Developments

I webcammed with my husband tonight.


That used to be the standard-- back before FaceTime, before I had a laptop with a built-in camera, before he had an iPhone-- it was us, computers, and webcams, communicating across the country. I had met him in my home state of Maryland right after I had already signed up to attend a massage school in Las Vegas, NV. We had three short months of face to face dating before I packed my car up and drove away. But, in that fleeting period of time, we had already fallen deeply in love. The relationship continued over cell phones and webcams, as I learned effleurage and petrissage in the desert, and he moved to Southern IL to get his bachelor's degree. The following year I graduated from massage school, we got married, and I moved to Illinois all in one weekend. It was a busy weekend. Now, five years later, we find ourselves once again connected by webcam. He is on the East Coast for a week long training, and I'm here, at our house in Illinois, with the two-year-old and a 32-week-old fetus gestating inside me. I'm ever so glad that my Dad is here, too (otherwise, I wouldn't make it!).




It works in our favor that R now loves her daycare. It was a rough transition for sure: my fully daytime potty-trained Cupcake went back to having (multiple) accidents, both at home and at "school." Thankfully the daycare staff was patient and understanding, and now, three weeks later, she comes home wearing the same clothes we put her in in the morning. She needs pull-ups at naptime, but that's understandable; the daycare staff have to stick to a schedule and put all the kids down at the same time instead of keeping one up until her bladder is fully emptied. But yes, R loves it. She has figured out that daycare is more fun than staying home and running errands with Mommy, or going to doctor appointments and watching Mommy get measured and hooked up to weird machines.


Speaking of doctor's appointments, I now go in for weekly ultrasounds and doctor visits, and twice weekly non-stress tests. Fun stuff. All of this time spent sitting around in waiting rooms has given me a non-stop list of knit and crochet projects. It's been awhile since I last picked it up, but I'm back to using the knitting jenny to make little hats for the NICU babies. I've also made a hat and two pairs of booties for Poppy, as well as finished her baby blanket. See?







I'm keeping busy, for sure. Until Senpai comes back home, and until Poppy makes her grand debut (another full moon is on its way... time to refill the anti-contraction meds prescription!), a steady stream of yarn flows through my fingers.

Food, Real Food!

And suddenly, she's eating table food.



Little Miss R, 9 1/2 months old now, just today decided to sample some of my oatmeal for breakfast, and wanted to try some noodles for lunch. I guess I need to put more effort into choosing healthy foods for lunch now instead of just grabbing whatever's available. Someday R will notice that her ramen noodles aren't smeared in the same yellow, sodium-laden seasoning as mine, and that's when we'll really be in trouble. We'd do better to stay away from the ramen I think. ^_^



Like the rest of the country we had snowfall recently, and this time we were ready for it! The last time it snowed was on Christmas. We didn't have a snowsuit for R then, so this was her first experience going outside and sitting in the fluffy whiteness. She wasn't impressed overall.


We didn't have boots for her, so I put sandwich baggies over her Hello Kitty slippers. Kawaii!!



I finished the crochet project I had been working on. It's a blanket buddy for R. It was going to be a birthday present, but since it's a bunny, I figure it's more Easter appropriate. I've given it to the Easter Bunny for safekeeping.

And on a final note...



Don't they look so adorable??

Things I Love

Today I decided to counter my recent Scrooge demeanor by focusing on taking beautiful pictures of the things I enjoy ala Enjoying the Small Things. It worked. ^_^

Here's what makes my heart go a-flutter:

These dimples.


This bouncing baby elf.


Crochet projects.


An afternoon spent making a unique snowman with Senpai.


Cute baby clothes.


New clothes from Anthropologie.


Daddy/daughter time.


Matching pj's.


Sleeping Senpai.



Sigh. I feel better. Thanks for letting me share. <3

WIP Wednesday and other things

I thought I'd post my work in progress today. There's still lots more to do to it so maybe you'll get some more updates as I go.



The last reverb10 topic I saw asked me what the wisest decision I had made this year was. I thought about it, then thought about it some more, and as I became more and more ill (Remember that headache I mentioned? That was the beginning of fever and the head and chest congestion that manifested this past week.), I decided that the wisest decision I could make was to stop participating in reverb10. It's a time suck that takes away from other things I'd rather blog about, and I don't feel any better for answering the questions. So I will humbly bow out this year.

What would I rather blog about? R had her first fever Monday night leading into Tuesday. As I was busy hacking up my lungs, R was trying to push out her first tooth. Nobody slept that night. We were able to break the fever with peppermint essential oil, ibuprofrin, and, finally, a bath. I'm just amazed that after everything-- the sleepless night, the feverish day, the baby that refused to be put down all day-- the tooth still isn't out. It has partially broken the surface of the gums, but it's still wedged down there. Looking forward to lots more fun.

Craft Fail

I'm feeling very under-accomplished as a mom right now. I see my friends with babies on facebook post status updates about all of the clothes they've made for their babies, the cakes and pies they've baked, the marathons they've run, and I'm like, "Really?? You have time to do all that?"

I have wanted to crochet R a hat FOREVER. I am still trying to crochet her a hat. I take the blame for refusing to follow directions. I find patterns that I like, but I refuse to use the acrylic yarn that the pattern calls for and choose to use natural fibers instead, because I'm difficult like that. But then the hat turns out way too small because even though the yarn widths are the same, they refuse to crochet up the same way. So then I have to alter the pattern to make it fit around R's head, which gets me stuck in a cycle of waiting for her to be both in a good mood and awake for me to test it on her, rip some progress out to do it over, wait to try it on her again, etc. I have been stuck in this cycle for so so long on not only one, but two hats now. And I'm getting really fed up with it. Why can't the yarns that I like have cute baby patterns to go with them???

I am also in the beginning stages of sewing her a Halloween costume, and I am terrified because, once again, I do not have a pattern. Tonight I was able to sew two seams by hand. There are many more seams to go. I'm using stretchy fabric that the sewing machine keeps trying to eat, which leaves me no choice but to hand sew a lot of it. Not to mention the fact that I'm wary of sewing machines in general. I like the slow perfection that can be attained with hand-stitching, but that's just it: it's slow. Once I sew a couple more seams, then I will need to try it on her again, and hope, hope, hope that everything is going well.

My craft projects run on hope. And no time. And difficult decision making. No wonder I can't get anything done.

It doesn't help matters any that Senpai hasn't had a day off in the past 17 days. If he were here more often it'd be easier For us to both keep R entertained and get chores taken care of. Then perhaps there would be a bit more time leftover for me to do something else besides pump breastmilk, do laundry, wash dishes, or prepare food. It's not as if he had a choice in the matter though. I'm looking forward to his time off this coming weekend and I'm sure he is, too. In the meantime I'm falling asleep. Time for bed.