Fuzzy Love

So, What Do We Do Without Television?

Olivia did some grass butterfly catching (please note our lovely grass).

I did some knitting, of course. I made it to the decreases!

We played a little bowling for blocks. Topless was optional.

We made cookies.

And, after the kids were in bed, Mark and I played Scrabble.

So, all in all, not that different from a normal day.

Except the Scrabble. We hadn't done that in a long long time.

Thank You Peep

Have you ever seen Peep? It's a show for preschoolers that we are loving right now. It's a nice show about scientific discoveries by a yellow ball that's supposedly a chicken. And it has a really great theme song.

The show is set up with no commercials (yay!) and two ten-minute stories. After each story is a two- or three-minute clip of kids experimenting with the same sort of discovery made by Peep and friends. This is a great way to get ideas of things to do and we did one of them this weekend.

Sunday was a horrible, cold, rainy day here. We had hoped to go do some Hallowe'eny things, like a corn maze or a pumpkin patch, but it was not to be. So Mark and Liam went off to the build things store, spent $2.98, and brought home what is technically a pipe cozy (for, you know, pipes). It's a long, flexible tube. Cut it in half length-wise, add some masking tape and a bucket of marbles and your marble run just got living-room sized.

Good fun. Especially while working out the  loop-de-loop (or, as Liam says, "whoop-de-whoop"), which sent marbles careening all over, which in turn sent Fuzz pouncing all over. Quite a lot of entertainment for the price, if you ask me.

ETA: The whole list of Peep activities is online. This one is called High Rollers.

While Mark and Liam engineered, Olivia napped and I knitted. Mr Greenjeans is almost done.

I'm having real trouble photographing this yarn. It really is predominantly a dark navy blue, I swear, and the ball changes aren't nearly as dramatic in real life (at least I'm telling myself that). But honestly, this is the softest, poofiest, most wonderful wool I've ever laid my hands upon. There will be more Malabrigo in my life, I swear. I was actually hoping to eek this sweater out with just four of my six skeins, in order to continue to hoard the other two, but that's the fourth there and I don't think I'm quite going to make it. I did lengthen the body and arms by a few inches, after all. Happily, however, I will have enough left for a very soft and comfy hat. Maybe this one?

Joke of the day: What did one snowman say to the other snowman?

"Do you smell carrots?"*

*Thanks Kristan!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Many people do the dinner thing on Sunday though, so people have time to travel back home on Monday (Canadians are flexible like that). We, going nowhere, celebrated yesterday because today is not a holiday in Colorado. I'm not actually sure why we're still celebrating two Thanksgivings at all, actually, except I guess that you can't have too much of giving thanks in your life.

Or turkey. And when I say turkey, I mean gravy.

Yesterday was also the Race for the Cure here in Denver and my friend Lisa and I walked together. We had lofty goals of rising before the sun and doing the all-woman walk at seven AM, but cold temperatures and the threat of rain changed our minds at the last minute. Turns out we would have had to have gotten up very early indeed to buy light-rail tickets ahead of all the technology-challenged people who couldn't figure out which three buttons to push to get downtown. Ahem. But instead we went to Starbucks, spent an hour on/about the train, and started whenever. Right in the middle of approximately 62,000 other people.

I didn't actually raise any money for the race. Bad, I know, but I did pay to register, of course. I felt like I had already pumped friends and family for a walk this year and didn't want to ask again (which is not saying I won't next year). Lisa raised a lot though. But I just walked. And strangely, it wasn't until the very end that I linked this experience in any way to my parents. A woman about my age was walking with a laminated paper pinned to her back that explained that she was walking in honor of her mother, who died of breast cancer this year. Her mother was born in 1950, which, of course, is too young. And on that paper was a picture of a happy, mom-aged, beautiful woman. So I cried a little bit. After all, cancer is cancer, right?

But mostly the race was amazing. Honestly, I could have fun with Lisa during a root canal, but it's also awesome (in the true sense of the word) to be a part of something so huge, so uniting, and so....pink.

We also got a hell of a lot of SWAG.

By the way, this is where most of the fun fur of the world has gone. Next year I vow to have a hand-knit scarf for everyone I walk with (but not a fur one).

Then, at dinner time, a little turkey breast (ha!), stuffing, gravy, pie, and those unimportant vegetables. Mmmmm.

We went around and around the table saying what we were thankful for. Here's the list:

• Our family (of course)
• Our friends
• Fuzz
• Swimmy
• Our health
• Our cozy home
• Mark's job
• School
• Baby dolls (this is where it fell apart)
• The trampoline next door (which we have never ever jumped on)
• Yarn
• Forks (okay, we're done).

So be a little thankful today, huh? And try to think of something better than forks.

Potions

When Sue thinks up something fun to do with kids, all thoughts of inconvenience, mess, or trouble are put aside and she gets down to it. One day, after a trip to a local farmer's market (and oh my, the markets they have in London are so much more...abundant compared to the relatively-barren Colorado), Sue broke out the juicer and we made potions.

I highly recommend this activity for a day on which you are feeling particularly ambitious and have an abundance of fresh produce (and, you know, a juicer). We used two types of apples, a pear, a beet, carrots, grapes, and a peach. Juice 'em up, each in a separate bowl, and give each child a spoon and a glass to make his and her own potions. Ice is nice, honey is good, and Sue and I employed a little soda water to make our potions bubbly. If you're feeling really energetic, you can cut out food shapes and use them to keep track of your recipes.

We discovered that Liam loves pear juice, especially with a little dollop of honey, and that Olivia will eat an entire bowl of carrot juice without sharing (alas, carrot juice was not to be found at Safeway). And both kids tried beet juice (great for color). Honestly, almost every combo we made tasted very good, especially with a bit of that honey.

I think we need to get a juicer.

Raccoons, Cowboys, and Cake

I forgot to mention that Mark turned forty-one this week. He pointed it out. I certainly didn't forget the day (he had a nice day: jumped on first thing by kids with presents, breakfast and coffee made by me, a trip to the zoo, pizza and cake for dinner), but I somehow forgot to post about it. Sorry honey; here's your due.

Friends Allison and Eric came over to help us celebrate. Mark had a golf ball cake (Liam's idea) because Mark used to enjoy golf. He still likes golf, but doesn't get to enjoy it. Ever.

So, in honor of Mark's birthday, I present you with a photo entitled Mark in Tank Top. Happy birthday, honey.

Besides the trip to the zoo last weekend, we also were able to spend some time on a pint-sized hike (and I use the term loosely). Honestly, it's tough to enjoy the peak of a Denver summer, but lately there has been a break in the heat and outdoor activities have been fun again. So we took a walk on the High Line Canal Trail, a greenway that runs for miles right through the heart of Denver.

It's a beautiful walk, at least on the small bits of the trail that I've been on, with huge shady trees that are rare in this part of the country. And we saw lots of little animals, including a raccoon, which was cause for much excitement. We stood and watched the little guy for quite a while, both on the way out and back, and talked about all the things we knew about raccoons (more than you'd think, actually; it's amazing what you pick up).

At one point, as we were all standing and staring upwards, a mother hustled her two pre-teens (with an arm around each) past our raccoon warning them not to get too close. Too close to a sleepy raccoon twelve feet up in a tree. Now I know that raccoons can carry disease, but standing and looking is not quite the same as cuddling and petting, is it? But then we're going for a healthy respect for nature, rather than outright fear.

Anyway, note the cowboy hat. Mark told Liam that cowboy hats "Keep the sun out of your eyes and the rain off your face," so Liam has decided that his hat is appropriate for all occasions, rain or shine. Which, of course, it is (especially when you are four).

Crafty Goodness

As I write this, Olivia is momentarily spellbound by Andrea Bocelli singing a lullaby to Elmo. The girl really has no interest in television other than anything with Elmo, whom she loved at first sight, and I have to admit that song really is worth stopping for (take a listen). Yet here I am, not stopping, because uninterrupted computer time is rare around here.

Note: If you are not interested in knitting, now would be the time to skip ahead, guilt-free (even you, Mark) until you see a picture of Liam.

Thank you for all your nice comments on Rusted Root. The more I wear it, the more it is relaxing and repoofing. So I'm pretty pleased with it (I'm actually wearing it right now). But let me tell you, those increases for the ol' hips were very necessary. When I read the part of the pattern that basically says, now knit until it's the length you want, I thought, "Oh my. Where I want this sweater to stop is waaay wider than my waist." So if you are contemplating a Rusted Root of your own, keep this in mind (unless you have no hips and then feel free to keep that to yourself).

Since finishing it, I wanted some quick projects, so I started a couple of little baby things. First of all, I'm making one of those little Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimonos from Mason-Dixon Knitting that are all over the place.

Now, it is very cute and very fast, and you can't beat a project that costs $2.50 (the Sugar 'N' Cream was even on sale), but I'm not sure about how a sweater in kitchen cotton is going to turn out. Right now it feels stiff and very unbabylike. I'm also a bit worried that, once it is washed, it will end up softer but also grungy and sad-looking, even though I don't expect anyone to be scrubbing pots with it. We'll see. I did the stockinette version with a gauge of 18 stitches to 28 rows, so when I do another one I'll pick a different yarn.

But the best part of this project? Shopping for ribbon.

I have a couple of others too, but I can't find them amongst all the yarn that is covering every surface around this computer (I'm still scrounging for time to get the whole yarn stash into Ravelry). But let's just say that I'm now in danger of amassing a ribbon stash. Michael's sells three-yard spools that I seem to find irresistible, although I think part of my love is for the wooden spools themselves. I thought the one that Olivia got a hold of  - can you guess which one? - would be especially cute on a chocolate brown kimono. Lord knows I know enough pregnant people, so I imagine there will be more of these little sweaters in my future.

Also newly on the needles is a Ballet T-Shirt from Loop-d-Loop. Brace yourself; this picture has a whole lotta pink in it.

I swear, I have no idea where those needles came from. The sweater is for Olivia, as I really don't think I could wear the adult one and I think it makes a much cuter girl's sweater anyway. I honestly intended to get a shade of blue or green, but there was a sample in the store in just this shade and somehow this is what came home with me (it's called Pink-a-boo, for god's sake). But it will be very ballet-like and, on 6.5mm needles, fast.

I have one last baby sweater to mention: the Baby Surprise Jacket. Inspired by the beautiful versions here and here, I picked up a copy of The Opinionated Knitter yesterday (since my library doesn't have one). What a book! I'm thinking this sock yarn by Lonesome Stone will work nicely:

Okay, non-knitters! Here's the picture of Liam:

One of the few school supplies Liam needed for his preschool class was a disposable camera. Last week we got the camera back and, of course, immediately raced to get the pictures developed. Few of them are of terribly high quality (the camera's fault, not the teachers'), but they're still very cute and full of memories for Liam.

Since I do have a few scrapbooking supplies in the basement that I have no intention of ever using (let's just say that blogging fills the need), we decided to make a scrapbook of Liam's year and got to work immediately. With the addition of some puffy letter and school-type stickers (oh, so much fun), we've got a pretty nice project going. I stick down the photos; Liam does the rest.

Liam tells me all about each picture and I jot down his captions, which I'll add to each page as we continue. Way better than throwing them all in the picture box where they'll never ever be seen again, huh?

You Take the Big Guy, I'll Take the Fish

That's a really old Kids in the Hall quote, so I don't expect anyone to get it. I'm not even sure if it's right, actually, but that's what we say around here from time to time. Since this post seems to have an ongoing theme of crazy, I think it works.

Anyway, we had parent-teacher interviews last week with Liam's preschool teachers. Of course everything was glowing, wonderful, amazing. Of course.

Except, let's say, his reluctance to wait his turn to talk. Or to even put up his hand. He is quite good at saying, "Excuse me!" but it is said over and over and over and over and over until you think you might just loose your mind. Come to think of it, his dad also doesn't wait his turn sometimes.

So Ms. Sue had a suggestion: use some item to signify a person's turn to speak. Keep each turn short, of course, since we are talking about a three-year-old here, but no talking is allowed without the item. You can then put up your hand to request a turn. Obviously that seems a bit crazy to do, say, around the house, but we decided it was just a little bit crazy to do it tonight at dinner.

Since we didn't have a conch shell, we used a fish.

A beer opener fish, but a fish none the less. Turns out it was actually fun. Olivia was exempt, although she certainly wanted a turn with the fish, and the rest of us took great pleasure in (silently) catching someone talking out of turn. Its certainly not something I want to do all the time, and I really do want to hear what Liam has to say, but I would also like to get a word in with Mark. If it takes a fish to do it, so be it (as long as it's fun).

Moving on. I do have sad news. A certain husband of mine (he who shall go unnamed) machine washed AND dried Isabella and the Happy Hen Sweater. Although Isabella looks a bit man-handled, the Hen is most definitely a half-size smaller and slightly felted. Even if you are not a knitter, and therefore did not put hours and hours of slightly-crazy-yet-loving care into the items you wear (as SpongeBob's grandmother says, putting "love in every stitch"), I still imagine you'd be pretty pissed if someone carelessly tossed your delicate dry-flats into the drier. So yesterday afternoon said husband was the victim of a rather teary phone call that turned a bit nasty at the end.

After work, my husband showed up with this:

That's a sympathy card there. On the inside it says {snicker, snicker}, "May time soften the pain until all that remains is the beauty of the memories....and the love, always the love."

I've gotten a lot of sympathy cards lately and the shock of this one made me cry, it was so damn funny. The Frappachino and the flowers helped too.

I haven't actually been doing a whole lotta knitting lately because I've been glued to the computer. Or rather, I've been glued to a new knitting site: Ravelry. Karma was sweet enough to send me an invitation and I don't think I've closed my browser window since (ahem...I know I haven't). It's used to catalog all the projects you've done and the patterns you want to do and the needles and yarn you have. You can even see what everyone else has/has done. It was started up by a knitter and her husband and they have been really clever about it. Since I do have a bit of librarian in me (so sad, but I did have my books arranged alphabetically for a while) and a whole lot of accountant, I couldn't wait to get in there and, well, organize myself.

I realize that 90% of you now think I'm crazy (including my husband, who was dumbfounded last year when I found LibraryThing and started schlepping books back and forth from the shelves to the computer). I'm afraid I can't do anything about that. But if you are at all crazy in that way, I encourage you to sign up.

The little knitting I have been doing has been on Rusted Root. You gotta love being able to try on the top-downs. I'm now reasonably sure I'm making the right size. Phew.

Slowly Getting Our Groove Back

It's sunflower time again!

This year Liam selected Lemon Queen sunflowers (which I think is funny, for some reason); they're a little paler in color than what you probably think of as sunflower color. He filled the cups with soil, mixed in a little water, and planted about a dozen sunflower seeds all by himself (that's oh so important these days). In a few weeks we'll transfer the survivors to a warm sunny spot by the back fence.

We've also been reading some books about plants: The Tiny Seed has been a favorite for a while, and Liam has started really liking the Magic School Bus series, so we have been reading the one about seeds as well. We also really liked Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden and Planting a Rainbow from the library.

Olivia picked out some carrot seeds (albeit, with a little prompting) because I have an elaborate plan to grow them in a milk carton with a door on one side so we can watch the carrots grow. We'll just have to see if it happens.

May I Recommend...

for any household with preschool children: origami. Who knew it would be so entertaining? My aunt, I suppose, as she gave us an origami calendar when I was in Halifax.* Sure, Mark and I do the folding (and that isn't always easy), but Liam watches us intently and he's really into the little animals and boats and such that result.

And, because they're made of paper, these little toys last about as long as Liam's attention span - then we get to make a new one. Genius!

It's also perfect for this art mobile that I got to display the kids' artwork. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but if the thing isn't perfectly balanced (meaning all paper is the exact same size and paintings have the exact same amount of paint), it turns into more of a vertical display.

Origami is always the same weight. Perfect.

(That's a crane, a songbird, a whale, and a fox.)

* Thank you Sue!

Odds and Ends

Our whole family has a cold. Yes, one big collective drippy, hacky cold and, quite frankly, it's getting old. I'm so congested that I've actually had dizzy spells, and it's been a long time since I've had the bed spins like this, let me tell you. Liam is almost over his, but poor Olivia has it bad and isn't sleeping well because of the coughing. As you can imagine, a lack of good sleep makes for one touchy little toddler. Just about anything got her crying today including: picking her up, putting her down, giving her food, not giving her food, or generally trying to cheer her up in any way. And of course, because the laws of the universe dictate that it must be so, Mark called to say he wouldn't be home this evening until both kids were in bed.

Anyway, we have had such wonderful weather this week that one day Liam, Olivia, and I went for a short (very short; we didn't take the stroller) walk down a path on the edge of the subdivision where we live. It's on the mountain side, but we were still far from the mountains* and not more than fifty feet from a row of houses. And, while on our walk, we saw this:

That's an elk. At least I'm pretty sure it's an elk.

That would make these elk too. Don't they have impressive antlers?

There were about eight of them, all lounging in the snow, not a hundred yards from us. I didn't even notice them for a while; it was on the way back to the car that Liam said, "Look. Deer." as if they were something he saw all the time. We stopped to ooooo and ahhhhh and I took some pictures until one big one stood up and stared at us as if to say, "Really, that's enough. Move on. NOW." and it occurred to me that I had two small children really close to some very large wild animals.

We left.

I've lived in Colorado for ten years now (ten years!) and I'm still not used to seeing so many wild animals, well, everywhere. Prairie dogs and bunnies and squirrels are almost a daily occurrence, but we've also seen the odd coyote, deer, fox, and even those large curly-horned sheep (or are they goats? no, I think they're sheep). Of course, this is a place where kids are taught to keep close to their parents while hiking so they won't get eaten by mountain lions. Doesn't that make you want to go for a hike?

One last thing to round off this odd post. While getting he and Olivia into the bath today, Liam and I had the following conversation:

Liam: Girls have chinas.
Me: Va-gine-as. <We are so entering a stage.> What do boys have?
Liam, firmly: Tools.
Me: Well, okay. And what do girls have?
Liam, thinking: Knitting needles?

I guess we need to have another talk.

*It occurs to me that "far from the mountains," as illustrated in this picture, is a bit relative. I always thought elk lived IN the mountains. Up on top of them, or something.