Hungry, Hungry Hippo

So I'm departing from my stated theme of Knitting and Motherhood and branching out into, wait for it, crochet!!! I know, my life is so exciting I can hardly stand it. But the project I found is really cool!
http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2007/03/12/hungry-hungry-hippo/
The story on that page is a little lame but I think the project is fun and I think the Sophi-ster will love it when it's finished. I'm planning on putting it in her Easter basket instead of any lame care bear, plastic goofiness that she would probably pick out and be tired of in 10 minutes. So, hooray for the hippo!
The yarn I'm using is a cotton three ply called Flash in Candy Strip and it's working pretty well except that it's a little hard to count the stitches because it's got so many colors going on. Oh well, I'll deal with it. I'm having fun with it anyway and the head is shaping up nicely. I'm off to buy buttons for the eyes. Later

In defence of party pooping

My husband and I used to be great partiers. We always showed up after the party was started but before it got too wild. We were usually a small reason why it got wild. We threw great parties, the kind that people talked about for months afterward, with things like surround sounds and strobe lights and such. And, we were usually among the last to leave.
My, how things have changed.
I left my best friends 30th birthday party tonight at 8pm. I was an hour early to help set up, I brought a cake instead of booze. My husband had to run back in after we were ready to go to grab a sippy cup instead of our bottle of vodka. All because I didn't want to sacrifice the all mighty schedule that we have our daughter on.
Some people,I'm sure thought I was nuts for leaving so early and spoiling the fun. Some probably thought I was nuts to have brought my daughter up to be so inflexible in her sleep times. But you know what, at this age, all we have is the schedule. When the schedule goes, chaos ensues and I just have too much going on this weekend for chaos to be an option. Plus, I really didn't feel like it was fair to ask her to try to fall asleep in a strange room without her usual routine, without her own pajamas, without cookie monster in a house with lots of loud music and people and sounds that she doesn't know. I wouldn't want to do that, I can't imagine that she would. So I stand by my party pooping ways. My daughter and her needs for comfortable sleep come before my need to party, that's how it goes and I refuse to feel guilty about it.

Lazy Motherhood

I'm tired of people jumping to my defence when I say that being a stay at home mom isn't all that difficult. It's really not, I occasionally clean the house, do a few dishes and take care of my own child. It's not the hardest job in the world, it's not worth the $150,000 that some people have estimated it to be and it's not the Wonder Woman calling that some people imagine it to be.
Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. And that doesn't change if your at home with them or at work and leaving them with a nanny. The hard decisions are yours, the future of their mortal soul is yours to deal with, the values that they grow up with are yours to teach them and nothing having to do with your employment status changes that.
That said, I fully admit to being a bit of a lazy mom. Just now I've been sitting at my computer for the better part of an hour checking email and reading other blogs while my daughter finishes her breakfast at the coffee table while watching Sesame Street. (To be fair to myself, she is eating homemade pancakes which I whipped up this morning while still in my pajamas) I just looked over to check on her and she's taking various items from around the living room and rearranging them to her liking or trying to discover what they are. Would she get this kind of education if I was one of those intense mothers who insist on keeping the living room the exact same way it was before she had children and insisted that her child play only with they toys bought for her. Call me crazy but I think it's good that kids think everything is a toy. Play is the way they learn things. It's their job right now. Sophie plays like a scientist, touching to feel the texture, testing the objects limits, smelling it, seeing if it will hold water. She's storing up information on all of these things that she might not get if I were one of those "in-your-face" moms. She's figuring things out for herself.
Plus, I like to think that having time to think like this means she'll have a saner mother to deal with her during the more labor intensive parts of parenthood like this morning when we woke up to a major tantrum. Time out is a wonderful thing.

Clap-o-tee!

The Clapotis is finally finished. I'm blocking it tonight, horay!!!!! This project has been by far the longest one that I have every worked on and actually finished. I feel like I learned a lot of things I should have known by now in the world of knitting.
Things I learned from Clapotis,

• The correct way to ktbl
• the dangers of makeshift stitch markers
• the joy of really good yarn

I've attached a link to the knitty pattern here http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTclapotis.html
If you attempt it be sure to know that, while not difficult, it's not totally mindless knitting either. And, while it requires 3-4 skeins of yarn to complete, when finished you'll be glad you splurged on the good stuff. I used Lorna's lace Shepherd Sport in Pine because I couldn't afford the silk/wool blend that the pattern recommends. While it's not as luxurious as the silk would be, it is beautiful and well worth the $50 spent on it.
It is finally done so I'm on to my next project, I've picked some girly lacy socks in a beautiful plum color. I chose them because I have incredibly large feet and these socks are little anklets so I won't spend the next three months knitting them. Here's the pattern for those of you who are interested. http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/PATTvogon.html

Anyway, my husband is home from work today on account of the expected snow and he went out of the front door and woke Sophie up early from her nap so I have a grumpy toddler on my hands and must go. Happy knitting.

Big dreams

The joy that is married life is not always so obvious. You are going about your day to day things and this other person who lives with you is going about their day to day things and sometimes those things come together and sometimes you feel like you're just existing in the same house together. But then there are those days when you remember why you loved them in the first place and other days when you remember why you married them. (Note, those are rarely the same things)
Those days seem to be happening a lot this week. Darling husband (DH) and I have been trying to break away from the pull of the neon goddess otherwise known as a television for the past few weeks. This doesn't always work and we're not pushing it too hard but we are making an effort to talk to each other about things other than Boston Legal.
So Sunday night the house had gotten to an outrageous degree of messyness. I believe the word "Squalor" was used at one point so we spent the evening cleaning and ended up talking until midnight as we dried pots and put things away. After the cleaning was done we sat down and made a list of the things we want for ourselves in the next 3 years.
The true joy of marriage is having someone to share the silly dreams with. The stupid stuff that you think could never happen. You share it with him and sometimes he says, "yep, that is pretty out there." Then other times he says, "Let's do it."
For privacy sake I'm not going to reveal all of them because that would be a breach of the husband/wife deal, we keep each other's silly dreams a secret between us. Suffice to say, this little blog is one of them.
I love reading knitting blogs and if I can turn my yarn addiction into something that benefits others by letting them know that they are not alone in their crazyness then I hope to have done some good. I will also share patterns as I come across good ones or make up my own.
Back to my original idea. The other day my husband reminded me why I love him we were having lunch together during the week in the food court at Tysons Corner. I posed an idea to him of expanding our family and he smiled and said, "Yeah, lets do it." It's not every day you find someone who can support your silly dreams and be there to back it all up with a smile. Here's to Mr. Follow Through.