Eighteen...

Marti's little A meets Carrie's little D...WHEEEEE :)

Where are we?

Seriously. At four months (four months as of Saturday), this child is already well travelled. Three provinces, one night in a scary slasher motel (daddy isn't allowed to make the travel plans anymore) and waking up to new faces at every stop along our way to Ontario. And she has been AWESOME through it all. Her only revenge was to poop three times the first day on the road and twice on the second. I've become a real pro at the quick change on the back seat of the van.


Hank in the scary slasher motel our first night on the road. Our big joke was that Hank kept asking, 'Why do we live in the van now?' This room wasn't much bigger.

I gotta give a big high paw and puppy props to this guy, my good 'ole Hank. There was much fret and worry and back and forth about bringing him vs. boarding him and in the end, he came with. He too has been awesome. Hank has an issue or two, but he's coped remarkably well, much better than I would ever have imagined, so much so that I am really very glad that we brought him along. I thought that with a baby and a dog in tow, by the time we got here I'd have aged ten years and been driven to drink. I'm still driven to drink, but, ya know, for entirely different reasons.

I had hoped to put in a picture of some remarkable knitting progress at this point, as I brought a whole heaping bag of it, but after a few hundred kilometers, two outfit and five bib changes and constant chin wiping later due to a steady stream of milk phlegm and teething drool, I started to wonder why I even bothered. I did manage to crochet another bib on the trip, simply because I was worried I would run out of the stack I had handy in the car.

I do have about an inch or so completed on my Grape Hederas that I started before we left (Cookie A. pattern, Tanis Yarn in Grape), but since arriving, have not picked them up once. Busy busy busy. We hit the ground running most days. It's been lovely to see everyone so far. They will be plenty of time for knitting back in ye olde Nova Scotia I'm sure.

So it's taken me two solid days to compose and attempt to publish this post, what with running here and there and shoddy internet connection. So we'll end it here. Hope to have something fun to post for tomorrow though. Until later...

Sixteen...a double dose...

*sigh* The speed at which they grow and learn is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. You try the same thing over and over and then one day it just clicks and she's grabbing things and studying them and figuring things out. I wish I had gotten a video though. She held the rattle in her hands and tried kicking it with her feet to get it to make noise. Adorable.

This week has been full of surprises where she is concerned. She's started to get very agile while on her back during her play time on the floor. Lying under the arch of her play mat, she wiggled her way into a complete 360 turn. She did the same thing in her crib. We found her kicking at her crib bumper, holding her one foot (another first) with all the crib toys that were once safely crouched in corners now all gathered around her. I stood there amazed and sighed. 'Crap' I thought, 'she's mobile.'


Hanging out watching Conan with mom in the morning.

Yesterday she was thisclose to rolling from her front to her back on the floor. She has the right idea and all the right movements, just not quite enough strength yet. I helped her a few times and she was very impressed with the whole notion of rolling. It's a bit of a marvel. To both of us I'm sure.

Until later...

This Dresser...

Does this happen to you? You're going about your day in a normal work-a-day fashion, being the best version of your typically calm, reasonable self and then you'll encounter a scenario whereby all of the repressed frustration and anger and white hot rage that has accumulated in the deepest and most primitive cells in your body your entire life comes bubbling to the surface and explode in a torrent of crazy person all over the place?

For my husband the other day it was the car window shade we bought for the baby at Canadian Tire. Purchased it, brought it out to the van, put it up, didn't suction to the window with the little suction cups. A six dollar piece of crap item that you just want to work didn't and I could see that silently, ever so subtly, he lost a little tiny part of his mind.

For me, it's



this dresser. I hate...this dresser. Hate. This dresser. It was a cast off from my grandparents farm house after they had both passed away. I needed a dresser, or chest of drawers of you will, and so by default alone, inherited it. It came with a vanity table too, one that was so obviously made early on in the 20th century when people were much much smaller than they are today. I hated it too. Hated. It. It had this gigantor mirror and practically no space in which to do anything and it got crammed into my already over crammed room at the time and it just took up space and collected dust and I poured contempt and disdain all over it until I finally unburdened myself of it shortly after it became my possession.

The dresser, unfortunately, was a different story. I couldn't just get rid of it cuz at the time I had no means to replace it. So it has travelled with me for two moves now, this decrepit, ancient eyesore of a thing. It's full, it's in use, but every time I look at it I see the chip in the finish and the water stains and the dust it collects from intentional neglect and I just seethe.

I rarely use the bottom two drawers. Partly because I've sort of forgotten what is in them and partly because I'm convinced that whatever clothing might be there, likely doesn't fit me anymore anyway. But the biggest reason is that the drawers simply don't function. The drawers are simply boxes fit into slots and because this hideous monstrosity is older than old and the environment of late has been wetter than wet, you may be able to coax a drawer open but you'll be damned if you try and get it closed again.

Enter white hot raging crazy person. I went looking for a t-shirt. Which I found. In the drawer. Which will not close. I am not above admitting to you that I have actually beaten up the dresser before because of this very problem. This time I was able to restrain myself to mere fantasies of taking an axe to it, busting it up into smithereens and setting them ablaze whilst dancing around in a drunken reverie. Which I've decided is exactly what I'll do when we get new bedroom furniture, perhaps sometime this fall. I think it'll be cathartic.

Until later...

Fifteen...

Little A trying some cereal for the first time. Did pretty well for her first go at it and thought it was just great fun. Might've had something to do with all the silly noises that the mommy person was making to get her to smile and open her mouth. Hank quite enjoyed this little endeavour as well. One quick turn of my head and he was more than willing to help clean her face. I think he sees great things in his near future...namely Cheerio's.

His and Hers Crafts...

So I've been working on a few things that I can't quite reveal just yet but I assure you they are cute and were fun to knit. Satisfied? Didn't think so.



So I'll show off the constable's latest completed project. Work on the house continues but not quite at the frenzied pace of the past. Completing this built in shelving unit was one of his main goals during his parental leave, besides bonding with and helping to take care of the offspring of course. I'm so bloody impressed with how this turned out, it just makes me smile every time I walk by or into the living room. It's exactly how I envisioned it. I'm not quite done with filling the shelves, but it's coming along.



Also in crafts, I've been quite enamoured with crochet again. I'm still churning out bibs like nobody's business, have recently picked up the Babette again to play around and just last night/this morning, cranked out this little gem of a pattern. Summer Coaster Set by Chicken Betty (link to her blog where you can find pattern details...you can also find her and the pattern on Ravelry).



Way way way too cute and easy enough for a beginner like myself to finish up in no time flat. With all the bibs I've been doing, I've got quite a collection of cotton scraps now, and this is a perfect way to use them up. And I'm envisioning them being great little gifts. I can't quite decide what tickles my fancy more; the coasters themselves or the little basket that they stay in. Love.

Why have I forsaken knitting for crochet for the time being? Well, it's fast. Super fast. When the urge to craft comes on and you just gotta complete something before a certain someone wakes up, it's crochet all the way. Now that it's getting a little easier and faster, I'm hoping that the Babette Blanket will progress. I'm seeing it in my minds eye as a really sweet little blanket. Perhaps I can actually finish it before little A is a teenager. But for now I'm going to raid the stash and make more coasters. They're addictive...but in a good way!

Until later...

Fourteen?

One grey day bleeds into the next. There is no differentiation. But at least this face brightens my day. Just a little sun suit we picked up the other day. There's no sun, so we had to add a long sleeved onesie...in July. Uggh.

Anyhow, Happy Canada Day y'all. Hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

Promise of crafty content in the near future. I've been working on some stuff that I don't want to blog about, but a few other things as well. Until later...