september mama

rowan continued to be sick last week, though i have decided now that she was teething too. the combination of symptoms (night waking, gross diapers, snot, crankiness) is obvious in hindsight... but let me tell you about thursday.

rowan woke up way too early and i was changing her in the dark because i was still half-asleep, when she started saying "poopie hands" repeatedly. oh god. yep. so i turned on the light and it wasn't just her hands, which had somehow found their way into her diaper, it was also her sheets, the padded bumper around her headboard, and her blankets. yay for diarrhea! into the wash it all went. the morning was fine after that, and when i put her down for her nap in just a diaper and a shirt, i remember saying to myself "she needs pants, this is a bad idea" but i guess laziness took over and i ignored it. 30 minutes later she is wailing and kicking the wall for my attention, so i went to get her and it was a horrible and yet hilarious scene: rowan lying on her side as if paralyzed with her diaper undone and hanging off her body, with gross runny poo coming down off her, through the side of the diaper, and straight onto the bed. she was whining and upset and wouldn't move because she didn't want it all over her (i shouldn't laugh but it really was funny). it was, again, all over the CLEAN sheets, and now also on her favorite little 'pillow pet' --thanks grandma--ms. ladybug. she had been shat upon!

i washed a second set of sheets while rowan played in my bathtub (with the drain unplugged, of course).

then, because mommy is really stupid, we decided to give the 'big girl panties' a go that afternoon. i knew her tummy had to be empty and i figured she would not want to pee in the underwear, so we talked over and over about how she would tell me when she needed the potty and so on... all afternoon i asked her every 5 minutes if she needed the potty, and it was always "noooo," so i left her alone. i must have ignored her for about 10 minutes at one point, though, because suddenly her panties were wet and i didn't know when or where it had happened. sigh. eventually i found a puddle on my bathroom floor. i'm sure the reason she didn't bother to tell me was because she knew she isn't allowed in there and didn't want to get caught.

as for blackmail, it's a bit of an exaggeration: i'm refusing to eat any meat until matt quits smoking. you'd think that would have no effect on him, but he gets annoyed if i even suggest i might be vegetarian again, so i'm hoping it will give him some small incentive to stop spending money and being stinky over something as stupid as cigarettes. he likes cooking excessively large slabs of animal parts for us, and he'll miss it if i don't partake... besides, at the very least i should theoretically be able to lose some weight just by cutting out the meat and replacing it with veggies. we'll see.

we had a litter of bunnies a few days ago and another is on the way today or tomorrow, and matt bought us a few rhode island pullets the other day, too. they are living in a fish tank on our dining room table at the moment. karen has successfully hatched four chicks from our eggs this week, too, which is really exciting. i hate that we will have to segregate them and deal with the whole pecking-order deal for a while when they are big enough, but it beats not having any chicks. i'm going to try another round of natural hatching later this week, i think. our hens want about 18 eggs under them to sit, so 2-3 days of no collection should do it for a full nest. i hope matt didn't piss them off too much the last time.

i'm about 1/3 of the way through knitting rowan's birthday dress (i started early to ensure it would finished on time, but now i think she will wear it for easter too). it's a really pretty little thing evocative of a flower, with the petals as skirt and the...inner part thingie...as the bodice. i'll post pics when it's done.

liam is blabbering away all the time, lots of new sounds and accompanying facial expressions. i love that kid.

i've made a resolution for perhaps the first time in history. i have an obscene (and surprisingly high-quality, considering my budget) stash of yarn, 95% of which was bought just because i liked it in the moment. now it is taking up space and doing nothing to curb my desire for more yarn... so i must be rid of it! and since i have been SPINNING--yes! it's amazing! addictive!--i have to find some excuse to do it more... "i am out of yarn" sounds like a good one to me. :) :) :)

so. the plan is to knit right on through my stash, give away the random leftovers, and spin my own when i need yarn for projects. from here on i will spin and dye yarns specifically for a given project, with as few exceptions as possible. as fiber is cheaper than yarn, i feel justified. plus i get to be twice as productive by doing it all myself. *rawr*

i'm quite proud of my planning skills at this point too, since i have managed to choose a project ahead of time for almost all my stashed yarn. i wonder if they are happier knowing their destinies are predetermined...

in other news, liam is big enough to sit in the bouncer! his feet touch the ground and he loves banging on the toys. it's really cute. he has been doing this little baby jig where he pounds his arms down and stomps one foot really enthusiastically; it's hilarious. he's also definitely teething because his fists are always in his mouth and he shouts about it most of the time. not crying, just a general ahhHHHHhhh while chewing. hehe.

rowan is advancing verbally at a breakneck speed. she's picking up so many words every day and stringing them together totally appropriately such that i am surprised by her no less than 3x a day. really need to watch my language to avoid embarrassing myself in public down the line. she's still a little cranky but now i'm starting to think it's because she has been sick... today she seemed better than she has been and she was a lot less troublesome as well. so who knows. terrible twos or just feeling bad? *shrug* i'm sure i'll be baffled by something else in another week or so.

no chicks this time around, the hens abandoned the nest (motherf*cking matt!). but we are getting 10 eggs daily now and i'm sort of swimming in them. i posted a barter ad on craigslist hoping someone wants to trade or buy some. we'll see.

gotta go clean up and make dinner now though.

i have acquired another totally practical-yet-impractical skill which i am reveling in... spinning! as in, yarn. my vote for "next animal to join the farm" is obviously sheep, now. :D

it sort of happened by accident, despite me wanting to learn for a while (but never caring enough to invest the time or money)... i found a friend on ravelry who incidentally runs a yarn/fiber shop on etsy, she wanted makeup and i wanted yarn, so we traded. in the process, i ended up with a few drop spindles and some wool as part of the deal, and she showed me how to use them. BAM!

that day, we went to visit a nearby alpaca farm, the owners of which i have connections with, and not only did they hook her up with a crazy deal on raw fiber, they explicitly told me i can come get some for free anytime. *drool* alpaca feels like clouds. so i've got about 5oz of fluffy, jet-black heaven in a bag, which i am not going to touch until i know what i am doing with that spindle! i'll practice with plain old wool until i have a more consistent product, then on to the fancy stuff ;). i've actually been considering brushing the rabbits when they start their spring shed to blend in some non-angora-but-still-soft-rabbit with my wool or alpaca. this is really dangerous, because my knitting projects have slowed down dramatically... i want to spin all the time. i know it's a phase and it will pass, but still. i've been trying to rationalize a la telling myself i need to use up my stash of yarn and then i will have an excuse to spin :)

ah. i just love making things, and similar to the process of taking milk from the cow and turning it into something...more complicated...knitting from spinning from wool from the animal is just so satisfying. i dub it "slow crafts" off the top of my head. did i make that up??

speaking of rabbits, the distressed doe is still hanging in there. i don't know how, but she's alive, and it's hard to say whether she is still in labor. her breathing is weird and that lump (aka fetus) is still in there, but she seems ok. the sitting hen was disturbed for a day by matt stealing too many of her clutch, but she is back to sitting... though i don't know if the eggs will end up being viable or not, now. i told him in no uncertain terms to leave her the hell alone, so hopefully she recovered her broodiness quickly enough and will manage to hatch at least a few. we'll see.

we had a mystery crop of something from the garden last week--after much debate and research, it turned out to be daikon. (yes, matt failed to keep a record of what he planted.) it was then a mystery to both of us WHY he planted a massive amount of daikon... ? not the most useful vegetable, and he couldn't recall buying the sees, but we did some new things with it and it was tasty. stir-fried greens, and a potato-parsnip-daikon soup. he pickled some in the traditional way, as well, but i haven't tried them yet. the rest is basically rabbit and cow feed at this point, because it wilted really fast and we just didn't want to eat that many radishes. lol.

liam, rowan, and matt all have colds and i have a scratch in my throat that i deny is the onset of my very own sniffles. i got about 2 hours of sleep last night (thanks, liam...and matt...) and spent the morning in a nursery full of wild little boys followed by a funeral lunch... weird stuff. all i have to say is thank the stars for crock pot dinners because i have no desire to cook at all. i should be sleeping now, as a matter of fact, but i couldn't resist using naptime for knitting and spinning instead. oh well. coffee's brewing.

rowan has been difficult lately. she does things she knows will get her into trouble (albeit very little trouble) and has been pinching herself and me, just to be mean. never liam, thankfully. matt thinks she's bored, and i think he's right. so i've got to find some friends for her or something more interesting to do than sit here with me and/or invade grammy and grampy's home every day. would be easier if matt didn't take my car every day. i'm going to go hunting online for toddler activities...

mostly because i'm KNITTING constantly (gotta get the xmas stuff done...). still not a good excuse though. t.w.i.n.k. was in an indie craft fair last weekend that totally rocked--we made money and it was really fun. someone even told me they liked my "style" in my shiny new outfit bought just for the show! never been told that before; it was nice. and between me and karen we traded with other sellers for at least $200 worth of stuff in addition to the money we made! *headbanging*

as for liam, he is seriously huge. not fat, like those chunky huge babies, just hefty and long. at his 8 week checkup he was 12.2lbs! crazy. he is absolutely sweet... he coes and smiles and tries to laugh all the time. incidentally, that stinky watery poo was diarrhea which cleared up after a few days and now seems to have returned. i do have a sort of forceful letdown but as there is never froth in his diaper i don't think there is an imbalance (also because my boobs are so small that's unlikely--he can only get so much out of them per session and he definitely drains them completely). his eye grossness seems to be all better too, in spite of the stupid antibiotic cream that i stopped using after the first week. he is sleeping between 5-7 hours at a time for the first night stretch, and napping for 1-3 hours once or twice a day. he's delightful.

rowan is getting really good at speaking and i have been drilling her on xmas "stuff"--we watch 'rudolph' and 'santa claus is coming to town' constantly and we've been reading the classic books to make sure she associates santa and whatnot with all the fun that is coming. tonight is a parade downtown that we are bringing her to, and we got a tree yesterday which i plan to decorate today (our first ever). very exciting! she woke up and the first thing she did was smell it and say MMMmmmMM, haha. love it!

i got some fancy new yarns thanks to a gift card i had been saving so i am really looking forward to knitting some things for myself after the holidays are over. so far i have completed a bunch of things for rowan, a really cute set of wristlets and cowl for my sister, a fluffy collar for my mom, slippers for matt's dad, slippers for matt's stepmom, a scarflette for matt's mom, a pair of armwarmers for me, and a cowl that doubles as an overskirt for me. i am working on a hat for matt now, and after that it's the fancy yarns and complicated projects. woohoo!

we think that marge, cow #2, may also be pregnant now. she was exposed to the bulls for much longer than butters, so her later fertilization makes sense. it's nuts. butters is due any day now and it's been really, really cold so i'm a little worried... probably baselessly. we have something like 14 chickens and are getting 3 eggs a day lately. i'm not sure how well the garden is doing but it's out there with green stuff in it. our well froze a few times during these cold nights but matt has insulated it now and it appears to be effective.

i think that's all i have to update at the moment... i need to post pics of the little ones...

both babies are sleeping at the same time for the second day in a row. *bliss* yesterday liam napped from 9am-12pm, too! i even had 5 minutes this morning to slather my head with henna (way overdue) and get some stuff ready for the GLAM which twink and my shirts will both be a part of. as of last night i have whipped myself into shape in terms of making him sleep in his bassinet, and he slept 5 hours and 3 hours (he is officially a stomach-sleeper no matter what i try). it was great to sleep in my bed without a baby i'm afraid to disturb by rolling over! maybe matt will come back to our room now... lol. i also started a pilates regimen that uses baby as the weights, and man that showed me just how out of shape i have become. it was EASY as far as workouts go, and only like 15 minutes, and my arms and legs felt like they were going to give out. i used to be able to do some seriously intense workouts and still be ok. i guess i should look at that past glory as something to work towards again.

i have discovered that i can knit and nurse at the same time, and all i can say about that is HALLELUJAH AMEN woo-freaking-hoo!! i've made some xmas gifts for rowan and i am even halfway done with a pair of super-cute fingerless gloves for me--first thing i've ever knitted for myself. it's glorious to be productive while i'm stuck on the couch otherwise "wasting time" (if you don't consider that i'm imbuing a mini-human with nutritious growth juice).

in the TMI realm--be warned here--matt and i resumed marital relations more than a week ago and everything is a-ok in the nether zone. it's sort of shocking, after my recovery post-rowan. i think i would've been fine with activities down there even at 2 weeks, but i wanted to be sure. it's such a relief.

i'm going for my IUD consultation on thursday which i am very excited about... yay for long-term surefire contraception that doesn't involve surgery! lol.

liam is 6 weeks old. he cooes and looks like he is trying to talk all the time, which is something rowan never did this early. he smiles a lot and is very interested in what is going on around him, and he's much cuter than he was before. i need more photos of him...

"obsessed" is a term that i am intermittently accused of being. right now, in terms of knitting, it is appropriate.

i've got a thousand million infinity ideas of things to knit and only two hands and a few hours a day--it's so frustrating! and when i can't be knitting, i'm thinking of more things to knit. i've decided to start doing it as a(nother) side job, too, using etsy as my home base. our screenprints are doing well as usual, but i have so many great knitting ideas that i might as well be making money while i indulge my obsession :). the things i am interested in selling are all toy-type items, not scarves or hats. i get a lot more gratification from knitting a small thing quickly than i do from a larger, more elaborate piece no matter how gorgeous (not that i've ever finished anything elaborate and gorgeous...)

i finished a really neat little project the other day and i'm happy with how it came out, though i will be tweaking the pattern and making a modified version before i list any to sell.

right now i'm working on a mobile for my nephew kai, and then a really, really cute hat for the little belly guy (will post pics when it's done). all i want to do right now is knit... but rowan just woke up, so i guess i will go play with the munchkin *mock sigh*

so the room is 99% done--last things to do are put flowers on the tree and stain the bookshelves (which i already screwed into the walls, of course).

check it out, it's kinda ghetto but it IS a baby's room after all...

made from brown craft paper, plastic ficus leaves, feather butterflies, a bark birdhouse, and a couple of mushroom birds. silk apple blossoms to be added.

and this is the kitty toy i knitted on saturday:

ah, back from the holidays. i kept meaning to post and then never had time...

nothing much is new, i'm uber-rotund these days, i think my ankles are fatter than usual, and i feel like there is a squirrel bouncing around in my belly 24/7. she's really active, and not very subtle about it! matt finally got to feel a few kicks the other night... it was cute. she pummeled his hand almost as soon as i put it on my belly.

i've been productive, though! over the break me and lauren knitted a little birdy mobile from start to finish, and the next night i knitted a stuffed cat toy too. it was much easier than i imagined it would be, so i'm pretty inspired to make more toys now. i have a baby shower to attend in february for which i am planning to knit a little caterpillar plush toy.

the birdy closeup:



the mobile:
awww. i love it. i'll take a pic of the kitty and post it later too.

we still don't have a name--i plan to have a decision on that over the weekend if not sooner. i need to think of her with a name as the last trimester approaches swiftly...

oh and i experimented with 'birth art' because i'm reading this awesome book (birthing from within) and the author is all gung-ho about birth art... i drew a big picture of "labor" and learned a few things about myself after analyzing it. the book rocks, so i look forward to more creative outlets and new ways of thinking about birth and pregnancy. woot.