Hmmmm...

I keep thinking of snippets of things that I could post, but nothing really seems to be worthy of a whole post. I need to get over that and write what I'm thinking, even if it is only a few sentences. (I should probably realize that being brief isn't a problem...)

Highlights from the last 10 days:

1 - Heather's favorite phrase is absolutely "by myself". She would do EVERYTHING by herself if she could and we usually give her a chance to try whenever time allows. She can (generally) put on her coat, put on her shoes, get out a bib and put it on, eat a banana or orange and climb onto the coffee table. 8-|

Most of these efforts usually involve a little assistance (starting the banana peel, starting the zipper, etc) and some are not ideal activities, but life with a two-year old seems to involve finding the right balance between letting her have some freedom (walking on the inside of the sidewalk without holding our hand) and providing boundaries (not letting her walk on the curb along the street). No doubt it is entertaining and exhausting, especially when you're 7 months pregnant.

2 - Some actual, visible progress has been achieved on my office. The closet is as empty as its going to get, some shelves are empty, one doll house has vacated the room and there is less stuff. A whole trash bag has been filled, as well as a number of recycling bags and a box for donation. The beginning of Saturday was spent cleaning our room and dressing room, since I knew some of my stuff was headed for those rooms and they both really needed a good cleaning. My office/the baby's room will need a really good cleaning when the organizing process is done, but for now I'm just cleaning things as I encounter them or remove them to other parts of the house. I don't see much point in trying to dust and mop the whole room when there is still "stuff" sitting all over.

If anyone has any great tips for storing a fabric stash, displaying old toys, washing musty doll clothes or otherwise dealing with "stuff" from the past I'm all ears. I think I'm doing well at letting go of a lot and "giving up" on projects that haven't gotten done in 5 years of having the materials, but I'm too sentimental to chuck it all. :-)

3 - Knitting update:

Heather's sweater is done. I found great buttons and it washed beautifully. I think it could have been a little longer, considering how much extra width there is, but it definitely has a lot of room to grow for the fall. She wore it all day Saturday without complaint and remembered that mommy made it all but one time. (I admit, it can be hard to remember which sweater's were made by mommy and which ones were made by nana...even daddy forgets. ;-)

On a whim, I made a granny square on Wednesday night. A ravelry friend had a few really pretty crocheted squares in her favorites, and the patterns were free, and I have leftover yarn from Samus. So I made one while we watched LOST and some other TV. I'm pondering a baby blanket, although the wool for Samus isn't machine washable and the one I made is probably too "open" for a baby blanket. The idea of using the pattern with sock yarn and a smaller hook is stewing in my head. But I really should make my future son a coming home hat first since Heather had one of those. It's only fair!

The cardigan and vest I mentioned in my last post are both progressing. I've finished the back of the cardigan and 2/3rds of the left front. I have to wind more yarn before I can continue. I've started the waist decreases on the vest. It is 200ish stitches around, so I only get about an inch or so knit in a day of bus commuting. Even though it will require more finishing later, the cardigan feels faster since I can finish whole pieces in a few days.

4 - I'll be 32 weeks pregnant on Wednesday.

Seriously?!?! I guess we're in okay shape. There are some things that we still need, but if push came to shove buying some diapers and setting up the bassinet, pack'n'play and infant car seat are the only things that *have* to be done before baby comes home. The rest are things that we could improvise around or get before too long. Food, diapers, clothes, a car seat and a place to sleep are really the basic necessities.

We did meet with a doula this weekend, and I have vague notions of what I'd like to purchase before the furniture is delivered, but we are so incredibly laid back this time it is a little scary. :-) Oh, and choosing a name would probably be a good idea, too...

5 - Congrats to blogless Jen on the birth of her son William this morning! I suppose his arrival just pushes the rest of us closer to our turn in the queue!

Knitting Update

For those curious, last weekend at the cabin was fabulous. The weather was sunny and mild (not that I left the cabin property all weekend, but I did go outside a few times), the friendship and laughs were wonderful and I look forward to doing the whole thing again. Yes, it was even worth a day of illness after I got home - especially since I got off relatively easy on that front.

Yarn related accomplishments from the weekend:
- I finally mended my winter gloves which had developed two small holes.

- I seamed up Samus and knit an i-cord edge all the way around. It still needs a semi-aggressive blocking and a zipper, but I can't install the zipper until I can put it on my post-partum body. So I will be packing it away until this fall.

- I swatched two of the yarns I bought at the Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival for future upcoming projects.

- I organized the completed blocks of my Babette blanket and wove in some of the ends.

- I knit the majority of a new sweater for Heather. I had about 3 inches of yoke done when I was picked up Friday morning and when I came home on Sunday I had about 15 rows left to finish the second sleeve. I finished that and the button band this week, so all that remains is to weave in ends, find buttons and block it. Pictures soon.

Given my recent progress, I think I'm doing pretty well on my 2009 NaKnitSweMoDo goals

"1 - I will focus my 2009 knitting energy on 12 sweaters, tops and vests."

I've got 3 items completed or nearly completed - Amelia, Heather's yoke sweater and Samus (ravelry links) - which I think is pretty good for mid-March. I've made some Babette progress, too, which I'm willing to count as one of the 12 if I can reconnect with it and finish.

I realize that my knitting mojo is going to take a nosedive in two months, but I'm trying to take advantage of it while its still going strong!

The two swatches I made over the weekend will inform my next two projects - a cardigan and a vest. I admit to being a little more excited about the cardigan since I'll at least be able to try that on for length. The vest is a little more daunting since the only thing I'll be able to do in the short term is hold it up to other things that fit pre-pregnancy. And also, I can't find a pattern that is quite what I want, so a lot of it is going to have to be worked out as I go along using a published pattern as a (very) rough guide.

The View

We were here. :-)

No cell service at the cabin.

Dreams

As a parent of a baby and later a toddler, you spend a lot of time wondering what is going on in their heads. Do they dream? Do they understand the question? What train of thought led them to remember someone they saw a few weeks ago? What is the obsession with ravioli? :-)

Well, I think one question has been answered for us. There is no doubt in my mind as of this morning that Heather dreams.

Last night about 1am she started whining and calling out for "mommy". We waited, and after about 60 seconds she was quiet again. It is moments like those that you wonder if she was awake and upset, and managed to settle herself down again or if it was just a dream.

At 6:40am, while I was between alarm snoozes and trying to wake myself up, she began calling for "my kangaroo, my kangaroo, my kangaroo"... Considering that she doesn't have a kangaroo in her crib or any toy kangaroo anywhere in the house, I'm pretty confident that she was dreaming. :-)

Pronouns

Heather seems to have figured them out this week. Certainly, as a 2 year old, her sentence structure isn't perfect (and it's pretty cute when its not!), but we noticed this week that she's starting to replace names with pronouns. Many uses of Heather have been replaced with me, my and I. And many uses of mommy and daddy have been replaced with you and your. It's pretty amazing how suddenly it has "clicked".

As I think I've mentioned, she's been speaking in longer sentences for a few months now. We've loved listening to her progress and she really is communicating well. But a few weeks ago R and I realized that we were spending a lot of time artificially speaking in the third person. I would say "Mommy is getting milk for Heather" instead of "I am getting milk for you", etc. I think we were initially doing it to make sure that she knew her name and our names, as well as a way of making ourselves very clear. When there are multiple people in the room, pronouns can be confusing, even for adults. :-)

So we've gradually been changing the way we speak. I don't know if her speech change is a result or a coincidence, but either way it is very cute.

Overall, except for occassional bouts of toddler stubborn-ness, she's not making me feel *too* worried about having 2 kids under 3. I know that its going to be exhausting no matter what, but she's not giving me that "I can barely handle one, what are we going to do with TWO" kind of feeling that I had back when we first talked about having another. I'm sure in two weeks she'll go through a phase that makes me want to pull out my hair. But at the moment *knock on wood* she's an extremely pleasant child who's only tiring request is the need to be rocked before bed.

More later about Franklin and fun with my friends!