July 31, 2004 at 12:32

Then...

Now...


The Sproglette was born after 66 hours of grueling back labor. But she still managed to come out the vajajay, not by surgeon's incision. I try to avoid the scalpel at all costs. You can see I was exhausted, but happy...

This sweet child made me a mother, four years ago. She has changed my life profoundly and I love her to pieces. I just can't imagine life without her in it. I just hope I mother her half as well as she deserves.

Where have I been?

I know - it has been almost two weeks since I last posted. But life has happened with a vengeance and I think I have been too sad and too stressed out to write anything down. I would rather escape into YOUR blogs and get out of my own mind.

So here are a few things that have peaked my interest lately...

Brooklyn Tweed's free "Turn a Square" hat pattern. I love this man. If I was still in the game, I would totally stalk him. He has impeccable knitting style. A great eye for color. And if he will knit it and wear it, I can knit it for Paddy-O. Jared inspires me.

After spending time knitting in hospital waiting rooms with my sister in law, I recruised Knit and Tonic's patterns. Since my BIL, his wife and kids live in Southern California, I have a hard time coming up with knits for them. Not a hat, mitten or scarf kind of place. As Wendy Bernard knits and writes from SoCal, I am getting some ideas for future gifts for them. They loved watching me knit. Maybe a cute little shrug for my cute little neice...

The fact that these two mama's do all they do with four children a piece just floors me. Usually they inspire me to do great things with my kids not make me feel like a failure because I don't do more...

VeganF has lots of nutritious yet cute vegan food going on. Makes me want to be vegan all of a sudden - well maybe vegetarian. I don't think I could do without milk. Or butter. Or cheese. Or yogurt.

And Misty manages a household of six, and writes almost as many blogs. On a daily basis. Sometimes I comfort myself by thinking that she is faking us all out...

And Delilah and the Metromama are always entertaining.

One nice thing about all the car travel we have had to do lately is that I am making real progress on my summer knitting goals. The socks are done. The Confection Cowl is done. The Clap is over halfway through (sounds like I need a better dose of antibiotics to call it that).

Oh and check out Split Yarn. She is making the most awesome camera straps. As soon as I have some extra cash, I am going to have one. Preferably this one.

A real post tomorrow. I promise.

Trying to Vacation

My dh frustrates the living SHIT out of me!

Let me preface this by saying that I am an insufferable lunatic before leaving on vacation. It is because I actually want to leave the house and GET to my vacation. I pack the night before, I have suitcases by the door, I would load the car, but dh would unload it and repack it to his mysterious anal retentive specifications so I don't bother with that anymore. Why do more work, right? He also won't trust that I have checked and locked all windows - he has to look behind me.

So when dh is still sleeping when I want to leave, I get nutty. I get cranky. I get mean. All pent up anger and frustration and any grudges I may be harboring, those emotions are going to explode out on my Paddy-O on the day we are leaving on vacation.

I recognize this. I have been trying to grow as a person. I have been scheduling departure times for later in the day to give him space to wake up and help. I have been saying little mantras to myself to try and stay centered and focused on the fun we are going to have not the absolute hell that is leaving.

So we are supposed to be going to the mountains today. I set a departure time for 10. In my mind that is 11, just to make him move along, and me not crazy when we aren't out of the house by 10. Widget woke up looking for his paci at 3:20. DH was right there trying to get him back in bed. It didn't work. I took over. At 4, dh is still not in bed. I go downstairs to see what the problem is. It seems that the cd-rom on his computer is malfunctioning and he has to fix it. So he can burn new cd's. For our trip.

I go back to bed. I stew until 4:30. Then I go downstairs and explode a little. Because I am not going to be able to drive 4.5 hours on 5 hours of sleep. And he can't do it on the 3 hours he is going to get if I get him out of bed at 8. And that is if he is asleep by 5 am. I wonder why the music we have is not sufficient for our trip. I say that it is a nice idea to have new mixed cd's for traveling but is it truly worth an all-nighter before we leave on vacation? Is it truly worth freaking your wife out to the point that she is about to have a massive stroke and either die or spend the rest of her life in a nursing home where you will bring the children you are raising by yourself to see her drooling, slack, bedsore ridden body? Is it? Are a few new mixed CD's really worth all that?

Because I am brow-bulging irate at this point, sleeping is pretty much out of the question. I think I fell back to sleep about 15 minutes before my cherubic children woke up at 6:15.

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way!"

Steamy Saturday

I don't think I have ever seen Sproglet's hair this curly before. It is so humid, you could cut the air with a knife. I have lived in the south all my life and I have never been so damp without actual precipitation.

I made her take her little pink phillies ball cap off to snap the pic - the reason why the top of her hair is so flat! BTW, she put this ensemble together this morning all by herself. Grandmom and Pop Pop would be so proud!

In knitting news, I have dropped my first row of stitches on Syd's Clapotis (rav link) and so far I am pretty pleased with how it is turning out. This is the first one I have knit (notice I said first) since I have some pretty amazing silk/merino yarn that Joyce from Elliebelly dyed for me in the blues I love...

So I am cruising right along with my summer knitting goals. Socks done. Cowl started, Clapotis on a roll. Booker's shorts, well, they are in time out. I have done the body, and split for the legs and one leg is partially done. But I am starting to run out of the main body color and they are probably going to be really short shorts!

My First Sock

Here it is. My first sock. Done one size 2.25 double pointed needles with a 3X1 ribbing at the cuff. Loosely followed The Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe.

Sorry - no clue what the yarn was. I lost the ball band. The magenta tended to pool a little, but not too badly. One that one spot on the top of the foot makes me sweat a little. Not enough to rip it out.

I must admit the second one is done too and it is officially a pair. All done as bus knitting. Considering that my total bus time is about 15 minutes 1-2 times a week, I think the fact that it took me 3 months to knit these is pretty good. I also had to frog the first sock, like, 5 times. Fortunately the second sock cast on and went quickly - I think because I refused to stop when I grafted the toe of the first. That will definitely be my technique for avoiding second sock/mitten/glove/sleeve syndrome from now on.

So one of my knitting goals is done! YAY!

Now back to this...