A boy and his Castle

like I twittered 2 days ago....

Guilty Pleasures/Good Karma Swap!

A package from Delaney'sDuds came in yesterday. She sent me some lovely gifts! Some beautiful blue wet spun linen yarn form the Kangaroo Dyer. I'm in heaven! She also sent me a sweet little light for in the car when it's dark and John is driving, a handmade wristlet bag for small projects and a pattern that I love for the yarn. :) Very sweet package... Thank you!!!

Auntie's Birthday

What a cake!
Quick! Before the apartment burns down!
Whew... that was a close one. Thank you Dory and jack!
:) We had a wonderful time. Ate cake.
Jack choked on a carrot. Threw up on the carpet in my mom's hand... she laughed about how that hadn't happened in about 25 years! 2 days in a row I panicked about him and food. That's it! he's *cut off*!! No more food for him. lol He's fine.

Jack finds the Scotch

Daddy drank the Easter Bunny's beer when a small boy... and not to be outdone our son decidedly drank 'Uncle' Ted's scotch while visiting Baker St at Granda's house.
We had been upstairs visiting Sherlock when Jack ran off with a few stones from the fireplace.  No biggie, he was playing quietly in the corner as Dory, Grandpa and I were talking... until he started to chock and cough.  And choke.  And gasp.  And choke.  Grandpa grabbed him, I yelled, 'He's choking!' (duh) and tried to figure out why Grandpa wasn't doing more to remove the rock... until he bent down and picked up the bottle... that Jack had removed the lid from and swigged like he does with every bottle.  Grandpa thought he didn't really get any.... um, yeah, he did.  I'm pretty sure he might be traumatized from glass bottles for awhile.  I think he thought he was dying.

It's been nice knowing you.

I will miss you all.

Dory is going to *kill me*.
Remember her contest, the plants? You know, the cute ones? That she drew a picture for and is obsessive about?
Yeah, I dropped it when closing the window tonight. Turned it upside down in the sink. Lost most of it. I'm fairly convinced the rest will die. And that she is never ever going to forgive me.

I am such a careless mommy.
I'm skeered.

I tried. I failed.

I tried the new template layout. It was going to be too much work to fix it all. Most of my modifications were missing. So I'm a new blogger flunkie. I'll stick to editing the XHTML and CSS.

I did however, add a Twitter feed -->
Yes, I caved and signed up for Twitter. Tricia, you might really like it.
Anyone else, let me know if you Twitter!

You reading, Tricia?

Will we be seeing you this weekend? I sure hope so.
Ernest wants to meet you. :)
Much love, I hope your day goes well. XOXOXO

Look for a video by the end of the day from the kids. Maybe. I'm trying. (They are a bit unpredictable... but you know this.)

Dory Panic and Jack Cuteness

Part 1: Dory Panic
It was about 2:30am and Dory had been calling me to come and fix her covers. I headed upstairs and fixed them, but in the process she had woken up Jack so I went to feed him. A moment later Dory decided that she had to go potty so she got up. You see, here is where I had a normal heartbeat. Then it happened... as she was fiddling with the baby gate...
flash
boom... rummmble
Abby whimpers into a long whine, in her "I'm so scared of the storm" voice.
Dory: Abby, maybe you need to sleep with us.
Um, no. When the mattress is on the floor, for some reason I do not want the dog next to it, something about the small kids and the dog's ...
Abby: whineeeee.....
whining that makes me worry about...
Dory: Abby, it's to late to go outside, you will have to wait.
Silence. My heart stops.

You mean... she could, in the middle of the night when we are all asleep, wander outside on her own? Why yes, she could. It's her normal task now to put Abby outside to go potty. She can open locked doors without too much problem. My 4 year old could wander outside all by herself while I am asleep at 3am.
I had been half asleep, now my heart has started back a little too fast for it's own good.
So, my daughter is smart... and her smartness and right decision brings to light a situation I had never even considered that horrified me.
Thanks sweet pea, way to give Mommy nightmares.

Part 2: Jack Cuteness
7am, John has just left after a sleepy conversation, Jack has started to stir
You know how you can feel little eyes staring at you? I gave Jack a little nosh and decided to roll back over and finish sleeping. Jack got up to play. I thought.
Jack: Mama?
I peek one eye open and see him squatting in front of my face looking at me. Wow that was a clear sounding 'Mama'...
My one eye closes, sleep takes over...
Little fingers are suddenly felt on the just closed eye, working hard to gently pry it back open.
Jack: Mamaaa?
It has finally happened to me. I got my eyeball pried open.

Flooded Market.

I'm so sad. I need chocolate and found out that the market flooded and the tent collapsed right after dropping John back at work so we could have the car.... you think I could drive around and collect from each of them individually? I did ask the lady with my greens if I could come by. lol Now, only if Bill and his chocolate were close enough. *sigh* I can't wish the rain to go away, we need it... but I need my chocolate too...

Anyway- Summer made a video of the Saturday market a while back. It's a tiny bit different from the Tuesday one, but you really get the gist of it!

2am bonding time

Dory woke late last night from a bad dream. Apparently in her dream Jack had hit her in the neck a few times... she was afraid to go back to sleep and had wanted to go sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. She said that she never had bad dreams in Mommy and Daddy's bed, but did in hers. John was already asleep, and still sick, and I wasn't heading to bed just yet since we all took a lonnnggggg nap on Monday afternoon so... I brought her downstairs with me.
So, we girls sat together late last night, cuddling in the chair, Mommy knitting on Ernest and both of us watching the Olympics Closing Ceremonies. (Yes, that happened several days ago, but I hadn't watched it and had it TiVo'd. It's what was on when I heard her cry upstairs.) It was a great hour at 2am. :) We giggled, talked about double decker busses and how Mommy has been to London but never got to ride on one... talked about bad dreams and good ones, even though she wouldn't tell me any... laughed over Dory's dance interpretation of the London dancers - roboting her hear around... marveled at the flame being extinguished. She said, "I'm always going to remember that bird's nest."
She asked if I had been to China, but I had to tell her no... but that Sherry at the bookstore had! We'll be heading in there on Friday, maybe she'll tell us about it. :)

I wish I had made a goofy picture to post of the two of us... but I didn't. Oh, well.

Schooling! ASL

And it *begins*!
We had our getting started meeting with her Sign Language instructor this morning, and while Dory decided on the way there that she no longer wanted to go and was going to pitch a fit, she ended up having a blast, loving her teacher and playing with one of her classmates (a knitting friend's son). It turns out Dory is just like I was, talking too much and giving out wayyy to much family information - making everyone laugh and me turn red while I'm all "shhhh, honey no one needed to know that". She told of how Daddy was sick, how she had to clean when Grandpa was coming over, every time Grandpa was coming over, or anyone else for that matter... lol
Anyway, she had a good time and is looking forward to classes. Me too!

I'm Published! (aka Mabel)

The title link is the Ravelry pattern page. OK, so I'm a little excited. It's my first ever pattern and one of the first things I have made up pretty much on my own. :)
This is the direct PDF download. I will keep it updated with the errata as I figure it out... I just hope it's not too confusing. I can barely *read* crochet patterns, let alone write them!

Picture Picture

She loves them so much she drew them a picture to look at... of them!

This is how they looked this morning.. they are nearly twice as tall right now. I told you they were fast growing!

Pout a little more...

What? All I said was "No".

FO: Lucky Charms

I got back to them after a few larger yarn projects and when close to the ribbing ripped an inch out to redo it. I did a sewn bind off at the suggestion of a Ravelry swap partner. :) Whew! Glad to be done! My first SOCKS! SQUEE!
Lessons learned: My toes went too wide, and I just did a decrease rather than ripping back so the toe is pretty wide. The heel is similar, I made too many turns and have a pointy heel that makes the sock a bit too long. I could have fitted the sock to my foot better with correcting just those two things, but if I were to do over I would take a stitch or two out of the bottom to stretch them over my foot better. So, on to the next socks with lots of lessons learned and one pretty cool pair to rock with my Birks. Do you think they clash? ;) you can tell me...

Contest!

The Tailgate Market owner, Lynn, came up with a contest/school type project for the regular kids. This past week she had them plant salad seeds in dirt in a rather nice take out dinner container. We forgot to water them when we got home, but remembered the next morning. By Wednesday evening, less than 24 hours, they had sprouted. The next morning there was twice as many and several were over 1/4" tall! By lunch they were about 1/2". This morning, 3 days later, they are everywhere and many are way over an inch!!! These are some fast sprouting seeds. I was expecting several days. Nope. They were just itching to grow! I so wish I had taken pictures now, I could have made a little time lapse video out of them. Oh well.

Bottom line is this was perfect timing for Dory. She is very excited about them and that is something I don't know I could have gotten her excited about on my own. She is *determined* to win the contest for "greenest leaves". Im not sure what the actual contest is for or it's length, but she's excited none the less!

Cold Update

Yep, we caught it. So our plans to head to the Mint Museum with Grandma at lunch were postponed. Jack has the thick green and a light fever. Dory has a nasal whistle. I think the preventative doping I did for Dory and I has certainly helped! I sure hope we get over this by bedtime tomorrow. We have a lot going on next week!

Cold and Vitamins

So we played alot with Ba and her kids over the last 2 days.  We had a great time... but as we were leaving yesterday LJ came down with a cold.  Oops!  In trying to NOT catch it we started dosing on our vitamins and Zicam.  FIL called yesterday to say that Grandma was sick and wondering if we still wanted him to babysit today.  I told him I didn't want to battle 2 germs at once anyway, so just take good care of Grandma. (She had a tummy bug.)  
All has gone as planned until this morning when I had just given Jack his vitamins and was dosing Dory with the Zicam.  Jack got a piece caught in his throat and decided to give e all 3 vitamin chews back.  On the carpet.  They were red.  *sigh*  
So, Doreen...  any sage words of experience for me?
So, Ba...  was this the type of baby blog you were hoping for? muhahahaha  (I hope LJ is feeling better.)

Was something else, not now...

Who knows what I *was* going to blog about. I don't recall. John called for me to come get him from work because of an on setting migraine. I finally rounded us all up, walked out the door... and um.... well, I put the kids in the car, tried the front door, tried the windows... I'm happy to say our house was locked up tight. I called John back and he said in a groggy voice, "You outside?" I said, "No, well, yes... but not outside your office." There was silence as he tried to figure this out without the brain power the migraine sucked. I said, "I'm outside with two kids and my cell phone. I realized as the door clicked behind me I had neither my purse or keys." "Oh. Well, I guess I'll find someone to bring me home," he said.
About 15-20 minutes later he found us playing in the yard pulling weeds and eating tomatoes.

After the 30 minute "walk" with Ba this morning... I've had my fill of the great outdoors for awhile!

Fully chastised. On with the kids.

Ba came over with the littles today to play. She had made mention in the past of enjoying seeing the knitting... this time... she said "ENOUGH, DARN IT! I WANNA SEE KIDS!" lol, sorry. I think the majority of my readership is now Ravelry based, but this is my general blog about daily life... and that is mainly the kids. Can I blame it on John's long hours lately? Can I blame it on the broken camera and the fact that none of the recent pictures are particularly good? No? Oh. Well, I tried.

Ok... so.... kid news... Dory colored so much last Wednesday that she got and popped a water blister on one of her fingers. Mommy news.. with John's 'new' hours I've had to curtail sewing for pocket change. I just can't keep it up. :( I guess I also needed a break. I made a Mei Tai for Summer's friend in exchange for a massage I have to collect still and am working on my very last Ring Sling for my cousin Gina and her new sweet pea, Nia. After this I think I'm taking them down from the JonquilMom site until I can get back some time and don't feel so overwhelmed.

Hey... did you see the new little favicon? Look up... in the address bar... see the daffodil instead of the orange B? :) I did that. I also added a reward from participating in the Ravelympics. See, Ba? I haven't blogged hardly anything about my knitting.... you haven't even heard of this until now! Ok, back to kids.

I have the smack cutest picture of Dory, almost ever... from our return trip to see the building of the EMHE house:



We lost those glasses while there. :( (I won't mention that I knitted the bottle holder for the trip...)

Dory has been coloring up a storm, and decided 2 weeks ago that Daddy was not allowed to recycle a large flat box. It was to be used for an art project! A full 2 days of coloring is what it turned out to be.



Ok, back to me... I know my Tuesday night adventures with doreen and friends has made for some public gawking in the past.. but I think I took it to new heights when her sister Janet was sweet enough to bring her swift for me to borrow. I wound about 8 skeins of yarn that night right there in the middle of Starbucks. Doreen captured evidence:



Back to kids: (wow this is getting hard...) Jack was fed Pizza on Saturday by accident, by Daddy. Yep, it was an explosive reaction... but Jack reportedly enjoyed it while the few bites lasted. Dory was the one who called Daddy on it. Maybe he'll be kind enough to retell the story in the comments.

Ok, I need to go. One kid is in time out for jumping off the couch for the umpteenth time and the other is smelling of diaper attention. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to get another entry after dinner. As long as I email Gina, first, with her long overdue sling choices. ;)

2 turned heels

No, not ankles... heels.  I *finally* turned the heels in my socks!  Two pretty nice short row heels are finished.  It took from about 8pm until 11pm along with getting the kids to bed to get it done, so I'm pretty proud.  They look good, but I still learned a few lessons.  Just like my toes are a bit wonky, my heels are too.  They are too pointy, I think I turned 2 stitches too many.  Oh well.  I have NO intention of fixing them.  They are, well, loose fitting socks. Certainly not tight.  I do not know yet just how sloppy though since they are my first.  I guess we will see.  But... I have two turned heels!

Even the DOG has gone nuts

Well, that time of year is upon us again, and John is working like no body's business.  We've not seen him much around here and all miss him something fierce.  I think, however, Abby might just miss him the most.  She sat outside all day yesterday, refusing to come in.  Refusing treats when she did come in, instead she asked to go right back out.  She acted like she does when a fierce lightening storm comes through, gong nuts and whining.  Last night, when John came home, she came right in and fell asleep athis feet as if nothing were wrong.  This morning she was fine... until he left.  He wasn't even out of the garage before she was practically doing back flips to go outside.  It's 3 hours after that event right now... and she will not come in.
So, what does that say about me? I'm not sure I want to think about it much.  All I know is I'm doing good... the dishes have been washed.