 3 month and some 6 month clothes. She finally outgrew her frog and duckie sleepers. Mom bought us a couple of fleecy non-footed ones that she has been wearing to sleep in. They are six month size and she's at the bottom of the weights listed on the label but that's good. She can wear them through to the warmer weather. The thing I love is they have pockets. What a baby would need pockets for, I'm unsure of but I think it is funny to imagine what they might put in there if they could.

For now we are enjoying our wee Maegwin so much. She is an absolute joy. I think she even laughed last night and is trying to turn over.

For all interested in pictures, I exported all my Flickr photos to my Snapfish so if you want to order prints just let me know and I'll send you a link to them. I know both the grandmas wanted some so I obliged. :) I'm putting in an order for my dad since he doesn't have internet access.

Gah! I totally forgot to mention that I'm going to be donating breastmilk. With Maegwin taking smaller bottles, I'm left with a lot of extra. I pump at least 9 ounces a day and she is currently only drinking two-hopefully ramping up to four this week and next. That leaves me with all the freezer stash from when I was off plus additional each day. I contacted the milk bank of Columbus and they are definitely in need of milk. I have to get a blood test, a release from the doctor, and fill out a questionnaire. The minimum donation is 200 ounces but I have six months to provide it. I already have 100 ounces in the freezer. I'm so excited I'll be able to help out babies who need it. For more info (I know some other new moms read my blog), you can go to hmbana.org to find a milk bank in your area. They distribute all over the US and Canada.

Board Game Night part 2

2010-02-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

We're hosting another board game night tomorrow and none of Josh's co-workers can make it. One of my co-workers who recently relocated from San Diego will be coming along with her husband. In preparation I have been cleaning today with Maegwin in the Ergo. Oh Ergo, how I love thee. She gets to be snuggled close to Mommy and I get to do pretty much all the things I could do while I was pregnant plus lifting more weight. I just finished doing the floor in the living room and straightening.

Whenever I polish the wood floors in our house I'm always struck by how old it is and yet how amazingly good it looks. I wonder how many times the boards were lovingly (or grudgingly) polished, how many sets of little feet raced and slid around on them, how long the house will last after I am no longer caring for it. This year our house is 110 years old, a quite venerable age. One of our neighbors, Claudia, is the great-granddaughter of the man who built our house back in 1900. I think about whether any of the houses we build today will be around in 110 years and will they look nearly as good? We probably won't stay here forever sadly because the school districts aren't that great and honestly we both work on the opposite side of the city so it doesn't make as much sense as when one of us was working. I think though, that I will always remember my first little house and have a special place for it in my heart and for a few years we get to be a part of its story.

I don't really have any cute new pictures. Maegwin has been a bit fussy the last few days so I've spent most of my time just soothing her. We did go out to visit my dad and stepmom on Wednesday. My dad has off Wednesdays and Thursdays so this was the last week we could go out and spend a day with him while I was off. Maegwin really enjoyed it and I know they loved seeing her. Sadly she hated the car ride back. At the best of times she hates her car seat and over an hour in it is like pure torture. At least she slept until we were about 30 minutes away from home so I didn't have to hear her cry pitifully for as long. I hate it because I can't do anything other than try to get where we're going as fast as we can.

We recently received some great gifts from the family. Josie & Matt sent us another six Bum Genius diapers so I think we are set with how many we wanted before starting daycare. Sara & Jonathan sent us a ton of board books from Emma and some great Under the Nile clothes and other outfits. They incidentally match the stuff Therese & Jay sent us so we can mix and match. Score! John & Shelly sent us an adorable summer outfit with one of those cute big floppy sun hats. I can't wait until she can wear it. It was like a tiny promise of summer in a box. We sure need it with all the snow around here. At least my first week back to work is supposed to be sunny all week!

I'm nearly done with Maegwin's hoodie. I finished the sleeves and started the hood yesterday. I just have to knit that up then seam it and put on some buttons. It's going to be so cute! It will also be my first foray into set in sleeves so I'm curious to see how that goes. I'll be busting out my Knitting Answers book for sure.

Maegwin is almost too long for her bassinet though I don't think she is ready to sleep upstairs yet since she isn't sleeping through the night. We'll have to break out her pack n' play soon to have downstairs.

She has also almost outgrown all her footed sleepers because of her length. I've started storing all her baby clothes in a tub in case we choose to go through this whole adventure again. I also packed up all my maternity clothes. I never thought it would feel so good to wear real pants with zippers and buttons again!

Update

2010-02-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Two posts in one day? I'm going to spoil you all. Maegwin did fabulously with her shots. The first one she didn't even cry or grimace. She kept smiling away at the nurse and talking to her. The second and third she cried but as soon as they were done I picked her up and nursed her and she fell asleep. I had them weigh her before the shots out of curiosity and she weighs 12 lbs 4 oz. That means in two weeks she has gained 13 oz! I'm beginning to wonder if I'm producing heavy cream instead of breast milk. hehe

We stopped by her daycare and two of the women were there-Michelle and Erin. I'm writing that as much so I'll remember their names for next time as for information. They have one boy that comes three days a week so on those days they have two adults which is great because it means there is a 3:1 ratio for over half the week instead of 5:1. Maegwin will be the youngest in the room and the two directors said she will probably be spoiled rotten. Apparently everyone loves young babies. People kept dropping by the classroom to see her. It was very nice. We got her crib set up with her organic cotton sheets and some extra clothes in her cubby and emergency frozen breastmilk in case she needs more of a bottle or I have to pick her up late. All is ready except for me. :p

Shots day

2010-02-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

Today Maegwin goes in for her first set of shots. I'm not very pleased about it but I'm sure she'll be fine. It can't be any worse than the foot sticking incident which lasted for an hour. At least I know this will be quick and I'm planning to comfort nurse her a bit afterward. She was really good with other blood draws later so I bet I'll be more upset than she is. I know it's for the best though. I'm hoping if she's doing ok after to stop by her daycare and drop her sheets off and some spare outfits and a bag of frozen breast milk for them as an emergency thing.

She has been smiling up a storm and I finally caught some really good ones on camera.

I may have gone a little crazy with snapping photos. I'm sure you all understand.

Overall she is such a happy and curious baby. She loves the lights on her play gym now.

I got quite a bit of knitting done this weekend. I'm three whole rows into the pattern on Josie's blanket. I'm done with the lower border. Of course on the pattern set up row I missed a stitch 246 stitches back and didn't notice it until I got to the end of the row and had an extra stitch. 30 minutes later I had ripped back and reknit that one row. :p We were watching Charlie Wilson's War, which by the way is a great movie, so I was distracted. Word of advice, don't watch a good movie when knitting a blanket that involves working four sets of charts simultaneously. It is not a good mix. I could have jinxed myself more only by mixing in a good glass of wine. I also got the rest of the back of Maegwin's hoodie knit and am halfway up the sleeves. I'll finish those up today and hopefully the hood tomorrow.

We had a good relaxing weekend. Most of it looked like this:

Josh shaved and we made sure Maegwin was in the bathroom to see it through the various stages. We didn't want her to suddenly see clean-shaven Daddy and freak out. He's had his beard the whole time she's been alive.

I saw this cute video today and wanted to share. I thought it was so sweet and it made me smile.

Off to the sudden but inevitable betrayal! I'll update later.

Two more weeks til work

2010-02-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

Just two weeks left of my maternity leave and it seems like it has flown by. I'm sad to be going back but glad I got to spend this time with Maegwin. Next year I hope to take a block of time off to spend with her too. We'll see how it plays out but it would be nice. She already seems so different and is changing every day. She smiles so much more now and babbles up a storm. I finally caught a picture of her smiling and though it is blurry I'm proud I got it at all.

I tried to upload some videos to Flickr today but it is being contrary so I'll try again later. There is one of her playing on her mat with Daddy and wearing her new socks from Grandma. I also really like this one which I imagine her to be saying "Are you tawkin' to me?" in her best Brooklyn accent:

She is generally quite a happy baby and we are enjoying her so much.

The great bottle strike of 2010 finally ended this weekend when we bought her a new type of bottle. It's the First Years Breastflow bottle and she is now taking it for at least one to two feedings a day. We were starting to get so worried because she kept refusing all bottles and crying so hard until I nursed her. This one has the same kind of mechanism as breast feeding so I got her to take it by switching back and forth in one feeding. Now she goes straight to it and latches on. Whew! One problem down. She gets all her shots next week and I think that is the last thing to do before she starts daycare. I'd like to get another 12 or so Bum Genius so I don't have to do laundry as often but we have enough to get by now. They are still working out great and we love them.

On Monday I was heading out to dig out the cars since I had to take the Prius in for the recall and thus Josh had to take the Honda. It hadn't been touched since the beginning of all this snow so it was well buried. As I stepped down to the last of our porch steps I slipped and fell. Luckily I had my wrist brace on for the DeQuervain's tendonitis and managed to catch myself mostly on that hand. It bent the metal pieces in the brace I came down so hard but hey-I don't have a broken wrist thank goodness. My lower back and tailbone were pretty sore the rest of the day but by Tuesday I was more or less recovered. Josh had to finish the shoveling with his bad foot and all. :P I told him we're quite a pair, all sorts of messed up. hehe

I finally picked the hoodie back up that I was knitting from the Vintage Baby Knits book. Mine is being knit out of Knitpicks City Tweed-a very soft alpaca and merino wool blend-and has been lying dormant since around September. I just have a tiny bit of the back and then sleeves and hood left to do. Hopefully by this weekend I'll finish it. The one in the picture to the right of mine was knit in a bamboo yarn but I like the weight of what I'm using.

I love the yarn and I want to pick out some really cute buttons for it. I'm glad I went for the bigger size back then since she'll be about right for this within the next month or so. It will be a good transition sweater as we move into spring.

The Power of the Nap

2010-02-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Never underestimate the power of a nap.

So far this morning I've been able to:
1. Have a cup of HOT coffee & eat breakfast(a rare delicacy with an infant)
2. Start a load of diapers without having to hear crying upstairs
3. Work out
4. Iron a shirt for Josh for work
5. Soak some of his other shirts
6. Fold a load of laundry
7. Sweep the floor
8. Pump and store my daily milk allotment (I'm trying to get a store built up before we start with daycare)
9. Clear the dishes out of the dining room and actually get some in the dishwasher
10. Take the compost out
11. Refill the fish tanks
12. Blog
It's only just 8:00 am! I still have the whole day ahead of me. It's enough to make one laugh maniacally with the sheer power of it. Bwahaha!

I received a very thoughtful package from my friend Cara and had not had time to blog about it. I love getting mail, especially when it is unexpected and not a bill. :p She sent a lovely hat knitted out of Malabrigo. This is Maegwin's first but certainly not last article of clothing out of this most wonderful of merino wools. It is so soft. She loved wearing it though she often objects to the cotton store bought hats. I've never yet seen her reject a handknit item. That's Mommy's girl!

Cara also sent us a lovely jar of Rosemary salt which Josh was quite excited about and some ginger caramels which I've eaten several of already. Yum! I'm looking forward to visiting with both her and my friend Gwen whilst we're out in California for Josie's wedding. I have a feeling it is going to be a packed couple of days. I'll also see Gwen in June because she is coming out to sell her yarn at TNNA and Knitter's Connection-both shows held here in Columbus. I offered to let her stay with us because it would be silly for her to get a hotel and cut into profits for the show when we live so nearby. Sadly I can't take extra days off to help her but there's always the weekend.

Josh was home the last two days with his foot, the other toe this time. I told him it sucked he was not feeling well but on the bright side it has been awesome having more family bonding time. I think Maegwin needed a few solid days with him to really get things straight. From what I've read, this is the age when babies put faces to voices and develop preferences for people. She seems to be taking to the Medela bottles with him and she smiled a lot and happily hung out with him. I'm so glad since I know it's been frustrating for both of us when all that calms her down is nursing. I want her to love her daddy just as much as me and to also be comforted by him. With him down though, it meant I had to do all the snow clearing.
I still haven't got the energy to dig out the Honda so I'm stuck at home until I do. I took the Prius out for a few errands while he took care of the baby. The picture above was after the first set of snow and the Prius had been driven. I have at least two feet of snow to clear out around the Honda. :p

I also got to bake yesterday. It all started innocently enough. I had made a chocolate stout cake for our board game night and it called for sour cream (I made mine with Young's Double Chocolate Stout instead of Guinness like any self respecting stout drinker would do, but I digress). I still had a cup left and I really hate throwing out food. I thought I'd make some kind of muffin that used sour cream. Then I realized I still had half a butternut squash from the butternut squash cake I made for the same party (in case people didn't like chocolate). I also had some crystallized ginger that I had used for garnish. Then I found walnuts from our roasted red pepper walnut dip. I started combining things and the batch grew and grew. By the end I'd made some kind of pumpkin-butternut squash-walnut-ginger muffin monster. It was delicious though! Probably not repeatable but we ended up with four dozen muffins so I'm freezing some to enjoy later.

The yarn came for Josie's blanket yesterday so I cast on 227 stitches and started the long slog. One row takes a really loooong time. I worked on it most of the day yesterday off and on and I have 10 rows to show for it. Hehe! Someone from one of my Ravelry groups actually asked me if I would finish it by the end of March. Uh, maybe with a million tiny knitting elves. I think by July or August should be doable though.

Snowmageddon 2010 continues

2010-02-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

One of the people on my Ravelry group was calling it Snowmageddon and while we aren't getting hit as hard as the east coast I have to agree. I was born in the year of a very bad blizzard here in Ohio. So bad that people still talk about it. My family was snowed in for days-luckily I was breastfed and cloth diapered! I guess it's only fair that my own child should be born when there is tons of snow. I actually really like it, especially since I'm still off on leave and don't have to drive in it. That leaves Josh able to take our newer, more reliable car (the one with better tires) so I don't have to worry about him as much. We're supposed to get eight more inches of snow today and tomorrow so I might have to go dig our driveway out again.

Maegwin is currently napping so I'm trying to catch up on stuffing her diapers with inserts and all the laundry that is clean but waiting to be folded. I like doing laundry and I like folding it but only when it is still warm. Weird, I know. It feels like a warm snuggly hug when it's fresh from the dryer. Otherwise, it just feels like work. Coffee and some apple chips are making it at least tolerable.

We went for Maegwin's eight week check up yesterday. Apparently it was a bit too early for insurance though so they had to hold off on giving her shots. That was ok by me since I'd been steeling myself for the experience. She is doing amazing and is living proof that vegetarians can have big healthy babies!

She weighed in this week at 11 pounds 7 ounces and measures 24 inches long. She is in the 90th percentile for weight and off the charts in height. Her doctor joked that she is going to be a model. She gets it from her dad not me since I'm a very petite 5'4". I knew she was heavier than my weights I lift though and I was right. The doctor was amazed at her head control and that she is already cooing, smiling, and imitating us. She also really loves our cloth diapers and asked where we got them. We've been using a diaper rash powder instead of a cream and she said that Maegwin looked great. Apparently she's seen lots of babies with at least some diaper rash so I'm glad that it's working out so well. We can't use rash cream without a liner because it will stain the cloth diapers and mess with their absorbency. This powder, called Anti-Monkey Butt Powder can be used without a liner and it smells nice too!

My sister-in-law, Josie, has set a date for her wedding. It's going to be September 25th. We had thought that she was getting married in 2011 so we had to refigure things for the family reunion that is happening at the end of July. Originally we were going to take off Thursday & Friday and drive out to Iowa on Wednesday so we could have a good long weekend. I only have eight total days of PTO left for this year when I go back to work because we couldn't get her daycare spot until March 1st and my short term disability runs out this week. I have to use ten days to fill in the gap. So now we are planning to take only Friday off and maybe leave work early on Thursday, driving straight from there. We'll pack the car the night before and drop the dogs off on the way to work. That should get us to Iowa either midnight Thursday or in the wee hours of Friday morning. We'll have to leave Sunday after breakfast with the family and drive back. For the wedding we want to go out for longer so we can also visit friends and see Josh's Nana & Grandpa since she can't travel and otherwise they won't be able to see Maegwin until after she is a year old. I think if I haven't had any major illness by then we'll try to be out there for five days. We are thrilled that Josie is getting married, it just took some figuring. :)

On the same note, I'm already busily planning their wedding gift. Those in the family know that I knit Amy & Justin a lovely afghan for their gift which took me over a year to complete. Yep, this one:

I loved the yarn and enjoyed knitting it but it decided me that I wouldn't knit another in pieces like that. I was literally seaming it in the car as we drove down to the rehearsal. :P I wanted to knit something for all three of the sisters (yes, I've got a while to plan for Laura hehe). I've been combing through patterns and think I've decided on Saffron Cables from Interweave Knits this one:

Sorry Josie, no surprise but at least you can tell me if you'll hate it! I'm thinking a soft taupe color on this one, an organic cotton in a colorway called Malted Milk. Beautiful and delicious.

I just spent about 30 minutes digging our driveway out as best I could. The snow is falling so quickly though that I will probably have to do it again before Josh gets home. I was just picking up huge chunks of ice and throwing them to the side. No way I'm going out in this to get my wrist brace. I'll just have him pick it up on his way home. The Honda is too buried for me to dig it out alone. At least I've got a sock to work on while I sit in.

Oh the weather outside

2010-02-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

We are having our first good snowstorm this year and it is so cool! The weather channel is predicting a foot or more of snow and it has been falling steadily since about 8:30. Unfortunately, it started after my dedicated hubby left for work. He's leaving within the next few minutes so we're hoping that the roads aren't too bad yet. In the last three hours about two to three inches have fallen and it shows no signs of slowing down. I went out and took some video of it in our backyard.

I love the way snow covers everything and makes all the sounds so muffled. I'm looking forward to a warm weekend in with my little family, knitting and watching Netflix.

We've been watching Stargate Atlantis but we're on season 4 so there isn't much more to go. I'm also watching the new Dr. Who series on Netflix watch instantly. It's fun and brings back memories of me watching the original on PBS at night. I had a little TV in my room-the old kind that had a dial you turned to get UHF or VHF and had an antenna. I played Nintendo on it and watched lots of PBS shows since it only picked up like five channels. Anyway, long story short I was a huge Dr. Who fan even with the old corny version and the BBC did a good job updating it.

I finished up some socks yesterday that were a year in the making. I cast them on right before I found out I was pregnant and totally lost my knitting mojo. I've picked them up and worked a few rows from time to time but they were solid black so frankly they didn't catch my interest. They turned out great but I don't think I'll knit anything pure black again for a while. It is really hard on the eyes and really boring on the brain. That said though, I'm sure they will probably become my most loved pair since they match a lot of my clothes...or at least my old clothes. Still have to figure out that work wardrobe thing before I go back. Anyway, without further ado:

Pattern: Belle Epoque from Two-at-a-time socks (a gift from my friend Gwen)
Yarn: Knitpicks Risata in black
Needles: Size 2 circulars
This is my third pattern I've knit out of this book and there are still several more I want to do. They are well written and can easily be knit one sock at a time. Frankly, I have no interest in knitting both socks at once. I like figuring things out with the first one and then zipping through the second. Less to fix if you screw up! I've started a new pair of socks today and am done with the first toe. They've been on my list to knit for quite a bit-Bacchus Socks. I'm knitting mine out of some yarn from my stash, Pagewood Farms Chugiak in a colorway called Mocha. So far this year my stash reduction efforts are going well. I think next I will knit myself a sweater.

Maegwin continues to delight and amaze us. She is really enjoying playing and she loves being with her daddy. He is apparently far more stimulating than I am. Probably because he can hold her up more than I can and sling her into more different positions-like riding on shoulders:

Or being tickled with facial hair:

She does seem to seek me out for comfort though. Whenever she is upset I seem to be her go to person for consolation. This is good most of the time but sometimes I want a break. Hopefully she won't be inconsolable at daycare or I will be very sad.

7 weeks old

2010-02-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

Maegwin is seven weeks old today and it seems like my leave is flying by. She can really reach for things now, smiles all the time, and can push herself around if you put your hands down by her feet. It's amazing how quickly she is growing. I'm really curious how much she has grown. She has her eight week checkup next week where she'll get her next round of vaccinations so I'll find out her weight and length. I've been having some issues with my left wrist. Quite a bit of pain along my thumb and down into the wrist and arm. Many of the other new moms on my board have the same thing and I suspect it might be DeQuervain’s tendonitis but I'm going to see if the doctor can see me the same appointment to confirm. For now I'm just wearing a brace to sleep so I don't mess it up more. I take Ibuprofen when it gets too bad, mainly just after I wake up.

I've been working out at least three times a week trying to get back in shape. Boy, having a baby definitely made my abs so weak! Doing crunches is way harder than it used to be. I'm also only up to lifting five pound weights for any respectable amount of reps. I know it will get better but it is daunting knowing how far I have to go. My goal is to be more or less back in shape by the family reunion. Most of my tops fit me from before but my pants do not.

I caught a decent ending of a smile from Maegwin the other day. She was very happy in her swing while I worked out. I think she was laughing at me.

She also reached out and hit her zebra which was something new. She has never reached for something so far before.

I tried to take a picture of the two of us together in the mirror. I don't think it turned out too bad other than having weird bathroom lighting.

For now she definitely has grey eyes like mine. They seem to be tending more that way which is cool. It's the one thing where she looks like me.

This nap powered by vitamin D

2010-01-28T10:39:00.001-08:00

Prepping for the party

2010-01-28T06:25:00.000-08:00

Josh had toe issues last week so we didn't get all the cleaning we wanted to done for the party this weekend. I have to work on it today and I'm hoping Maegwin will stay asleep or be happy in the Ergo. I managed to get a great shot of her gazing at Daddy in her new bunny hat though and I wanted to share it with everyone. We think she looks very impish and happy in it.

Squash-the unloved vegetable

2010-01-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to come up with recipes that will use butternut squash. Since we plan on growing it in our garden this year and it will be a staple during the fall and winter I want to make sure we use it. I think it is sad that not everyone eats squash. What other vegetable can be a living piece of artwork for months and when you finally decide you're tired of looking at its beautiful outsides you can eat its delicious innards? It's the hardest working vegetable in show business! Since the family has started reading my blog and I actually have a few other readers I thought I would share my two favorite recipes for butternut squash:

Butternut Squash Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup buttermilk (additional to thin as needed)
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup butternut squash, grated

Steam butternut squash in microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir together all ingredients. Add additional buttermilk as needed to get batter to proper consistency. I go for pourable but still fairly thick. We like to have these with peanut butter and maple syrup but they are also great with just a little bit of honey.

Vanilla Butternut Squash Cake

for the cake:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 Tbs distilled white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
3/4 cup buttermilk
2-3 cups butternut squash (I use roughly half an average sized squash), grated

for the icing:
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs buttermilk, more as needed to get consistency
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
crystallized ginger to decorate

Preheat oven to 350, grease a bundt pan.
Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until combined. Add eggs one at a time mixing well for each. Add vinegar and vanilla and mix again until just combined. Add half the flour and baking soda, salt, and spices, mixing on low until combined. Ad dhalf the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Be careful here, for some reason it always splashes me so take it slow. Add the other half of the flour and repeat. Add the other half the buttermilk and repeat. Stir in the squash and transfer to the bundt pan. Bake until toothpick in center comes out clean. Allow to cool and transfer to serving plate or cake saver.

Make the icing
In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, buttermilk, vanilla, spices, and salt until smooth. Add more buttermilk as needed to get a smooth, pourable, but still thick icing. Pour over cake. Sprinkle with the crystallized ginger to decorate.

You can refrigerate the cake for up to a week and it goes great with coffee!

We've started something new with Maegwin at bathtime. She really hated her baths so some of the ladies on my new moms board of Ravelry suggested we take her in the tub with us to build her confidence. She really seems to like that better and spends time kicking in the water and floating with us holding up her head.

I finished up two knitting projects this weekend. One was the scarf for my mom. I only ended up using two skeins of my yarn and got a 58" scarf out of it. There is still some left that I could probably use for a hat or legwarmers for Maegwin.

I want to get some modeled shots but it has been rainy and crappy the last few days so hopefully those will follow soon.
The other project was a quick knit from Itty Bitty Hats called the bunny tail hat. I omitted the tail and worked it in a variegated yarn. I only knit 5 1/2 inches for the hat in the 0-6 month size before I started the ears.

Maegwin didn't want to hold still so I got a blurry but cute picture of her as well.

We've been enjoying Josh having three day weekends. Not really doing anything, just hanging out at home. It gives us a good chance to mix some bottles into the feeding rotation. She is hit or miss about liking them and has drunk anywhere from 1 oz to 2.5 oz depending. We're planning to have people over this weekend for board game night and I have stamp camp earlier in the day so it will be a very busy Saturday.

In other family news my grandmother on my mom's side, Eleanor, passed away on Sunday. She had an abdominal aortic aneurysm before Christmas that she was going in to have surgically fixed. That went fine but while in there they nicked another artery and had to go back in. AFter that from what I understand various complications ensued, eventually ending with her kidneys shutting down and her being on a ventilator. They decided to take her off the ventilator on Sunday and she passed away shortly after. I hadn't been super close with her in more recent years but I know it was an ordeal for my mom. She is off on leave until Wednesday and I think will be coming up to see the baby. Hopefully a bit of grandbaby time will cheer her up.

My last fav shot of Maegwin is one from the other night. I laid her in the bed while I was making it and the covers landed perfectly over her. She managed to leave a nice big drool puddle on my pillow in the meantime. :)

Five weeks old

2010-01-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

Baby Maegwin is five weeks old today. I can hardly believe I'm already halfway through my leave and I know it will be hard to take her to daycare. I do miss going to work and interacting with my co-workers but sorry guys, she out-cutes you. Barring winning the lottery or randomly coming into some money we can only afford for me to take ten weeks of my leave instead of the full twelve. I'm trying not to be disappointed about it. I know many people don't get any time off at all so I should count myself lucky. Even with insurance though those hospital bills are nutty. Doable, but nutty. I honestly don't know how people afford to have kids who don't have insurance. :p

This week Maegwin seems to really be getting into playing and lifting her head. She also loves music. I've put on Bob Marley and Nina Simone, both of which she enjoys and looks around for the source of or falls asleep to. Last night when Josh was singing to her we got our first very spontaneous smile. It was so cute!! Unfortunately capturing the newborn smile on film is like hunting a wild animal. I will succeed eventually but that first one was a total surprise so I wasn't armed with my camera. Here are the latest play mat photos though:

Contemplating the zebra tail

Lifting that cute little noggin

Reaching for the monkey

All the photos feature a cardigan I just finished knitting for her. It has been my go to layer when I just want her in a onesie around the house. She gets a little cold but not enough to wear a full on sleeper. She is sort of a hot baby which she definitely gets from her daddy not me. I am perpetually cold. I used Blue Sky organic cotton yarn in a color aptly named Circus Peanut. I made the three month old size, intending for it to fit her when she started daycare. It fits her now instead. hehe I'm really glad I seamed it up early and tried it on her or it might not have got any wear at all. Luckily the hoodie I had started for her is in the 3-6 month size so it should fit her for a little longer and give me time to finish knitting it.

The scarf I'm making for Mom is almost done. A bit after Christmas but hey, it's the thought that counts. I was a wee bit busy at the time. I'm probably going to give it to her without buttons or have her help me pick them out. I want them to be something she likes. I was thinking either wood or shell buttons but can't decide and it would make it a more dressy or casual scarf depending on the choice. It is so soft and warm though. I wrapped it around my neck last night to decide if it was long enough at 56". The pattern calls for knitting to 60" but I think this is the perfect length once I put on button holes and add another inch after that. It will leave enough yarn for her to make handwarmers if she wants to match it.

We got some of our seeds for the garden this year. The rest of them and the seed potatoes, leeks, and onions are on backorder. They typically send them closer to planting time so probably not until April. We can't wait to get back out there. This year if we can we want to put in raised beds which should take only a minimal investment of some lumber and top soil. All our neighbors swear they will keep the critters out which was our main issue last year. I hope so because we are really planning a lot. Once I get some time I will draw out a diagram and put it up for everyone to see. Right now the winter rye is out there growing away despite the cold.

Mostly better

2010-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

Things are mostly better today though Maegwin & I were up until about 2:30 last night. I think she may not like hot chocolate. I'm going to see tonight by avoiding it. We also switched to having a salad late at night and it might be too much roughage for her. I'm hoping that isn't it because I'm really enjoying eating them and my own stomach feels so much better having moved back toward what we normally eat. She had a nice long nap after her morning feeding though. I was trimming her nails and accidentally caught some skin in the clippers. It was bleeding a bit and I felt horrible. I iced it until it stopped and she fell asleep once she stopped crying. She has been sleeping so well on her tummy today that I'm going to do that for her naps from now on. I know I'm supposed to put her on her back but she really hates it. If I do that I have to carry her around because she will start bawling as soon as I lay her down. During her nap I managed to get the dishes done, a load of her diapers through the wash and laid out to dry, my desk cleaned off, and some documents shredded that I've had in a pile forever.

We also played some on the mat. I alternated putting her on her tummy and on her back so she could see the mat and all the fun things hanging above it. She is doing really well reaching for things. She was hitting this little spinning disc thing that has monkeys on it and batting at the toucan. I got some great shots of her.

Observing the toucan while hitting the monkey disc:

Batting at the toucan:

I also took a video of her yesterday while she was sleeping. I really love the little sounds she makes and her tiny gassy smiles. I can't wait until she smiles for real.

Today is my 32nd birthday and I couldn't be happier with where things are. We probably aren't doing anything special but my co-workers called to wish me happy birthday on speaker phone. It was nice to hear from them. I love being home with the baby but I miss having some other social interaction. Maybe I'll make some apple crisp and use up all the extra apples we have in the house. It doesn't have to be a cake and I'm not putting 32 candles in it anyway. :P

Planck is doing much better and I'm slowly mixing back in his regular food with rice. No more throwing up. Einstein has strained something in his right front leg and has been limping around for two days. He's slowly putting more weight on it but I was worried I'd have to take him to the vet for a very expensive set of x-rays, etc. Josh and I have been making sure we pick him up to put him anywhere he might want to jump to and carrying him outside to go potty. With all the ice around he probably slipped while he was out.

Rough Night

2010-01-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty rough night here with the baby. Maegwin spit up quite a bit last night which she hasn't really done up until now. She also nursed like crazy from about midnight until 2:30 am. She was fairly inconsolable and finally fell asleep around 3. We had changed her at some point and didn't fully tighten her diaper so it all leaked out around one leg while she was in the bed with us. Thanks for that waterproof mattress pad Mom & Kevin! At least now I just have to wash sheets. As if that wasn't enough, just as I was finally falling asleep Planck emerged from the blankets, drank some water, and vomited all over my pillow. Josh and I contained the mess and luckily I already had a towel down for all the spit up/etc. He seemed ok afterwards so he snuggled up against my back and I got an alternate pillow. An hour later at 4 am I was awakened to him puking all over my back. At that point I decided to give up on sleeping anymore, got up and took my shower, and threw more towels down until Josh woke up. Maegwin has since been extremely clingy and anytime I try to lay her down after she falls asleep she starts bawling. I'm going to put her in the Ergo soon so I can maybe work on getting the kitchen cleaned up. Oh and while I was in the bathroom a bit later Planck got up on my computer chair and vomited all over it. Sigh, some mornings are just like that. I'm going to keep him on water only for the next day and see if he improves. If so we'll add in some rice for him. I'm dreading breakfast though when I feed the other two and he doesn't get anything.

We've had lots of snow here over the last week...apparently as soon as our visitors went home so they couldn't enjoy it. Probably for the best though as the temperatures have been in the single digits or teens until yesterday. It made for some very pretty icicles along our gutters.

We found a daycare for Maegwin so I'm going to have my first day back at work on March 1st. Just in time for close, but hopefully I won't have to work long hours. At least now I can do entries from home if I need to. In anticipation we've been working a lot with Maegwin on tummy time and going down for naps in her bassinet. She much prefers the swing but I think they always put babies down in their cribs for naps. Tummy time is very tiring.

The knitting continues apace & visits from California

2010-01-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

We had a great visit with Mom and Laura when they came out from California. I realized that I took absolutely no pictures with my camera! They took quite a few but put them up on Snapfish. Luckily I made an account years ago that I had to get the password reset for. Josh & Laura went out on one of the less cold days and made a snowman in the backyard. It was tiny but he is still out there standing vigil at our firepit.

They explored the backyard and went down to the creek. I was inside the whole time with Maegwin but I really love this picture of brother and sister. :) I know Josh has missed hanging out with her. As you can see, there is definitely ice in there. We had a few three degree mornings so I wouldn't be surprised if it was completely frozen now. I have not ventured out beyond the car area so I have no clue.

We went out to see my mom and stepdad on New Year's Eve and they took some photos of all of us. I think Maegwin's new grandma might kind of like her.

Oh and I have to remember to stop turning sideways in photos until the baby belly is completely gone. :P Oh well how I look two weeks after delivery can be preserved for posterity.

Our dvd player finally crapped out after our guests left luckily. I guess it couldn't take anymore. We had it for several years and bought it for cheap so we got what we paid for. Now I just have to figure out how to do my yoga dvd in the dining room with the table there. sigh.

Maegwin had her first well baby visit this week and she is up to 9 lbs 9 oz and 22.5 inches long. She's definitely growing although she has a bit of diaper rash. I'm waiting for our liners I ordered to get here since we can't use diaper creams directly with the cloth diapers. It ruins the absorbency. I uploaded some cute video today of her. She has been doing amazing with tummy time. She picks her head up and is so strong she can scoot totally off her blanket when she has something to push against. We think she will probably be an early crawler. I've also discovered that cabbage and cheese don't sit well with her. We've resolved to drastically reduce cheese in our diet. We had kind of been straying more towards it because it was easy but we need to get back to eating more steamed vegetables and salads like we used to. She doesn't need all that junk and neither do I.

The dogs are really settling in with her. They often snuggle while she is napping. Cordova likes to stand guard.

Planck just likes to cuddle and sleep.

Einstein just likes to do his own thing. He has been having some problems with his legs lately so he just lays around in his clothes bin mostly. I think winters are hard on his joints.

I knit up a quick pair of baby mittens for the cold days we have to venture out. Since we are interviewing daycares this week I think she'll get a lot of wear out of these.

The yarn is Craftsmeow Banana Split II in a colorway called Cherry Freeze. I have made some socks from the same skein of yarn also. The background is my Taliesin test knit scarf that is now almost 20 inches long. I'm getting a ton of knitting out of one skein. I'm only about halfway through it.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2010 everyone! I'm very excited about the new year and new baby. This year will be seven years since my husband and I met, my 32nd birthday, our three year/two year anniversary (depends on which one you count), and we've been in our house for a year. So many great things happened so quickly.

Today we are all just chilling out at the house. The snow is falling gently outside and the temperature is about 22 degrees. Brr! We've been re-watching Star Wars with Laura and plan to see the new Harry Potter movie later on. Maegwin is being a super good baby as usual all snuggled up in her bunting. What makes a baby more perfect? Wrapping them in silk and cashmere I say!

Yesterday we went out to Mom's house and visited for a bit. Sadly our lack of foresight meant we all went without lunch. Maegwin actually handled the hour and a half car ride well until we hit the city limit of Urbana and then she started wailing. At least it was only a few minutes' drive to Mom's at that point and the poor thing hadn't eaten for three and a half hours since I was the last one to get a shower and get ready. We were also going to stop and see Dad but they had plans to go bowling at 4:30 and we didn't get out of the house as early as I wanted to so we had to nix that. Ah well, I'm sure we'll get out to his house soon.

I've finished about 12 inches on my scarf for Mom. It may not even be that belated of a Christmas gift after all. I'm getting an amazing amount of knitting done with a grandma who is motivated to hold her first grandbaby. :) I don't mind the break at all. If I can finish the scarf I might even get to my brother-in-law's socks. I have all of like two inches done on them so far.

This year I'm participating in a stashdown contest with a group on Ravelry called Yarn Snobs. I've been a member for a while now and really love the camraderie. The idea is that we track our yardage in and out-counting yarn in when we buy/receive it and yarn out when we finish a knitted object completely. There are prizes for most yardage out, best ratio, and zero yardage in. I'm not a huge yarn purchaser but I like the fun of tracking how much I actually knit. I think I'm getting a bit faster and it's nice to have concrete evidence of it. It is also helping motivate me to finish up some stalled projects. I have a pair of socks for me that I haven't worked on in months and I actually took them out the other day and started knitting on them again. We'll see how I do, so far so good though. I also weighed myself at Mom's last night and I'm within five pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight so I definitely want to start knitting some of the sweaters I had planned before I got pregnant. I was super happy to discover that though. My original goal was to be back in shape by the family reunion in August but I might be able to step that up a bit.

Hope you all have a restful and fun New Year's day!

Lovin' the Bum Genius

2009-12-28T13:06:00.000-08:00

We finally went through the two bags of newborn diapers we got from the baby shower. We had decided to wait until the meconium was done and Maegwin's umbilical cord had fallen off to start using our cloth diapers. She absolutely loves them! They fit her so much better than the disposables, she stays drier because we notice when she is wet, and diaper changes have become less of an ordeal. When we were using disposables and disposable wipes she would shriek the whole time we were changing her. Now we use the flannel or bamboo wipes and get a new diaper on her with a minimum of screaming. Plus she looks so darn cute in them!

We're using the Bum Genius one size and they are fitted right now for the smallest size. The website says it starts at eight pounds so I guess that is one advantage to having a big baby. We also got a diaper sprayer by mistake that hooks on to the toilet and that thing works like a charm. We just spray the diaper down after we change her and it gets everything off and into the toilet where it should be. I washed a load of diapers yesterday and they all came out very clean and smelled great. I so want to tell everyone to use them. They are not harder than disposable at all and so much nicer.

On the day after Christmas we took Maegwin in for another bilirubin check and this time her level was at 8.6. That was well within the normal range so we were allowed to stop using the biliblanket. We were so happy. We took her to the store and went all over with her in the Ergo carrier. We even used it at home so she could be close to us. I think she had really missed it. She hadn't been sleeping well with the umbilicus attached to her. I'm glad she got off of it in time to meet her grandpa although she wasn't too happy about it at first.

She chilled out later though and was cooing at him in no time.

I'm progressing well on my test knit. I love the yarn I'm using and the pattern was very easy to memorize. That's a good thing when I have to drop it at a moment's notice to attend to the demands of a newborn. (Really she is a good baby). I took a photo of it in one of my favorite Christmas presents this year-a hand thrown yarn bowl from Jennie the Potter that my mom got for me.

Isn't the color of the yarn amazing? That picture is more or less true to shade though it is a wee bit darker/richer.

Not a whole lot else going on...We're preparing for our visit with Mom & Laura from California. I think we might hit the zoo-they have a great light display that stays up until New Year's and the animals tend to come out more now than in the heat of summer. There are also some specialty exhibits that should be pretty neat.

Visited by the Christmas bat

2009-12-25T14:27:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up early (as usual) and began preparations for Christmas brunch. On the menu were cinnamon rolls, a frittata with mushrooms, peppers, and cheese, home fried potatos and stuff other people were bringing. I was running dishwater and looked over into the second sink where I saw something small, brown and fuzzy laying on the mat. My first thought was that it was a dead mouse. Having acreage can be a good thing but about this time of year the furry critters flock to warm areas to live out the winter. I understand the house looks rather warm and inviting. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was not a mouse but a bat...our second one in the house. Josh threw a measuring cup over it just in case it wasn't dead and as soon as he did it woke up and starting hissing and chirping. Good thing we had our previous encounter with a bat to know they look dead but often aren't. This time I remembered to take a picture for the blog.

We put him in Pyrex, Josh ran him outside, and then ran back upstairs. I watched the bat fly into our pine tree so hopefully he will stay there and eat insects like a good bat. I don't know how they are getting in. We assume it must either be through an opening in the old cellar stairs or coming in when the door is open at night. That would be mighty tricky though. It shall remain a mystery and I will think of him as our Christmas visitor bringing tidings of sugarplum vampires or something.

Christmas was nice and it was good to be hosting. We got to put our table to good use and everyone fit so nicely around it. Maegwin stayed asleep until I was done eating thank goodness. I hadn't had anything but a banana since waking up and I was pretty shaky by the time we got to sit down to eat at noon. I guess the whole perfectly balanced insulin thing didn't stick once the pregnancy was over. A shame, it was cool to be normal for a while. :) I'll take hypoglycemia over acne any day though. That's kind of sad, but true.

We managed to snap some photos of the family. We put Maegwin in a little snowman onesie with socks I knit for her and her little striped hat I knit her. She looked cute and waited to spit up on them until after all the pictures were taken. What a good baby! I only have two pictures of Maegwin and I since I tend to be the picture taker around here.

We also snapped one of all the ladies

My dad and stepmom are supposed to come up tomorrow. They haven't met the baby yet so I'm excited to see what they think.

Maegwin is doing well with the phototherapy. Her doctor called back and said her bilirubin level has dropped to 12 from 17 so we are set to get blood drawn tomorrow and if her level is below 10 we can stop the blanket treatment. I want her to get off of that before her other grandma comes out to meet her. I miss having my baby be portable. Oh, and when I went to get her blood drawn yesterday at Children's Hospital Home care they took two minutes from start to finish. She barely even woke up. I am planning to ask for referrals anytime she needs labwork because that other woman at our doctor's office is not going to draw her blood ever again. :P They were so nice at the outpatient center and obviously specializing in children helps a lot.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Biliblanket and the insurance craziness

2009-12-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

So after all the insurance hassle we added Maegwin to my policy for the rest of this year and will start fresh with Josh's policy next year. Hopefully that irons out all the kinks and is really better since I've paid most if not all of the deductible for this year and should be in the straight co-insurance portion of my plan.

The blanket was delivered around 2pm but unfortunately the smaller unit had no power cord. The guy had a larger unit in his truck and the cords were interchangeable but then the smaller one wouldn't stay on unless you held down the power button. It was pretty much par for the course yesterday. We ended up with the bigger one which made her much less portable. She seemed to be taking it all in stride though and spent a lot of the day in her swing quietly looking around.

She pondered her zebra for a good ten minutes, lifting her head in an effort to get closer.

I have been calling her Maegatron when she would kick very hard in utero and when she gets really fired up after being born. I thought it was funny that it looked like she was charging her power cells with the blanket on.

Today we take her back to get more blood drawn (not by the woman who did it before). We're going to an outpatient center that specializes in children so it should be faster and at least not so traumatic. If her levels are going down, we may not have to keep doing the blanket. It makes things very inconvenient for soothing her and for breastfeeding. It basically covers her entire chest from armpit to diaper area and there's a really long, thick cord that Josh and I have been calling "The Umbilicus".

I'm also a bit concerned about Einstein. He has growled at her several times today while she's been crying and had a very weird body posture I don't care for. I need to look up some more info on that. I love him very dearly but if it came down to it, I would rehome him if he can't adjust to the baby. The other two have been great with her, giving her kisses and sniffing her nicely. I guess time will tell.

Jaundice

2009-12-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Maegwin's bilirubin levels when we left the hospital weren't too alarming but the pediatrician on rounds told us to follow up with the doctor on Tuesday. Yesterday we bundled up the babe and headed out. She did well with the doctor but then she had a tech come in to draw blood. Now, I have nothing against phlebotomists (my sister is one) or techs but what is it about them having something to prove with blood draws? I'm what is known as a "difficult stick" so I have quite a bit of experience with this. My veins tend to roll away or collapse when doing blood work. Every time I go to get it done, I hear "Oh, I can always get a vein" or "I only have to stick once, don't worry". They then proceed to try veins, dig around, back out, bruise me, and finally after I am very pissed off and in pain get it. Or better yet, they start calling in all the different people in the office who are THE experts and I get to be stuck by multiple individuals. I know and understand this, I sort of accept it will happen. Unfortunately it seems wee Maegwin has inherited this trait from me. The tech proceeded to stick her heel twice, grab some blood, throw it out and get a fresh lancet (I have no clue why) and then spend an hour squeezing between two sticks on each heel to get half the amount of blood she needed. The doctor finally came in and said they could do it with what they had and made the tech stop. She couldn't believe we were still at it. By that point I was crying and Maegwin was into her not breathing crying. It was pretty awful and she slept so soundly it took forever to wake her up to nurse later that evening.

This morning I got the test results back and her levels have gone up seven points in two days. She has to use a biliblanket for some phototherapy and get bloodwork done every 24 hours until her levels stabilize or drop. I'm now waiting to hear if I have to go pick up the blanket or if it is going to be delivered. The doctor's office thought it was being delivered but the company called and told me they weren't in network for our insurance so we'd have to pay out of pocket but they could send it on to another company. I really don't care who gives me the thing, I just want to get started. I'm pretty stressed out about it and worried. She doesn't look anymore jaundiced to me so I can't believe her levels shot up that much. She's still nursing well, making the amount of diapers she should, and has a lot of alert moments so none of the super lethargic behavior we were warned about. I snapped a pic of her yesterday in her little onesie. I swear those are the cutest garments ever.

In non baby news, I was selected to test knit a new project from Susan Pandorf of the A Few Stitches Short of a Full Row blog. I'm really excited about it. The pattern is called Taliesin and it is a buttonable scarf. I'm planning to use a really pretty yarn from Shibui that is 100% baby alpaca in a deep blue. No clue yet what I'll do for buttons but it is going to be really pretty.

Baby Maegwin is here

2009-12-19T09:15:00.000-08:00

So our little baby finally arrived with some serious help. I was due the 11th and my doctor finally scheduled an induction for yesterday. We came to the hospital at 6am and then the nurses stuck me three times trying to get an IV in. I have small veins so I knew I would have trouble but I hate when everyone thinks "they can do it" and insists on trying. They finally called in an anaesthesiology nurse who was supposed to numb me. She came in and started prepping a needle and my husband was like "Aren't you going to numb her first?" and she said "I only plan on sticking her once. I'm going to get this IV in." Bless his heart he said, "Well I'm sure all the other nurses thought that too so why don't you just give her the lidocaine." She gave him the nastiest look but I was really crying at this point since they had blown two of my veins in both hands so I had swelling and we weren't even started yet. She numbed me, got in the IV and then they almost lost it again trying to draw blood from it. I told them to just take it from my elbow like normal, I'd rather have another stick then have to find another suitable IV vein.

My doctor showed up at about 7am expecting me to be started but the nurses hadn't even started my pitocin yet. I could tell he was not pleased. They immediately got me going with that and I was ok until about 11ish when the contractions started coming on pretty hard. Normally I'm not so bad at dealing with pain but this sucked. They gave me some narcotic since I wasn't dilated enough to get my epidural yet. It helped a bit but mostly just for relaxing between contractions, not for the pain itself. By the time I could get the epidural they told me I had to have 1.5 bags of saline first. I was sort of irritated that I didn't know that right off the bat so ladies, if you plan to get one, make sure to tell them to up your IV right from the start. Sitting up for it when having really bad contractions was horrid. :P

I was able to go to sleep/rest until about 5pm when they came back to check on me. At that point I was at 10cm and it was time to push. At first pushing was ok, but I developed a hot spot because the baby was on my sciatic nerve so my whole left leg and hip felt like it was on fire. That got steadily worse throughout and I pushed every four minutes or so until 7:05. I got the head out with the help of a very fast episiotomy but her shoulders got stuck in my pelvis so they had to dislocate one to get her out. Again, NOT fun. She had a bowel movement during the head/shoulder thing so they whisked her away and there were a few very nervous moments there where I didn't know what was going on. I was really out of it but it felt good to get her off that nerve. They suctioned her out, took her scores, and she was pinking up nicely.

End result:

Maegwin Elizabeth
height: 21.5 inches
weight: 9 lbs 3.9 ounces (the doctor on call said if she had been 4 ounces instead of 3.9 I wouldn't have been able to have her naturally-she is literally the biggest baby I am capable of having)

Totally worth it. :) She is already a champion nurser and latched on perfectly the first time once we were in the room and she had a chance to calm down. It snowed non-stop here last night so I'm glad we got to the hospital before that started. We are both very happy and proud parents. I guess if we do this again they will monitor me more closely by ultrasound for size so the baby doesn't get that big again.

Tomorrow's the day

2009-12-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

Well since our wee babe doesn't want to come out on her own, we're going to make her come out. We're going in to be induced tomorrow morning at 6am so hopefully if all goes well our little baby will be with us by the mid to late afternoon. Bags are packed, Mom is coming up to kennel the dogs, all should be well. The only thing not ready is my hospital knitting. I'll probably take the pair of socks I've been trying to finish up and the present I'm working on for Gwen. I made a pair for myself and I love the pattern so much that I want to make them for her and my mom. I'm using two different fibers so it should be fun to see how it changes things. Mine match my cowl and hat I made. It's nice to have a set!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can. We aren't bringing the laptop so we won't have a way to interface the camera. The hospital posts pictures up though so I'll link to that. If Josh comes home I'll have him upload to Flickr. Everyone cross your fingers! I hope this goes as easily/quickly as it can.

Still nothing

2009-12-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

No baby yet. She's active in there but not coming out. We're getting calls from the family all the time asking if we're in labor. I had one contraction this morning I think. It felt stronger than the Braxton Hicks I've had in the past but no more have happened since then. We're planning to go out shopping a bit later today for a White Elephant gift for the gift exchange at my work tomorrow so maybe the walking will help. Yes, I know the whole concept of the white elephant is to regift something but I don't have anything I want to do that with other than some baby clothes. Obviously that wouldn't work for most of my co-workers. That and Josh and I love Cost Plus. It is such a fun store and they always have new things to look at.

I finished up a very cute hat that we're going to use to take Christmas pictures with Maegwin. It's the Candy Cane hat from Itty-Bitty Hats. I think it turned out really cute and is just waiting for a cute baby noggin to place it on.

I might knit some matching baby mittens since I still have lots of the cream colored yarn leftover. I'm debating between that or legwarmers with stripes. I'm just not sure I have enough of the red to do them. They'd be super cute though and keep her legs warm while not getting in the way of diaper changes.

We're volunteering for the Salvation Army on Monday to pass out toys and food to families. Last year I made it in the paper while sorting canned food. If the baby isn't here I'll be there. I guess it can be her first volunteering experience. hehe

No news yet

2009-12-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

So here we are-the official due date. No contractions yet. I'm on an oral steroid to get rid of the poison oak which decided to start popping up everywhere. I have patches on my knees, back, elbows, legs, etc. It was pretty awful for the last several days. I've been able to wake myself up rather than itching it but this means I get even less sleep now than I was before. According to my doctor the steroids should be relatively safe for the baby since all her organ forming is done but I still feel awful about having to take medicine while I'm pregnant. Mommy is sorry she helped Daddy clean out the brush, Maegwin. You will learn I am a person who can't sit still and wants to be doing things. :p Stupid city code and making us clean it all out when I'm pregnant.

We had our work Christmas party last night but I could only stay for about two hours. There weren't places to sit so by that point I could actually feel my ankles ballooning up and my shins hurt. Of course, tons of meat but light on anything veggie there so I had to mostly eat when I got home anyway. Good desserts though and it was nice to chat a bit with my co-workers.

That crazy storm that made its way across the country hit us on Wednesday and brought tons of wind and COLD! We are loving our geothermal more than ever now that we can keep the house a relatively balmy 65 degrees. If you haven't read earlier posts, go back to last winter...you'll know what I mean. I don't have to dress like I'm going on an arctic trek inside the house now. I'm sure the dogs appreciate having freedom of movement too. Last year they spent most of the time shoved in the end of a sleeping bag together like portable foot warmers. They still seek out blankets of course to lay under but when they are out playing or exploring they aren't shivering. Always a good thing. My next knitting project is to make a draft blocking bolster for our back door. It's pretty and matches the wood but it doesn't go all the way to the floor. We have weather stripping but last year we saw some ice on it so it can only do so much. Right now we've wrapped a towel around one of my yoga mats which works as a temporary solution but I want something more permanent and more wooly and insulating back there.

I'm also kinda stuffy and thinking about staying home today because hello! I'm posting at 4:30 in the morning and have been up since 2 am. Sigh. I'm knitting on a Candy Cane hat for the baby with scraps from recently completed handwarmers plus a ball of ivory merino/silk that I got at the Knitters' Connection show in my goody bag. It's from the Itty-Bitty Hats book which I love. I totally adore Susan Anderson's designs. I have all her books with the exception of her new one, Itty-Bitty Toys which is winging its way to me even as I type. She has such fun and creative ideas and her blog is one of my favorites to read. Even if you don't knit, she will inspire you to want to craft something with her energy and ideas.

Oh, a huge shout out to my friend Gwen who is returning to the corporate world after being laid off from the company I left to move to Ohio. I'm sure I would have been in one round or another of layoffs had I stayed. She's still working on getting her yarn venture in the black and I really love her stuff so hopefully she can do both. I've been coveting this skein of yarn for a while and trying to think up reasons why I should order it:

Seriously though, go check out her shop here and tell me she isn't talented.

Wow this post is seriously lacking in photos. Maybe I'll post more later when I'm more awake.

Busy busy!

2009-12-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

I finished two projects yesterday! We watched the new Terminator movie and the Star Trek movie and I knit away. My first was a pair of Fetching handwarmers from Knitty.com. Pattern can be found here. I've made a few pairs of these and they never disappoint me. These were made with RYC Cashsoft Aran, a super soft washable blend of merino, cashmere, and microfiber. I'm working on a hat to match them in Louet Gems Bulky that I got in a goodie bag from the Knitters Connection show.

They will be a Christmas present for someone, not sure who yet but probably my sister.

I also finished up a very cute baby hat. The pattern is the Swirl Hat by SheepyTime knits. Ravelry link here. I had some leftover Handmaiden Casbah yarn from some socks I made. It's a super soft Cashmere merino blend. The socks I made from it are my favorite pair-very warm and cozy so I think a hat will be great. Maegwin can be spoiled by luxury fibers from birth.

I have a vacation day today so hopefully I can finish straightening up the house. We've been trying to keep things more tidy since we don't know when I will go into labor and don't want to leave things a mess for days and come back to that when I'm unable to clean. Typically we just do this on the weekends. I've been waiting for the nesting instinct to kick in and give me all that energy but no luck yet. :P

No rest for the wicked

2009-12-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

I woke up last night about 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I have a rash on my left arm that looks and acts suspiciously like poison ivy. We got a notice from the city that we had to clear out some brush next to our driveway two weeks ago so over the long weekend we got out there and did it. Josh mowed over it and I cleared all the stuff the mower didn't get. I'm thinking I must have got into something then. I'm using some stuff called Zanafel that actually works pretty well but overnight I wake up to me itching it. I'm also taking Benadryl but obviously can't do that during work because it makes me sleepy. Hopefully I can get in to the doctor on Monday to see if I can get it cleared up before I go into labor. I can only imagine having to lay in bed for hours after getting my epidural and having to concentrate on not itching. :p So I was up until 5:30 knitting on a baby hat. It was COLD last night. The temperature got down to 12 degrees according to our thermostat and I guess we've learned the limitations of our geothermal because it couldn't keep up with the temperature we wanted. No big deal, it has an auxiliary heater for just such an occasion! We just had to set the default to be at 20 degrees instead of 5 degrees. It's already warming back up in here and I still think we will see way better performance than last year with our old horrid gas furnace.

We had a bit of excitement on Friday night. I was driving home and saw these huge wheeling, circling black clouds around the highway. At first I thought they were oddly behaving flocks of birds but then realized they were bats...thousands of bats. So I got to the house and we were just settling down to watch some Will & Grace episodes that had arrived when I saw something swooping down in the kitchen. A bat had followed me in the house! We quickly herded the dogs into their cage so we could have the doors open and give him a chance to fly out. No go, he just flapped and dive bombed around and then disappeared. We closed off the upstairs and bedroom and began our search of the house to find him. Josh wielded a broom and I, a Maglite. We methodically searched high and low but no sign of our batty friend. Finally just as we thought he might actually have gone outside, Josh spotted him in the living room and gave him a whack with the broom. Then we couldn't find him again. We searched in the general trajectory his body would have to have gone but to no avail. We had given up again thinking that he had eluded us and made for the door so I started putting away piles of laundry that were on the coffee table. I moved Josh's pile of clothes and heard a hissing. There was the little bat, wings spread out and perched atop my Victoria's Secret catalog. He seemed a little dazed but otherwise unharmed. Josh tried to get him with a handkerchief but he bared his teeth and wing flapped so we got a bowl and a trusty D&D Players' Handbook. After he was thus entrapped Josh took him out back, flung him away and ran for it back to the house. There was no sign of him the following morning so he either dragged himself away, flew away, or was eaten. Of course after he put him out I thought darn, I should have taken pictures for the blog. He was kind of cute in that freaky sort of bat way.

I've been working diligently on Christmas knitting and baby knitting. I'm almost done with a pair of hand warmers and need to work up the coordinating hat. I also finished another pair of baby socks though these will probably fit when Maegwin is a little older since they are longer than the newborn ones I have knit.

We have some progress in the slow and painful slog towards labor. I've dilated a bit and mostly effaced and the wee babe is head down and engaged. I was having random contractions last week but those seem to have tapered off more or less though I do feel a bit crampy this morning. Josh and I are both just anxious to meet her. I organized all the changing stuff yesterday into some bins and it looks really nice. Mom bought us some more Bum Genius diapers. Yay, Mom! We have 25 now so that should be ok until I need to start dropping her off at daycare. While I'm at home I can do laundry more often. They are a bit pricey up front but totally worth it. We also got some flannel and bamboo baby wipes so we can see which we like better. They are both pretty soft. A diaper sprayer came accidentally though I'd thought about buying it a few times so we just called them and had them charge us for it. We also got a pretty cool diaper pail. It has a washable liner (we got a spare), a place to put a carbon filter in the top, and a place to put deodorizing discs in it. I'm so happy to have found the Cotton Babies website and that cloth diapering has become so much easier. I read something the other day that I found disturbing. A disposable diaper takes 100 years to biodegrade so if you think about it, every single disposable diaper that has ever been used on a child is still out there. Mind boggling...

Two more weeks...please?

2009-11-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

Roughly two more weeks until the due date. Maegwin seems to have no interest in preparing for her life at large. She is head down but happily floating there. No dilating..no effacing. At least on the bright side I know doctors won't let you go more than two weeks past the due date anymore but that would put a damper on the holiday plans. We have Mom coming out on Christmas with the family here, Dad coming out the day after Christmas and then Mom #2 and Laura coming out for New Year's. I'd like some time to at least get into a little bit of a routine before then (or at least be home from the hospital :p) Ok, the fact that she is gigantic and crushing my lungs isn't helping either. The doctor estimates she will be between 7.5 and 8 pounds. I was secretly hoping for a smaller baby so that she would be a)easier to push out and b)stay tiny and cute for a little longer. Oh well, as long as she is healthy we will both be very happy.

In other news we found out at Planck's vet appointment last week that he has developed a bit of a heart murmur. Nothing too serious yet the vet says but they want to do some baseline testing so they can compare against it. Apparently it is common in the smaller dogs and many live for years without any effect. He has actually been more playful and active the last year or so than he was when we got him so I'm not too worried. I was very sad that day though and kept feeling the need to cuddle him constantly. I hope he is still with us for a very long time. I've never met such a mild mannered, sweet dog and I've had a ton in my lifetime. Never have I seen a dog so happy to occupy the bottom rung in the pack.

Things are pretty much ready for the baby to get here. We have the basinette set up. I even laid out the really pretty bunting my mom made in it. She is going to be so warm and comfy in that thing.

The last thing left to get is diapers which Mom is going to order tomorrow! My co-workers were kind enough to do a collection for me and got enough money to buy two things off my registry! We were so pleased. They got us the Ergo carrier (which Josh has already practiced strapping on with Planck playing the part of the baby) and the stroller base for our car seat. Yay! We also purchased a second car finally. We bought a 2010 Toyota Prius and boy do we love it. It took a while for them to locate a blue one but it was totally worth the wait. As Josh says, it's never been so much fun to drive the speed limit. We're averaging about 50 mpg highway and about 55 mpg city. Sometimes we can get it to go up to 100 mpg when we're running mostly on electric. It is amazingly roomy as well. It will be interesting to see how much overall our gasoline consumption goes down. Even though we now commute separately, we're using it for all our errands and weekend driving which is honestly where we tend to use the gas most.

I've been knitting mostly on Christmas things. I have finished up another pair of socks for Maegwin though. They are made of the same yarn as a pair I have. I'm hoping to get a photo of us both wearing them together. To give an idea of scale, Josh modeled them on his toes for me.

I'm hoping to whip up a few hats before she gets here. We had our first snow today-a gentle reminder of things to come.

I attended my last Stamp Camp sans baby and I was really pleased with how my cards came out this time. I'm excited to send everyone their Christmas cards this year. Here are a few of my favs:

Tomorrow we're doing the annual post-Thanksgiving yarn crawl. My mom, aunt, and I all go to as many local yarn shops as we can hit in one day. It should be fun though I probably will buy very little if anything. Yeah, I did buy a Prius...that's like my yarn budget for the next several years out there. Not to mention along with the baby coming is the reduced pay coming. It's totally worth it though to be home with her for at least a little while.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

T-minus three weeks and counting

2009-11-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

Woohoo 37 weeks! We're getting pretty anxious for baby Maegwin to get here. She's getting really strong in there and kicking me. Sometimes I can feel her bony little heel or foot pretty clearly. We're almost prepared, basically we just need diapers. We're going to use disposable diapers for at least the first week or two since I don't want to ruin nice ones with the icky stuff. That gives us a bit more leeway on building up the Bum Genius stash. So far we have seven. All my co-workers had a shower for me and got us the Ergo baby carrier and the stroller frame to go with our car seat. I was really surprised. It was so generous of all of them. I'll miss them all while I'm out. One of my co-workers, Chris, also was purging baby stuff from his baby who is now two. We scored a swing, playmat, and cart liner for $50. I was very happy since we needed a swing and the playmat is really neat with lots of interactive things for when she is a bit older. The basinette came from Josh's family along with a tiny De La Salle sweatshirt that Josh was very happy about.

Lately I've been on a bit of a baking kick. As the weather starts to turn cooler I get excited about firing up the oven more often without worrying about it making the house too hot. I'm really into the bread making and Josh has been enjoying the fruits of my labors. I've tried whole wheat and a wheat blend loaf. I like them both and am going to try adding in some milk and honey to the next one to get a more sandwich bread kind of consistency. I also made cinnamon rolls which oddly are really easy. No more Pillsbury dough in a can or Cinnabons! I know, I know, *yawn* where are the pictures!? Well I documented my cinnamon roll making journey in steps. I used the food processor with the dough attachment to mix everything together and then rolled it out on the island (I'm better at this now and have since figured out that my silicone baking mat is awesome for dough rolling).

Once they were rolled out came the fun part. I slathered some butter on there and then coated the dough with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. I think the cardamom is the secret. It's such a neglected spice but it has an amazing flavor and just wants to be loved.

Note, the sun is now coming up in this picture. I'm glad my marble rolling pin made it in there. I love that thing. Anyone who wants to work with dough-spring for the marble, it is worth every penny! Nuts you say? Say no more!

Mmm, pecans...Then I rolled it all up and threw them into my beloved springform pan. Again, go for the glass bottom one. People always comment on it and it makes nice presentations.

And finally the icing. I made a double recipe and scraped out some vanilla from the beans we had to put in it.

Josh pronounced them the best cinnamon rolls he had ever eaten.

I'll have to post more later today, Planck has a vet appointment. We are also invited to an OSU vs. Michigan party. Now, I hate football or rather I am extremely indifferent to it. I'm treating this as more of a sociological experiment where I will observe the behavior of others. I'm just hoping a few people there will not be into the game and will talk to me. It is with all of Josh's co-workers so I don't know anyone. Otherwise, I'm packing some knitting so I can at least finish up some socks.

My first baby's birthday

2009-10-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the birthday of a very special little man in my life-Einstein! 11 years ago he was born in a wood box in Stone Bluff, Indiana. A tiny scrap of a thing, weighing in at 1.5 pounds, he and his brothers and sisters were an accident litter. His mom and dad were both champion rat terrier show dogs but his dad got loose just after his mom had a litter and got her pregnant again. Sadly she was so calcium deficient she couldn't produce milk for his litter so he was bottle fed. Around the same time, the older couple who raised the dogs had a family tragedy where the husband found out he had cancer. They knew they wouldn't be able to devote the time they needed to the new pups so they sent out a call for people who could raise them. That is when I went and got my little Einy.

Through the years he has seen me through all the good and bad times of my adult life. We've lived on crackers and mustard for a while, lived in three different states, moved to countless apartments, had four dogs join/leave his pack. He's a good boy and I love him like no other. He's not so spry as he once was but he still can have spurts of puppy-like energy after a bath, when excited, or when doing naughty things with his stuffed Shamu.

Happy birthday Boo Boo!

Baby shower & more

2009-10-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I had a baby shower hosted by my mom and sister. I went down early to make sure that I could help out with the set up and had a very nice phone conversation with Dad on the way. He was busy shutting down an exit for a motorcycle parade or he said he would have pulled me over to talk to me. It probably would have scared me except I would have heard him talking at the same time I heard it outside, but alas he was too busy. My friend Michelle drove down with me and volunteered to help take photos. She was great.

We had quite a bit of food made by my mom and Pam and a pretty cake made by a friend of Pam's.

Everyone was very generous in the gifting for Maegwin.

We played a few shower games-one that had questions about nursery rhymes, one on naming baby animals. Missy had planned a guess who this baby picture belongs to game but people had to start leaving fairly quickly after the eating so I settled in to unwrap. My niece Chelsea was my fabulous helper in taking the gifts and moving them over to another table as I unwrapped them.

First up-the gifts from the knitters and crocheters in the family. My aunt Lynn crocheted me three blankets, some booties, and some bibs.

My sister knit me a blanket consisting entirely of yarn she had dyed herself! She hasn't made that many things so I was super proud of her and I love it.

My mom made me a fleece blanket with a silky edging that matches the nursery colors. She has also knit me a flower petal hat which I need to get photos of and a baby bunting which I'm super excited to get.

Then there was a slew of clothes in every imaginable shade of pink. Some of my favs were the organic cotton sleeper from my mom, the cute onesie and jeans from my old hairdresser Lori, the frog & duckie sleepers, and the Boppy pillow. Too many photos to put up here or this post will take forever to load. I set up an album here so you can check out all the baby goodness.

I've been busy the last few weeks with baking and holiday type things. I got into making bread and it is ridiculously easy! The kind I make can be refrigerated, takes about 15 minutes of prep time on the weekend and the rest is just letting the dough rise or rest. The dough can be refrigerated up to two weeks and you just cut off what you need and form a loaf, let that rise for forty minutes, then pop it in the oven for 30 minutes. Bam! Fresh bread every day. Josh and I are enchanted. Here's my first loaf I made which I thought looked pretty impressive.

I also made marshmallows for a cookies & candies contest at my work and I won a $10 Panera gift card!

I made some pumpkin black bean soup that turned out well also. We have been experimenting with seasonal cooking, trying to make dishes that would utilize the type of produce we would be pulling from our garden at a given time. We figure that way we will be ready for next year when we can keep the critters out and expect a better harvest. We're trying to decide if growing pumpkins and other squash is worth it. I think it is and that we can definitely use them, especially since they keep for so long. The thing I love about squash is that they are so pretty you can use them to decorate your house and then pull one as you need it to eat and it is so easy to prepare. I think Maegwin will really like having some butternut squash and such next winter when she's starting to get into solid foods.

Josh has been busy putting out our winter cover-a mixture of winter rye, vetch, and austrian winter pea. We covered over all the plots with straw and I think it looks quite autumnal.

We got them done just before sundown which happens just after 6:30 now anyway. It was fun teaching Josh how to spread a flake of straw and what a flake was. He also poured the foundation for two of our brick compost bins that will be built in spring. All the quickcrete bags weigh 60 lbs each so I couldn't help him with all the hauling, but in big strong man style he got all 24 out there then dug tons of post holes and the foundation before mixing and pouring.

I've been working on some knitting. I'm currently making a sweater called Presto Chango that has a detachable front panel as seen here. Mine is in yummy Blue Sky Organic Cotton in a colorway called Circus Peanut. It totally reminds me of those circus peanut candies and is aptly named.

I also finished up a hat for Josh for his birthday out of Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply. It is super soft and I have enough to make a matching stocking cap for Maegwin. Josh really liked that idea so I'll probably whip one up soon.

I took off work early today to get my H1N1 shot at a public health clinic. We got there forty minutes after it opened and they were already over capacity for how many shots they had. I'm starting to lose hope that I'll be able to get one before Maegwin is born which freaks me out a bit. I'll just have to keep trying but I can't afford to take time off to go possibly stand in line to maybe get a shot. Hopefully there will be more soon. So much for being in a priority group.

Winterize!

2009-10-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Things have been super busy at Le Chateau. Many of those home maintenance projects on our list are slowly making their way back off of it again. It has put us a bit thin on funds but I am very happy with how things have turned out and everything definitely needed to be done. First, we had our back porch roof redone and new gutters put on. The shingles on there were literally rotting and peeling off and the gutters were hanging oddly as well as not actually collecting any water.

I think this picture sort of gives an idea of the oddness. Note the exposed tar paper going from the slate to the flat part also. Shingles are not the right solution at all for this kind of roof since the pitch is so slight. We opted to go with a material called EPDM. It has a much longer life than shingles, is less environmentally impactful, and is a fully adhered rubber product so perfect for this type of roof. Amazingly the guys that did it (TDS2 Roofing for the locals) got it all done in one day!

First they stripped off all the shingles and cut out some of the bad wood. They couldn't find tongue & groove wood like ours so they just put in boards (I wouldn't have expected them to be able to considering they are the original woodwork).

This revealed some of the shall we say "interesting" patchwork that had happened over the years. I thought it was cool to watch them sawing. hehe

Then they hung the gutters and put down a nice decking layer over everything and put the EPDM on. I have to say, it looks a million times better and we had rain for a few days during which I didn't see a downpour of water coming out the side of the gutters. Yay! There are already a million leaves in the gutters though. We need to buy a ladder so we can get up there and clean them. The roofers also suggested a product called gutter brush that is like a huge brush that sits inside the gutters and lets water through but keeps anything solid from going down in them. We have to see where we can buy it but I definitely want it.

Our next project we tackled is getting the house scraped and painted. When we moved in supposedly the prior owners had just had the painting done. Well they didn't have it scraped or primed and only one coat was put on so it is already peeling and looking like total crap. The guys have been out a few times doing scraping and putting primer on the wood. It's all the old wood siding so they can't power wash it (did you know that wood in 1900 wasn't pressure treated?). They did a good job matching the yellow with the sample and it will be a relief to know the paint is in good shape going into winter.

We also had a wine, cheese, and chocolate party last weekend. Originally, we invited all of Josh's co-workers but only one of them showed up. I invited mine after he did but only two of them showed up. There was an OSU game that day of which we were happily oblivious so I think that is why we had such poor turnout. We spent all day cleaning up the house (I cleaned ALL the wood-a monumental task)

Josh arranged some flowers

and I even got all gussied up for the occasion as much as my limited maternity wardrobe would allow.

We had a good spread! Of course we had some antipasti-oil cured black olives, almond stuffed green olives, marinated garlic cloves, and marinated mushrooms. For cheeses we had an herb wrapped goat cheese, a medium cheese with black truffles, two kinds of brie, smoked mozarella with shaved chocolate, & Perano served with four kinds of water crackers, french bread, and Highland Oatcakes. For chocolate we had a honey & caramel milk chocolate, Toblerone, a dark chocolate with sea salt, a dark chocolate with earl grey tea, a dark chocolate with green tea, and marzipan as a palate cleanser. I think everything looked great on our new table and the table runner we found matches really well with our walls.

We had two types of organic wine, a white and a red. I can't recall the names of them since I didn't actually drink any. :( I wanted to but I was good. Even with the small guest list, the party was a great success. We played Apples to Apples and things wrapped up around 11pm. We want to start having a monthly board game night once the baby is born. Maybe when Mom wants to have Maegwin over...

Josh has been busy turning over all our garden plots this week and prepping them for the winter cover crop, a mixture of hairy vetch, winter rye, and austrian winter pea. We got two bales of straw to put out to insulate once the seeds are down. He's also going to try to pour the concrete foundation for our compost bins we will build in the spring. I have my baby shower on Sunday and Saturday we have our birthing classes. It should be a busy weekend!

We have already begun to receive baby gifts from the family in California. All the great aunts, uncles, and grandparents went together to buy us the crib we registered for. Josh put it together after some minor setbacks...

Einstein checked out the other baby goodies while he worked and I think he is convinced the baby tub must be for him. Oh the rude awakening that shall come!

My poor little boy, he's getting too old for this.
After getting it together we realized we have no sheets and I didn't register for any. Oops! We also got the car seat, extra base, food mill, bath thermometer, and baby food puree recipe book from Mom & Kevin in California. Hopefully after the shower this weekend we shouldn't have a ton more to buy. My mom asked what we wanted and I told her diapers. Not glamorous I know, but we will use them everyday and think of her. Plus though Bum Genius are cheaper over the life of the baby it is certainly a bigger up front outlay of cash. More after Sunday!

Wool Gathering

2009-09-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I attended the Wool Gathering in Yellow Springs for the second year. My aunt, mom, sister, and niece went along. We met up at 9:30ish...(I was there, but they were late-my sister has a thing for perpetual tardiness) for breakfast at the restaurant conveniently located on the same site. I had sweet potato bread french toast and a scrambled egg. Sadly, no veggie sausage was to be had. It was really good but the bread was so sweet it felt more like a dessert than a meal. I brought some yarn to Mom that she had ordered for a baby bunting. Mmm super soft Sublime cashmerino silk aran. Two nice ladies saw me with the bag of yarn and were like "Oh my god! Is the Wool Gathering open already???" I laughed and said no I brought it. Ah, Knitters...we are an anxious lot when there is fiber to be had so near yet so far.

Having grabbed sustenance, we headed over to the festival. One of the coolest things about it is that there are lots of demonstrations. The first we watched was of herding dogs. The particular one there was herding ducks. I had no idea one even could herd ducks.

That dog pushed them through tunnels, over bridges, into pools. It was amazing. The ducks were really pretty too-a solid black iridescent color. I tried to capture it and I think you can see a bit of it in this photo.

Next we went to a demonstration of the Australian sheep shearing method. They try to take off the fleece all in one piece. The man said that this is now the preferred method of shearing. All work is done with the legs to hold the lamb. Hands are only needed to turn them to keep the fleece moving around in a spiral pattern.

Here he shows that as long as you don't let the lamb's feet touch the ground, they will lay there as long as you want. It almost looks like he has the lamb's head on a small fleece pillow.

I also learned why sheep are sheared in the winter. I often wondered about this as a child since their wool is so warm it seemed cruel to shear them. Apparently though, sheep tend to give birth in the winter. Having them sheared not only makes birth less messy (no sticky wool), but also exposes their body heat to their new lambs. If the mother still had her wool, the baby would not be able to share any of it since wool is inherently insulating. Cool, huh?

After learning all this, it was time to shop! Unfortunately the Wool Gathering is extremely fiber-centric versus yarn-centric...ok maybe not unfortunate since I didn't want to buy a lot and I don't know how to spin. My sister and niece learned how to use a drop spindle and I bought Sarah a tiny roving ball to practice with. She wanted a large sparkly red one but I told her she needed to get good at it first and then she could have more. We'll see if she sticks with it. I felt like I was nicely restrained in my buying and everything I bought has a plan for it. Behold, my purchases!

Going clockwise from the upper left: Debbie Bliss fall 2009 issue, Interweave Holiday Knits 2007 (huge score! I got this for $1 and have regretted not buying it since that time), Jared Flood's new pattern booklet Made in Brooklyn, Casbah sock yarn (socks for me), Jojoland Melody (socks for Mom), Creatively Dyed yarn in Midnight (for socks for my brother-in-law), a huge skein of organic cotton boucle (destined to be a ribbed couch pillow with some nice wooden buttons), a felted pumpkin because really, who could resist him?

I also went to Heavenly Creations on the way home. Sadly this is one of the local yarn stores that is closing. I always hate to see it happen but there were good deals to be had and I didn't even spend all the cash I had set aside for the Wool Gathering. Everything was 30% off so I stocked up on some issues of magazines I didn't have along with some yarn for a sweater. Here's what I bought there:

Issues of Knit Simple and Knit.1, 8 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in a nice tweedy green, 2 skeins of Panda Silk DK, and the book Custom Knits. I have no idea why I never looked at this book before. There is a ton of useful information about customizing sweaters to fit along with some really beautiful patterns. The yarn I got was for one of the sweaters in there. I can't wait until I get the baby weight off so I can enjoy making sweaters for myself again. It seems a waste to put a ton of time into it right now since I only have three months left, but I might change my mind once it starts getting colder and I can't button/zip my stupid coat up.

On Friday we made some big household purchases which I think are the last ones we need. That's right boys and girls, we bought tables!! We've had our eye on a dining set from Cost Plus for a while and thought if we ever saw it on sale we were getting it. I believe we're hosting Thanksgiving this year so we knew we had to at least purchase by November. If you noticed the lovely wood grain texture in the yarn photos above, you were observing the surface of our brand new pub table:

I love having more places to sit. I only add this photo for posterity so here I am, 28 weeks pregnant, acne and all. sigh...that better go away after the baby :P Bless Josh's heart, he still came up and pretended to hit on me like we were at a bar. hehe Ok, ok, here's one without the prego lady:

Only one chair there so far because the other one had a broken cross piece in the box so we have to exchange it today. The table can be lowered to normal table height if we want and then our dining room chairs can be used with it instead. We both love how nice it looks with all the wood in the kitchen. We also bought the matching dining room table that comes with four chairs and a bench that we think will probably seat three comfortably. We don't have it set up yet since we have to do some desk rearranging for that to happen. We're not quite ready to move our computers upstairs yet since it is still a bit toasty up there and we can't afford to have vents put up there until next spring. I think once the weather starts to cool though it will be nice up there since the heat rises from the first floor. Here's the photo from the website though-I'll update once I have pictures of ours.

Only 12 more weeks until baby Maegwin could be here!

Fall gardening

2009-09-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

So Friday night I came home and had terrible heartburn. I thought nothing of it, took a Zantac, and went to bed early. About 3 am I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose. NOOOOOO!!!! My first pregnancy sickness-I was kind of hoping to avoid it, compromised immune system be damned. It seems like it is just a run of the mill cold. I spent most of Saturday alternately sleeping and working on my mystery sock designed by Nancy Bush for the SKA group I'm part of. I really like it. Plus, I got to learn how to do a vikkel braid at 5 am Saturday morning rather than feeling sorry for myself at not being able to sleep. It is progressing quite nicely.

The yarn I'm using for it is called Crystal Palace Panda Soy and is a mix of bamboo, soy, and elastic. It is sooo soft and will make great summer socks I think.

The sad thing is Josh and I bought tons of mums and coneflowers to put in this weekend for fall color and to get them established before winter. It's pretty amazing all the colors that coneflowers come in now. Here are a few of my favs that we picked up:

This one reminds me of a sunset or a ripened peach skin. I believe it is called Big Sky Sundown. The one in the background is a sort of candy pink color that I also love.

This one is called Fatal Attraction. It's a very bright magenta color. In the background you can see some of our mums but we mostly got ones without blooms so we could enjoy them at their proper time. This one was the only exception since we both loved the color of the blooms and none were unblossomed right now.

I hope I'll feel well enough today to at least help with the planting. We also got tulip bulbs and giant onions to put in. They get large round puffball like blooms that are purple.

I also finished a few pair of baby socks last week. One pair was for my co-worker's new baby, Emma. He asked if he could trade them in for a size up as she grows out of them. I thought, you know, that's not a half bad idea as Maegwin could then wear them. Re-use, right? Hers were in a sprinkle yarn dyed by my friend Gwen.

Maegwin's are in Jojoland Melody. I bought two skeins to make socks for me and started knitting them only to find that the first 60 yards of one ball was a completely different colorway. I had to rip those but luckily it worked out great for a pair of baby socks.

In other news, Josh and I have been watching a series from the Sundance Channel called EcoTrip all about the impact everyday items have on the environment, people, etc. Each episode is only 25 minutes long and I love that it is very fact based without making people feel like they need to give things up. In every single one they offer a responsible alternative. Some of the things covered are cotton, light bulbs, paper napkins, cell phones, and chocolate. A lot of it I knew, but some I didn't. It did make me feel really good about all the choices we make though, like I'm not just a crazy tree hugger. I'd love if they did one on disposable diapers. Someone at work made a comment that the environment can take it and I said that's not true but left it at that. We plan to use the Bum Genius all-in-one cloth diapers for Maegwin and already have some. They are so cool! My mom even thought they were pretty neat and Josh spent some time playing around with them and took one in to work to show his co-workers who were asking about them. If I can do my part to not add to the 18 billion diapers thrown in landfills every year then I don't mind a little more work. Ok, ok off my soapbox and off to plant flowers.