Casting On

Are you ready for a baby-free post???  Well hold on to your hats, ladies and gents, here it is!

With the recovery of my wrists and the occasional goodnaturedness of my baby (dang, well that didn't last long), I began to knit again.

Has anyone else noticed that at the beginning of fall it's all "cozy sweaters and pumpkin spice" and then now when we are really into fall it's all "advent calendars and Christmas shopping"?  Well I do.  Can't we all just be content to be IN the season we are experiencing?  No?  Well I can't either because I decided to get to work on my son's Christmas stocking.

So I cast on...

And I'm winging it.  I've done stockings before so I thought I could wing it and it will come out okay.  I'm trying for cables.  And I can only go a row or two before my wrists start aching so it just may take me until Christmas morning.  Wish me luck! 

The other interesting thing about this casting on is that this is yarn I thrifted WAY back last November with my friend Jamie, who showed me how to turn a thrift store sweater into piles of beautiful yarn!  So cheap!  So wonderful!  So time consuming!  So lovely to rip out knitting for a reason other than that I made a mistake!

I'm just holding this thrifted yard two together, so that I get some bulk and it doesn't take me a year to make this stocking.

Happy Fall!

On being a Mom

The reality is that my son doesn't sleep well.  Or maybe he sleeps "normal" but no one talks about it.  I don't know, I'm new at this parenting thing.  He never really recovered from his four month sleep regression and now we celebrate when we get two hours straight.  He had been nursing to sleep but when I try to do that hourly, he just gets too full and it doesn't work.  So we rock.  And bounce.  And shush.  And pray.  And cry together.  And rock some more.  And walk in circles around the living room.  And then he puts up one final fight, and then he is O.U.T.   

But that's not the point of this post.  Because everyone has hard moments.  If it's not sleeping, it's weight gain.  Or breastfeeding.  Or getting sick.  Or finding a daycare.  Or starting solid food.  Or bullies.  Or potty training.  Or having to buy the jeans with the "slimming panel and comfort waistband".  Or not having enough money for a vacation to Mexico.  Or not spending enough time with kiddo.

The point is that it's rough, but I am a mom and I signed up for this.  I prayed for it for a long long time, actually.  And millions of women around the world pray for it every day, too.

I used to work with adults with developmental disabilities.  And one thing that always struck me, even then, is that I knew adults whose only word their whole life was "mama".  Or the only person they recognized ever was their mom.  And I get to be that for someone. 

The first person to call when you are excited about something is (well probably your spouse but second is) your mom.  If something terrible would happen, the person you call is your mom because moms make everything better. 

It's quite the honor.  And I try and remember that when I'm rocking and shushing and crying and praying and breastfeeding him again and getting smacked in the face.  It's more than having a baby.  It's getting to be someone's Mom. 

No More Hot Car Deaths

I have a pretty serious concern that I will forget Levi in the car someday.  I'm generally pretty sleep deprived and he trends to falls quietly asleep in the backseat. We have all seen news of babies left in cars because the parent forgot to drop the baby at daycare or forgot she was in the backseat when mom went to work. What a horrifying thing to carry around with you forever-that you inadvertently killed your baby.  Even though it's not "hot car" season, I would say "cold car" in Wisconsin is dangerous also. Supposedly, they are working on making high tech alarms to remind parents about baby in the backseat, but at the moment they are expensive and glitchy.

With that in mind, I've been trying to think of a diy way to keep myself from this awful memory lapse and I finally thought of something.  May I present the easiest invention in the world!

TADA!

I used a piece of brightly colored cardstock and punched a hole in the corner.  Then I attached a carabiner to it.  Done!

Here's the big idea: make it your habit that this thing NEVER leaves your car.

This is how I use mine:

1.  Carry baby in carseat to the vehicle, open door.  Remove card from the carseat base & insert carseat into base.

My view when I first open my door to leave home

2..Clip card to my set of keys & drive off

3.  Arrive at destination.  Get out of the car and remove card from keys

4. Remove carseat with baby from the backseat, place card on the base

5. Walk away from the car

That's it.  If you don't use an infant seat & base, just lay the card on the carseat until you need to put the baby in there.

So you see, I took this idea from pens at offices and keys to gas station restrooms: If you put something big and clunky on it, you won't accidentally walk off with it.  This bright pink card won't fit in my purse without my noticing, yet it's fairly lightweight and not bothersome when dangling from my keys in the ignition.

And if you ever see me walking around with this hanging off my purse, stop me and say "where's your baby?".

After using this system for a few weeks, I can say that it is another 2 seconds added to each car entrance/exit, and took a few trips to get the rhythm of it down.  BUT I would generally say that an inconvenient 2 seconds is much better than harming my little one.  Happy Travels!

5 months!

Whoa buddy you made some real progress this month!

You went from pretty immobile to suddenly being able to roll over and over, and spin around on your tummy--you can get anywhere you want to go!

You are pushing up on your hands and are just starting to get to being on your hands and knees.  Crawling here we come!!!

You are truly interested in toys.  You are purposefully reaching for and playing with toys.  Before this, you just played with whatever toy we put near you.  Now you see things and go for them!

You are getting to be a noisy fellow!  You are giggling!!  And you are grunting, growling, blowing raspberries, happy-screaming, and babbling.  Not to mention the occasional unhappy screaming.

You still haven't gotten back to being a good sleeper, but we have an occasional night that goes GREAT and we sure are thankful for those days!  At least with all your new skills we feel like there is a good reason you weren't sleeping!

You've certainly filled out--your cheeks are chubby and your legs have beautiful rolls.  I loooove them!  You still have your hair-at least on the top.  Around the sides and back you have a ring that has worn down to short little pieces.  Not tremendously flattering but I refuse to cut it.  Too bad, so sad.

I can't believe you've been here for 5 months already.  What a crazy adventure we've been on! 

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21