Knitting done. Tree is up. Presents mostly wrapped.The Festivities may begin.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

One Year Old

Last year (roughly-speaking)

This year

Everything else in between seems like a blurr.

Determination meets a stomach virus.... The sweater is probably not getting done on time. I might get the sleeve knit by the 25th, but probably not sewn together until after the holidays.

I am recovering, and am still keeping my fingers crossed that nobody else in the family gets it, whatever it was...

I really could have gone for some chef-boy-ardee ravioli, but all we had was lousy Healhty request chicken soup. It's really not that good.

We will still get a tree.....

'Tis the season.....

I am determined to get this finished before December 25th:

That is Trellis. The Trellis I've been working on for months. I have a back, a left front, a right front, and one sleeve. I need to complete the second sleeve and do the finishing in 1 week and 1/2. Every part of this sweater has been re-knit at least partially, except right front. I even had two sleeves completed at one point, but after looking at the pattern, and thinking , and re-measuring, I decided the gauge was too far off, and I ripped them out. This is a new way of thinking about knitting for me. I don't want to fudge things. If I'm going to take the time to knit it, it is going to be look nice, even if it takes me nine months to knit a baby sweater!

I fully realize that December 25th is a arbitrary deadline for a present for one who will not even notice the sweater or care about it except to fuss when it is put on him, but I sort of like the excitement of knitting it for Sean's 2nd Christmas. I want to anticipate the season by knitting a sweater.

I also want a tree. Probably a fake one, b/c our dog would probably pee on a real one, but I want a tree with lights, so you can turn off the lights in the room and sit in the tree light and feel the magic of the season, and forget all the hustle, and stress of it. I realize that it might be a hastle (not to mention inherently dangerous) with a one year old who is learning to stand up and is getting quicker and more determined to test us each day. But I want the tree, It's part of my past and traditions that I want to be there for my kids even if we are pressed for time this time of year.

As of yet, we have not had the time to go out and get a tree, but maybe next weekend. Most of the Christmas shopping is done. The cards are made and have arrived at home, and are just waiting addresses and stamps. They should be mailed out this week, so we should be able to do it next weekend. Probably just as well to have it up for a shorter time.

I leave you with a picture of Sean at the park. He turned 1, a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe how quickly his first year went by. Simply amazing.

What the hell, Happy belated Halloween! And Happy Veterans Day too!!

We aren't exactly on the ball with these things, but this is the best we can do. Sean looked very cute in his Japanese tiger outfit. We especially liked the tail. There has been lots of stuff going on around here; bathroon remodeling, career decisions being made, trips to NJ, several books finished,baby wrangling, and yes, knitting, but more on all that later.

ZOO!

Well what does a baby do on a bright and beautiful Columbus day, when daycare is closed?

You have mommy call up your friend's mommy and you head out to the Zoo!

We saw elephants and little hippos and maybe some other animals, and hung out with the stroller set who were at the zoo en force.

And then we took a nap because it was just too exciting!

Visitors

Over the last week we had visitors from the otherside of the world. My brother and his wife visited from Tokyo, and we had a barbeque bash at our house with so many people we used every last one of my plates and didn't have any knives left over. 10 people, I guess our family has gotten a little bit bigger.

His Uncle made quite an impression of OLG. And everybody seemded happy to be together as a family for once. Football was watched, Food was eaten, and A good time was had by all (except the dog who got locked upstairs).

OLG pulled himself to standing for the first time this weekend too. He is growing up so fast.

Beach '08

The first week in September was our annual trip to Duck, NC. As usually we had lovely weather, at least the first four days. Then Hannah decided to stop by on her way through, and we decided it was the end of the week and we'd rather be stuck inside at home then in our beach house.

Our little boy has a pretty good time. Actually I'm not really sure he appreciated the change in his routine, but he hung in there pretty good. He is know an expert tummy crawler, and is getting all over the place. He is also able to pick up cheerios with the dreaded pincer grasp. He has a little trouble with the hand mouth exchange part though. He really wanted to eat the sand, but I couldn't let him. I think he liked the walks in the Duck on the bike path the best, and hanging out with mommy and daddy for an entire week.

I'm still worried about his eating habits. He had his 9 month visit and he has dropped to 5th percentile in weight and height. But, the doc isn't worried yet because they're matched to one another. I started to cry when he was weighed in. It's hard not to take these things personally because of all the effort I've put into breastfeeding him over these last 9 months. He seems to be interested in eating a bigger variety of things now, but still only in small quantites. Anyway we will do what we can, and hopefully he'll start making progress.

Chicken Soup in August

I've been thinking that there is alot I should be recording on this here blogs. Having a small wee one around is nothing if not an experience which causes one to think alot. The thing is things are moving so fast, and honestly blogging isn't exactly my top priority, its pretty far down on the list of things to do....

First example of things moving fast, Baby sits on his own, and has been doing this well for about a month. He is actually making his first forays into crawling, sortof a commando style on the stomach leaning and reaching to one side. It's slow and he gets frustrated, but I think this means we need to baby proof the house soon...

Second example: We've started introducing solids. We are now making up for the ease with which we got the breast feeding thing down, and are dealing with a very opinionated baby. He eats about four things, maybe five on a good day. Mostly the gerber applesauce, pear sauce, squash, and fresh peaches and necatarines:

Thing is, he doesn't like much else. Maybe a few spoonfuls of peas or sweet potatoe if you also give him some applesaue. He won't even eat applesauce I make for him. So this is the reason I'm making some chicken soup... I think it might be time to try something new.

Excersaucer

For his 6 month birthday, we put together The Excersaucer, which he really seems to get a kick out of.

About 6 months

Our Little Guy turns about 6 months sometime very soon, and as you can see he's starting to look like a little boy and less like an infant. It is amazing how fast he is growing. He is in the I like to roll over on to my stomach, and then start screaming until mommy puts me on my back b/c I haven't quite figured out the whole getting back thing phase. We are working on the whole sitting up phase thing, but he doesn't quite understand the concept of balance yet. It might be awhile.

A little bit of an updated is probably in order as it's been awhile. OLG is a very happy baby as you can see from the above picture. (Please ignore the crazy woman holding him, and instead focus on the cuteness). We did go through a little bit of a sleep problem around 4 1/2 months where due to a series of colds, and mom over-reacting to said colds, Sean developed the unfortunate habit of waking up every 1-2 hours at night, resulting in "reactionary co-sleeping" and a mommy who was dragging herself into work each looking a bit bedraggled. This went on for a month (a month of mom sleeping in 1-2 hour shifts, and then getting up at 6:30 and having to be somewhat functional at work all day, think about it.....)Then Fabulous Aunt Aimee gave us their copy of the Sleeplady book, and it inspired us to get that kid back in his crib, and back to sleeping. Basically, after one rough night OLG figured out how to fall asleep by himself (we'll mostly by himself), and now sleeps in his crib in the other room. He still wakes up more frequently then he should, but we usually get at least on 6-8 hour stretch out of him. The sad thing is that we now put him to bed around 8:30, which means precious little family time on weekdays. Being a working parent is rough!!

So event wise, We went to cherry blossoms with the lab:

We went for two nights of passover in NJ and saw all the cousins. Good food, good people. Thanks Nanna...

We went to Md Sheep and Wool and lasted about 45 minutes before baby got hungry, but decided that too much was going on to nurse. So we left after looking at a couple of baa,baas, and went back to his comfy nursing chair at home where he settled down. I now try to take a bottle with me when we go out. He seems to take a bottle in social situations much better than me. So much for the ease of breastfeeding on the go! By the way my husband was absolutely stunned by the size of the sheep in wool thing, he though there'd be a handful of people, even though I tried to warn him.

We went out to The Old Olney Alehouse with friends, sat outside and had dinner and I drank my first draft beer in a long time. So nice to sit outside , eat, and drink a beer with the baby

There was mother's day. I got pretty flowers, and we had a nice brunch at Fabulous Aunt Aimee's. I'll see if I can steal one of her pictures.

Dad has started to play Thurs evening golf, leaving me to wonder what fun activity I could do to cash in all the baby "capital" I'm earning.

And, oh yeah, knitting: I completed one sleeve of "Trellis" for OLG when he is about 18 months. I might be able to finish the sweater in time.. I started Airsaig (middle), and have decided that it is way overly ambitious of a project for the time being, although a really digg the yarn color, and I like knitting lace, so I'm planning on tucking it into my stash for latter, and re-started a clapotis (right) from MdSW yarn purchase two years ago. I had started this before, and was actually quite far into it, but I remember some wonkiness, so I decided to rip out and start again. Maybe, I can finish this in time for Christmas giving. It's hard to find time to myself these days to knit, but I do try.

Alright that is all for now. I will be sending this link out to some friends and relatives shortly, so that we are not out done by cousin Sam, so Hello! if I actually manage to do that before the next post!

Can't resist the cuteness

While baby .....

Just taking a quiet moment for an update. This is the aforementioned knitting entry. I started back to work, and baby has started daycare. So far, so good, but I'm exhausted. Before ending my maternity leave I managed to finish up some projects for Sean and his buddy Roi. (See I'm not such a neglectful knitmom afterall!)

Project one: Baby pea-pod sweater, available on-line from Interweave knits.

Project two: Red vest from "Nature knits".

Project three: Tan sweater from "baby knits" from Debbie Bliss

And i've started a new project:

6 hours of sleep and other stuff

One of the first times I got 6 hours of consecutive sleep, left me feeling so great, I was able to assemble the 40 some odd parts of my brother's awesome gift inbetween feeding and fussy time the next day. My husband then came home from work and checked all the screws to make sure they were tight enough, you know just to be safe.

I've been getting a 4-6 hr stretch most nights, and then 2 more in the morning once I resettle him. I think this is really good, I just wonder if it will hold when he goes to daycare.

Baby has really become fascinated with putting his fist in his mouth. He is also starting to interact with us in different ways. Smiles when we make funny animal noises, or opens his eyes up really wide when we talk to him. He is starting to make little noises of excitement too, but no laughs yet.

Lastly, we went over to my sister's house and just look at my nephews keen fashion sense. Notice the knit cap, which was a hat I knit for him when he wasn't even born yet.

Next time, maybe some current knitting content???

Baby, a photo essay

Typing one handed is rough! I can't believe we are at 6 weeks! It is still weird that we have a baby.