Sound of Music



Ok, I have been a serious slacker since pregnancy and new baby. I have 3 children who are taking Suzuki violin lessons from a wonderful teacher at the homeschool co-op. I have been learning along with them (kinda, sorta). Thankfully, I have a musical background in my favor, so that has sure helped.

Today, I spent probably 30 minutes with our 6-and 8-yr olds teaching them a little theory: quarter notes and eighth notes. They learned it very well and quite easily. My goal is to get everybody singing and playing instruments. Now my 16-yr old wants an acoustic guitar (in addition to his classical guitar) and has expressed interest in singing vocal parts. We WILL do this. It has always been my dream to be like the VonTrapp Family Singers. Off with the TV. We WILL do this!

Whoa - I just had my son check out his vocal range. He's a baritone. That means my 11-yr old sing soprano, my 19-yr old and I can sing either tenor or alto, and my son is baritone. (The other little munchkins would be soprano/alto at this point). We have all 4-parts covered- woo-hoo! Agenda tomorrow: get/order 4-part vocal music! We've been singing rounds as a family for years, so it won't be too much of a stretch to sing 4-part. Why have I waited so long for this?

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Sweetness



This is the kind of thing I love to see going on.

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Baby Vest



I'm just about finished with the back side of the vest. The pattern is quite easy to memorize and it is coming along pretty quickly (if I can just find the time to knit!). Spring fever has hit, so unfortunately, the vest has not been top priority this week. I should have taken the picture during the day - the lighting is yucky.

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Nekkid Baby


Today I had fun with my camera and baby after he had a bath. What you don't see is that he peed on the sheet twice - lol. He's 9-1/2 wks old now.



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Baby Shower













I just received pics back from the baby shower my friends gave me. I love how my friends welcome every child to the world, not just the first baby. We were spoiled!

In the picture below, Pearly is behind me and Birdie is the other redhead on the left.

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Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a chick chick . . .


Saw these cute little chicks at a friend's house today while I was taking photographs for her son's senior pictures. Aren't they adorable?

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Kids Return Safely!

The older 2 kids had a great trip to Honduras. They were able to help at an orphanage several times, have health clinics to educate the people on hygiene, help a single mom of 5 boys, etc. Our dentist donated cases of toothpaste/toothbrushes for the cause. What a great experience it was for them.


Welcome home hug from Papa.


Of course they both couldn't wait to kiss little Polliwog.

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Big Weekend

This weekend was pretty busy. The two older kids were spending their last day on a mission's trip to Honduras, so we wanted to have a little special time with the 5 younger kids. So we on Friday, we took the younger kids bowling. This is probably the 2nd time they had gone bowling in their life.

Bunny trying to find his bowling ball - lol.


Once, Bunny (3-yr old) got up to bowl without Papa's help. He threw the ball, but instead of going into our lane, it veered off into our neighbor's lane just as our neighbor was about to release his ball. We all laughed hysterically. Thankfully, our neighbors did, too. It must not have blown our neighbor's concentration too badly as his next roll was a strike :)


Dh helping Bunny bowl.

It didn't matter whether he got several pins down or zero pins down, he always had a huge smile on his face. He did manage to get 2 spares!

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Spring

It's so nice when we get a dry spell after seemingly weeks of rain. How fun to be able to enjoy God's creation. Pearly made this daisy wreath:

And the kids played with this snail (he was only about 1/2 inch).



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Guinataan

We used to live in the Philippines over 15 yrs ago, and one time, I stopped to see what a street vendor was selling. I usually was not too adventuresome when it came to trying ethnic cuisines - especially if I didn't know what it was, but for some reason, I did this once.

Looking in the big pot, I thought it must be fish eyes or something equally as bizarre. But it turned out to be little balls made out of sweet rice flour, marble tapioca, plantains, etc, cooked in a coconut milk sauce/pudding. It smelled so wonderful, I gave it a try. I was seriously hooked. Ever since living there, I have tried to find this recipe, but I only knew what the locals called it which I later figured out was not the same name that most Filipinos called it.

Yesterday, I met with some Americans who live in the Philippines and I described it in great detail and found the correct name: Guinataan.

Hello Google - here it is - a picture and all. This is definitely on my to-do list: Guinataan

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The Littlest Redhead



3-1/2 yrs old

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Sirdar Vest


My latest project is Sirdar Pattern 3155. Suggested yarn is Snuggly DK, but since this will be a summer vest for my baby, I have chosen a cool cotton by Elsebeth Lavold - Cotton Patine 100% cotton in the Honey colorway. It's knitting about 22 stitches over 4 inches on 4.0 mm needles. I really like the way this cotton knits up. I love the earth-tone color instead of cutesy light-blue.

I noticed when shopping for infant boy clothes that 90% of the clothes are in light blue color scheme. How predictable and boring is that when there are so many other colors from which to choose?


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Four babies later . . .

I knit this sweater for our 3rd baby when I was pregnant 12 years ago. The sweater is still in great shape. Unfortunately, this baby is tooooooo big. This is the first time I've put him in it and it is too short. It could use an extra 2 inches in the torso, although the sleeves are fine. I loved this yarn - it's a 3-ply with purple/navy/teal.

Oh, and see that dimple in his cheek? I put my order in early for that!

Here's the breakdown:
Mama's eyes
Papa's nose
Mama's mouth
Papa's hair
Mama's chin
Papa's dimples
Mama's forehead
Papa's legs
Mama's hands


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Squeeze Your Tushy


Mama trying to lose the baby flab and boys joining me as I do Winsor Pilates. They love to mimic the phrases they hear: "squeeze your tushy", etc. Doing the "roll-up" is dangerous as we roll over each other. The 8-yr old never fails to bark like a seal when we clap our heels together at the end. I'm lucky if I can finish the program from laughing so hard! (Can you see baby on the couch?)

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My Baby's Daddy



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What is going on with Blogger?!


What is with Blogger? Has anyone had a picture that refused to go the right direction? In my files, this picture is a horizontal picture. Why is Blogger making it vertical? WEIRD!!!

Anyway, there's Pollywog wearing booties and hat. I actually have some unfinished booties that match the hat that need to be finished. Trying to get the stripes to match on the booties was too difficult and I gave up. I'm just going to finish them and be done with it.

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Learning Experience

Today I think I would rather focus on successful accomplishments, like these cute little booties. I'm pretty sure these were made 3 babies ago. They are 100% cotton and the pattern is the infamous Stay-On Baby booties pattern that has been around since at least the Civil War era.

What I don't want to talk about is the little yellow sweater, but I will. Turns out when calculating the number of buttonholes, I forgot to account for the buttonhole in the neckline ribbing. I bought 6 yellow buttons, but need 7 - there were no more on the shelf. So do I rip out the buttonhole band and reknit for 6 buttons or go to the store and get 7 new buttons? There's no real rush since it doesn't fit my big baby. It will be a gift for another lucky baby (a "normal-sized" baby). So, in the meantime, I will reflect on this as a learning experience and will try to remember to account for ALL buttonholes next time. ho hum

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Nothing Sweeter Than This


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Stumbling Block


I hit a stumbling block with the little yellow sweater. First of all, it may not fit my little guy very well around the chest because he is so big!! That's not the pattern's problem. Dh says it's okay if the stitches stretch a little. I wish it had an inch of give, but oh well. Secondly, I am not pleased by the looks of the buttonband and buttonholes. The white yarn appears to be bigger than the yellow overall, so I think I am going to rip out the buttonbands and re-knit using smaller needles. I will also try to make the buttonholes a bit tighter (notice how the buttonhole side is bigger than the other side). This was the first time making one-row buttonholes from Nancy Wiseman's book, The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques. It took a few minutes of uninterrupted time to figure it out, but now it makes sense. What I don't understand is why the ribbing on the bottom looks fine, but the ribbing on the buttonbands seem to be bigger. Oh well. It shouldn't take too long since this is such a small sweater.

This project is good for me, though. I now know how to pick up stitches evenly for buttonbands. Before, I would just pick up stitches wherever it looked good, but Nancy's book makes it very clear and easy. It looks so much more professional when doing things the right way! I did not understand the formula she used for buttonhole placement. I need my engineer husband to walk with me through the steps. This is not the first time I have struggled with directions. Usually when I read them aloud to him, I end up figuring it out without his input. Is anyone else like this? LOL

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On the Floor Beside Me

The house is fairly quiet. Dh has taken two children to AWANA games, two older kids are in Central America on missions trip, baby is making little noises from his bassinet, and I am taking a break from sorting through boxes and boxes of clothes. After reading a couple message boards and checking e-mail, I looked down on the floor beside me to see this:Two brothers with two puppy dogs snuggling together

Well, by the time I uploaded this photo, they were already running back and forth down the hallway upstairs above me. So much for peace. I don't think boys understand the concept of peace and quiet.

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You Make Me Smile


First captured smile.

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Food Not Meant for Consumption?

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I was posting about the waste in our country on another message board and mentioned my previous dumpster-diving escapades. All of this food - actually, this is only a small portion, was dumped because their fridge went out (picture was taken 5-1/2 yrs ago). The food was all very cold when we came upon it. I was able to stock my freezer along with freezers of at least 5 other friends. (My cheese lasted over 2 yrs!)

They couldn't give it away to food shelters because the fridge had gone out. It would have filled the landfills had we not "rescued it". This goes on all the time around our country!

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Just Ducky



Here's the back of the new baby sweater using the RAK yarn mentioned in the previous post. The back and sleeves are done. I had both front pieces finished, but then realized I did not add the correct amount of stitches. Not sure how the cardigan will look with dropped shoulder seams, but I'm still going to go for it. Making this into a cardigan also means I have to figure out how to space the buttonholes - oh boy.

And to top that off, there is a baby shower for my little guy on Sunday and I'd love for him to be able to wear it with this little outfit, so the race is on. I also have little ducky slipper/shoes that someone gave me 3 yrs ago with my then newborn that match this outfit. How ducky can you get?


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On the Needles


Despite the lack of knitting posts, I have actually been knitting since the birth of PJ. I am using this Sirdar 3180 pattern, but will revise it to make a cardigan with contrasting ribbing instead. A fellow knitter gave me a RAK of this yarn (handpainted yarn Colonia 140, colorway Polen, but I wasn't sure if it would be enough for an infant sweater, so I added Koala in white for the ribbing and it looks great together so far (back and one front piece is done). I will post pictures of the work in progress soon.

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Toothless Grin


There is something precious about children when they lose their first teeth and right before the new permanent teeth come in all the way. It's almost as if you are getting one last chance to savor the idea of having a young child before they take on the new mature look when their new big teeth fully arrive. This little guy is growing up - it's bittersweet. But at least I have captured this moment because tomorrow it will be gone!

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Two and one-half weeks old


I'm in love.

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He's Too Big!!



Our little "runt" is in desperate need of some booties, so I started making a pair. The instructions say to use Size 1 needles, so because I know my baby is not "normal" sized, I used Size 3. They were still too small. I guess I'll finish the pair to give to someone else and start another pair using Size 5 needles!

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Twelve Days Old

PJ is twelve days old and has finally lost most of the bruising by his cheeks and eyes from the rough delivery. There's still a bit of red in the whites of his eyes, but it has improved daily. He's nursing like a champ and gaining about 2.5 oz per day and surpassed his birth weight within 1 week of birth. I couldn't be happier.




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PJ Wearing Infant Hat

PJ wearing an infant hat I knit several months ago. I still need to finish the booties - better get to that quickly before he outgrows them! The pattern was a free pattern from my LYS.


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More pics


















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ANNOUNCING . . . .



PJ
Born 8:13 p.m. on Friday, February 3, 2006
13 pounds 3 ounces, 24 in. long (no typo!!!!)
Born at home in birthing tub after 2-hour fast and furious labor.


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