jennanddave.com

Christmas? Kind of. Not really. Except I'm taking a Christmas Stocking class at Mad About Ewes. I'm learning how to get my knit on Fair Isle style, and I was supposed to learn instarsia but instead we learned something so incredibly annoying to do, I never wanted to do it again until I realized I could use it to sprinkle pretty knit hearts throughout anything I knit and then I was all "I'm sorry really annoying knitting tecnnique, I shall never speak ill of you again." The annoying mystery technique is just a way of carrying yarn behind the yarn you're working with and tacking it down every few stitches or so. It totally kicked my butt. I felt like Elmer Fudd at the piano where he gets his fingers all tied into a knot. Except with some swearing mixed in. Anyway, I bet you're dying to see a picture of my stocking:

Pretty impressive right? Aren't you loving the hearts at the bottom right before the toe decreases? I don't have any need for a xmas stocking so I chose non-Christmassy colors (pink, black, gray). Next week we're duplicate stitching our names on the top but I'm trying to come up with something else to put up there since it's not going to anyone specific. Please feel free to give me some suggestions.

When my mom taught me how to cross-stitch when I was a kid, I remember her saying you don't want the back to look messy because then you're just not doing it right; it should look almost as good as the front. Or something along those lines. Thanks to that sage advice, I'm always conscious of how the backs of my projects look.

Oh the humanity! Had you fooled in that first picture didn't I?

Looks like my balls of yarn threw up all over the place. I'd hate to be the person who had to weave in all those ends. Oh, wait...hmmm...

Meanwhile, because we're all up in the Halloween spirit what with the leaves turning colors and the temps in the 90's, I was inspired to knit a Halloween-themed pumpkin dishcloth:

I got the pattern here but didn't love the chart for the pumpkin so I reworked it to suit my own taste. I like how it came out. Next up, a bat dishcloth.

Posted by Jenn at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

1. I slept in until 9:30. Word.

2. Last night Megan and I got coffee after our knitting class. We sat at a table and talked. There were no high chairs or requests for cookies or burp cloths. By the time we left I was a big puddle on the floor I was so relaxed. Megan had to soak me up with a mop and carry me home. Boy was Dave surprised.

3. Tumbling was awesome. Henry didn't cry at all. He understood he would be able to ride the plane after class and although he made some half-hearted attempts to make the end of class be sooner than it actually was, he didn't freak out when we redirected him to whatever activity we were all supposed to be engaging in.

4. He jumped on the trampoline. With glee. Then he crawled through a tunnel. Then he tried the balance beam out, ultimately deciding he much preferred straddling it and walking along it that way as opposed to actually balancing on it.

5. Henry didn't have a heart attack when he received a sticker at the end of class.

6. I got a present today. It's jewelry. And it wasn't from my husband. You better step up your game Dave!

7. It's belly dancing night! Yay!

8. That I didn't just lose a word document that I've been working on for Dave for the last hour. There would have been some serious head banging going on, and not the AC/DC kind, the against the wall kind.

9. That we have lots of leftovers and I don't have to cook.

10. And finally, I'm most especially grateful to have witnessed this in person:

Posted by Jenn at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Sunday Henry bonked his head on our dining room table and after thoughtfully rubbing it for a few seconds, he looked at me and said "Mommy kiss" and shoved his head towards my face. So I gave him a kiss on his head. And then I devoured him because it was so cute.

The next day he bonked his head again, I have no idea on what because I wasn't in the room at the time because I may have been checking my email instead of watching my kid. What, like you haven't ever done that? Henry shuffled in whilst rubbing his head. I looked at him in a way that I'm sure would be best described as "hopeful puppy dog" and sure enough he said "Mommy kiss!" then once again he shoved his head in the general direction of my face.

For two years my kid has been actively and successfully fending off kisses and suddenly he's going out of his way to ask for them, sometimes without the excuse of an injury.

Life is good.

Posted by Jenn at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Henry's butt was looking a little red yesterday so I took his diaper off and let him run around in the buff for a while. I set the computer up so he could watch "The Wheels on the Bus" on youtube while I snuck into the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I peeked into the room to check on him, he was standing up in his daddy's chair, legs wide apart, staring down at the seat. I took a closer look and lo and behold, he had wee-wee'd all over the chair. And he apparently wasn't too keen on sitting back down in it. Can't say I blame him. I wiped it up with a washcloth while Dave went and got some industrial strength (but environmentally safe) cleaner with which to cleanse the chair. Thoroughly.

While Dave rabidly disinfected, I introduced Henry to his potty and he practiced sitting on it, closing the lid, and saying "Bye-bye poop!" which was followed by him asking me for "More poop", presumably so he could say bye-bye to it again, although there wasn't any there to actually bid adieu to in the first place. It was interesting responding to a two-years old's call for more poop. I highly recommend it.

And that is the most exciting thing that's happened around here since tumbling on Wednesday.

Posted by Jenn at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

About a month ago I signed Henry up for tumbling. I thought it would add a little excitement to our relatively quiet weeks, get us out of the house and socialized, you know the drill. Last Wednesday was our first class and it went slightly less than smashingly, to put it mildly. Airplanes are the big love of Henry's life right now, and in one corner of the gym there were a bunch of big plastic ride-on toys which the kids aren't allowed to play on until after the class, and through some weird twist of fate one of them happened to be an airplane. Henry set his sights on it and refused to be distracted by anything else, including rousing renditions of Humpty Dumpty and a trampoline. So he cried hysterically for the entire half hour. Really, I think by the end of the class we were both pretty annoyed with each other. Dave came home for lunch so I could go into the back room and bang my head against the wall until it was time for him to go back to work.

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I thought we might as well go back this week to see what would happen, only this time Dave came along, the idea being if we were both there enjoying the activities, maybe Henry would too. Last night I started to have some anxiety about it, and this morning as we were walking in I was terrified. Once again Henry ran for the plane, and once again he was directed back to the mats by the teacher. This time he held out a bit longer. He wasn't keen on doing any of the warm-up exercises, but he did enjoy watching Dave try to touch his toes. When we had all lined up to start doing some of the tumbling, Henry suddenly remembered that last week when the class was over the teacher gave everyone of lollipop, which prompted a running chorus of "Oh boy pop! Oh boy pop!" that lasted about two minutes. I explained to him that everyone would get one after class, but first we got to have lots of fun on the trampoline. He wasn't buying it. In fact, he wasn't buying any of the gymnatics stuff we attempted to get him interested in and after the waterworks started we stopped trying and just watched everyone else do it. Or sometimes I would do some of the exercises while holding him. At the end of the class he dried off his tears, ran to his beloved plane, and sat on it with a totally blissed out look on his face. After about five minutes I pulled him off of it so other kids could have a turn and he was okay with that. Not thrilled, but not fussing either. I was pretty proud of him.

At the end of each class the teacher sings "Where is pointer?" and all the kids have to stick out their pointer finger so the teacher can put a sticker on it. Henry didn't like that at all. He had a complete and total meltdown that subsided only when the lollipops came out.

So it was traumatic (again) for all parties involved (again) except this time we inducted Dave into our little group of two (welcome to the club, dad). However, he was amused by more of what was going on this week than he was last week. We're thinking that next time he'll like it a bit more, and maybe, by the last class he'll even want to try a somersault. Or he's just completely not interested in tumbling at all and next week will be our last. I'm completely on the fence. On the one hand he's learning the hard way that sometimes he has to wait to get what he wants (ie. the airplane, lollipops) which is a lesson that's got to happen at some point. On the other hand he doesn't appear inclined to want to do any of the activities, not even the trampoline, which completely blows my mind because it's a trampoline! Bouncy fun! And I feel like if he was interested in the activities then he wouldn't mind waiting to ride on the plane because he'd be having fun doing other stuff. Now that I'm writing it out I'm wondering why we're bothering to go again next week; he's obviously not interested. Except I can't help but wonder how interested he'd be if the plane wasn't there.

Gah. Where's the tylenol?

Posted by Jenn at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's one of the first days that actually feels like Fall. We drove to a town about an hour and a half north of here on the recommendation of our neighbor and by the time we go to where we were going the temperature had dropped about ten degrees. I snuggled into a cute jacket I bought recently and enjoyed the sight of the cool air blowing some preemptively cast-off leaves about. Boy, can I turn a flowery phrase or what?

With the onset of cool weather, what better thing to talk about than knitting? I haven't mentioned any of the stuff I've been working on lately so I thought I'd document it before I actually finish any of them. Har har.

Vest for Dave
I couldn't get decent lighting for this shot to save my life, so here's a dark picture of what I have of the vest so far:

I'm using Nature Spun by Brown Sheep in Stone and Burnt Sienna. Dave picked the colors out himself and I have to admit they look really great together. The picture doesn't do the colors justice. The pattern I'm using is the "Basic Vest for Men" by "Knitting Pure and Simple". It's pretty straightforward: knit in the round, and then divide for the armholes and work the front and back separately. It's all stockinette stitch which translates to great car and movie knitting. A few more inches and I'll be done with the back.

Sweater for Jenn
I love Noro, so I decided to splurge on a bag full of Silk Garden in color #84. Here's what I've got so far:

Once again, let's hear it for bad lighting. Here's a picture of the pattern I'm making:

There has been some anxiety over this sweater because: 1) the yarn is expensive and pretty and I don't want to make something I'll never wear with it; 2) even when my swatch matches gauge, everything comes out big anyway, so taking that into consideration I'm making a size smaller than what I normally wear (making adjustments in length so that it's not short) which brings us to 3) what if through some miracle I managed to hit gauge for the first time in my entire life and the sweater ends up being too small despite all of my efforts to outsmart myself?

When I finish the back I'm going to take a good long look at it with my handy-dandy measuring tape and either frog it or hug it.

Recent yarn purchase I'm going to use to knit something I'd much rather just walk into a store and buy, and yet...
Future socks:

Schoeller Stahl Limbo Color in color #2539.

All yarns and patterns featured in this post were procured at Mad About Ewes, which also happens to be where I worked off the associated costs. The problem with working in a yarn shop when you're a yarn junkie is that you end up shopping for five or seven hours depending on the hours the store is open on the day you happen to be working. The proprietor is a very smart woman. I'm sure whenever she calls to see if I'm available to watch the store she thinks "Ch-ching!", and not because I'm a great salesperson either.

Posted by Jenn at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Conversation Dave had with himself while giving Henry sips of iced water from a big plastic cup he was holding:

dave: "Let's see...at Henry's last doctor's appointment, he weighed 30 pounds...I weigh 180 pounds*...okay...so, imagine this cup six times bigger than it is. That's how big it is to Henry."

me: *blink-blink*

* to fend off any grumpiness that will no doubt come from my announcing to the internet how much Dave weighs, I'll fess up to my weight: 112 lbs**.

**158

Posted by Jenn at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I would like to take a quick moment out of this very busy day to extend my heartfelt thanks to Henry for coming into the bathroom and hoisting up the blinds. While I was on the toilet.

So...thanks Henry!

Posted by Jenn at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Back in July when I started snooping around amazon.com looking for birthday ideas for Henry, I came across a surfboard growth chart:

I instantly fell in love with it. Not only does it have a surf theme, which is what I'm going for in Henry's room, but it's something that he'll get to keep forever if he wants to. (It made me a little sad to cover up the previous homeowner's offspring's record of growth when we decided to repaint the kitchen.) So I added it to Henry's birthday wishlist and moved on.

A few days later, for some reason Dave's dad popped into my head, which made me think of the pond he built, which made me think (once again) "Wow, I can't believe he built a pond", which made me think if he could do that, he could probably make Henry a surfboard growth chart. So I mentioned it to him, sent him the link to the inspiration growth chart, and he said he'd give it a shot. Would you like to see the end result?

Isn't it the coolest thing you've ever seen? It came out beautifully. Dave's dad and I went shopping for paint colors while we were down in Virginia for a visit earlier this summer. After we chose the paint, we talked a little about how to put the numbers on and I suggested we go to a craft store to see what kind of pens and stencils they had. He thought that sounded like a good idea, which was completely mind-blowing for two reasons: (1) most men have a natural aversion to craft stores, and (2) whenever I suggest to his offspring (we'll call him "Dave") that we go to one, Dave immediately starts fussing and grumping and proclaiming that he couldn't think of a worse idea, so I'm used to having to put up more of a fight. When Dave's dad said "Great, let's go," my initial reaction was "Really? Just like that?", but that was nothing compared to when I asked if he'd mind if I took a quick look at the yarn section: he said "Sure!" That's when my head exploded. Dave, are you paying attention?

We picked up a couple of different silver pens and stencils (although I recall he later mentioned having to buy a bigger stencil for the numbers to replace the one we'd originally thought would work). I had been planning on ordering the hibiscus stickers from a shop I found online, but while I was at Target yesterday perusing the automotive section, I found some stickers there proving once again that whatever it is you need, Target has it. They're white with silver outlines which goes perfectly with the silver pen.

Right now Henry hates standing in front of it, but only because lately he appears to hate doing anything if it seems like we really want him to do it. Cursed toddler power plays. I'm going to try reverse psychology on him and insist he refrain from standing in front of it.

Posted by Jenn at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had two bbq's on our dance card this weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I'm still not quite sure how this happened, because really, we have no friends, and yet...

The Saturday bbq was a lot of fun. Henry had a playmate named Thomas who is a few days shy of two. He's also as tall as Henry so when they play together they look perfectly sized for their age. Usually Henry looks like a giant compared to other kids. They got along smashingly. Thomas showed Henry how to use all of his toys and every once in a while I'd look up and see them squatting together, staring intently at a toy laptop or [insert some other toy here] and I'd feel quite the little surge of pride. I fully expected there would be lots of mini-tantrums on my kid's part because he's reached the "I don't share with nobody" stage of toddlerhood full force, but there wasn't even a hint of one. The only weird thing that happened was at the park. Thomas went running past me and because he's the same height as Henry and has the same hair color, I shifted into autopilot and reached out and scruffled his hair. I was slightly embarrassed when I realized it wasn't my kid. I thought that might weird out his mom because I really don't know them very well yet, but she said she can't resist doing it either, so there you go. Later Dave said he did the same thing.

The Sunday bbq was also a lot of fun. Some friends of ours smoked a pork tenderloin all afternoon. (For anyone who might be interested in such things, Dave now wants a smoker for his birthday *ahem*.) One of our hosts was a young lady named Kathy who has taken quite a shine to Henry. She showed him all of her toys, but only after giving me a tour of all of the Hello Kitty items she owns. I now have a small checklist of things I need to get. Apparently one of the things she learned upon starting second grade this year was that people have bbq's to celebrate labor day, so she insisted her parents have people over. I hope she does that more often. Henry got to eat lots of chips before sitting down to dinner, which was amazing. There was a potato salad so good I left with the recipe, green beans fresh from the garden, baked beans, and homemade apple pie for desert. We did not suffer.

Posted by Jenn at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)