This morning, we all got up and drove out to Eden Prairie to see the knitting group I've joined for the last couple of weeks. I wasn't really planning to go because I felt like it wasn't fair to Julie to make her sit through two coffee shop knitting groups every week, but one of the ladies has the cutest little girl named Katie, and Julie talked about Katie all last week, so last night when it was Katie this and Katie that all up until bedtime, I decided it would be just fine to go on out there and what the heck, we didn't have anything better to do anyway. I'm so glad we went - those ladies are really fun (hi, ladies!) and Julie had a great time playing with Katie. Here's a picture of the two of them sharing some snacks. Actually, Katie is shoving snacks into Julie's mouth, but my little Hoover didn't seem to mind. It was hilarious.



Next, we headed over to Target, where we picked out some presents for baby Nathan. I bought a few little outfits and quick ran home to wash them so I could give them to their family pre-washed and ready to wear. I mean I know Sarah had a ton of clothes ready for him, but that was when they thought he was a she, and I thought they could use a couple extra baby gowns to throw on him if his diaper leaked or something and that way he wouldn't have to wear pink. Not that pink on a boy is the end of the world or anything, but it's my own little hangup kind of like putting Julie in boy's underwear.

And speaking of underwear, Julie has been doing awesome at this potty training thing. She's been waking up dry in the mornings, and is lobbying hard for underwear at bedtime. I told her if she stays dry for a week we'll give it a try. There was only one accident today, but boy it was a doozy! Brace yourselves, and if you don't want to hear the scatalogical details, why don't you just scroll on down till you see some more pretty pictures. Ready? Okay, so she didn't poop at all yesterday, and this morning I kept putting her on the potty and telling her to take her time and try to make a poopie. She tried. I know she did. But it just didn't happen on the potty. Finally, when we got home from Target, she snuck off to the living room while I was heating up our lunch and did her business like she is used to. I stuck my head around the corner and noticed a giant - blob - in her pants and knew what had happened.

I am a mom who has been changing dirty diapers for almost three years now. Not just changing them, but washing them too because we use cloth. I have no problem with sticking my hand in the toilet and swishing the poo off of a diaper, but something about the mess today just really threw me for a loop. Part of it was that I had to keep a positive game face. I didn't want to act mad or upset or utterly grossed out, because everything I have read or heard is that the last thing you want is to make it a power struggle, and I've heard too many first hand accounts of kids getting constipated during potty training and then it becomes a real nightmare. So I smiled and said no big deal. But the other factor was the "Where the F do I start cleaning this mess up?" problem. I ended up picking her up, carrying her into the bathroom and stripping her down, in the process getting it all over her legs and the rug in there, not to mention the tile floor and the toilet. And I was really trying to keep it from spreading everywhere. It was like a Mr. Hankie scene on South Park. Well, I got that all wiped up, and just stuck her in the tub and hosed her down. Which she hated, but it had to happen. Ten minutes later it was all over, and we sat down to lunch, which I had to force myself to eat because the appetite was gone, but my hands were shaking because my blood sugar had dropped.

Poor Sophie - she sat on the kitchen floor and played with her toys, oblivious to all of this mess as it was going on. I'm sure we have a scene or two like this in her future some day as well. Now on to more cute kid pictures. We got to go meet baby Nathan tonight, and here is a picture of me holding my Sophie and little Nathan. Just six months ago, she was the size that he is now! He is such a teeny feather of a thing, and very sweet. He slept the whole time we were there. By the way, this picture of me? This is what I consider a good picture of me. This is what I look like inside my head. Not that super-fat cow in the weird sunglasses and her hair in a ratty pony tail and wearing a raggy shirt that you saw on the carousel at the county fair a few weeks ago.



Here are Nathan's big sister Katelyn and Julie sharing a chair. They were fighting over two toy cars that another friend of the family brought with their little boy. Julie is giving me a dirty look because she doesn't want me to take her picture. It's starting already.



Oh! News from my friend J! She made it through the biopsy fine, and of course they are all cagey about the results till the lab tests are back, but it sounded like good news. They think it was just a hematoma and not something long-term to worry about. I dropped off a cooler of leftovers on their steps this morning thinking she wouldn't want to cook dinner tonight, and I spent the whole day wondering what I was thinking, why would she want to eat my stupid left over supper from two nights ago? But when I talked to her tonight, she said they did eat it and that her hubby even liked it - it was a bit spicy, and apparently he approved. Whew!

Tomorrow, we go meet Julie's pre-school teacher for orientation, and then I am off to the fair to meet some lovely local knitters, oogle over all the Creative Activities once more, and gorge myself on greasy Fair fare. By myself. The Joy! The Glory!

One last thing. Happy Birthday, Joe! We didn't get to really celebrate because we had to head off to meet little Nathan, but I'm going to make him a special dinner on Friday night.

Blankies, Babies and Dye Jobs Oh My!

First things first. The blankie says it's been feeling lonely and wants to be on the blog again. Poor thing has barely gotten to come all the way out of its basket these last few days as I've been working on the pants, and I don't think I've photographed it at all since I borrowed the in-laws' camera. So here it is in all it's current glory. As always, it's nice for me to lay it out and photograph it because I can see that there is actual progress being made, albeit plenty slow.



Here is a closeup of the area I was working on tonight. I just finished the big square on the top right. I'm still all in love with this project and would work on it night and day if only the rest of my life fell in line. Sophie was up rather late again this evening.



Speak of the devil, here is my little stinker. She doesn't like to sit in the high chair for very long at a time, and will only eat a bite or two of the rice cereal before stealing the spoon from me and pounding the tray with it. That's fine. Somehow she's managing to develop beautiful little Michelin-man rings and double chins on breastmilk alone, and I have no problem with that at all. Oh, she is such a sweet, squishy little baby I can totally forgive her for waking up and yelling at me every time I try to lay her in her crib.



Jo-Anne asked about the yarn I'm dyeing and whether I would try to remove the dye that's in the second skein before re-dyeing it. I had no idea that such a thing was even possible! No, that is not the plan. I was just thinking of adding more dye. Basically, maybe dyeing the same chunks again with the same colors and hope for more uniform saturation. The other thought running around in the gerbil wheel of my mind is to maybe dye the white chunks pink. I don't really want to make another skein exactly like the first one. Where's the fun in that? Anyway, there are still three totally white skeins of yarn sitting there waiting for attention, but I am not feeling very inspired at the moment in that regard, and there is SO no rush on this project since I have so very many other yards of perfectly lovely sock yarn to knit up. It's sure fun to talk and think about, though!

I'm trying to think positive thoughts for my friend J, who is having a breast biopsy tomorrow. It's probably nothing, but they couldn't tell for sure from a mammogram and ultrasound because she's nursing, so they're going to check it out more invasively tomorrow. Please, everyone - send whatever flavor of positive energy or prayer you believe in to J for a moment or two especially tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, Sophie has her 6-month checkup (only a couple of weeks late) and hopefully we will get to go to the hospital in the evening to meet the newest member of our extended family. Joe's cousin had a baby boy this evening - a total surprise since they were expecting a girl, but we are happy since everyone is healthy. Welcome to the world, little Nathan!

Kitchen Confidential

Let's start right off with a picture.



Yes, Carolyn, I am using your beautiful, wonderful, lovely dishcloth. I have to admit that I could not say this truthfully until today. I have to admit that it was so lovely, I had it tucked to the side in my towel drawer in the kitchen and was kind of waiting for something before using it. Today the drawer was empty except for your dishcloth (the clean ones were in the living room waiting to be folded) and so I pulled it out and used it all day long for wiping off sticky faces, wiping down counters, and even the dirty pan in the sink this evening. I drew the line, though, at using it for the nasty bacon-grease pan left after making BLTs for dinner tonight. That got wiped out with an already-stained dishrag from the drawer. I love your dishcloth. Using it was about the most decadent experience one can have while cleaning up a kitchen, and it even inspired me to get out the mop and give the floor a swipe or two. Thanks again. Julie loves her "blue sparkly" socks too, and is still asking to wear them every day.

Speaking of kitchens, I got a comment the other day saying that someone was getting some use out of my food allergy page, and I appreciate that. It's something I was working on before the whole bury-her-house spectacle started, and I feel like I should be getting back to it. It can be so hard to find good things to eat when you're allergic to multiple staple foods like Julie is, especially when first diagnosed, and apparently a friend of a reader was eating only salads. Poor thing! Tonight we did indeed have BLT sandwiches - bacon from the farmers that we buy meat direct from, heirloom tomatoes from the co-op trip we made this morning, spinach (which we pretend is lettuce because it has much more nutritional value), and whole-wheat bread for me and Joe, Julie got the kind of bread that is safe for her. We got mayo and she didn't, I'm afraid. I should have sliced up some avocado for her, but didn't think of it till just now. I also served locally-grown corn on the cob. Yum!

Okay, I promised an announcement about the sport weight yarn. There are two gallon-sized bags of scraps. This is not enough, even all in one chunk, to make an entire blanket all by itself. It will constitute a good start on a blanket, though. In any case, splitting it up wasn't an option - it all needs to go to the same home. I got about ten requests for it, and it was hard to pick. I'm going to send it to Tara, who had asked for some leftovers when I first mentioned I was going to be passing on the yarn I couldn't use in my own blanket. Tara has a little girl who is about the right age to start knitting and she wants to do a blanket together with her daughter. I think that is sweet.

Also, I'm going to be sending a package of some of the other not-blankie-appropriate yarn to Ruth in South Africa, who knits baby clothes and donates them to a local public hospital, which makes sure that each newborn is sent home with warm clothes.

Changing the subject, it turns out that some local knitters may be meeting in the Creative Activities Building on Thursday evening to look around without their families just like I was wishing for last night. Joe says I can have the night off, so I'm planning to go hang out, look around, and eat some more greasy food! Wahoo!

And finally, today was another one-step-forward day in the potty training. Julie had the one good day, then a couple of days where she peed only in her pants. It was kind of disheartening, but I did my best to keep a poker face, we just cleaned up the messes as matter-of-factly as possible (hence the empty towel drawer) and moved on. Then, I managed to get her on the toilet first thing this morning and she actually did some business. We tried again while we were out at the grocery store (after she had a large glass of juice at the coffee shop) and lo and behold, she made her first tinkle in a public restroom! She had a couple other success stories today, and just one failure (involving a #2, so that's kind of a gimme for now I suppose). Some day she is going to kill me for sharing all this with the Internet, and I'm sure it's very boring for the rest of the world, maybe even more than you wanted to know...but it is very exciting for me. Not because I was tired of changing diapers - that wasn't so bad, and it was kind of sweet in a freaky way. I mean, a connection that I took for granted - her depending on me. It's exciting because it's such a clear milestone that she is growing up, growing more independent. She is learning something new in a clear-cut way that hasn't happened since she learned to sit up on her own, learned to crawl and learned to walk. 'nuff said.

Okay, and really finally finally - Ellen in Connecticut - I sent you an e-mail and it bounced. Would you please comment again with your correct e-mail address, or better yet just send me an e-mail at shellyk at shellykang dot com and I can reply to it?

State Fair

I am so beyond tired, I fell asleep on the couch while nursing Sophie after putting Julie to bed. Yet, here I am ready to tell you all about the wonderful day we had at the State Fair and maybe a few other things as well. We got up and out of the house as quickly as we reasonably could for a Sunday morning, which meant that we left just before 10. Here's Sophie all bright eyed and bushy- tailed haired ready to go.



Here we are waiting to buy our tickets to get in. I wanted to take a picture of the long line behind us, but I felt a little weird facing a bunch of strangers and taking their pictures. This is a pretty good view of our "State Fair Stroller" - a hand-me-down DuoGlider that someone gave us, which we couldn't fit Sophie's car seat into when she was smaller, so we had to buy a new one anyway, but this one was great to take to the Fair because we didn't have to worry about spilling stuff on it or potentially running it through a pile of horse poo or something. It worked out great.



First stop was the Creative Activities Building. I could have spent hours in there, but unfortunately the rest of my family has limited patience for staring at wooly crafts. A couple of beautiful modular garments caught my eye, so I thought I'd show them to you - these are not mine, just ones that I think are pretty cool. A jacket...



Sorry for the really bad picture, but it's hard when you're carrying a baby, shooting through glass, and the subject is half-hidden behind other garments. This is a skirt, made out of hexagonal modules.



Alright, and now for a little bragging. Here is my little baby hat that won the blue ribbon. Again, sorry for the poor photography. The lace blanket in the upper right of the picture is also mine, but it didn't get a ribbon. I can't wait to read the comments on that one - that was the piece I thought had the best chance of all of them.



Here is the baby sweater that won a fourth prize - it took a little searching to find it hidden in a corner at the bottom of the display.



I found the "monkey dresses" that my friend had told me about. They are amazing. It's one of those things that you have to see to believe. This first one is knit, and those little white things under each monkey head are name tags.



This one looks woven, it really made me laugh. It's an amazing design, just - well - hard for me to wrap my brain around, and very funny.



This collection was also amazing. It's what looks like an antique miniature doll, and someone crocheted a teeny-tiny wardrobe for her, with all the accessories imaginable and a dollhouse and a snowman to boot! I didn't see this one till I had already pushed the limit on time allowed in the Creative Activities building by my family, so I didn't get that good of a look at it, but it was neat. I really wish I could go back to the fair some week day by myself for a couple hours just so I could go hang around the crafts and stare at them all more thoroughly. (And of course I would eat more fair food too.)



Next stop was the new-this-year butterfly house. Joe almost didn't want us to go in because you had to pay an extra $3 per person, but we all did go in and it was worth it. It's a big room, full of butterflies of different varieties roosting and fluttering about. They were landing everywhere, including all parts of people. There were little kids walking around with up to ten butterflies all over their bodies. There were the standard monarchs, plus at least four or five other varieties, including some large ones. Julie didn't want to touch one while we were in there, but she enjoyed looking at the ones on Mommy and Daddy, and talked about them afterwards. It was really neat watching the ones that landed on my hands stick out their long curly tongues and taste to see if I was something to eat or not.



This was also really cool - a wall of hatching Monarchs. You could see some in their cocoons getting ready to hatch, and we stood there and watched one come out of it's cocoon and start to unfold its wings over the course of about 10 minutes.



After that, we headed to the carousel. The look on Julie's face as she rode it was priceless. And there was no electrical tape holding things together as far as I could tell.



We found a nice grassy, shady spot on a steep hill behind the roasted corn stand to spread out our blanket and eat a picnic lunch - mostly greasy fair food, plus a few things from home for Julie. I had a corn dog, fried green tomatoes, roasted corn and lemonade. We got french fries and corn for Julie, and I ate some of the fries too. Joe had a Gyro and some cheese curds (which I tasted as well.) I love eating at the fair. It's not food that you'd want to eat all year round, but I feel like you have to let yourself go a little now and then. I regret a little bit not getting a funnel cake or an elephant ear, and there is a really good brownie stand across from Creative Activities that I would have liked to patronize as well, but my stomach was full, and the family only has so much patience.

After lunch, it was almost time for the parade, so we scoped out a good spot and sat down to watch it. Julie really enjoyed the marching bands, and I enjoyed sitting there with both of my girls on my lap, looking down to see them both smiling at the drums and the uniforms. I wish someone had taken a picture of us at that moment. By that time in the afternoon, it was getting very crowded - here we are headed toward the animal barns - just look at the sea of humanity!



The plan was to walk through the Miracle of Birth building, then go see the other animals. But I was getting too hot and tired, and I could tell that everyone else had had enough too. We made one last stop for snow cones, and headed out to our car. Here's Julie with a blue tongue, eating the last of hers in the car while we waited to get out of the parking lot.



What a day!

Oh, and I have an update on Julie's pants. I stayed up way too late last night finishing up the legs so that I could join them together and work on the top part. It feels good to see this project starting to look like what it's going to be when it's done. I'd really like to finish these before Julie's birthday on September 12th so I can wrap them up and give them to her as a gift. That means I've put the blanket on the back burner for the moment - a very difficult thing to do, but I'm still going to try for at least one square a day, just not more than that till the pants are done.



Also, here's a picture of the second skein of yarn I dyed. The more I look at this mess, the less happy I am with it. I was really going for paler versions of the blue and teal, but what I got was just splotchy, uneven mess. I suppose I can go back and overdye it like I did the first, only this time I'll have to do all three colors, plus the burgundy where the white is now. I admit, I've been lazy about doing much research at all on getting the dyes to saturate properly - I'm just mimicking what I've seen other people do on their blogs. I did soak the yarn in warm soapy water before dyeing it, and I did let it sit for plenty long in the dye bath. The yarn wasn't twisted or otherwise tightly constrained as far as I could control, either. I may have to reconsider using the Ball jars and maybe switch to doing one color at a time in a flatter pan. This makes me unhappy, though, since even though I'm using food-grade dyes I don't like the idea of using my food-grade pans to cook them in. I'm going to table this project for the moment and come back to it once I've forgiven the current skein of yarn enough to try to fix it. Thanks a bunch for all your kind comments about the first skein!



Tomorrow, an announcement on the sport weight yarn. I've made up my mind about it, but this post is too long already, and I figure I've lost most of you to boredom by the end of this post anyway.

Yarn Yarn Yarn Yarn

Today has been another hard day on the kids front. Sophie just isn't sleeping the way a 6-month-old baby is supposed to sleep. She woke up at 6:30 this morning, napped for a total of maybe 1.5 hours during the day, and is still freakin' up right now after 11:30. Joe's up there trying to soothe her. This has been going on for weeks now. That amount of sleep adds up to only 8 or 9 hours a day, and it's not enough for a 6-month-old. Hell, it's not enough for the whole family. I'm getting no time to myself, and I'm getting very little time with Julie alone and we're all getting a little frazzled. Maybe a lot frazzled.

One of the things that is keeping me glued together (aside from the many bright points in having two beautiful kids, and there are plenty) is the yarn. So let's talk about the yarn for a few minutes before I go flop down in bed for the night.

This pile of yarn is sport weight sock yarn that is looking for a good home. I could hold on to it and would probably eventually use it to knit something modular or otherwise creative and patchwork, but I'm really hoping that there is someone lurking out there who really wants to knit a blankie, or maybe would do something creative with it for charity or for themselves or something. I don't care how you plan to use it - or rather, I would love to hear how you plan to use it, but I won't judge you on it - but if this yarn is calling to you, speak up in the comments or throw me an e-mail (shellyk at shellykang dot com) and it could be yours!



This pile of yarn came in the mail today from Katherine. Katherine has already sent me a couple of very generous packages, including that giant pile of Mountain Colors weavers wool that I just shipped back out to Melanie. She sent a bunch more nice stuff in this package, as she is cleaning out her basement and found some more goodies.



There was only one little problem. As I was fondling this new batch, I noticed a little something on the one dark skein at the lower right. Let's take a look...



Not a very good picture, but that's a bug of some sort. I don't think it's a moth. I think it's just a bug that got waylaid and passed away in proximity of the yarn. It could happen to anybody - you wouldn't believe how many critters I've found in and around my house - or maybe you would after that spider picture the other day. Anyway, Katherine's yarn went straight into the freezer, and I will think about how I can safely bring it out. It may involve a black trash bag in the back window of my car on the next hot sunny day we get. I just want to make sure that if it is some kind of wool-eating critter, it didn't have any friends hitching along in the yarn.

I also got this package in the mail today, only slightly wore for the wear after dealing with the local mail sorting facility. They were nice enough to bag it up and apologize for any inconvenience, and the yarn all seems just fine. Karen in South Haven, MN sent a nice little goodie bag. Thanks Karen and Katherine, you've brought the total up to 97 packages!



Finally, let's revisit my little dyeing experiment. Here's what that first skein looks like now that it's dried and rewound into a normal-sized skein. I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It is not at all what I was thinking when I started it, but it is pretty. I left it in the twist-skein because I am not going to knit with it right away (or any time soon probably) so I figure it's best to keep it in a nice relaxed state.



I stole some time to dye the second skein this evening while dinner was in the oven and Joe was playing with the girls. It turned out closer to my initial vision, but I was going for a less saturated color for the blues and therefore used much less dye - the colors are still very deep mostly, but now there is more splotchiness where I wish it were solid. At least I managed to keep the white parts white this time, and I think this one will be pretty too. It's drying in the basement now, and I don't think I'll try winding it again while Julie is awake since it's too stressful for her to watch me do it and not mangle the yarn get involved herself.

Joe's down now - he got Sophie to sleep. I'm off to bed!

Various and Sundry Things About My Day Vol. 12,227

In no particular order, the things on my mind this evening are as follows...

Cameras
I managed borrow the old camera from the in-laws for the next week or so, and thankfully that means we have some halfway decent pictures to look at again. It does break up the monotony of my hot air. The in-laws are not very techno-savvy, and they gave us the camera with a full memory card from their somewhat recent trip up to the north shore of Lake Superior. Here's a lovely view. I got a notice from Canon saying that they're working on my camera and I should have it back some time next week maybe if I'm lucky. Darn it, I think they are going to fix it instead of sending me a shiny new one. I can live with that, especially since it's not costing me anything.



State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair started today, and although I didn't make it over there just yet. Believe me, I thought about it, but it was raining this morning and just not do-able with two tiny children in the rain. Luckily for us in this modern age, even a traditional event like the fair has gone online. I was able to look up the competition results this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised. It seems my little baby hat won a blue ribbon (first place) and Sophie's little sweater won a fourth place prize. Everything else was snubbed, but that is okay - it means that there was good competition in those categories, so I have lots of beautiful knits to look forward to visiting. Knowing what to expect ahead of time makes it much easier to be a good sport, I think. Somebody mentioned to me a couple of dresses created in a sock-monkey theme that are supposedly amazing, and I can't wait to get a look at those.


Sophie Barfing

Poor little Sophie was her usual happy self all day today. I even snapped a cute picture of her as she sat in her high chair during dinner. She is playing with her spoon after I fed her a few bites of smashed avocado mixed with rice cereal, which she seemed to enjoy. Unfortunately, she woke up from a little after-dinner nap in a barfing/diarreah sort of mood. The poor kid threw up about 8 times in the course of an hour, then filled her diaper with some fluorescent colors, barfed again, then went back to sleep. I held her tight for about an hour - there is nothing sweeter than holding a sleeping baby, feeling the squishy flesh against your body, watching their little relaxed faces and loving them so much it hurts. The pediatric nurse on call says there is a virus going around and blah blah blah she'll probably be okay. Exactly what I expected and hoped to hear, but I had to call just to be sure. I just hope Julie and I don't get it. And Joe, too of course.



Potty Training

Speaking of Julie, we are continuing with the potty training sort of - at least in the sense that she wore panties all day today. Too bad nothing made it into the potty, but we had a couple accidents and breezed right through them. I'm so glad we have a nice washer and drying in our very own basement. I'm also glad the accidents happened on the wood floors and not the carpet upstairs. Here's the little angel enjoying some one-on-one time during Sophie's nap. We got out the Playdough and I sat with her and knit on a pantleg while she made a mess.



Oh! About the Bob the Builder underwear. Yes, I am afraid that someone would probably see her in them - she's not yet three and hasn't quite learned that pulling up her dress in public is totally inappropriate. She would probably be showing them to anyone and anyone who would look. I just don't want to have to explain to anyone, but especially people like my MIL, why she is wearing little boy underwear. I also don't want to have to explain why she can't continue to wear little boy underwear as she grows older. Mostly because there are no really good reasons other than because the other little girls will laugh at you some day and we can't have that. Feminist that I like to believe I am, I can't believe I'm spewing this crap, but there it is. I love the idea of putting a transfer or a patch or something on some plain white girlie underwear, but that would require me to spend my precious free time on putzy stuff that I don't enjoy for my daughter. Not when I could be writing blog entries, experimenting with dyeing yarn, cuddling with the blankie, or any multitude of other things like folding laundry or writing out birthday party invitations. Lovely idea, though.

Yarn Dyeing

So last night at midnight I decided I should go ahead and get that first skein of yarn in the dye pot since it had been soaking in the sink for a couple of hours. I'm afraid I did a sloppy, half-assed job of it. Everything turned out - well, not at all like I expected, but acceptable at least. I used way more dye than necessary and managed to sploosh a bunch on the portion that was supposed to stay white. I cooked it all for 20 minutes (the yarn and the dye and vinegar-water in individual glass jars inside my canning pot filled with water) then left the whole mess to cool with the lid on overnight. This morning, I came down to find four jars of unexhausted dye and I spent a good portion of my day filling the sink with water so I could soak and resoak the excess dye out of the mess. This is what it looked like after about 10 soakings.



During this whole process, the "white" parts became a dirty brownish-grey color - see?



So I decided to overdye them with some burgundy. In the end I finally got most of the extra dye out, and the pile that's dyeing in the basement now is probably useable. Julie and I wound another skein this afternoon, and maybe tomorrow I'll give that one a try.



Package Received

Last but definitely not least, we got a package in the mail today! Joan from Landsdale, PA found some more in her stash for me, and it's all very nice stuff. Joan, I appreciate your note about your brother-in-law being a UPS driver and their days being tough. To be honest, I hadn't thought about that story since I wrote it, and it is good to be reminded that a kind word is so much better than a harsh one in almost every situation. Sometimes I need to remember that better even when I'm dealing with my own daughter. Thanks for package number 95!

She Did It!

I started writing this huge, long, detailed post about the events of today, but then I realized that you all don't need to know every moment of this evolution in potty training. So I'm going to just tell you that Julie finally made her first pee-pee on the toilet this afternoon and was promptly rewarded with a popsicle and a trip to Target to pick out another new package of panties of her choice. She wanted Bob the Builder, but they only have those in the boys' version, so she got Hello Kitty instead.

She later managed to pee on the potty a second time, and stayed dry all day. There was no #2 at all today, which is the only worrisome part, but hopefully that will take care of itself in the morning. Oh, the joys of potty learning! It's funny - I'm surprised at how genuinely happy and excited I feel for her. I've been careful not to pressure her on this at all, and *she* is the one who decided to wear the underwear and sit on the potty. I'm just happy that *she* figured it out - I read her all the books and offered lots of encouragement, but it's totally her achievement. I can't wait to see all of these little achievements one by one as she grows up.

Letter of the Day

Today comes to you sponsored by the letter P. It started off innocently enough, with a trip to the Park. We joined our little friends and their mommies at a very nice little park on the hill by the Lake Harriet bandstand and had a fine morning of playing and snacking and chatting, as usual.

After the park, we headed over to the post office and dropped of the packages and parcels I talked about yesterday.

We move on to a call from the Photographer, who called up to make an appointment for us to come Pick out our Pictures - next week. I'm very excited about this.

Once home, Sophie made a giant poop, so giant in fact, that it caused outfit changes for both her and me. I thought up this letter-of-the-day theme while I was wiping her tiny little bum.

Julie decided she wanted to wear underwear again this afternoon, so I let her. I know you can see this one coming. She did pretty well, except she still hasn't actually peed in the potty - at all - ever - despite many minutes spent sitting on it. She did, however, pee all over the living room floor and Sophie's play mat. Cleaning that up ate almost all of the 20 minutes that Sophie spent actually sleeping in her crib today.

P is also for pinching and poking. Sophie has made it her goal in life to cover my arms, neck and breasts with tiny little bruises. It used to be just the backs of my arms. When I try to gently dissuade her from this activity, she screams at me as if I am ripping her limb from limb.

P is for pumping, too. As in, trying to stock the freezer with enough milk so I can safely leave the girls behind with Joe and go to Eau Claire to see Stephanie for a day. I make plenty of milk for Sophie - she's growing like a weed - but pumping can be very frustrating for me. I can sit here for half an hour staring at the cutest baby pictures in the world with the darn thing on the highest setting and still end up with only two ounces. Which is why I am working on my stockpile now. If it takes pumping two ounces every day for a month, by golly that's what I will do.

Okay, that's as far as my P theme takes us. Now let's look at some pictures. Oooh! Another P after all.

I don't know how this happened. Somehow, I have magically accumulated the supplies necessary to have a go at my own self-striping yarn. I think in a sleep-deprived fugue I somehow thought that buying the supplies for this project would somehow magically buy me the time necessary to *do* the project too. Never mind all that newly-acquired beautiful sock yarn sitting on the bookshelf staring me in the face right now. It'll all get knit. It's just a matter of time.



I did get one skein wound into a giant skein of the right proportions for stripes. I cheated a bit, and just took one repeat worth of the sock yarn I'm currently using for Julie's pants, tied it around a couple of chairs, and measured the spacing using its color changes. I figure it will be close enough. Our living room is barely big enough for this project, and I had to navigate around the many toys scattered across the floor.



Here are Julie and Joe eating pho (hey, another P!) at one of our favorite restaurants. It is a little dive with horrible decor, but the service is great, the prices are dirt cheap, and the food is awesome. This was taken Saturday night, and it's taken me this long to get around to posting it.



This crazy spider has been hanging out by the side of our house. It's pretty scary looking, huh? I tried to show it to Julie, but she wasn't very interested.



I'm off to spend some quality time with the blankie. I've been weaving in ends for the last day or so, and I think maybe I can get caught up with them tonight if Sophie decides to keep sleeping long enough.

Potpourri

I have never been a big fan of things that smell. Things like air fresheners, or perfumes, or even soaps and detergents with perfumes in them. I blame my father, who once insisted that I not read fashion magazines in his presence because of the perfume samples within. It is amazing, when you're trying to avoid those kinds of things, how common they are. Remember how popular potpourri was back in the late 80s? The stuff was everywhere. This post isn't really about that - I just labeled it potpourri because it's another word for "I'm going to tell you all about the miscellaneous junk floating around in my head and you're going to love it, dammit." Sort of the way people back in the 80s loved those bowls full of dried flowers and wood shavings and unidentifiable thingies scented with essential oils.

First and most importantly, sitting on the bed behind me right now as I type are four boxes. Four boxes stuffed mostly to the maximum and taped tightly shut, labeled and ready to go to the post office. I am so happy to see these four boxes all sorted and ready to leave my custody, ready to seek out their new homes where they will make someone else as happy as they made me the day they arrived here.

Melanie had offered to knit up a blankie and somehow give it to charity - maybe by auctioning it on e-bay and donating the proceeds to Doctors Without Borders in honor of Stephanie. I thought that was a wonderful offer, and just for saying so earnestly that she would do such a thing, I decided she deserved the box of Mountain Colors Weavers Wool that I kept opening and staring at and wanting to knit up for something selfish, but realized that it would be years, if ever, before that would happen and it deserves a much better home than I can offer it. I told Melanie that if it works out and she knits the blanket and still wants to auction it off, fine. If she knits the blanket and develops an attachment to it and wants to keep it for herself or someone she loves, that's fine too in my book.

Carol has been working away at a blankie of her own with her own little stash, and has even been dyeing her own colors when she ran out of variety. She's getting a box of the same yarns I am using for my blanket. She's also getting a couple of blobs for her CIC knitting. I mean, I had a package going her way anyhow - it just seemed right.

Cass is working on a blankie, too - although she's laying out her squares a little differently than mine, it's still a mitered square sock yarn blankie. She's named her blankie "Hocks" because her little boy replaces S sounds with H sounds, so it's how her little boy says socks. I thought that was so cute. Reminds me of when Julie was first starting to talk.

Andrea has also started a blankie, but it sounds like she has had a crazy summer and has been away from it for a few weeks. She assures me that she is still very interested in knitting one up and I believe her.

Deciding who should get these boxes of yarn wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. All of these ladies were very nice in their e-mails, and all of them are blogging the experience, so we all get to watch them and enjoy the process along with them. I'm glad there was enough to go around to them, and if any of you runs short, I will have more left overs from my blankie as I get it closer to done. I still have a giant Rubbermaid container full of just the stuff that can go into this particular blanket, and I'm willing to share. I kept as much as I did because I really want to use at least one square of each yarn, and I got tired of rewinding little balls.

I have identified a few more bits and balls that I want to give away, and I was going to write about them tonight, but it's getting late and I'm tired and Joe is standing here ready to go to bed, so I think I'm going to follow him. So much for Potpourri after all. You'll just have to wonder what else I had rattling around in my head this evening and hope I remember the good stuff next time around.

Bears

I got an e-mail yesterday from Jo-Anne in Ontario. She received the box of yarn that I forwarded to her last week, and she was thrilled. For those of you who don't remember, Jo-Anne is the one who knits teddy bears for children in need - she sends them to various local and not-so-local charities. She included a couple of pictures in her e-mail, and here is one of them.



Are they just the cutest little things, or what? Now, teddy bears aren't going to solve the big problems in any kid's life, but they sure must add some comfort to a bad situation. Thank you, Jo-Anne for doing this - putting your time and love into knitting this yarn up into something for a child to hang onto when maybe they don't have much else. And all of you who sent me some yarn that was not-quite right for my blanket or didn't fit into a group of yarn that would be right for a different blanket, there is a good chance that it went to Jo-Anne. Know that by sharing your unwanted bits, you made her day and that of some unknown child as well as mine. That is the magic of the internet.

Oh, and I'm getting closer to the bottom of some of these piles I've been sorting through. I've promised packages of yarn just like what I'm using to Cass and Carol, and in the process of getting their yarn ready I've sorted out most of what's left for giving away. I'll have a post some time in the next week offering it up with specifics (I hope).

The Big V

Warning - this post contains information of the Too Much variety. If you're squeamish or just don't care to know about the deeply personal life of the Heathen Housewife and her family, move along and come back tomorrow. If you're a shameless voyeur who loves to know all the dirt, carry on.

Well, now Joe has blogged it, I feel it is fair game for me to discuss that which I was biting my tongue over yesterday. I am so proud of my husband. He did a brave thing today, which many lesser men would have made silly excuses against doing and he did it without any sort of martyrdom or any excessive whining at all. Joe got a vasectomy.

Oh, there are so many aspects to this story. There are the emotional ones - no matter how certain we are that we are happy with our two beautiful girls and that our family is complete (and boy are we certain!), it is sad to think that there will be no more pregnant bellies, no more birth stories, no more little people to love more deeply than I had ever imagined a person could love. I feel these things, I think Joe does not and that is just fine. Still, even though I am a stay-at-home mom and have my whole self to devote to my kids, there are many days when I feel stretched past my limits and although I know it will get easier in many ways as they get older, I don't want my girls to have any less share of my attention than they currently do, and to be honest, I don't want any less share of private time than I currently have. This is the balance that is right for our family, and I am happy with it.

There is the whole society macho aspect to this story. The whole societal relation between virility and impotence. The whole "Don't mess with my balls" thing that men have. Never mind that women get poked and prodded down there every year by an OB/GYN, never mind the humiliations of childbirth and the related suffering that women go through. I have heard so many stories of men who will not even consider getting a vasectomy but insist that their wives get their tubes tied instead, even though it is a much simpler procedure for men. Not my husband - and this is why I am so proud of him. He is and has always been confident and secure in who he is as a man and as a person and he doesn't need to know that he's shooting out live rounds in order to feel like a man.

I have to admit that watching him go through this today - or at least the aftermath of it - has reminded me of what I went through after Sophie was born. I was really torn up down there and had surgery the day she was born to fix it, and was in really bad pain for weeks afterwards while it healed. I got very little rest or support about it from anyone, and although Joe did the best he could, I just don't think he fully understood how bad things were for me. There was one point at which he was angry with me for wanting to go to the ER to have my stitches checked because it hurt so bad I thought they were tearing. He has since apologized deeply for that one.

Anyway, that's all water under the bridge. I'm just saying that I didn't know how today would be for him. I did my very best to make sure that he felt supported and got the rest he needed and took some pain medication and didn't do more than he absolutely had to. He spent most of the day in bed with an ice pack, his laptop (and wireless connection), his Nintendo DS, his books and magazines. He'll get tomorrow completely off too. He has told me a little bit about how it feels - somewhat uncomfortable it sounds like, but not altogether horrid.

What surprised me the most today was how fast the whole thing went. I drove him to the doctor's office and the girls and I sat in the waiting room for all of 20 minutes while they did the old snip snip. 20 minutes! From the time he went back there fully clothed to the time he came out fully clothed with a paper bag in his hand full of empty specimen jars for later. I've been known to read the Fly Lady's web site now and again, and one of her sayings is that you can do anything for 15 minutes. I guess that's somewhat appropriate today.

Okay, that's more than enough. The girls and I had a mediocre day of our own. We went back out to run some errands, which kept us out of Daddy's way for the rest of the morning. I managed to keep Julie downstairs for most of the afternoon while Joe napped, too. Sorry, no pictures today - it's hard to motivate for pictures when you're working with a crummy camera phone. Have I mentioned how much I miss my Canon? I may have to borrow our old one back from the in-laws to tide me over till I get ours back.

I Got Nothin'

I don't have anything interesting to say today, I'm afraid.

I could tell you about how it was rainy this morning, so the girls and I spent most of the day at the mall with some friends and had a very nice time - but that is so boring. I tried to take some pictures with the camera phone while we were there because the girls were doing cute things in the play area, but the camera phone sucks. I can't wait to get my Canon back.

I could tell you about the chicken tikka masala that we had for dinner - super easy to make with this seasoning packet I found at the Wedge, and it tastes great too! But you don't really want to know what I had for dinner.

I could tell you about how Joe got his new i-pod today - an early birthday present. He's very happy about it, and that makes me happy.

I could talk about trying to decide what activities to sign Julie up for this fall - gymnastics? dance? swimming? This is on top of pre-school three days a week. There is only so much money for class fees, and only so many days in the week. I'm of several minds on this issue, but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that either.

I'm not going to talk about what's really on my mind - what's happening tomorrow. It's a good thing, but private and not the business of the whole wide world. Weird for me to say that since I am not all that private of a person, generally speaking. It would make a good story, but it's not really my story to tell.

I could whine a bit about how Sophie fussed and cried for a few hours this evening, totally out of character for her little self. I know it must be teeth, but even the Tylenol didn't seem to help. She finally wore herself out and I tucked her snugly in her crib, poor thing.

I still got a couple of squares knit on the blanket...but no yarn sorting done, and I feel badly that I'm not going to get the packages out this week after all. Sorry ladies! It is a top priority, I promise!

I'll try to come up with something better tomorrow. Now I have to go get some sleep before our appointment at the crack of dawn in the morning.

Giant Smiles

I have only nice things to say today - how refreshing!

Let's start with the absolute best part first. Here is the biggest smile I have ever seen Sophie make. She was watching Daisy cat walking around our living room and trying to grab a handful of fur as Daisy brushed by. She succeeded a couple of times and I had to pry her hand open and brush off the collected fur. It was a priceless moment.




Here's another lovely moment that happened just after. Julie and Sophie playing together. You can't tell it from this exact moment, but they were sort of interacting with each other. It was very cute.



Okay, and someone was complaining a few days ago that I haven't shown the blankie recently. I didn't think it had been that long, but it turns out it was almost two weeks ago. Time flies when you're incredibly busy having fun. I layed the thing out on the bed and Harry came trotting into the room and jumped right up as if somehow he could sense from the living room that a comfy spot was waiting for him. That's okay - it's good for scale. Comparing this picture to the one two weeks ago, I'm afraid there's not all that much visible progress, but I have been averaging at least one square a day. That's pretty pathetic, but remember we've been having sleep issues and I've spent a couple evening's worth of limited free time sorting yarn in the hopes of getting it sent out in the near future.



Oh! See that package with the yarn sitting directly below the blanket? That's from Jennifer in Melrose, MA. A few more nice chunks of exactly-what-I-asked for. Thanks, Jennifer - you're #94!

One last thing - a different Jennifer was asking about what kinds of cotton sock yarn I've been getting and which ones I would recommend. Most of the big companies that make self-striping sock yarn make a wool/cotton/nylon blend in fingering that is great for warmer climates and seasons, or just for people with warmer feet. I knit this type of socks for our falls and springs here in Minnesota for myself, and will wear them in the winter too, if the warmer ones are in the wash. Socka, Regia, Opal, Meilenweit, Sockotta, Jawoll, even KnitPicks. These are all pretty similar, although some make them with a little elastic mixed in and others are just the wool/cotton/nylon. There is also Cascade Fixation, which is more of a DK weight and very stretchy cotton/elastic.

Here's where my personal bias comes in and I'm going to go ahead and get all opinionated, so brace yourself. I don't care fore Fixation. The elastic feels weird against my skin, I don't enjoy working with something so stretchy, and it is too bumpy underfoot when I try to wear it. It just doesn't make me happy. Also, I really think the wool/cotton/nylon blends make the most sense for several reasons. Wool is good to have in there because it helps make the socks more elastic naturally. Wool has great memory and will stretch out less than all-cotton does, plus it is easier on my hands to work with, and it absorbs moisture well. Cotton - well, it's cooler, which makes it great for warmer seasons. Nylon is really important to strengthen the fiber and keep you from putting a hole through all that hard work after a couple of wearings.

And, moving along with that train of thought, but away from cotton for a moment, I'm going to disclose an opinion that I know some of you will disapprove. All those luxury fibers people are selling and knitting up into socks these days? The pure merinos, the Bearfoot, the pretty pretty handpaints that make you drool on your keyboard when you see someone knitting them? I'm not going there any more. They just wear out too quickly on my feet. I need some nylon built in, and carrying it along for the toes and heels doesn't cut it because mine wear out just outside the heel zone. I made a pair in Bearfoot last fall, and after about ten wearings they're already getting thin in spots. I've had this happen with other expensive yarns, too. Not so much with the Regias and Opals and similar yarns. I think the luxury ones are better saved for things close to the face like scarves and hats, or maybe sweaters or, um, modular blankies.

Okay, and just one more step down that trail...I don't like Jawoll either. At least, I don't like the wool blend of it. They put acrylic in it, and it sucks. It's too shiny, in a fake sort of way. Worse, it feels swampy in my shoes when I wear the one pair I made in Jawoll, and they stretch out on my feet and flop around after I've been wearing them for a while and take off my shoes. Okay, hopefully the people who were looking for all-positive-thoughts aren't reading by now, but if you are - quick, go back up to the top and take another look at Sophie blissing out over the cat.

The Handoff

Among many other things, today the girls and I took my entries over to the State Fair. I always have mixed feelings as I walk into the Creative Activities building to drop off my work. I'm excited to see what everyone else standing in line has to hand over, and I can't help looking around as the intake volunteers fill out my form. Today I noticed a woman with two crocheted afghans - lumpy ones that looked like they could use a good blocking.

I critique my own entries one by one as the volunteer inventories them on the receipt for me. The lace baby blanket, knit with vintage wool from my stash - I think this one may have a chance of winning the lot if the competition's not too stiff. The little cabled sweater I designed for Sophie out of the same vintage Pomfret yarn. It's sweet, and well executed, but I'm not endlessly thrilled with the design. Who knows whether this one will bring a ribbon? I won the same lot with a stocking-stitch sweater from self-striping sock yarn a couple years ago, but the competition varies from year to year. The little hat - probably not going to win - I bet there's more competition in this category, but I had to throw it in there just for fun. The most expensive socks I've ever knit - very simple ribbed socks, but there are a couple of details that make them interesting despite the limitations of the category. Still, socks is probably the most popular category in the knitting competitions at the fair, and I don't expect to get a ribbon.

I feel a little sad and lonely for my woollies as I walk away, hoping they'll be okay for the next few weeks till I get them back. I know the judges are meticulously careful, and everything is kept behind glass to keep the sticky fingers from pawing at it. I have never had a problem before, and I have only heard a couple of horror stories of things coming back stained or with holes.

Julie is excited for the fair to open next week. She wants to see the animals and ride the carousel. I'm sure she will enjoy eating what she can of the fair food as well. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last day for entries, so it's not too late to enter, you Minnesotans. Just drop by the fair grounds and head over to the Creative Activities building. It's free to enter, and the people are very nice - it's much less intimidating than you might think. I have entered for four years now, and won some and lost some, but even if there is no ribbon on your garment as you walk in and find it in the cases, it is still a thrill to see it there displayed with all the other lovely things. It is a thrill to stand in front of the case and observe someone pointing your things out to their companion.

Oh, and one other thing. Stephanie is coming to Eau Claire next month. I asked her if she thinks she'll make it to the Twin Cities this time around and she says she's not going to be any closer on this tour. I've checked with Joe, and he says I'm clear to make the road trip as long as there's enough milk in the freezer. The blanket wants to meet Stephanie (and I do too) so we're going to go. It's only two hours. Anyone want to carpool?


Sophie wants to crawl. She's getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. She wakes up from a nap or evening sleep and practices this without making a peep - Joe caught her doing it this evening when he went up to get a fresh diaper for Julie - we thought Sophie was asleep, but there she was, wide awake and trying to crawl around her crib! I can't believe this is my tiny baby, growing up so fast!

Monday

I don't have any big, coherent thoughts or even a theme tonight. I have lots of bits and pieces - but I guess that's pretty business-as-usual around here.

To answer a reader question, MIL doesn't make Dolsot Bibimbahp at home because she doesn't have the right bowls or a commercial oven. Bibimbahp is a dish comprised of rice, topped with various korean condiments like seaweed, a fried egg, bits of meat, and some other vegetable items that I can't describe - and to be honest, it varies by cook and mood of the cook. When you sit down to eat it, you put your desired amount of chili paste sauce on it, and mix it all together before you eat it. Dolsot Bibimbahp is the same thing, only it is served in a stone bowl heated to some insane temperature. The egg is served raw on top, and when you mix it all up, the egg is cooked right there in the bowl. It is awesome, because you get these crunchy bits of rice that have browned at the bottom of the bowl and they even have a name - and I know I'm not spelling it right, but it sounds something like Nulr-un-gee.

Next up, I wanted to mention that on Wednesday I will be teaching clinic at the Yarnery. Normally, my friend Jean teaches clinic on Wednesday nights, but she has an important obligation and asked if I wanted to do it. I quickly took her up on it - any chance to get out of the house and go play grown-up knitting instructor suits me just fine. Plus, clinic is especially fun because you never know what you're going to get. Clinic is free, and it's basically first-come first-serve help on your knitting or knitting project. I'll have the blankie with me, so if you're local and want to come say hello, you'd be welcome to.

Finally, tonight's dinner, and with it a trip down memory lane. Tonight was scrounge-in-the-fridge-and-find-something-to-eat-with-these-left-over-porkchops night, and as I was digging I found the tube of polenta that I picked up on impulse at Trader Joe's last week. I figured now was as good as any time to fry it up, and so for the first time in a few years I ate what I grew up calling fried mush. When I was a kid, as a special treat, my mom would make fried mush for breakfast and serve it with pancake syrup. Sounds gross, but tastes great. I love the crunchy-chewy texture of the mush, and the syrup makes it over-the-top yummy. It is so funny how "polenta" topped with fresh tomato-basil sauce is oh-so-highbrow; yet "fried mush" served with syrup is the lowest of the dirt-poor south-Kansas white-trash lowbrow. Either way, it tastes good. My mom didn't make it very often because it makes a huge mess when you fry it, and I spent a few minutes wiping up olive oil splatter after Julie was in bed. Next time, I'm going to cook it in the oven - I've done it that way before, and it make much less mess but tastes just as good. Julie got to eat it plain, but she snarfed it up so fast I had to ask her to slow down because I didn't think she was chewing.

Yum Yum Yarn

This post was started on Saturday night, but it got too late and I'm finishing it up on Sunday afternoon/evening.

I have lots of little things to mention today. First, I took a little trip to the UPS store and sent off my digital camera for repair this morning, so for the next couple weeks at least, we will all have to limp by with some very shabby camera-phone pictures. I know this is unfortunate for all of you looking for your sock-yarn-scrap fix as I open the mail each day, but luckily that's tapering off anyway. It feels very sad for me, since whatever pictures I take in the next couple weeks will not be scrapbook quality, but I don't think the girls will notice a couple missing weeks in the grand scheme of things.

While I was out, I sent off a box of yarn that I can't use to Jo-Anne in Ontario, the one who makes bears to donate to children in need. I'm really glad to be able to share some of this stuff with her, and I hope she has as much fun opening her box as I did opening all the packages that brought it to me. We'll do the rest of the yarn at the end of the post. In the mean time...

Sophie had her first taste of non-breastmilk food today. She has been grabbing at our food, staring longingly at our faces as we eat, and even opening her mouth to mimic us eating for a while now. I wanted to wait longer to feed her solids because of the allergies in our family, but I decided to go ahead and slowly start introducing a few things. Today she got a very thin rice cereal gruel, and not all that much of it. She seemed to really enjoy it, opening her mouth and leaning into the spoon in anticipation of the next bite, but most of it ended up down her face and front, and tucked up in the crease between her neck and chin. Yum!



The second Yum is for tonight's dinner. We had our neighbors from across the street over - M, G and their two boys who are 6 and 10. I think Julie ate more than the two boys combined, but that's my girl for you - she likes to eat just about as much as I do. We had barbecued ribs (I think this is my summer of ribs - I've made them three or four times this summer, and we all love them. Too bad they're so fattening.) We had corn on the cob, baked beans, corn muffins, and sliced cucumbers in vinegar and oil. The neighbors brought over their special homemade bloody mary mix, and it was really good. I could have slurped down a couple glasses, but even just the one gave me a pretty good buzz, and I never have more than one drink a day since I'm nursing - usually not even that much. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are really lucky to have such good neighbors!

Now for the yarn - Kathy, who lives nearby me, the one who I accidentally stood up a few weeks ago, was visiting her friend Judy in South Carolina and brought me some yarn that Judy wanted to contribute. So I got to meet Kathy finally and also got some lovely yarn out of the deal. You can't see it very well, but that's Koigu on the left, a full ball of Regia Jubilee, what looks like maybe some Opal, and a couple cotton-blends



Suzanne from Philadelphia sent a nice package of bits and ends with a note neatly describing them all (and which I very much appreciate).



That brings our package total up to 93! Thanks, ladies!

Okay, and I'm finishing this up on Sunday afternoon - Joe was headed to bed last night and I realized that I was very tired too and could do this later - and I'm going to add a couple of things.

I got an e-mail from Cindy that she has already finished one sock for her daughter out of the Koigu I sent her, and she included a picture! I'm SO happy that this yarn is going to a very good use, and Karly is still very excited about getting her socks.




Here is Julie, excited to be wearing her rain coat and rain boots as we headed to Target this afternoon. She loves this new-to-her rain coat that we got from a friend the other day, and didn't want to take it off even though she was hot in it.



Finally, to answer some questions that came in through the comments...

Someone asked where I go to eat Korean food in Minnesota. Usually, I get my fix at the in-laws' house. My mother in law is an awesome cook. Granted, I've never been to Korea and haven't had the food there, and I'm just working with my standard American midwest (albiet open-minded) palate. Still, I've been to Koreatown in L.A. on two visits now, I've tried a few of the restaurants in the Twin Cities, and MIL Kang makes the best of everything I've tried - with the exception of Dolsot Bibimbahp, which she doesn't make at home. If you've ever had it, you know why. She makes regular bibimbahp, and it's awesome. Her cooking is what I ask for on my birthday. And all that said, I know that doesn't answer your question. The place the in-laws pick when we go out is King's in Fridley. It's up by where they live, but they also like the way the food is prepared best there. You can find that restaurant and some others listed here.

Now, I'm off to block a lace blanket before someone wakes up. But first I have to clear some yarn off the guest bed.

To-Do List

Never mind me while I write up a little list of a few things that need to be done...

1. Raise two happy daughters without damaging their little psyches any more than I can help. Even if one or both of them is refusing to sleep when she should, leaving me little time to do anything else but this number-one, never-ending priority.
2. Find interesting, delicious, healthy things to cook and feed my family. Without using wheat, dairy, eggs or soy. (Tonight we had a pasta salad that was pretty good for a 6:00 punt.)
3. Do something with all this yarn that has taken over my office room. This includes sorting it, winding it, mailing some of it off to interested parties, and of course knitting it. Minor progress is being made in each of these categories somehow, despite points 1 and 2.
4. Write a blog entry. Well, here I am - sorry, no pictures today. I just don't have it in me.
5. Block the items I plan to take to the State Fair - drop offs start on Monday - ulp.
6. Get some stuff to the store regarding my fall classes. It looks like I'll be teaching toe-up socks, a very cute slip-stitch baby hat, and two-color, or Fair Isle knitting while designing and knitting a hat.
7. Knit up those pants and that sweater that are begging to be finished before Winter sets in.
8. Print all the pictures from December on and get them into scrap books. (All you knitters out there, pretend I didn't mention that. Scrap booking is my dirty red-headed stepchild of a craft, and I do not get all crazy with it, I just get the pictures into books and write some captions while I'm at it.)
9. Eventually, some day, get some sleep.

Okay, someone explain to me why despite all this huge list of things begging to be done, why is it that I looked at this today and felt the sudden urge to order some white sock yarn from KnitPicks and pull out the Kool-Aid? I mean, as if I had the time to knit up a swatch, figure out the yardage per round, wind the yarn in a proper length, dye it, rewind it back into a ball, and then HA! knit it into socks. As If I didn't have a slightly-out-of-control stash of sock yarn at the moment. I'm not saying I'm not going to do this project. I'm just saying, it's not going to happen tonight. Nope. Not even going to look at that KnitPicks page again. Closing the browser tab right now. I'm going to go to a little bit of number 3 and then a little bit of number 9 before it's time to start working on number 1 all over again (hopefully in the morning).

Jen H. is a crazy freak, but I love her anyway.

We'll get to Jen in a few minutes, but first I want to tell you about my day. Many cute kid and family pictures were taken today, but I did not take them. We drove out to across-from-Stillwater and visited our favorite professional photographer, Jeff Dunn at his studio. He did our wedding and a photoshoot when Julie was six months old, so we figured we'd better do another one while Sophie is at the perfect baby-photo age - able to sit up but not crawling yet. (And speaking of Sophie - the little scamp is laying in my lap blowing raspberries into my arm right now. She just doesn't want to go to bed!)

Anyway, the drive out to the studio was an hour each way, so I had quite a bit of free knitting time. I chose to work on Julie's leggings - the blankie is getting a little big to transport, and I really need to work on these pants before Minnesota's early fall hits us. I made good progress, and the legs are 10 and 11 inches long at the moment. I need them to be 15 inches before I join them, but they're getting there. I noticed while I was taking the picture that one is slightly wider than the other overall. Not sure how that happened, but I think the difference is small enough I can ignore it. I'm kind of excited about this project - I mean, how many three-year-olds get to wear pants handknit in fingering weight by their moms? I'm going to get her a plain little overall dress to wear them with, andI think she will be in heaven.



So anyway, Jeff did a great job at the photo shoot. Julie was being a bit of a pill and not cooperating very well. Idonotknowwhy. We should have picked a morning appointment instead of an afternoon one, and that probably would have helped, but we didn't. Even so, he got some great photos from what I saw on the digital-camera screen. As part of the deal, he's going to give me web-quality digital copies and permission to post them here (after all, most of his business comes from word of mouth), so you'll get to see them eventually. The drive back involved some whining and more knitting, but we made it and ate out at our favorite, Chipotle.

When we arrived home, I found one package at the back door. The surprising part was that it is from my friend Jen, who lives right here in St. Louis Park, who has two little girls the same ages as Julie and Sophie, and whom we saw last week and whom we have plans to see this Friday again. Jen has a little obsession with paper and stationery and mailing things. She's talked about this obsession a few times in the past (I think of it as her version of yarn and knitting obsession), but I didn't realize how bad it was till today. The package has the kind of postage on it that you get when you take a package to the post office. This tells me that Jen had to drive to the post office and PAY to have it delivered to my house when she could have just waited two days and brought it over herself - and I only live a mile from the post office. Silly girl.

I do love the little card she included, and her daughter Maymuna included a letter for Julie in the package. The yarn is lovely, too...very nice, shiny, soft cotton that looks about like DK weight to me. But it is SO not sock yarn. Jen, I'll keep it if you want me to. I'll make sure it finds a good home. But it's not going in the blankie. You could whip up a really cute little hat for Hafsa out of this if you wanted. Or something.



Oh, and finally - I've been having some intermittent trouble with my camera for a while, and it's gotten worse lately. Bad enough that I had convinced Joe I needed a new one. Bad enough that I was ready to go ahead and buy a new one tonight. But then, as a lark, I did a Google search on the problem I'm having to see if anyone else has been having it. Apparently, enough other people have had it that Canon decided to fix it for everyone who has this camera and this problem for free even after the warranty is expired. So says their web page, anyway. Aside from this memory card issue, our camera has been a loyal friend, and it is still high enough resolution that I could live with it for a couple more years. What I'm really hoping for is that they'll say it's cheaper to give us a new camera than fix this one. 'Cause what I was planning to buy was the current model of the same camera. I really like my PowerShot Elph - and this is the second one we've owned. Joe's parents are still using the first one. If I do end up sending it in for repairs, and I plan to, the only drawback is that I'll have to live with the 1-megapixel camera built into my Sidekick for a couple weeks. You won't notice a difference in the quality on the blog - but it will probably be noticeable when I get around to printing them.

Empathy vs. Elevator Rage

This morning I had the rare opportunity to get out of the house by myself. Joe's parents came over and watched the girls while I went and got my teeth cleaned downtown. I used to work downtown, so it made sense to go to the dentist near my work. Now, I keep going down there because it is a good excuse to go walk among the big tall buildings a couple times a year. Today, I got there early and had plenty of time to stroll through a book store before I headed up to the office. I was in no rush as I got on the elevator up to the fourteenth floor.

The elevator was busy as usual for this building and on the second or third floor, there was a UPS guy waiting to get on with his cart. Even though the compartment was pretty full, he pushed his way in. I stood there feeling angry at him and frustrated as the rest of us all squeezed together trying to make room, and I cringed as the guy at the back facing the door almost got banged in the privates by the hand cart. The guy scrambled to pick up and balance his packages on the cart as we climbed a couple of floors and I thought about making a snide comment to him about how he could have waited for the next car. A couple of us had to get off to let the lady in the corner off at her stop. I started to feel badly about my initial mean thoughts, so I blurted out something like "Sure is busy today" - sort of neutral.

That opened up the conversation for the UPS guy to mention that it was almost 10:30 (the cut-off for the express deliveries to be made) and he still had six packages to get signed in. He said only two of the elevators were working (in a bank of about 6 or 8), and as he said this he looked really frazzled. I felt awful - I almost slammed him for just trying to do his job, just trying to meet the deadline imposed on him by his company. I was so glad I had kept my mouth shut those few extra moments. I got off on the fourteenth floor feeling relieved.

Oh, and I've still never had a cavity in my whole life. I hope I can continue to keep it that way.

There were no packages in the mail today, just a Netflix movie and some bills.

Tonight we took Julie to our friend Max's third birthday party at Choo-Choo Bob's Train Store. She had a good time playing with the train tables they have set up there, and was thrilled to wear a party hat and take home a balloon. She didn't even notice when the birthday cake was served because she was busy playing in the main room. This was a good thing, since all I had for her as a substitute were some allergen-free cookies that had been riding around in the diaper bag for at least a week, and were a little smooshed. I had brought some Oatscreme in a little cooler too, but sincet they weren't serving ice cream for the other kids, I don't think I would have offered it to Julie and risked making them feel bad.

Thanks to everyone who wrote such supportive comments on yesterday's entry. I was surprised by what a strong response I got. I even want to thank Linda, who chimed in just a little while ago and dissented from the rest just a bit. I appreciate that you spoke your mind instead of just being a knee-jerk yes-girl. (Not that everyone else is that, I'm just saying that it takes some courage to say what you think when it's not what you think the person wants to hear.) Linda, no worries - you're right - this wasn't a hill worth dying on, and I didn't really get any deep wounds. I am pretty darn comfortable with who I am, and with who my family of choice is. I do think that sharing my feelings on a conversation like this might help make people think about what they're saying and be a bit more enlightened about understanding each other, though. I especially like the way Linda said what she had to say in a very nice way. So thanks again, everyone! It's nice to have all these new internet friends.

Speaking of new internet friends, I got two e-mails thanking me for the yarn I sent out last week, and I'm glad to have made a couple of peoples' day. I'm especially happy that there is a little girl named Karly out there who will soon be wearing pink Koigu socks and that she is excited about it.

I also got three packages in the mail today, all very nice indeed.

Cassa in Midwest City, OK sent a nice pile of yarn, which she says she has fallen out of love with. They tried to deliver this package on Saturday, but I wasn't here to sign for it - what a pity! At least I have it now!



Danielle in Stoneham, MA sent a very cool hand-made card with some very nice bits of yarn.



Katy in Chicago sent some leftover Regia jacquard - the purple one that was so popular at the same time the 5181 was first out, and a very nice note too.



Thanks, Internetties, for bringing our package total up to 90 today. I'm going to have to cut this post off since it's 12:30 and I'm trying to contain my fussy little one in the sling, but she is flipping herself over backwards trying to help me type. Exactly 6 months ago, I was starting true contractions and going into labor with this little one. It's amazing how quickly things change.

Today Julie wore that yellow hard hat all day. She also had her play cell phone tucked into the neck of her shirt pretending to be Bob the Builder. You can't see it in this picture, but she is wearing big-girl underwear and nothing else on the bottom. She asked to wear panties when we got home from our morning errands, and she didn't wet them all day. Despite about a million trips to the bathroom she didn't pee in the toilet either. She did fill a diaper the moment we put her in one for bedtime, though. I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm just going to follow her lead. If she wants to wear underwear, fine - as long as she keeps them dry and is willing to try sitting on the potty. If she doesn't want to wear them, diapers are fine by me for now, too.

I Couldn't Believe My Ears

Let's start off with some nice warm fuzzies before I get into the meat of what I have to talk about tonight. Joe's home. Life is good. I was able to cook dinner with him here to watch the girls while I stir-fried. Nothing fancy, but it is nice to prepare a hot meal in my kitchen again. I do not know how single moms of babies do that part. Joe came home tan and rested, and he was happy to see all of us, and Julie was thrilled to see him. We are back to our regularly scheduled programming, and that is just how I like it.

Today, I took this picture of Sophie wearing a hand-me-down shirt from Julie. Joe posted about the shirt on his blog last week, wondering what had happened to it. I dug around in the storage bins and found it with the next size up clothes, since Julie wore it for a couple of seasons. Joe bought it for her and thought it was great. I think it is cute in its intended subversive way, but also it doesn't match the other pieces of clothing we have very well, and - well, when we're out I sort of like to blend in most of the time and not wonder what people are thinking about what kind of mom I am to put my kid in a t-shirt like that. But I do find it cute and funny, so I stuck it on Sophie as a welcome-back greeting to Joe.

She's also wearing the socks sent to us by Carolyn. Julie didn't get to wear her socks today because she wore them yesterday and they are in the wash today so she can wear them again tomorrow. She loves them, and has been calling them her "Bob the Builder" socks because everything she loves most is labeled her "Bob the Builder" whatever-it-is right now. She asked about them several times today. Sophie had some fun trying to grab the beads on her ankles without tipping over sideways.



I suppose I could leave it right there, and we would all leave this post with a warm fuzzy feeling. The argument could easily be made that I should leave it right there and not bring up the topic I'm about to mention. That the boat shouldn't be rocked, that I'm overly sensitive, blah blah blah. I've heard those lines too many times in my life - times when people were manipulating me not to speak up for myself when really I needed to. So now, I sometimes speak up when I think something is wrong even though I know I'm probably putting my foot in my mouth and maybe hurting myself or someone around me. But even though I know all this, I sometimes can't stop myself from saying what's on my mind. So here goes.

Last night, my neighbor M from across the street came over for a beer on the front steps. We were sitting there having a friendly chat about mild matters - neighborhood issues, our kids, the weather, the bunnies hopping around in the yard - that kind of thing - when we noticed another neighbor's light on and decided to invite her over as well. D came over, and somehow it was mentioned that Joe is Korean and therefore our kids are half and half. D said something like "Is that what he is - don't they have some really nasty food?" I was stunned at what she said right then and there, because even if that were true (and I'm not totally denying it that there are some things in korean cuisine that don't especially appeal to me) that's not the kind of thing you say to your neighbor when talking to her about her husband's culture of birth. I mean, that's not the first thing you'd say about your Norwegian neighbor even though they eat lutefisk at the holidays (bleaaaacth. I'd much rather eat a freeze-dried anchovy than slimy lutefisk any day. As long as it hasn't been rotting in my deep-freeze for a couple of months) .

But I managed to control myself and said "Nasty food? What nasty food?" And her examples were kim-chi and spicy ramen noodles. She went all off on how kim-chi is traditionally buried in the ground while it ferments, and she refused to listen to me when I explained that it is simply pickled cabbage, that lots of cultures bury foodstuffs (in jars) in the ground to preserve them for winter. She didn't want to hear it when I told her how much I enjoy eating korean food, and she kept making fun of it for about five minutes. I finally told her "I think I'm a little offended by that". Then, she made a kind of back-door apology saying "Oh, you know I was just kidding" but then she immediately followed it up with another barb about yucky korean food. At that point, I took a look at my watch and reminded her that she was due to pick up her partner at the airport and she didn't want to be late.

D left, and M and I talked about the conversation for a minute. M seemed to think that I had overreacted a bit - that D was joking the whole time. I'm sorry, but her tone was not joking - it was serious, and even if she had been joking, it wasn't funny. Nobody wants to hear that what they eat and enjoy every day is disgusting. And if you're making fun of korean people, you are making fun of my entire family. Even if I am a big loud white girl. The whole "joking" excuse is a great way to piss me off. It is such a standard manipulation technique. You float a thought or an idea to see if the crowd is willing, and if they're not, you brush it off with "Oh, I was just joking." It surprises me that *anyone* thinks they can get away with that, and it surprises me even more when they do.

Okay, so to clarify - it's fine if you don't like korean food. Some of it is quite spicy, and I know a lot of people who just can't handle it. (Especially living here in Minnesota surrounded by people of Norwegian ancestry). That's fine. But you have no right to write off the cuisine of an entire culture without even trying it - and I mean really going in with an open mind and sampling more than one dish - for yourself. There's plenty of non-spicy korean food to go around, and if you asked nicely, they'd help you figure out what to order at the restaurant.

That conversation? To me, it's a great example of latent racism. Us versus them. Calling someone a racist in modern America is a pretty hard insult, because it is pretty taboo to admit to it these days. I don't take it lightly. But the thing is - people like D don't even realize their bias. Here's an admission on my own part. I know for a fact that I am not color blind. I know that I have cultural and racial biases. I just do my very best to recognize them and overcome them as they come up.

Questions Answered

Today was Day Three of the home-alone experience. It was a good day, and even bedtime was under control. I took the girls out to dinner again, though, and I'm really not sure what we'd do long-term if I had to cook dinner every night without at little help managing Sophie, at least while the stove is going. In the mean time, I had a good excuse to go eat at Cap's, which has awesome barbecue. I didn't take any pictures today, so unless you saw us in person (Hi, Ozayr!) you'll have to take my word for it that they are still pretty cute.

I thought it would be fun to answer a few questions from the comments, and I'm still not sure about the protocol for having discussions in/around/through blogs works, but I'm pretty sure it's okay to do it this way. Sometimes people ask me stuff through the comments, but then they don't leave their e-mail address, so it's hard for me to respond any other way. I don't think there's really a guidebook on how this is supposed to work out there anywhere.

Nicole asked about the study that Sophie was in what they were trying to figure out, how it works. They took us into a room where a video screen was set up in a black background so there wasn't much else to look at. I had to put on some blackened sunglasses so Sophie couldn't look to me for reaction to what she saw. There was a video camera built in right below the screen so they could watch her reaction and where she was looking. Sophie sat on my lap and we watched the pictures shown on the screen - mostly involving a rubber duckie, moving around on different backgrounds. At first, we were just looking at two a static-sized ducks moving around in two dimensions, then they had line drawings of a tunnel behind each of the ducks, one on each side of the screen. On one side, the duck got bigger as it got closer to us in the picture and on the other side it got smaller as it got closer. The idea was that if she spent more time looking at the "wrong" duck, she probably understood perspective. So far, it's looking like babies her age do recognize it. Hope that makes a bit of sense. I think I offended the professor doing the research when I asked if there is a practical application to this research, and the short version of his very long, slightly huffy answer was no. I was all, "That's okay - basic science is a good thing. We're here helping you out, aren't we?"

Okay, this one isn't related directly to the blog, but I'm going through my in-box looking for things to reply to, and my friend Jen sent me this link about a study I think is cool. Breastfed babies have lower levels of stress later in life. I'm so not surprised by this, but I'm glad that the study proved it. Thanks for the link, Jen, and we both deserve pats on the back for nursing even when it's not always the easiest thing in the world - but that said, it seems a lot easier than bottlefeeding and I'm not trying to say we're superior in any way. Not trying to make anyone feel bad about their choices or abilities to nurse or not.

Jo-Anne in Ontario says she knits teddy bears for various charities and could use some of my yarn bits for her bears. Jo-Anne, I would love, love, love to give you some yarn bits. Nothing could make me happier. Yours sounds like a great cause - little gifts like a teddy bear to a child in need - well, it doesn't solve all their problems, but it lets them know someone cares. Send me another e-mail with your address, and give me a clue on preferences as to yarn weight, color, whatever might help me send you yarn that you'd most enjoy knitting with. And yes, I would love to see a picture of the bears. Especially if you'll give me permission to post it on the blog! I think I can safely assume that anyone who sent me their yarn wouldn't mind knowing that some