ABC

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

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

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

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

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

Easter recap

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

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!