Some pics

Here are some random pics from the past couple weeks.

The yarn I got with a gift certificate for my birthday! YARN! My plan is socks for me with the purple, and several pairs of striped legwarmers for Katy with the rest.

A rough weekend

What could be worse than taking care of a toddler with a stomach bug, who's vomiting and having diarrhea? How about taking care of a toddler with a stomach bug when both you and your spouse also have stomach bugs?

I guess this was a right of passage for all three of us. And we cheated by asking Gabby and Pop (the grandparents formerly known as Grammy and G-Pop) to take Katy off our hands today since she was feeling better and we were still in bad shape. I don't know how we could have gotten through today without them. I can't believe that my family went through a similar stomach bug when I was a newborn, with no family around to help and three kids to worry about. Now that's hard core.

I think we are finally finished actually getting sick, but now it's just dealing with that drained, dehydrated, beaten-to-a-pulp feeling.

Ski mask and... a Southpaw?

So, I'm trying to finish knitting this cute baby blanket for my friend Katie's baby, who is going to be born any second. I'm about one-fifth of the way done the blanket. Needless to say, I won't be finishing the blanket in time for the baby's birth, but I want to finish as soon as possible.

Suddenly, on Tuesday night, Zach holds up a folded bandana to his face and says, "It's going to be like 8 degrees when I go skiing with ski club on Friday. Can you knit me a wool face mask, shaped like a bandana, but with a nose hole?" WHAT?! Even if I weren't trying to knit this baby blanket... Even if I did have a pattern for a bandana-shaped face mask with nose hole... Even if I didn't have a million other things to do... How would I possibly have time to knit this thing in 2 nights? I would need to have it done by Thursday night so that he could take it with him Friday morning.

But the more we talked about it, I found myself designing it in my head, and I got excited. This could be my very first freestyle knitting project, designed by me! I threw down the baby blanket and ran up to my stash of wool. Zach and I picked out some chunky grey wool and I grabbed my size 10 needles and started right away. I never wrote down a thing, just knitted by intuition. I knitted as fast and as much as I could, by golly, here's the finished product. It's not going to win any beauty pageants, but my priority was function rather than form. (Incidentally, Zach is also wearing the HIDEOUS sweater I made him in these pictures.)

He's on his way home from the ski trip now, and texts me saying he stayed very warm, so... mission accomplished.

In other news, I have a sneaking suspicion that we're raising a Southpaw! Here are a couple pics where I caught her using her left hand.

I am really hoping that she does end up being left-handed, as left-handers tend to be extremely creative problem-solvers, and a whole bunch of other great stuff. Like her Uncle Jarrod and Aunt Kristen. :)

The Ox-Cart Man

Okay, parents. You know how there are those children's books that you LOVE to read to your child, but your child could care less about that book? (For me, it's The Lorax.) And then you know those other books? The ones your children ask you to read over and over even though it's the dumbest book ever? (Tubby and the Lantern, I'm looking at you!)

Well, our family has happened upon a book that all three of us really enjoy reading over and over. It's called The Ox-Cart Man. It's about a pre-industrial revolution family that works together to grow and make all their own food and supplies and then sells all the extras at the market. It's awesome, and you should read it.

That is all.

A New Meaning of the Word "Longies"

These longies took me over a month to knit. It's apalling. They are for my friend's daughter Morgan, who turned 2 last month. I hope they fit her!

And here are some pics of my little Doodles drinking from a cup and enjoying her oatmeal.

No more sippy cups for me! No, seriously, I refuse to ever use a sippy cup again, under any circumstances.

I love my oatmeal! Mommy got the recipe from Owen's mommy. It's oatmeal made with almond milk, and raisins, apples, and cinnamon.
Yum!

18 Wheels for 18 Months

This is the 18mos. video (a little early). Turn up the sound, this is well worth the 2min. 7sec. it takes to play.

Mommy is back!

Daddy has been doing all the blogging for weeks (especially when he was home for Winter Break), but now Mommy feels caught up enough to sit down and post some pictures.

First, pictures from my new camera!

Okay, I didn't take this picture, so I guess Zach was using my camera. I was definitely NOT present during the painting-in-the-nice-wool-sweater-from-Ireland session.

Some sort of shenanigans with Grandpa.

Trying on new mittens while Nana holds Toots.

Reading with Daddy. Their new favorite book: Daddy, Could I Have an Elephant?

Some pics from Daddy's camera.

Chewin' on a toothbrush. Big surprise.

New hat, new shoes. Why is it that she wears the storebought earflap hat, but still shuns the homemade mama-love hat???