6 hours! In a row!

That's how much Zach slept last night. Well, he slept a little (but not much) more during Kit's shift, but 6 HOURS IN A ROW!!! A little more than that, even. I don't think Becky slept that many hours altogether until she was at least four or five months old. I hope it wasn't just a fluke, since I reached a new level of tired last week when I accused my husband of putting the tortillas away before I was done fixing my dinner as I held them in my hands in the act of closing the bag.

In other news:

Knitting and stuff
- I have finished socks for my dad and stepmom. These are their 2006 Christmas presents. I tried to convince my dad that it was one sock for 2006 and one for 2007, but I don't think he bought it.

- The socks for my stepmom are also an original sock pattern called Inflorescence. I originally intended to publish it here for free, but instead submitted it to Sock Madness when they were unsure if they would have enough patterns. If it's not accepted, you'll see it here soon. If it is accepted, you'll see it here later. It will be free either way. Here's what it looks like.




- I have sewn together three of the 32 squares for Zack's blanket. I decided to eschew my normal crochet seaming method (yeah, I know, I'm still going to do the tutorial, I swear) and try out mattress stitch for the first time. Dude, I kind of love it. I learned it from this video on YouTube. I love the YouTube for knitting techniques. Just search for it and chances are someone has videotaped it. Anyhow, the squares go together pretty fast, so my goal is to get at least one done every day. That means it will take just about a month to get it all together. I hope to be able to give it to him on my birthday, which will be his 3 month birthday, so it works out nicely.

- I have not gotten to the weaving or the quilt yet. I still have time.

- I just got the yarn to replace the yarn I had previously purchased to make my Pottery Barn blanket, which now clashes with my new couch. Unfortunately, the new yarn is stunningly gorgeous. Not that I don't want a stunningly gorgeous throw for my home, but this color would look SO GOOD on me. Sweater or blanket? Sweater or blanket? Finally, I consulted Becky. She went with sweater. I love her. Speaking of:


Child #1
Becky continues to be just about the cutest thing ever. The other day I was putting her down for her nap and she started counting loudly. Being loud at naptime is something her teacher has asked us to talk to her about, so I told her that her friends (in this case, Blue Bear, Brown Bear, and Bert the Dragon, and also Mommy) were sleepy and needed her to be quiet so we could sleep. I suggested that perhaps she could try counting in her head. She thought about it for a minute and then started counting loudly again, tapping her head for each number. Counting in her head.

Here she is holding her brother and showing him some animals. I believe she introduced him to about 20 different animals before she lost interest.







With daddy:



And eating a bagel the size of her head. Her hair does not stick up that much, it's just static-ed to the couch.




The Mall
I've been going to the local mall (okay, it's Jersey, one of thelocal malls) pretty much every day to do some walking. This particular mall has a lot of inclines and declines and some nice shops (there's a J. Jill -- talk about incentive). But I have a few issues with merchants and other shoppers (I know, you're all shocked). To wit:

- If the parking lot is not full, don't be a parking lot vulture. I'm not talking about when you see someone in the act of pulling out and wait for them to vacate the spot. That's just courteous. But don't sit there and wait while I put the car seat and any bags I might have in the car, make sure Zack is settled in, fold the stroller and load it in the trunk, resettle Zack because he's fussing, etc. rather than parking 5 spaces further away. In other words, if I'm not even in the car yet, don't bother. I will sit and wait for you to get impatient and leave. I've already done what I had to do at the mall...I've got all the time in the world.

- Merchants, please don't pipe perfume into the mall. I can smell Abercrombie and Fitch from downstairs, ferchrissakes. It's ridiculous. Also, please don't play the music so loudly that I have to shout to make myself heard when I want something.

Wow. I really thought I had more issues than that. Huh.

ETA: I thought of something else

- Merchants with the carts: No, you may not ask me a question. You definitely may not ask me a question after I've already told you "no" twice. The headphones are usually a good indication that I don't want to be bothered. Get a clue.

- Again with the merchants, don't be snarky with me when I'm trying to buy something from you. I had this conversation yesterday:
Me (picking up sweater): Excuse me, do you still have this in black?
Clerk: We never had it in black.
Me: Oh, I must be remembering it wrong. I thought the one I saw in the window a couple of weeks ago was black.
Clerk: It was dark grey.
Me: Oh, okay. Do you still have it in dark grey?
Clerk: No.

Seriously? Just say "no" when I ask if you still have it in black. Obviously, you don't have what I'm asking for so why waste my time and yours?

Okay, now I'm really done. Except I would like it very much if the mall would fix the damn automatic door and/or people would have the common courtesy to hold the non-automatic door for the LADY WITH THE STROLLER!!! Done now. Really.

posted by Laura Y. @ 11:53 AM 0 comments

Too much TLC

And I don't mean tender loving care. I have somehow become addicted to What Not To Wear...only I hate it. I watch it because I hate Stacey and Clinton and the way they make people feel horrible about themselves. For those of you who don't know, the family and "friends" of people with questionable taste nominate them to be on the show, and then the two hosts (who, frankly, have some pretty questionable taste themselves sometimes) trash their current wardrobe and then give them 5 grand to spend in NYC on new clothes...which the hosts, Stacey and Clinton, must approve.

Now, I will be the first to admit that, yes, a lot of these people are pretty clueless about how to dress appropriately for their age/weight/job/etc., but first of all, if my "friends" ever did that to me, the first thing I would invest in is new friends. Second, who died and made these two clowns king of the fashion world? And mean kings. There is another show that does the same thing with the change-your-whole-wardrobe-and-teach-you-how-to-dress thing, hosted by Tim Gunn of Project Runway fame. He is so nice to the people on his show...and they've all nominated themselves. Much nicer, but it's not on as often. (I also caught the new Carson WhateverhisnameisfromQueerEye show the other day, and it looks more along the lines of the Tim Gunn thing and not mean like WNTW.)

Anyhow, when I was putting together this little ensemble, I was totally thinking in fashionista:


"We're getting some nice color next to the face with this green long-sleeve tee, which goes great with these chocolate brown slacks that have just a little flare below the knee. Now, because you're young, we can top this with a cute little denim jacket embroidered with little rainbows and hearts.

Speaking of cute, how's this:



It looks like his eyes are going to stay light, either blue or green. He's already got tons of personality, smiling and scowling and fussing as appropriate. Becky is still getting used to Daddy spending time with Zack, and took a jealous swipe at him over the weekend. But she and I had a little talk last night (wherein I threatened her with no Mickey Mouse), after which she deigned to shake the bottle for Zack while Daddy was holding him. This, my friends is Progress. Note the capital "P."

Here's proof that Becky really does love her little brother:


I will give him his bottle, even though he is in no way indicating that he wants a bottle.


Stupid binky. I shall remove you so that Zack may drink.


Now you will drink, Zack. Drink, I say!

And on the knitting front, I have finally finished knitting all of the squares for Zack's blanket. I blocked them over the weekend, and now I just have to sew them together. I am not looking forward to this, but I'll be damned if I waste all that knitting and all that yarn. Also, I finished a sock, wrote up a pattern to send to the Sock Madness people, and am almost done (no, really) with the socks I owe my dad and stepmom from last Christmas. Then I start the socks for my mom, which shouldn't take too terribly long. Shut up with that laughing. I'm serious.

I'm also going to try to put together a quilt and get a weaving project done while I'm on leave. We'll see.

posted by Laura Y. @ 12:41 PM 5 comments

Mama who?

So this morning I'm feeding Becky breakfast (okay, I'm handing her things and she's feeding herself. Whatever.) and Zack starts fussing. Becky takes an immediate interest and offers the following advice:

"Mama? Zack. Crying. Diaper. Wet."

Which, of course, he was. Again. Apparently, I am no longer needed around here, as my 20-month old has a handle on what the baby needs. I think this is great. I will be heading off to the Bahamas. Maybe they'll let me sleep there.

posted by Laura Y. @ 8:23 AM 0 comments

Merry New Year!

Although I had hoped for it to be otherwise, I was indeed up to ring in the new year this morning. Sadly, I was not the one with the bottle in my hand. That would be Zack, whose leitmotif seems to be staying up as much as possible at night -- and not like he's awake, either. Just like he could wake up at any second. And as soon as you decide he's really out and crawl into bed yourself, that's when he actually wakes up. He got both of us last night, the little sneak. If he wasn't so darn cute I'd probably be much more upset. Instead I'm just OD'ing on coffee. Mmmmm...blessed elixir.


My first time in something other than a sleeper. I'm stylin'.

This was Sunday, when we went out for our first family dinner with the four of us. It went amazingly well, mostly because Zack slept the entire time. It will be interesting once he's awake for longer stretches and we can't count on that anymore.


How could you be annoyed at a face like this?


And one of Becky because she's still so darn cute, too.

I can at least read while I feed and hold him (not while I change him, though...gotta work on that). A few weeks ago a I read a book that's been on our shelves for a while and I had meant to read it and then forgot about it until it was mentioned on The O.C. (I've been watching the reruns. It's a very guilty pleasure.) So I grabbed it, and I'll be darned if those folks handing out Pulitzers don't know what they're talking about. The book is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and it's definitely a page turner. It even got me reading comic books/graphic novels, which is totally not my bag. To be fair, it's not my bag because when I was of an age to be getting interested in all that, I was more interested in spending my money on a real book that would take me more than a few minutes to read. I mean, I've read comic books. They just didn't capture my imagination. I find that I enjoy them much more as an adult. Is that weird?

I've also been trying to knit more...I've been actually really wanting to knit a lot, but I keep getting distracted by a game on my PSP called TimeSuck PuzzleQuest. It's an RPG -- there are quests and tasks and such, but the resolution system is a form of Bejeweled (which is a puzzle game that involves matching up like items to remove them from the board). So I'm really trying to limit myself on that and actually put it down and knit. Otherwise I find myself picking up my knitting just as Zack (or Becky, depending on the day and time) wakes up and it's time for feeding/changing/holding and no more time for knitting. (I'm afrayedknot on Ravelry if you really want to see what I've been working on.)

Speaking of knitting, I have a dilemma. I have this sweater that I knit. It's rather huge, and it's quite pretty, and I love it. However, the yarn I used, although I expected it to be high quality, was apparently not so much. The sweater is pilling like crazy. Not only does that make it look kinda crappy (bad enough that I don't want to wear it out of the house), it makes me mad every time I look at it (so i don't want to wear it around the house, either). So...what do you think I should do? Put it awaty in a closet? Trash it? Put it in the donation pile? Where do handknit sweaters go to die?

Finally, new pattern coming soon. I just whipped up an adorable baby hat and will write the pattern up and have it over in the sidebar for you soon.

posted by Laura Y. @ 6:34 AM 0 comments