Fuzzy Love

Socks and Squirrels (But No Socks for Squirrels)

First of all, thank you guys so much for all the advice and support yesterday. We're still going strong, but probably only because Olivia did sleep through the night last night (and, by extension, so did I) and she has not yet asked for a soother today. Perhaps we've turned a corner, although I don't dare get my hopes up yet.

In other news, the squirrels are done hibernating and are now taking over the backyard.

There are two of them--a boy and a girl--and they actually live next door, but they feel pretty comfy in our yard and spend most of their waking hours here. I honestly don't mind any critters in our yard as long as they're herbivores and they stay outside. Good thing, that, since we're expecting more! Last week, Liam caught these two doing a "special cuddle" right under our Adirondack chairs (I even have a picture but, in retrospect, that's a little crazy and in poor taste to post. But if you want to see it, email me ; ). Anyway, that led to a talk. A long talk. And Liam now knows that babies come from China, although he still doesn't have any idea how a special cuddle gets them in there.

(Insert segue here.)

I've been knitting. I am finally making a Clapotis for ME out of some Malabrigo sock yarn I bought at a yarn sale a few months ago (not that the Malabrigo was on sale).

Of course I'm loving the yarn. The colors are very jeansy and the yarn manages to be matte yet have a sheen at the same time. I have two skeins (880 yards), am using size 6 needles, and I think it will turn out a smidge bigger than the pattern.

And the sock bug has hit again. I'm not sure why I keep wanting so badly to be a Sock Knitter with a capital SK. I'm also not sure why it hasn't really taken (yet I keep on stashing!). Most recently Cookie A's sock book, Sock Innovation (Rav link) has been gnawing away at me. I find her patterns really interesting; she pays attention to the details, such as how the ribbing moves into the pattern, and that sort of thing really bugs me when it doesn't happen. Sooooo, her book came home with me on Tuesday night. And I love the book; out of fifteen patterns I would really love to have knit nine of them. Then I remembered that I just happened to have some Smooshy already wound up, and here we are:

Super impressive, isn't it? Two whole inches of ribbing. Also, that picture in no way represents the color of my yarn. It's called Good Luck Jade and looks more like pine needles with a little bark peeking out (or perhaps a squirrel?). But I'm reasonably optimistic that there will someday be two of these puppies.

Woe is Us

Damn soothers. Olivia is almost three and a half now and I think you'll agree that is much too old to still be sucking on one of those things, even when it was banished to the bedroom. The idea of a 3+ kid with one might even give you the willies; I know I'd be tisk tisking if I saw her out in public too (I'm so judgmental - sigh). I've been brooding over the soother problem since Olivia turned one, actually, but I always had some excuse why now was never a good time to permanently extract it. And besides, wouldn't she give it up on her own when she's ready? (I suppose I've decided she wouldn't.)

Flashback sequence: last week Olivia went for her first dental appointment.* All is well; no cavities or problems EXCEPT the soother has been pushing her front teeth out in an unfortunate way. They aren't sitting in a straight line but form more of an angle, like this: ^ (only not nearly that dramatic, thank todd; I hadn't even noticed although it is obvious to me now). My dentist said that some kids have this happen from soothers or thumb-sucking, others never do. No need to panic, but she did suggest that, unless we want a huge orthodontist bill, we should think about weening her off the soother soon. I must have looked stricken, because she quickly followed that up with a helpful suggestion.

Turns out that our lovely dentist is in touch with the tooth fairy. When the time is right (and, it seemed, Olivia's time was last Thursday), a young child can place her soothers under her pillow and the tooth fairy will collect them--for redistribution to babies--and leave a smallish toy. Mark and I talked about it, I asked for one more day, and then we presented the idea to Olivia on Saturday morning. Would she like to? YES! Did she understand the ramifications? YES! Was she sure? YES! Seemingly without looking back, she piled eight soothers under her pillow and calmly drifted off too sleep. Too easy, you say? YES!

Sunday she was thrilled to find a new toy and seemed content with the trade. We began to relax.

But Sunday night was horrible. She wanted a soother and wasn't going to stop crying until she got one. Eventually she fell asleep, but kept waking up calling for me during the night. She's done that every night since. Last night she asked Mark to sing her to sleep: "You sing, Daddy, and I'll cwy" and then yesterday she started asking me to please go to the grocery store to buy her more.

/Flashback. Look, I know there's no going back. I don't want to start this again. But I swear, I'm near the breaking point. I'm so tired that caffeine isn't enough, especially this time of the day (I'm horrified to say that I'm on my second delicious coffee drink). Sooo, that all leads to...

HELP! Are we doing the right thing? Will this traumatize her forever? Will she still use a soother at eighteen (or something unimaginatively worse)? I'm too tired to figure this out anymore.

*Liam's been to the dentist before, so he hopped up on the chair while Olivia held back. At this, the hygienist remarked, "You're an expert." Liam corrected her: "I'm an expert, an artist, and an inventor."

Cheating Without Guilt

But first up, what the heck?

Um, hello? Spring?

Anyway, we couldn't let TV-Turn-Off week get in the way of movie night, could we? The movie was Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and so we couldn't resist.

Step one: assemble all the household bunnies (just not the ones in the backyard). Instruct them to watch quietly and not get any naughty ideas.

Step two: watch movie (highly recommend - there were a few parts Olivia found scary, but they're really very silly).

Step three: follow up the movie with the "How to build a bunny" extra feature. Realize that they use Plasticine to make the figures and what is one of Liam's favorite things ever?

Step four: bike break!

Step five: feed bunny carrots.

Too bad for TV-Turn-Off week; movie night has become sacred around here.

Meandering

I can't believe that kindergarten is almost over. Liam came home last week with a notice that the kindy graduation portraits are today (um, the what?), complete with cap and gown. Seriously. They politely requested that the boys wear shirts and ties. Since we had discovered on Easter morning that Liam's nice shirt was too small, his dress pants had green marker on them, and of course he's never owned a tie, this required a shopping trip. (Well, he should have a fancy outfit anyway, right? For parties?)

So Liam picked out the above outfit entirely by himself from the post-Easter sale racks. So what that the only ties left were pink? He says it is cool and he wanted it, much to my surprise. No white shirt for Liam, blue and white striped linen. And so what if only two other boys in his class remembered to dress up? Standing there with both hands in his pockets, he looked so damn cute. Oh, and the green ribbon? He passed his swim test this morning (it's been a good day).

In other news, it's tv-turn-off week again. We forgot and watched a movie yesterday, so we're starting today, although I'm tempted to turn it on right now. I have to stay strong though, because lord knows if I give in no one else will back me up (there would probably be cheers). Sigh.

I finished knitting that garter yoke cardigan a few weeks ago, but only just got the buttons sewn on last Friday. I was held up by the fact that damn Joann's doesn't carry ten of any single button that I can see and the other fact that I was too dumb to buy four at one store and six at another: I kept driving around to stores waiting for one to have all ten at once. Dumb. Anyway, I went with the shell buttons in the end (even though I loved the others) because really the supporting colors aren't that noticeable in real life. I will have to wait for another sweater to pop out the colorful buttons I crave so much.

Anyway, I love this sweater. It has just enough shaping, bracelet-length sleeves, and the perfect neckline (open, yet still allows for a bra). As usual, the variegation looks wonky in the picture and I don't know how to take a better one. The only problem is that the button holes are too big for the buttons. I'm not sure why as they're simple yo holes. So either I have to track down ten more buttons one size bigger or I suppose I could make the holes smaller. I'm leaning towards the bigger buttons, as much as a pain as that will be. Mark suggested that I just suck in my boobs, but I'm not sure that is a workable option.

One more thing: while I was away, I picked up the book Moonshot for Liam. It's a picture book for ages 4-7 about the flight of Apollo 11; the Eagle has landed and all that. I highly recommend it; the artwork is beautiful and the text reads like poetry but is still highly informative, particularly about how the astronauts live. But I will warn you, there is one mysterious passage that hints at how astronauts use the bathroom ("It takes pipes and hoses and bags") that horrified Liam and had him declaring that he would NEVER be an astronaut. (He is wanting more books about them, however.)

Imaginary Friends

I had a real adventure this weekend. It sounds very strange, I know, but I've been hanging out on a knitting forum, chatting with the same group of ladies for over a year now. Although I met one person through this blog (I think), the group all came together on Ravelry where we first talked about knitting, but then about kids and family and a divorce and a death and a whole bunch of silly things. And then we decided to meet.

Husbands had concerns. There was talk of serial killers and online predators, there were back-up plans and stashed emergency credit cards and even a little role-playing ("Things don't feel right; what are you going to do?"). But we decided to do it anyway.

Since we live all over the country, the obvious place to meet up was in Chicago (of course). And so we did. It took a little bit to adjust to seeing these people in three dimensions, walking and talking, but for the most part they were just like I imagined them to be. We had so much fun. There was much drinking, shopping, eating, and TALKING. Almost no knitting though (or sleeping).

Here's some pictures: Jody and Kelly at Loopy (yarn store of Franklin), where I got some Malabrigo Lace in Tortuga for a Whisper Cardigan (and so did Kelly).

Me with my very first Socks That Rock (so so pretty - and heavy).

Loopy's front window (isn't that a nice idea?).

Mary, bringer of joy.

Frenzy in front of the Socks That Rock display at The Fold (fabulous store with bags upon bags of cashmere roving, but it's a road trip from Chicago). As Jody said, "I am among my people."

Well, I have more pictures, but the kids are begging me to come outside and I really should get out there because it is a beautiful day here. But isn't it nice that the trip worked out? It could have been bad, you know. ; )

A Change is as Good as a Rest, Unless You Go to Disney

I have been a very uninspiring blogger lately, I know. (Have I ever even been inspiring? Don't answer that.) But I have an excuse this time: we were on vacation. A shocker, I know: we never go on vacation. We do visit people, but a trip just to take a trip? Nope.  So we finally did and we did it big and crazy: we went to Disney World. I meant to mention it here before we went, but that last week of prep was insane (on top of everything, our cat was sick - uck) and I didn't get to it.

Please ignore my hair. I spent much of the trip trying to keep it from poofing to the horizontal (wanna see? It's not for the faint-of-heart) what with the un-Denver-like humidity and sometimes I over did it. Sigh.

We had a good time, despite the fact that a Disney trip pulls out the uber planner in me (if you are going, I have tips upon tips). I did have a few "stop enjoying this now because we have to rush off to enjoy something else now" moments, but I tried hard to keep them inside. We also took long, mostly relaxed meals, stopped at playgrounds for grass time, and quiet time every afternoon at the hotel. This kept our sanity (mostly) and we did have a great time.

But every time we went to the Magic Kingdom it poured down rain. Warm rain, thankfully, but in buckets. Here's our first moment in Disney World.

Look at the happiness on Mark's face. But...wait a moment, let's take a closer look at those little faces, shall we?

Liam is optimistic, but Livvy looks dubious, doesn't she? She probably doesn't even remember rain in Colorado.

So, to get out of that rain, we dashed off to Fantastyland and straight into a 3D movie. Poor poor Livvy. Once in a while she sees something that scares her on television and we're quick to reassure her that things inside the TV cannot get out. Then we put her in a very loud theater, slap some 3D glasses on her, and, because it is Disney, stuff certainly does come out of the movie (she's sprayed with water, Donald Duck comes flying out and goes splat against the back wall). She was TERRIFIED. I quickly took the goggles off and plugged her ears, but it was still no good. She cried.

So then we went on the Dumbo ride. A simple, quiet ride for preschoolers. There was no line because it is now teeming down rain. She suffered through it, shivering, and even let out a very quiet, "Weee."

Good times.

At the point I started to think staying home would have been a better idea, this happened:

Thank you Pooh Bear. The girl lit up like a Christmas tree. She hugged him and kissed him and told her all about being Olivia and being three.

After that we let Olivia enjoy the characters, the playgrounds, and the general ambiance and limited the rides and 3D movies. She had a much better time. (As an aside: Olivia is exactly 40 inches tall, so she was qualified to go on many more rides than she was actually ready to enjoy. Unless your three-year-old is fearless, there isn't a whole lot for him/her to do at Disney. Fortunately, Disney bends over backwards to make sure the older kids and parents can have a good time with younger kids around, but waiting a year or two would also have been okay. Liam, on the other hand, would like to move there.)

Anyway, we found out that Liam is a roller-coaster fiend (like his mom) but is terrified of people in fuzzy costumes (at the same time his sister was kissing them), and being chosen to fight Darth Vadar is very exciting.

Serious business, being a Jedi.

Olivia is now the very proud owner of a princess dress (another one of those things I swore I'd never do has gone down the drain). She was even wearing it to meet Cinderella, who wears waaay too much make-up and has oddly yellow hair. And now Olivia needs a new life-long dream.

We also got to visit with Mark's sister and her family (who live in Orlando), and my aunt and uncle (who we found out were going to be in Florida the last couple of days we were there). Lovely, that.

Guess which parts of the trip were the kids' favorites? Even over Darth and Cindy?

(But did I get any lovely group shots? No.)

So that's where we've been. I've got a FO or two to show you, so I'll get on that ASAP. And now I have a bunch of blogs to catch up on. Cheers!