Twice in one day!!

Check me out.

I haven't had much knitting time lately- or at least not as much as I would like. But I did finish these gloves on Monday and I LOVE them!



And, as a total non-sequiter:

Tonight I read the kids a story called Good Night, Gorilla about a Gorilla who lets many of the zoo animals out of their cages so they can all try to sleep in the zoo-keeper's bed. One of the animals is an armadillo and the armadillo is usually Zion's favorite. Tonight he told me that, "If a little chubby armadillo with a stubby little tail and stubby legs and a cute face wanted to sleep in my bed I would snuggle and snuggle him!"

Really, I've done a rather amazing job of passing on my love of chubby/plump/stubby things to my children, wouldn't you say??

Hanging in there

Still here, more or less. Things have NOT slowed down for us. Our stream of visitors continues, works piles up, kids are...well, you know. Always there. Usually needing or wanting things. Being cute as hell, but taking up all the time in the world plus a few hours and leaving very little for anything else.

Robert's dad and his wife left this morning after a 3 1/2 day visit. Robert leaves at the crack of dawn Saturday for our annual professional conference (it's in Chicago this year), and I'll have the kids on my own for 3 days. He gets back on Monday, and my grandmother arrives on Tuesday. Next Friday is Liel's birthday and next Saturday we'll go down to Brooklyn to celebrate with Kenn and Giselle (and drop my grandmother off for a quick visit with them before she flies home).

I've finally (mostly) recovered from the horrible illness. At the height of it Zion accidentally whacked the crap out of my tooth with his head, giving me a tooth concussion which = my tooth still hurts a week later. Robert's cousin Eryn, who is in dental school tells me I should try not to use it and let the ligaments rest. Good advice, I'm sure, but I've managed to totally forget it until after I've torn off a huge hunk of french bread with my teeth and it starts hurting again. Maybe tomorrow will be my day!

We went thru the usual flip flops in terms of a Halloween costume for Zion this year. In the end he decided he'd like to be a ghost and I finally bought a white sheet for him yesterday. I cut out eyes, shortened it so he wouldn't trip and had a very happy boy. Today he is at a Halloween party dressed as...a ghost? No. Not a ghost. Dressed as some kind of Japanese style gangster in a double breasted suit with a sword. He looks awesome. Becka, it's the suit you sent! He loves it, and looks super sharp. I'll try to take a picture when he comes home.

We've had some beautiful fall weather so I'll leave you with some pictures from our walk to the park a couple days ago and a very weak promise to try to blog more!

Sick. Blah. Funny!

It's true, I'm sick. Run down. Achey. Can't stop sneezing. And last night, as we were drifting off to sleep I had a coughing fit that ended with me spitting in the trashcan next to my bed.

"Damn, I'm charming", I gasped as I reached for my water.

Robert assured me that he had married me hoping that he would someday get to hear me coughing and spitting into a trashcan. I guess it was his lucky night (but not mine as I had that horrible sick sleep where you're hurting so much you're sure you won't sleep and then you wake up hurting and think you'll never get back to sleep and then...)!

Anyway, someone on Ravelry showed me Engrish.com today and it has brightened my otherwise snot-filled day. Here are some gems for you to enjoy!

You spin me right round...

I need to edit my "About me" on the blog to reflect that I am now spinning yarn. And I looove it. I told Pete about it yesterday and stunned him into (temporary) silence. Then he said, "I think you've gone over the edge. Pretty soon you're going to be sitting cross-legged, on the floor- topless- with dreadlocks." I assured him that I was most certainly not going to be wandering around topless any time soon but I don't think I convinced him, somehow.

Anyway I actually don't have any pictures of my own fabulous yarn or spindles (I'm not spinning on a wheel but with a drop spindle). Now that I've realized this I'm feeling motivated to take pictures and share them with y'all...tomorrow. I promise! At least some time this week. And really, with the exam grading I'll be doing later in the week, tomorrow is certainly for the best. Yes.

Um, where was I? OH YEAH...spinning. Guess who has been really interested in my spinning, and begging to learn to spin? Zion! So tonight (after our big trip to Rhinebeck for the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, which resulted in us coming home with 2 lbs of unspun roving to turn into yarn) I sat down with him and we started. I was a little apprehensive, cause I wasn't sure he'd have the fine motor skills to successfully spin and I didn't want to see him feeling frustrated or disappointed in himself or by an activity he had so many positive feelings about. But he did great! I split the wool into a thinnish piece for him and drafted it out just a bit for him. Then I hooked it up to the spindle and held the loose roving away from the spindle so it wouldn't get tangled up and away he went. He's watched me spin a fair bit so he had a good understanding of what he needed do be doing. He was essentially parking and drafting- spinning the spindle, the catching and holding it while he moved his fingers up the length of the roving allowing the twist to travel up, then pinching the wool to stop the twist travelling, spinning the spindle and starting the process again. He spent about 10 minutes spinning and I'd guess he spun about 5 yards of worsted weight yarn- and did so VERY evenly. Check it out:




And the yarn he spun!



I am so proud and impressed!

Goodnight, sweet prince

Brian and Ysette came over today for one of our regular wine events (today's wine was Pinot Noir. We had one from Germany and one from California and they were both delicious!). At first Liel was very cautious around both of them, probably because she's a bit sick and hasn't seen them in a few months. Later she cheered up and ran around playing football and other games with Brian (and Robert and Zion) in the backyard. When they left she even gave Uncle Brian a hug goodbye. I was so pleased that I told Robert about it as we turned off the porch light.

"Liel even gave Brian a hug goodbye!", I said.

Robert smiled at Liel. "Did you?", he asked. "That's nice, sweetheart".

Liel beamed. "Huh, I did!", she confirmed. "And then I picked my nose".

It's all true, I'm afraid.

Phoenix Sweater

Every year I knit the kids sweaters. Every year for the past two years, anyway! This year, after much debate, Zion decided he wanted a phoenix on his sweater. I spun the yarn for the phoenix myself! There was about an ounce of an alpaca/merino blend included with some roving I bought, which wasn't enough to do much with, but which was perfect for this little project. Anyway, I finished Zion's sweater tonight (and he's sleeping in it- how cute is that??).

Here is, not sure if I'm taking a picture yet.



And smiling!



And thanking me and telling me how much he loves his sweater (seriously, that's what he was doing. Charming to the max, that boy.).

Apple picking

It's fall here in New York. I can't believe the good weather we've had this year: cool summer, gorgeous sunny fall...I hope we aren't in for an extra long winter to make up for it!

Yesterday the kids and I went apple picking with Zion's class at a local farm.






After the farm we went to a classmate's grandparents house to learn about worms, compost, and bees. Here's Zion leaning in to see worm casings.



His friend has his own bee-keeper suit. Cutest. thing. ever. And he really helps, too!



Then the kids did circle time with their teachers and we all headed home. Liel was very tired!

Not exactly a born salesman

Yesterday our across the street neighbors had a yard sale. This morning they put some unsold stuff on their curb for the garbage man to pick up. When Zion and Robert were outside they spotted a plastic toy sword among the cast offs and Zion has been playing with it all morning. He did tell me it was for him AND Liel, but so far he's seeing all the play (though Liel hasn't really shown much interest in playing with it at this point anyway).

We thought about going to Target today (these things really do become related later on, just wait), to get a refill on my meds and possibly to buy Spore. But the pharmacy didn't open until 11am and who wants to go to Target at noon on a Sunday? Yeah, not me, either.

Now it's nap time/quiet time, and Zion just came bouncing into our room. "Daddy!", he cried, "I just thought of something! We forgot to go to Target!"

"We didn't forget", Robert said. "Mommy thought it wouldn't be a good time to go to Target, so we're going to go another day".

Zion stood on the bed and stared at him, trying to digest this. Then he turned and stared out the window for a moment before speaking, apparently in mid thought. "...because we already got one of their pieces of shit", he said. Robert and I looked at each other in confusion as Zion continued, "They put a bunch of their shit out that they didn't want anymore and we got some of it."

I suddenly realized he was looking across the street at our neighbor's house- you know, the ones who had the yard sale yesterday, and who put the treasured sword out in the trash this morning. I nodded over at their house to Robert and mouthed "Sword". We both fought the good fight to keep a straight face, but ultimately lost. Luckily Zion was oblivious to our giggles and he continued to hold forth on yesterday's yard sale. "Yes, they put those pumpkins (Halloween decorations) out in front of the tables so that could trick people to come over and see what they were selling. They put them there to trick people, and then the people would come over and buy their shit. Where is a World of Warcraft book that I can look at?"

Just don't call it shit, kid, and you'll have the market cornered!

Heh.

Another gem from found on my favorite Ravelry group.