Change of Scene

I'm a fairly patient person. It takes quite a bit of aggravation to get me riled up. Even so, I have my limits. I've been trying for quite a while to figure out why this page loads so slowly in I.E. I've changed the sidebar and the header to no avail. Meanwhile, my attempts to fix the problem, and to even blog in general, were thwarted by Blogger's latest episode of orneriness. For much of the last week, Blogger has refused to allow me to save posts, upload pictures, and even, once, refused to acknowledge that I have a Blogger account. I've talked about exploring other blogging options, but never got around to exploring. Until this week, when, since I couldn't access my Blogger account, I decided to do that exploring.

I found a bunch of really neato options out there, but when push came to shove, this is what I put together. It is not finished yet, but I like the general layout and I'm having lots of fun playing around with it. Come on over and check out the new place!

Crafty Stuff Going On

I haven't been posting much the last couple of weeks. It's not due so much to inertia or a lack of blog fodder. Rather, I have been off indulging my inner crafty person. A while back, Chichimama wrote a post looking for folks who might be interested in doing an online knit-along, and I signed up. We all agreed on a felted bag as our first project. I'm not so much of a handbag person, but I've never done felting of a woolen article, and since this looked straightforward, I went for it.

I actually love to knit, but it's been several years since I attempted a project as I felt I had no time to focus on knitting what with chasing children all day long. It turned out that I have no time to attempt a complicated cable-knit pullover - I have one, 90% done, that I started before Liam was born. It's not a viable project at the moment as each time I work on it I have to sit down in complete silence, reorient myself to the pattern, and I can't stop in the middle of a row lest I lose count completely. This is what it would look like if I ever finished it.

Now, a smallish project that can be easily picked up for five or ten minutes and put down without worry fit the bill exactly. And it felt good to make something by hand again:

The Fibonacci Bag

I mucked around with the original pattern a bit. The pattern was written using chunky yarn, but I found some inexpensive worsted-weight wool on sale at a craft store, so I bought twice as much yardage as called for and knitted the whole bag with two strands of yarn to mimic a chunky weight. The felting process was interesting since the hot cycle on our machine isn't terribly hot, but I set it on "heavy-duty" to get as much mechanical action as possible and then ran it through the wash cycle twice. There's still a bit more stitch definition than I'd like in the finished product, but it's great for a first try. Now I know if I want to felt another knitted item I need to up the temperature on our hot water wash. Finally, instead of two straps (one on each long side of the bag), I knitted one extra-long one and attached it to the short side of the bag. It runs lengthwise along the bag. I may sew some ribbon just inside the top of the bag in order to be able to securely tie shut the bag, I don't want to have to replace my wallet anytime soon!

All in all it was a fun project, and now I'm pleased to have rediscovered one of my favorite pastimes. I've got a scarf that's almost finished that I started a couple of weeks ago. I should be able to finish that up over the weekend, and then I am planning to knit Kiri one of these Sunny-Side Up Hoodies. I have some gorgeous royal blue cotton yarn in my stash that would be perfect for a Spring sweater, and I have just enough to make a baby-size garment from that yarn. The Lemur has asked for one of these sweaters as well, and he would like his in a bright red, so that's my next next project. I think I've got enough planned for now!

I've been having fun the last couple of weeks being creative and practical all at the same time. Knitting truly is one of those activities that helps ease stress as it involves repetitive, soothing action, but doesn't occupy so much of my brain that I can't carry on a conversation or watch a good TV show at the same time. It really is a great hobby.

Thank you, Chichimama, for suggesting the knit-along. If you hadn't, I would still be sitting around thinking, "One day I'll have enough time to knit again!" Turns out I do have the time. It just has to be the right project.

A Painted Lemur

You might think that if I heard the voice of a certain Lemur, alone by himself in the bathroom, saying things like, "I'm decorating myself!", I would check the situation out.

I did. After I finished reading my e-mail.

This is what I discovered...

...a Painted Lemur!

"Look, Mommy! I decorated myself with your lip gloss!"

He sure did decorate himself. With the really nice lip gloss I got for Christmas.

But he was so pleased with himself and had such a good time painting that I just can't be mad!

We Have Lift-Off!

On your marks...

Get set...

CRAWL!!!

In Which Liam Expresses His Confusion

We were running late to nursery school one day last week, and of course traffic chose that day to be extra-heavy. A stressed-out driver sped by, zooming around us and the four cars in front by using the shoulder as a passing lane. I mumbled something under my breath (I thought!) about "idiot drivers." From the back seat came the voice of a very confused little boy...

"Mommy? Why are you calling him a 'Giddy-up Driver'? He wasn't riding a horse. Horsies don't go that fast!"

Moments like this are worth their weight in gold. As long as I'm not laughing so hard I drive the car into a tree.

10 Months Of Brotherhood

I fell off the track with these "Brotherhood" posts - too much confusion over the holidays, I guess. At any rate, here we are at Ten Months of Brotherhood...

(how could it possibly have been ten months already???)

Here is the Big Brother with his favorite ferret friend, Pippi. Who, by the way, gave us a fright by losing his tail hair and thus fooling us into thinking he had adrenal disease. A trip to the vet later, it turns out to be a fals alarm. Phew! Usually when ferrets start to go bald, it's not good news.

Mr. Happy Baby and his favorite toy, a music box. He loves to turn it on by himself and rock back and forth to the beat. It's a great thing to soothe an awake baby at 3:00 A.M.

Mr. Lemur surprised us completely by ordering spaghetti at a restaurant. This is the same boy who has NEVER ordered anything other than grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese in his life. We may get to broaden our culinary horizons soon!

Getting Kieran all bundled up to take his brother to school.

"Mommy! Pop-Pop made me this hat from the newspaper! You've never seen anything like this in your life!"

"Daddy said it was OK that Kiri drives without a license..."

Look - a milestone! Liam got his first haircut at an actual salon! Our horizons are expanding by the minute!

"Mommy? Rides are funner when Kiri comes along!"

That is one of the best parts about the last couple of months - Kiri and Liam are starting to actually play together and laugh with each other. It's really sweet to see them enjoying each other so much, and to know this is only the beginning of their relationship. I'm looking forward to seeing how they grow and change together.

Little Kids Are So Literal

Tonight I heard Kevin and Liam in the living room. We've had issues recently trying to instill the idea of privacy and private activities in our son; his hand are often in his pants because, well, he's a little boy. (Why did no one inform me that this is one of the downsides of potty training?)

Kevin: "Hands out of your pants."

Liam: "Why?"

Kevin: "Hands out of your pants!"

Liam: "But I just like my hands IN my pants."

Kevin gave up and retreated upstairs. Liam popped into the kitchen with me, hands still you-know-where, and repeated a phrase that someone at school taught him. (This particular phrase is neither vulgar nor rude, but is very, very annoying should someone repeat it over and over while, say, one is fighting morning rush traffic on Route 1. Yes, I ended up begging him to be quiet or at least say something else.) And just to be sure I was paying attention, he said it about three more times.

Me: "Dude, are you just trying to annoy Daddy and me?"

Liam (absolutely horrified): "Oh, no! Oh, dear! Actually, I was just trying to annoy Daddy!"

Me (trying hard to look stern): "Well, thanks for the clarification."

Liam: "You're welcome, Mommy."

And with that, he stomped off to find his father.

The silence, she was golden.