The Coldest Day in 32 years

And this is how Miss A dresses. If you can't tell, she's wearing a bikini. She's had a bathing suit on for the past three days. :) She'll be three next week.

It was around -14 this morning. Brrr. The car wouldn't start and I missed my chiro. appt (CTS is horrible so this is another knit free post) but Chris was able to get it started later and we took Miss A to her first skating lesson. JCC has been skating/playing hockey for a few years now but this Sunday is his first time playing in front of an audience and he is so excited!



Morning hair



JCC on the computer



HCC close-up. He's still a sweetie but is getting huge! He's about out of 9 mos. clothes already (he'll be 5mos next week.)

Back by Popular Demand

:) Well, not really but I do have some photos! I don't think I can string together the words to express all of the busyness that's been going on. We've had chickepox (all three munchkins), potty training (Miss A), homeschooling (officially), and our small business is doing well. There have been wee bits of knitting but I haven't managed to take any photos.




Cute baby smile! Boy, this guy is a sweetie.



Miss A as a caterpillar. We also had to buy a fairy costume to stand in as a butterfly one as my mother kept asking her if she was going to turn into a butterfly. Thanks Mom! :)



However she didn't wear either for our actual Halloween outing.



But JCC was a knight!



We created an alter for Day of the Dead, complete with sugared skulls.



I could totally get into these -- next year I'm doing one all by myself (in Miss A speak.)



Cute pic from the park.

And that's it for another couple of months. . .

New Munchkin!

Wee Boy was born at home on Wednesday, August 20th at 7:03am after 3.5 hours of labor. He looks a lot like JCC but with slightly wider spaced eyes.



Being weighed -- 7lbs, 14oz



6 days later

Blessingway Pics and One Monkey

I can see why people love to make Monkeys! These are super quick to knit and a lot of fun. I thought these were oh so pretty until I asked Chris his opinion and I could tell by the look on his face that he thought they were pretty much the ugliest socks ever. Oh well, not everyone can appreciate very loud striped lace socks. The mate to this one is on hold as I'm working on a vest for the Little Man as my Olympics project.







These three pics are from a Mother's Blessing that my friends threw for me on Saturday. It was lovely and I came out feeling very loved and strong. (I only had to wear the wreath for the pic.)

As I'm sure you can guess, no babe yet. Due date is tomorrow. I'm ready!

New Camera!

My parents gave me some money as a birthday present and I bought myself a lovely new camera. I love it! I was expecting just a little point and shoot for the price, but it also has great SLR settings and video capabilities that I wasn't expecting and it's very easy to navigate the menus. I had been using the first digital camera we bought before the Little Man's birth and it is too large to just carry around in my bag and so I just wasn't getting as many photos as I would like. So to make up for lost time. . .



Dress-up Time



Very Pregnant Mama and Little Girl



Curly Locks



More Dress-up

In knitting land, I had picked up the new Cat Bordhi book and during our Baltimore vacation I made the two little sampler socks that will be for the wee babe. Definitely a fun book and hopefully the little one will get to use them.



Little Sky Socks



Little Coriolis Socks



The June Sock Club offering from Little Turtle Knits. This stuff is exquisite! It actually seems way too nice for socks. Theresa always has great stuff but I think she may have the best sock club around -- each offering includes yarn, a new pattern and something additional. This time it was handmade note cards. If I didn't have a ton of sock yarn from last year's Scout's Swag I'd sign up for a monthly order.



My best belly shot



Goggles!



This summer has been the summer of swimming (the city pool is only a mile away so even my very pregnant self could manage to get us there 4 days a week) and the Little Man has made amazing progress. He went from refusing to get his ears wet to being able to swim! Yesterday he spent close to three hours swimming away at his cousins. He does somersaults under the water, opens his eyes, etc. It's been very cool to watch his progress. His other new interest is playing Chess. Chris and I are both very much amateurs and he's going to surpass us quickly if we don't learn some new moves. I have the chess book by my desk and intend to learn some more today.

We have one more week until the babe's estimated arrival (Little Girl was 9 days late so I won't be holding my breath) and we're ready! All the supplies are assembled (another homebirth), the cloth diapers are washed, and the wee clothes folded.

More Socks!

Exciting, eh? This pair is for me. Very comfy and a better fit than the last (sorry Mom! Hopefully yours fit you well.)



And here's a pair for Miss A. This pic was taken when one was smaller than the other but it's since been frogged and re-done to make an identical pair. She loves them. The yarn is the Felici from KnitPicks and while it's super soft I don't think they'll be long lasting. Still, very pretty and I'll be making myself a pair.

I've also made 4 dischcloths for gifts to the Little Man's Waldorf teachers and others. If there's anyone you can feel not guilty about giving a homemade gift its someone in Waldorf (at least that's how I'm convincing myself that I'm not just being cheap.)

I'm very very tired at this point in the pregnancy (6 weeks to go) so we haven't even being doing our normal running around like crazy. Instead we've been going to the pool in the AM for Little Man's swimming lessons (For a kid who had a lot of sensory issues he's doing great. I didn't expect for him to go under and he did it the second session.) And then visiting lots of storytimes at the local libraries and when I have a bunch of energy, hitting up park days with other young homeschoolers. When I'm not napping in the afternoon we've been doing some more formal lesson-y stuff loosely following the classical model outlined in A Well Trained Mind.

I also have a very part, part-time job doing the administrative part of Chris's web hosting business at http://www.dashCommerce.com. It only takes around 5 hours a week and gives me something to do besides mind small people.

On Wednesday the munchkins and I head to Baltimore for our annual summer visit. We are looking forward to it!

Toe-Up Love

I've never really understood the online knitters' fascination with socks. I've made a few pairs and all of them required me ripping back substantially. However as I do have a few skeins of sock yarn and I needed a Mama's Day present for my Mama, I tried again this time using a toe-up technique. I love it! Minus ripping back the Turkish cast-on a ton of times, the knitting itself was painless. And I love the short-row heel as I also am not a fan of picking up stitches. Since this pair only took one skein I'm now half-way through a pair for myself and I've switched to the much easier Magic Cast-on so no ripping at all.

In baby news, we now only have 11 weeks to go! While I am a little worried about Miss A's transition into a Big Sisterhood, otherwise I am rather unworried about the whole thing. My belly is huge and I feel I can't get much bigger (oh but wait!) even though I know there's still a lot of growing to go. I am in full-on nesting mode and have cleaned out all of the closets and made up a list of all of the things that need fixed around the house. Chris was groaning as I mentioned maybe we could spend his day off today painting things. :)