Pearl has been working on her quilt again. I stopped helping her at the end of my pregnancy because it was hard on my back to be leaning over to cut strips. She's on a roll and hopes to get the borders done this weekend. Here are shots before and after adding the lattice strips between the blocks.
I don't know what it is about me, but I find this pouty-face look absolutely adorable. The other day, I was singing lullabies to my sweet baby and he started to stick his bottom lip out, got tears in his eyes, and was about to start crying. I stopped singing and then he was back to his old self again. When I started singing again, out came the lower lip again and he did eventually start crying. It was so funny - what a mean Mommie I am, laughing at her poor baby crying. Maybe I should be crying that he was crying about my singing. As a life-long singer, I'm trying not to take it personally ;)
Just yesterday, Pearly confided in me that she faked a cry to see if he could be coerced into pouting. He performed well. I guess it runs in the family :)
It's been busy around here. With spring upon us, we've been busy in the yard, cleaning, etc. Also, trying to do a little working out myself. I joined a gym and have been working out with a friend for about 2 wks now and have lost about 5 pounds. Still have a ways to go, but progress is good.
Lots of schooling going on now that baby is developing sort of a sleeping/waking/eating schedule on his own. Here's my 11-yr old's science project. She's doing the botany book put out by the folks at Apologia. Thankfully, the book explains everything so my daughter can do it independently. She's got seeds trying to germinate in all sorts of places (dark place, fridge, etc). Here are some seeds germinating on the window. You can see her chart where she marks growth. Cool stuff.
PS - I have no idea why the above is underlined and a hyperlink. I cannot figure out how to remove the underline on Blogger. So there you go.
This is the part about homeschooling I like - everything is a learning project. I came from a family who did not eat seafood - except for tuna. My mom's idea of baking fish was opening a can of tomato sauce and pouring on top of the fish and baking (remember, Mom? - lol). Sorry, but it wasn't too good. I had no clue how to deal with the clams and so I assigned 16-yr old son to make clam chowder. I referred him to The Joy of Cooking as his guide and made last night's dinner for us. Now he knows the full process: how to catch clams, how to clean them, and how to cook/eat them. Oh, and he enjoyed the process. He agreed that it was good for him to learn how to make it and mentioned that his future wife might be happy to have a husband who can cook at least a little bit.
Okay, put an "X" in the skills-you-want-your-children-to-learn box. What's next?
Today, dh and our eldest 2 boys went to the coast to go crabbing and clamming with a friend. This was the first time. They came back with loads of clams/crabs and had a blast.
What goes on in the mind of an 11-1/2 yr old girl? Do you remember? I remember playing in the field with neighbor kids. We would help each other do our chores in order to have more time to play. I liked to read, sing, and play the piano.
Pearly takes after me in a lot of ways. She loves her music: piano, violin, flute, and singing. She loves to read. Today she was reading a good book laying in the hammock in the backyard. She sews, cooks, loves to play four-square with her brothers. Life is sweet at 11-1/2 yrs old.
Some of our children are in AWANA - a Bible club for kids. Yesterday, there was a cake competition at AWANA. The cakes needed to be made by dads and kids only with no help from moms. We had a bunch of overripe bananas, so dh thought banana cake would be good. He picked out a recipe from The Joy of Cooking and went to town - no Betty Crocker box for my dh. Both Pearly Girl (11-yr) Orange Boy (8 yr) made theirs separately from scratch. Because dh got home late it was put in the oven around 10:45 p.m. While the cake was baking, I played Yahtzee with the kids (a cool math game, but the kids don't realize I play it so they will practice their math). So yeah, the kids were doing math and science projects at 11 pm, what can I say? We homeschool - we get to make our own schedules, so I just let the children sleep in the following morning. The following day, when dh got home from work, they quickly had to decorate the cakes. He had stopped by the store to pick up cake decorating supplies. Orange Boy was really into the decorating part. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a decent picture of Pearly's cake. She wrote 2 Tim 2:15 and drew a Bible. Orange Boy wrote Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed - the AWANA motto. The competition was stiff and was judged on creativity and taste. Orange Boy wanted his judged by creativity and Pearly wanted hers to be judged in taste. Unfortunately, Orange Boy did not win. Pearly Girl, however, won first place for taste. She won 3 coupons for Baskin Robbins, so she decided to take Papa and Orange Boy with her.
Thankfully, I have learned to not take my knitting too seriously, or I think it might be upsetting. Here are the things I am happy about: I love the yarn - LOVE it! I love the contrasting ribbing and buttonbands, love the yellow buttons on the white buttonbands. However, knitting is just like life - in order to succeed you need to learn from your mistakes. Here's what I learned not to do next time around:
Lesson 1 - When calculating buttonhole placement, don't forget to account for neckline ribbing. I figured it would need 6 buttons including neckline, but when calculating the placement, I forgot to include the neckline in the total figure, so instead, ended up with 7 buttonholes. This sent me in a button frenzy because I only had 6 buttons and bought the last of them at the store. Thankfully, my friend was able to find some at another store. After all this was said and done, I think 7 buttons were too many. Six would have been much better spacing - maybe even 5 would have done nicely. Oh well!
Lesson 2 - Do not expect 13 lb 3 oz newborn baby to fit in Size 6 months sweater. That said, dh's office just gave me a belated gift for baby - a gift certificate at a LYS - how cool is that?! Woohoo!! Maybe I'll make another one, but this time, hopefully one that will fit PLUS some growing room.
Sunday, my parents came over to celebrate my mom's and son's birthdays. We went went bowling again and had a blast!! Our 3-yr old son beat most of his older siblings. Okay, well, the 3-yr old brother did use the bumpers to his advantage. But what fun we had! I love this picture of my mom and son.
Oh, and see my son's dimple? I put my order in early for that.
Last week, my daughter invited her Moroccan friend from her college Spanish class to come over for dinner. He had come over a few weeks earlier, and this time wanted to reciprocate by bringing us a Moroccan meal. We weren't quite sure what to expect and couldn't wait to try something new. The kids did a great job trying the new foods.
Oh, her friend also brought another friend. You see, this wasn't just about a meal, it was about the conversation that was to be discussed after dinner. These guys are Muslim and are trying to convert our daughter (and perhaps our family). Our daughter is Christian and my husband, daughter, and her friends have been having friendly, yet lively debates comparing the two religions. It has been fascinating. I have really appreciated the mutual respect both have shown each other.
Back to the dinner: we had couscous with beautifully seasoned roast and stewed vegetables (carrots, zucchini, turnip?, chickpeas, onion, etc). We were expecting something more spicy. Maybe they were being gracious not knowing that we like spicy. Who knows?
One interesting note: unbeknownst to us, our 6-yr old son was on the recliner in the living room when it was prayer time for our guests. They politely excused themselves and went into the living room to pray. One of our guests came back to the kitchen to ask which direction was north (Muslims must pray towards Mecca). A little while later, as they continued to pray, our son came out and asked what they were doing. It must have been pretty interesting for him to see them bowing down, praying, and chanting in Arabic.
Here's a bit of info about Islam I found on the net: The second pillar, devotional worship or prayer, requires Muslims to pray five times a day - the dawn prayer, the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer, and the evening prayer - while facing toward the Ka'bah, the House of God, in Mecca. Like all Islamic ceremonies, prayer is simple and personal, yet also communal, and the wording of the prayers, the ablutions which are required before prayers, the number of bows, and other parts of the ritual are set out in detail.
Please don't tell me this style of sweater with the saggy armpits is considered fashionable. I don't know if I can bear it. I just got an e-mail from Lion Brand regarding their new improved baby pattern sweaters. Is this improved?
"Your adorable baby will get even more attention in these easy-to-make sweaters."
Yeah, I'll bet they'll get more attention! But you won't catch my baby in a saggy armpit sweater.
I was going through my file cabinet and found a file with 8 rolls of undeveloped film (who thinks of film after converting to digital, anyway?). It was sure fun to see events I had long forgotten. I thought the film for these little bird pictures was lost forever. The mama bird abandoned her nest and while my little boys were playing outside by the trees, the little chicks landed on my son. My children put their fingers out and the birds landed on their fingers. We took pictures and then I told them we needed to leave them alone. In the back of my mind was the little book by Eastman, Are You My Mother? Poor little chickies.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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. 
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!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).
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
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?
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
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?)
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.
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
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
Two brothers with two puppy dogs snuggling together
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?
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.
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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