girlfiend

Twice this week I’ve cheered out loud after managing to get a piece of newspaper or junkmail under the cat just in time to catch the vomit.

The Fiendling’s cast came off this afternoon. The sawing was traumatic for him, as were the subsequent x-rays, but it’s off and he’s healed and ready to go. He took off walking almost immediately with a slight limp, but I think I’d be limping too if my leg had been immobilized for the past three weeks.

My jalapeños are still growing like crazy and the zucchini’s beginning to flower. The bean seeds I planted sprouted and only one’s been eaten by a squirrel so far. Since this post is about yeses I’m sort of reticent to mention that I think the eggplants may be goners thanks to the stupid aphids, but time will tell.

I finished a sleeve on the sweater I started for months and months ago. It looks like shit close up, but I finally got the hang of knitting in the round with double pointed needles so hopefully the second sleeve will look better.

I need book recommendations. Fiction or non-fiction that reads like fiction. Any suggestions? Take a look at my 50 Books page to see what I’ve been reading.

For those of you who dust, do you dust with a product or just a dust cloth or duster of some sort? I’ve always just used a cloth or duster but I find myself writing my initials or obscene drawings in the dust of one particular piece of furniture on what seems like a daily basis and I’m wondering if there’s some product that would possibly repel dust. Is this just a dream? What, if anything, does Pledge do? I have Pledge wipes, but I don’t think I’ve noticed that they do anything other than make surfaces slightly shiny while they dust. Am I missing something?

For those of you who knit, does knitting in the round with dpns ever stop sucking? Because I suck at it. I’ve been knitting a sweater since Christmas and I finally got to the sleeves and I thought for sure I could make them work with circulars but then, after I somehow managed to pick up the required number of stitches I got 4 or 5 rounds in and realized I was fooling myself and ripped it all out. When I attempted to start again I couldn’t for the life of me get all 52 stitches on the needles. I got stuck somewhere around 40 twice, and Madgirl, who deserves a medal for her attempt, also only got somewhere around 40. As I watched Madgirl counting and picking up stitches I reread the pattern and saw that it called for dpns to begin with. How I missed that, and how the woman in the yarn store who helped me figure out which size circulars to use missed that, I do not know. So I started and knit a round and realized I was knitting on the wrong side. I unknit the beginning of that round and was so flustered that when I began the round again I forgot to increase and was still 12 stitches short. I managed to increase and knit a few rounds successfully and after I thought I had it together I somehow screwed up and found myself knitting on 2 instead of 3 needles. Or is it 3 instead of 4? I have stitches on 3 and I’m knitting with 1, so how do you describe it? Obviously I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.

Baby sweater

Thursday night, with two days to spare until the shower, I managed to finish the sweater for my future niece or nephew. It’s adorable. Just as cute as the Fiendling’s sweater only it’s probably not as cute in the picture because a handsome baby’s not wearing it.

When I sewed it together I realized that I’d accidentally ironed one side so that it was close to an inch longer than the other side. I nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to iron the other side and the back to match. I also managed to fuck up the decreases on one of the sleeves, but I think I was pretty much able to compensate for that when I sewed it together.

Anyway, the baby’s due right around Christmas. They think they’re having a girl based on the lack of genitalia visible in the ultrasounds. Boyfiend is convinced it’s a boy, which is nothing but wishful thinking on his part. Girl or boy, I certainly hope the baby’s cute, because our Fiendling has really set the standard for cute babies in the family. I am such an obnoxious mom.

An obnoxious mom who’s sore and cranky. Last night, for what seemed like the kajillionth night in a row, I slept with the Fiendling draped across my stomach. He went to bed early for him, around nine (phc- you may have been right about the clock change) but awoke an hour later and went back down in his crib after a good cuddle, awoke an hour after that and nursed back to sleep, then woke 45 minutes after that screaming his little heart out so I gave up and brought him into bed with me so I wouldn’t have to get up to get him every hour.

He sleeps like shit when he’s in bed with us, waking up constantly and he’s been sleeping like shit in his crib- up too often  for me to go and get him all night,so it’s a no-win situation. The absolute worst thing about this is that he used to be a good sleeper. Starting at six weeks old he’d sleep five hours straight. This seems like it’s been the longest stretch of not staying asleep. Even in the beginning of the month, after similar sleep patterns to what’s happening now, when I experimented with 15-20 minutes of CIO he’d fall asleep and stay that way for at least five to seven hours. But lately when I let him cry for a bit he just gets more and more upset. Rather than fussing himself to sleep he’s fussing himself awake. When I peek in he’s on his knees, clutching the bars of the crib, tears streaming down his face, and the screams are heartbreaking.  As soon as I pick him up he slumps against me and sleeps. But once he’s down he’s up 45 minutes to an hour later.

I know he’s not hungry because half the time when he wakes I automatically offer him the breast because I’m asleep and it’s easy, only he’s totally disinterested and just wants to be held. It could be the teeth- the third popped through and now one of his top teeth is visible, yet not through yet, but he’s not actually showing signs of discomfort the way he did with the first two. And the one night I gave him tylenol just to see if it would help it didn’t and I felt bad for needlessly drugging my baby. Maybe he’s working on trying to stand and walk and that’s keeping him up? He pulls himself up pretty well, but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere near walking yet, so perhaps that’s keeping him up?

I don’t know. All I know is that he sleeps on top of me and he has been every night for weeks and my whole body hurts from sleeping like that. But I finished the sweater. And it looks great. And I picked up a new pattern and yarn for the next project. It’s a bear cub cardigan with a hoodie. Cute as can be. I’m knitting it in a size 3/4 so you’ll get to see it some time in the next year or two.

Despite the fact that I’d forgotten how to knit seams with double pointed needles and pick up stitches, last night, with the help of Doodlebug (and Mix who counted for me) I managed to knit both shoulder seams of the new sweater and pick up the 54 stitches needed to knit the first sleeve. It took several frustrating tries, but I have about an inch of sleeve. Which is wonderful, because the shower is on Saturday, and while I  know I’m not required to have the sweater for the shower, as we did buy them a few other gifts, I’d really like to give it to her then. In fact, since it’s gloomy and cold out today I should invite myself and the Fiendling over to my mother-in-law’s house to “help” and let her play with him while I get some knitting done.

It’s kind of nice to be knitting something interesting again, especially after all of the compliments on the Fiendling’s sweater. Maybe when I finish this sweater for my future niece or nephew I’ll start another sweater using a new pattern and mutter and curse about how much I hate knitting for the entirety of that project.

So that 365 Day Flickr thing? I think I might be done with it. I’ve actually managed to take a self-portrait every day, but the truth is that I don’t really have the time or inclination to make them interesting. It doesn’t help that I’m lame and wear the same three things every day. Every hand held  shot looks just like the rest. Honestly, my pictures are downright boring, especially compared to Mac  and I know it’s an unfair comparison because she’s such a good photographer and all I photograph are babies, flowers and blurry shots of me in the mirror, but I feel dopey actually submitting my pictures to the pool.  I dunno. Maybe I’ll keep it up for a while just because it’s a project and I like finishing things.

About a year ago I took a baby sweater class at The Tangled Web to knit a sweater for my Fiendling. Not knowing his sex, I chose what I considered a nice, neutral color that wasn’t too, well… babyish. I was sick of the pale yellows and greens that so often accompany new babies.

When she saw the sweater in its nearly complete form, my mother immediately made me feel bad by expressing her disdain for the color. “Couldn’t you have chosen something more cheerful,” she asked. Huh. Well it was too late, and I hadn’t and the sweater was almost done. So I finished it. Sort of. I never got around to actually weaving in any of the ends until recently and I never sewed on any buttons.

Now it’s fall and it’s cool and I’m knitting the same sweater in a different color for my brother-in-law’s baby-to-be. It’s going pretty quickly and I’m making far fewer mistakes than I made the first time I attempted the pattern and I’m pretty pleased with myself so far. So pleased that I decided enough was enough and it was time to sew the buttons on my Fiendling’s sweater. He’s worn it the past two days and I love it, even though it’s not a cheerful color.

He seems to like wearing it too.