Recently in Z Category
- Z will eat almost anything, except, perhaps, tomatoes. The baby food I tried to give her today (spaghetti with sauce and cheese) was rejected whole-heartedly. Would it surprise you to know that neither of her parents like tomatoes? But we both do love spaghetti sauce!
- Z likes almost anything soft and acrylic. Mr. Ducky (above) came home with us from Whole Foods because he made her giggle like crazy and she couldn't put him down after we gave him to her.
- Cruising, cruising, cruising! It's all about going places and exploring things.
- Given a choice, Ms. Z will pull out shoes (mine in particular) from our shoe rack by the back door and pull my purse off of any place she can find it. She seems to like shoes and purses more than her own toys sometimes! My keys come in a close second to shoes and purses. At the same time, you can't keep her away from laptops and iPhones when they are around. Are we creating a girly-girl geek?
- Her favorite book right now is Go, Dogs, Go. She will pick this book out specifically and likes it read to her multiple times in a row. She also likes the books that she has that have tactile components.
- Some women nest while they are pregnant, I feel like I am nesting now. I have this intense desire to go throughout my house and purge and organize things. You might just think "spring cleaning" but this is probably the first spring where I've really been bitten by this bug.
- I can't get enough of Rachael's "Relax" Vanilla Chai yogurt. All organic, completely yummy, good probiotics and some omega oils for good measure.
- If you watch House, apparently Amber and I have the same taste in handbags. In the scene where House and Amber negotiate "Wilson Rights" with Cuddy, Amber is sporting the same purse John got me for Christmas.
- iPhones can get you into all sorts of trouble. Just this afternoon I purchased "Splish, Splash" and (earwig alert!) "Safety Dance" -- Ms. Z likes to bop to both of them.
- I'm reading an excellent book, The Eighth Day of Creation
, by Horace Freeland Judson. In spite of what the title may seem to imply, the book has nothing to do with Intelligent Design or any other religious debate going on now. It's a history of the rise of molecular biology and biochemistry, in particular DNA, RNA and proteins and the people who were formative in developing molecular biology as a major part of the biological sciences. Because it talks about the personalities and not just the science, it's a great read, even though it's dense. If you like history of science books, this one shouldn't be missed.
This project idea was "stolen" from Alison at the blue blog, who has also been bitten by the quilting bug. Sometime back she talked about a project that involved making fabric books. And, in fact, there are all sorts of novelty fabrics out there that are geared to doing that. Baby Z has been changing by leaps and bounds lately, and one of the things that she has taken an interest in is books. Right now, I think the thing she likes most is flipping the pages, but it's easy to see that the books that have vivid images also grab her attention. So I went on line and started looking for some fabrics that could be used to make into books. I figured that not only might I end up with something sweet for Z, but I might be able to practice some machine quilting skills as well.
These fabrics come from Hancock's of Paducah. Z is going to get a collection of funky monkeys jumping on the bed (how could I resist counting with sock monkeys?) , an introduction to Paddington Bear and an introduction to fairy tales (I had forgotten about Rumplestiltskin and the spinning wheel!). I love the idea that they can be washed, squished and loved in whatever way a baby wants too (right now a lot of baby love still gets demonstrated through chewing,,, which wouldn't be so bad except for three sharp little teeth).
And this week has brought us another amazing gift from our baby -- a 9:30 bed time. One thing I am learning about babies -- no matter what a parent says, you really can't take that much credit for your kid's sleep patterns. Z has been a good sleeper since about 8 weeks, and while there have been 4-5 nights since that time when she's gotten us up at strange times in the night, by and large, John and I have had it pretty good, even with a baby that liked to go to bed at 11:30 at night. Once she got mobile, though, it became almost impossible to do anything because danger baby always seemed to be headed for some disaster. This earlier bed time comes at the perfect time and is an incredible blessing from whatever baby gods exist out there. So now I have time to blog, and get back to doing some more crafting.
Since it's been a little while since a Z picture appeared on the blog, here she is, all 8 and a half months of her, on her first time out in a swing. She absolutely loved it! The higher she got pushed, the bigger her smiles got. She does all sorts of wonderful things now. She waves bye bye (which is sweet and heartbreaking at the same time when I have to go to work), she babbles in all sorts of syllables, she can crawl like the wind and can manage crawling upstairs. She pulls up on everything and is beginning to cruise. She can handle big pieces of apple all on her own and likes to try new foods. She is fascinated by my iPhone -- both the shiny images and the fact that she can hear Daddy's voice when Daddy is not around. Clearly for Z, the world around her is a wonderful place -- at least when it isn't reaching up to smack her on the forehead!The weather is lovely here in southern Florida. We're not missing Chicago one bit right now! 35 degrees -- Bah!
What could be better than being outside, in the ocean breeze walking barefoot with your daddy?She started crawling on March 1st and now tries to pull up on things and loves to go for "walks". Also, she's working on simple syllables. She makes a very distinct "ba" sound and is trying to make a "P" sound with her lips. It's like s a switch flipped when she started crawling and now simple language sounds can be made. And this morning we noticed that she has a tooth getting ready to make an appearance! So much all at once.
And me? I'm enjoying some time by the pool and trying to figure out what method I like best to do two-color knitting with one hand -- on a project just for me.
I am beginning to think that when you have a child, something happens with your personal space-time continuum and everything just speeds up. Someone of you physics type scientists out there must have done some studies of the localized effects of childbearing on parental quantum physics. If you have, please send me a link to that manuscript. This must be the case, or otherwise how could Thursday (and my post) have gotten past me without much notice on my part?
The Phil'Onde top is almost finished, but probably not exciting to look at until it is modeled by a small person, so today I am going to show off some yummy yarn I got not too long ago (well, a month a go, but given my space-time warping problems, it doesn't seem like too long ago to me!).
The fact of the matter is, I don't buy much commercially produced yarn without a specific purpose in mind -- I have too much of this yarn in my stash right now that I am not sure what I am going to do with, so I've been avoiding places like Elan and Webs unless I have a project in mind. But I still indulge in special, one-of-kind, made by individual people kinds of yarns from time to time. This yarn is Sophie's Toes, the Layers of Color collection. The blue yarn (totally destined for me!) is the Cerulean colorway. The dark yarn is burgundy over green and is going into my "man acceptable yarn stash" -- and it's decidedly more lovely than my camera was able to render it on the day that I took the picture (what looks vaguely grey in the picture is really much more green in person; the yarn reminds me of end of fall colors).
What made this yarn even more fun and more special, was the response of a certain someone to it. Emily (who actually lives not too far away in the greater Chicagoland area and is an amazing quilter as well as dyer of yarn) sent along some nice words about Z on the invoice, so I had to give Z the opportunity to enjoy Emily's handiwork. You see, Ms. Z's given name is the Polish version of "Sophia" and the nickname we use for her is the Polish version of "Sophie".
She made a beeline for that yarn. And then thoroughly inspected the label.
Ah yes, nothing like getting them hooked on the good stuff, early. And she already likes to watch me knit. After I finish a few other projects on my list, I might have to get her some of her own . Emily has some beautiful stuff in her shop right now. I think the "Love" colorway would make an absolutely adorable baby sweater! How is it possible that my tiny baby has gotten to the point where she can wear all of her 6-12 month old sized clothes? Didn't we just bring her home? Where does the time go? How do I convince my baby to slow down?
Well, I probably won't get answers to those questions, but I can still have fun capturing some of that time on film. To my eye, that little Tulip baby sweater that I made before she arrived looks even more adorable when being worn by the baby it was intended for. I've been putting her in it as often as I can, knowing that not only will she out grow it, but in only a couple of months it could be too warm to need a sweater.I realize I haven't really posted about what is going on with Z these days. Gosh, where to start. She's eating all sorts of solid foods and is an incredibly good eater. She figured things out around 5 months and loves to eat like the big people do. Her favorite is probably her Daddy's hand smashed bananas with oatmeal, but we still haven't found a fruit she doesn't like. She's a hair's breadth away from sitting up completely unassisted and can get herself up on all fours but hasn't quite figured out how to make the arms and legs move to crawl. Her pediatrician thinks she might be reading ahead a little bit in the baby development book (bear in mind that while she is 6.5 months old, she was three weeks early). She is an absolute hoot most of the time. And it's so much fun for John and I to watch her really beginning to figure out her environment and what she wants to do in it.
Oh, and she's back to not getting up in the middle of the night again. Must have been a growth spurt or just some serious brain development going on. Apparently both can mess with infant sleep patterns.
Today's lovely picture is courtesy of our good friends in Madison, WI. Thanks Aunt Judy!
I never would have guessed before I had a baby that I would have enjoyed knitting baby wear. I am not sure whether I am enjoying it so much because I'm a product knitter and knitting small things gives me the pleasure of having a complete creation or because there's nothing quite as sweet as seeing something I have knit on a small, beautiful baby with a big smile. Like all things, no doubt it is a little of both.
Here's the finished jacket -- it's hard to get a good picture of a garment with a hood; hoods add a garment part in a third direction and I wasn't able to find a good way to really show it off the way I wanted to. But, hopefully, this picture shows how all the elements play together -- along with some of my wonky circles.
I was surprised how much I liked the last detail elements of the garment. I didn't think the zipper pull would do much for me until I put it on the jacket. Nothing like an up close photo to make it clear just how wonky some of those circles are. However, I have a feeling that on a three dimensional very cute baby, that bit of wonkiness won't be so obvious. (To make the D&D analogy... small sweater makes saving throw vs. baby with charisma of 18+.... oohh! sweater loses that die roll...)
The other extremely sweet little detail was the top loops attached to the point of the hood. All these loops are made a little differently from the circles on the jacket. When I first read about the construction, I thought it would be fussy and a little bit annoying to make, but it actually turned out to be easier (for me) than those circles. Essentially the rings are just yarn-wrapped I-cords. Something I might have to remember for the future!
But what truly makes this jacket super cute is the little girl who is going to get to wear it this spring. It is a tad big for her right now (which is what I was striving for -- I didn't line it, so it will fit well over another layering piece), but it looks so soft and comfy, I almost want to knit an adult sized one for myself. And I just love seeing her smiling little face surrounded by that hood. It makes all that embellishing time completely worthwhile. For anyone thinking about making this garment (the Circles Stroller Jacket from Itty Bitty Nursery
), it is lovely and easy and a chance to let your creative side roam as much as you want it to. It would make a lovely special baby gift for a friend who appreciates hand knits, and it really doesn't take all that much time even with all the embellishing. The Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton is a treat to knit with and soft as silk against baby skin without all the special handling needs (I still wouldn't put this garment through an aggressive machine wash cycle, but I'm thinking it would do just fine on the delicate cycle in both the washer and dryer). However, I did find a couple of minor errors in the pattern (probably just due to the fact that I have an early edition of the book and there's no errata that I could find posted yet), so you will want to read through carefully before starting to make sure that everything makes sense to you before you get started. None of the errors are terribly serious, but they could be irritating if you're in a hurry.
I didn't make too many changes to the construction. However, I handled the hood edging differently than the pattern stated. I worked the edging as I knitted up the hood rather than knitting the edging and attaching it to the hood later. I hate seaming and I thought that it would just add bulk in a place that didn't need any extra bulk.
Today marks the end of my first full work week since I went on bed rest at the beginning of July. Part of me had been dreaming of the day where I could be back with adults and wouldn't have to hear a baby cry every time I needed to take a phone call or send out an important email. Another part of me was terribly sad at the thought of not being able to spend the day with her. Worried that maybe she'd get more attached to her grandmother (who is watching her three days a week -- we're still working out how to deal with that last day) that to me once I wasn't around quite as much, and hating the idea of having to use my pump so much. Breastfeeding is a mixed bag, emotionally, for me, nursing her directly always beats pumping, especially now that she's getting faster and her nursing style rarely causes me any pain.
After working three days, I had Thursday to think about everything. I decided to ignore my work email, turn off my cell phone and just have a nice day with my baby. I will say one thing about being back in the office. I like being a mom much better when I can separate the work part of my life from the mothering part. I do a better job of work when I don't have to worry about whether Z is unhappy and I do a better job of being with Z when I don't have to worry about work. I'm definitely not at home with her as much, but she gets to spend the day with someone who wants to and can devote all of their attention to her, and when I am home, I can focus on her.
This was also a big week since she started solid foods (just a bit of rice cereal) and has really begun to interact with her environment. She actively grabs toys when she's on her gym, she's begun to chew a bit on teether toys, and she's constantly in motion, rolling to one side or the other from her back to get a different perspective on the world or get her hands on something that interests her. And she has an incredible vocabulary of noises now, including this funny puttering sound she now makes with her lips. She's generally much less fussy and spends a lot of time with big smiles. Her favorite parent-assisted activities involve sitting up and trying to stand. She loves to be upright, even though she can't do all the muscle work herself.
She's also gotten to enjoy some new hand made, very special items recently. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was her christening. My mom made her a beautiful gown (note: my inability to get it to sit right on the hanger and the fact that this is long after the dress was worn should in no way reflect mom's sewing skills; the dress is beautiful and sweet and the collar sat perfectly for the ceremony):
And my Aunt Mary crocheted her a sweet little white sweater to wear with the gown -- November in Michigan is chilly after all!
What could be sweeter than the little heart details and the ribbons at the collar and cuffs? Well, maybe one thing:
My own baby angel after her christening. She was so sweet for the whole day (except for when she had the water dumped on her head). My Aunt Mary took the picture and I just love how it looks like her eyes are sparkling. I thought the picture captured her so well and it was probably the best one taken the whole day.
She's also started reaching out and grabbing things that interest her and drooling up a storm. And suddenly, those elusive afternoon naps are back again. And she's started "talking" -- all sorts of noises at all volume levels. It's a real hoot to watch her tell her dad about her day after he comes home from work. You would think she was having a real conversation with him.
With the return of the afternoon nap, I'm not only getting some work work done, but I've also been able to sneak some knitting in here and there when I'm not working on getting my blog back in shape (a major time sink if ever there was one!) I'm getting close to the finish line on my Diamond Fantasy Scarf (but there's only so many times I can show you the same crumpled looking piece of lace) and all Z's nursing time is definitely helping me make some progress on John's Stained Glass Scarf (although I am still not even close to the halfway point yet). Since my knitting time is still pretty limited, I'm trying to rein in my startitis and am forcing myself to finish things before I start new stuff -- although I do have a few new things that I am just dying to get started on.
The swatches don't look quite square... they are pretty close. The Tess Yarn swatch needs to be stretched a bit, the Opal swatch needs a little compression. I'm hoping that Michaela won't mind working with them. Hopefully they will make it into the post on Monday or Tuesday.
And because no Friday would be complete without an appearance by Z:
We're rolling off to Ann Arbor to see Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. It's a guarantee that that hat is going to come with us!
P.S. The comments should actually really work now! And, of course, I've learned a few more things about MT4. Now maybe I'll be able to start bringing some of my own look and feel back.
You know, every time you turn around, your kid is getting into something. Hitting a new milestone. I'm not sure what milestone "sneaking onto Mommy's blog" qualifies for, but clearly I will have to keep a close eye on her to see if she does it again. And make sure I don't get any unexpected orders from Babies R' Us.
Both Z and I would like to say thank you for all your good wishes for my dad. His recovery was absolutely incredible. His surgery was early Thursday morning, on Monday afternoon, he wrote this email message:
Well it has been an an exciting week for me. I was riding my pedal bike on Monday of last week and I became dizzy so I got off my bike and promptly passed out. An half hour later I was in St Joe's cardiac ward. On Thursday morning I had a double by pass and had my aortic valve replaced and one of the good spin offs is I no longer have high blood pressure. And today I'm sitting in my chair at home with all my loved ones and pets. What a wonderful world it is.
My dad is always an inspiration to me for his outlook. He can go through unexpected cardiac surgery and still come home and be happy about the amazing technology that made it happen and the people and important things in his life.
Which is part of what helped get me through this week. In spite of a whole bunch of stress from work and baby-related issues that I won't go into (mostly because I've gone into them before and because they are pretty much the same issues all moms who try to juggle work and a newborn and their own needs run into), I have come to the end of the week realizing that I have a pretty good deal. A smiling baby who reminds me (even as she refuses once again to take daytime naps -- I suspect more developmental milestones are soon to be reached) that the job stuff is just job stuff and I can only do what I can do. A husband who listens when I talk about all the things that are making me crazy and takes on some extra baby time so that I can get enough things done to feel like I am not failing on all fronts. And my Dad, who, after an incredibly scary surgery, can come home from the hospital and see the good things all around him.
I love you Dad. Even when things are not exactly as we'd like them to be, it is, indeed, a wonderful world.
