Zoo Playdate

Heather and I met up with Amanda & Eleni, Jen & Finn, Annie & Marcus & William, and Cara & Max & Andrew (whew!) at the zoo on Friday. I wish I had more vacation days to take for play dates, but I suppose we have to spend some vacation time with daddy, too. :-)

It was hot, but the breeze was nice and we all survived. Lots of water, lots of sunscreen and the knowledge that we moms could shower as soon as the kids went down for a nap.

Not too many pictures of Heather with the animals since this was my view most of the day.

We got there a little early and the carousel wasn't open yet, but we waited patiently.


Max wasn't really sure about this play date idea.

Hanging out by the lion den.


Checking out the fish


A rare photo of two toddlers standing still...for just a moment... (when did Finn get so big?)


Plotting her escape


EJ stands up just like the toddlers. :-)


It was an exhausting day

Heat

We don't have air-conditioning in our house. We need a few more ceiling fans and an attic exhaust fan, but we get by. We each have our own ways of coping.

Reading on the porch in the nice breeze



Hanging out by the pool with a cool beverage (covered in sunscreen, of course)



Sleeping in the sink?

Sunday biking

R took Heather on her first bike ride on Sunday before brunch. It was short, but long enough to tell that she liked it.


After her nap she pointed to her bike helmet again. So we slathered on more sunscreen for another ride.
She made it clear that she was ready for "more" bike riding and less picture taking!


(For those non-parents and non-signers out there - Heather is demonstrating the ASL sign for "more" above)

Anniversaries and $10

1 year ago this week, Heather started at daycare.

9 years ago yesterday, I started at my current job.

2 weeks from now is our 5 year anniversary in our house. No big party this year, sorry.

********************

At the neighborhood yard sale mentioned in my last post, I did very well. I walked around with only a little money in my pocket and was picky about what I was willing to get.

At the only yard I went to with Heather and R, we got a toy for Heather for $5.

On my own I spent $10 and had a pretty good haul. I could have gotten more, but limited myself with the money I had and with the fact that I traveled entirely on foot! (you might see a pattern here):

10 pairs of pants for Heather
1 pair of overalls for Heather
2 shirts for Heather
1 holiday dress for Heather
3 books for Heather
1 wooden stool for Heather
15 used acrylic paints for me (but hopefully to finish Heather's mural)
1 skein of gray wool for me
3 pictures frames for our somewhat empty walls

Toddlers in Public

This past weekend was very nice. Family is lovely, but after 4 weeks in a row of family visits (3 of those involving travel) it was really nice to have no plans and spend two days as just the three of us. R and Heather even got to start a day early since daycare was closed. They went to the Aviary, the pool and the playground. After a late nap, we went to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. We went too close to bedtime and had to leave in an expedited fashion when Heather was "done".

On Saturday, Heather set a new record for sleeping in late. I woke up before she did and was amazed that she wasn't up by the time I was out of the shower. She did go to bed a little late on Friday night, but it was still amazing how late in the morning it was when I woke her up... While R went for a haircut, Heather and I went to Natural Stitches (where we saw Anna) and Whole Foods. Despite sleeping in late, Heather was so ready for a nap when we got home that she only ate about 4 raspberries and a little bread before she was done with lunch. She took a nice long nap while R and I got some things done around the house. When she got up we headed to a nearby urban retail development where we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and did a little shopping at REI. (We would have done more, but some of what we wanted could only be gotten online.)

Sunday's only plans were to go get brunch at our usual place and explore the neighborhood yard sale. Heather only made it to one sale before it was nap time and mommy got some quality yard sale shopping time on her own!

The variety of restaurant and retail experiences this weekend were varied, but clearly tell me that taking Heather for these kinds of outings aren't as easy as they used to be. Yes, sometimes she can be distracted with crayons, a rocking chair or just the chance to walk away and pretend like we're chasing her. Truly, she is not a terror or especially difficult, but I also wouldn't say that it is easy to get shopping accomplished as a solo parent or to eat a leisurely meal as a family with her around. She is best when she is well-rested and well-fed (aren't we all?), but her mood can't always be predicted or easily calmed.

Anna can tell me whether I do a reasonable job keeping an eye on a toddler and trying to shop for yarn at the same time. On one hand it is freeing to be able to put her down since she is walking but on the other hand she isn't too shy to start pulling yarn off the shelves after 10 minutes in the store (once she stops staring at the "strangers" who work there). There are also the challenges of keeping an eye on her, letting her get out her pent up energy, letting her push the grocery cart without running people over, forcing her to sit in the grocery cart during check-out, and the difference between letting her move away from me in a little yarn shop versus a big store like REI.

I'm figuring it all out as we go. What are your parameters for parenting when you take your little one out? Balancing the desire to keep them calm and happy versus maintaining parental control versus the comfort of others around you versus their need to explore. :-)

Loving Ravelry

I think my current mental state is the most obsessed I've been about knitting since Heather was born.

I don't know if it is the recent success with the wrap sweater (Yes, I know, I owe you photos. It needs a bath first. Maybe this weekend.) or maybe it was my recent stash dive or my current obsession with listening to knitting podcasts during my commute. But I think a lot of it has to do with ravelry.

Last night I pulled out some hand-dyed wool/hemp yarn that I bought at the Wool Gathering 18 months ago. I swatched and once again found that I need to knit DK weight yarn on size 2 needles. (Yes, I am a loose knitter). I actually got okay fabric with the size 5's, but I generally prefer a tighter fabric in my sweaters for the structure. And every sweater I've ever made has stretched with wear, so I would rather the fabric start out a little tighter and have room to grow.

Anyway, I was able to plug my gauge and my yardage into ravelry and look up possible sweater patterns! I could even search in just the books and magazines that I own and search in free internet patterns. I love the fact that I no longer have to pull out every book and magazine I own or tab through knitty to find the right pattern! And along the way I found a few patterns for my queue that won't work for this yarn but that I want to come back to in the future.

I haven't settled on a pattern yet since I measured my gauge at 10:45 last night, but I don't think it will take me long to settle on something this evening after the peanut goes to bed.

I've also had a few knitting questions come up recently and a quick search of the ravelry forums uncovered just the answers that I was looking for. Nothing like instant gratification!

In other knitting news, I just have the ribbing left on the shrug, I've started my second fish for the fishy toy, I've learned the gender of one of my planned baby gift recipients and I have only one chin strap and sewing left to finish on the baby hat I started over the weekend. If there wasn't anything to do around the house I would probably have the urge to use every available moment to knit this weekend. :-) Darn laundry and vacuuming...

This week is sponsored by the letter...

B

Many, many of the words and sounds coming out of Heather's mouth for the past week have started with a "B" sound. For one day, everything was "baba". Yesterday and this morning, everything was "baby" (said with a southern drawl). A couple of days ago "bye-bye" was repeated over and over. And on Saturday we heard the word "bear" for the first time and then repeated all afternoon. (Also pronounced with a southern drawl.)

Other favorite B-words are "bah-yoon" (balloon), "bubbles", "ball" and just "ba" which seems to indicate any of the previous or can be just a general word of indication with a point.

She is also saying words that seems to be "mine", "nice" and "night night". (The last two being hard to distinguish from each other sometimes. Is the dolly "nice nice" or is the dolly going "night night"? Not clear.)

She also sometimes responds to Cock-a-doodle doo, with "doo doo" and will sometimes say "moo" when she sees a cow. And sometimes she makes a "shhh" sound when we see fish.

Words definitely seem to come and go. We haven't heard "woof" or guttural syllables similar to "doggy" for about a week, and she's been saying "hi" less and "bye bye" more. There are also words that we've heard once or twice that we haven't heard again (apple is the one that comes to mind, but there have been others).

She still doesn't really call us mommy and daddy, but she will point to us on command and clearly knows who we are. She also knows my parents as Grandma and Grandpa and doesn't yet know that there are multiple grandparents. When we referred to her great-grandparents over the weekend, she would look at or bring things to my parents. Not a problem, it is just interesting to see how that little brain works. And it makes sense since we see my parents more often.

Before it gets much longer, here is the current list of regular words and possible words:
Hi
Hello (into phones almost exclusively)
Bye-Bye
Ball
Balloon
Bubbles
Uh-oh
More
row
wow
whoa
Night night
bear
baby
nose
woof
moo
doggy?
kitty?
nice?
mine?
fish?

Social weekend - Saturday

Just some photos from the fun we had on Saturday with family. Heather thought that the stuffed bluejay was VERY thirsty. Interesting, because we've never seen her feed a stuffed animal before.


The weather was lovely and we spent all evening outside after dinner. Bubbles, balls and ring around the rosey were just some of the activities. Just sitting in the grass seemed to be a hit, too.












And the day ended with some yummy strawberry pie...

Social weekend - Friday

I took the day off on Friday to prepare for our trip to visit family over the weekend. Since we wanted to have a low key day at home and I wasn't going to get any packing done outside of Heather's nap, we decided to invite a friend over for a playdate.



This was our first one on one playdate with The Boss and we both had a lovely time. A snack, a trip to the playground and then a ladies lunch at our local coffee shop.

Heather's afternoon nap wasn't quite as long as I had hoped, but I manged to get most of the packing done and finished the rest while she toddled around the first floor. We headed outside to expend a little more energy before getting trapped in the car all evening and found a neighbor who was doing some planting. After some initial clinginess, Heather decided to 'help'.



After 90 minutes on the road we stopped for some dinner at Bob Evans. Heather ate so much and so quickly the other patrons might have thought that we have been starving her. Another favorite restaurant activity is playing with the straw instead of drinking the milk through it.

Numbers geek

The part of my brain that is good at math just likes to see the numbers sometimes...

The first set of percentiles are from the WHO charts, the second set is from the CDC charts and the third set is from an online calculator. I was just curious to see the difference based on a message board conversation I was part of the other day.

The way the numbers jump around point to my lack of trust in the length measurements, especially at the 9 month and 1 year appointments. Although I don't know that anyone could get an accurate measurement of a baby's length when they're being super squirmy!

It's interesting because I never got the impression until this past visit that Heather was anywhere near the 50th percentile for height, and yet it seems like she's spent more time close to the 50th than the 30th - unless you look at the online calculator. I also question the head circumference measurement at 9 months. I think that was the visit that we had a nurse in training...

When I plot her weight points on the CDC chart, I can clearly see the growth "slow down" predicted for breastfed babies as they get older. I'm sure I could do more with these numbers. But for now we'll just leave it as raw data. :-)

Birth
6 lb, 13 oz (3.1 kg) 35% 25% 27%
19.75" long (50.2 cm) 60% 60% 63%

1 month old
7 lb, 15 oz (3.6 kg) 15% 17.5% 6%
20.75" long (52.7 cm) 35% 40% 13%
13.8" HC (35 cm) 10% 8% 3%

2 months old
10 lb, 0 oz (4.5 kg) 15% 25% 14%
22 1/2" long (57.2 cm) 50% 55% 34%
14.6" HC (37 cm) 15% 10% 3%

4 months old
12 lb, 14 oz (5.8 kg) 20% 30% 22%
24" long (61 cm) 35% 45% 26%
15.7" HC (40 cm) 30% 25% 12%

6 months old
14 lb, 12 oz (6.7 kg) 25% 28% 18%
26" long (66 cm) 55% 60% 48%
16.3" HC (41.5 cm) 30% 20% 14%

9 months old
16 lb, 13 oz (7.6 kg) 25% 15% 12%
26 1/2" long (67.3 cm) 10% 20% 12%
16.5" HC (42 cm) 10% 8% 3%

1 year old
18 lb, 1 oz (8.2 kg) 25% 8% 6%
28" long (71.1 cm) 15% 20% 13%
17.3" HC (44 cm) 25% 20% 16%

15 months old
20 lb, 0 oz (9.1 kg) 30% 13% 8%
30.25" long (76.8 cm) 40% 45% 38%
17.7" HC (45 cm) 30% 25% 21%

Inspired by yarn

First, about Ivy. I finished it at 12:30am on Sunday, wore it to knitting on Sunday and I'm wearing it today, too. It still needs a final wash and block before I model it for photos, but I am VERY happy with it and enjoyed showing it off to my fellow knitters. I plan to keep wearing it until the weather gets too warm.

With Ivy finished, that only leaves me with three projects on the needles. The Melon scarf, which is kind of hibernating, but also kind of a long term "back-up" project. I don't always have time to plan and start a new project when I have a streak of finishitis, so the scarf ensures that I always have something that is easy to grab and could keep me busy on a long trip for work or for pleasure. I don't have specific plans for the scarf and the body is easy enough that I don't have to refer to the chart. I'm honestly mostly interested in it to do the lace edging and to have the finished project, the middle doesn't really sustain my attention. So I think it will be on the needles for a while unless I find a real push to work on it.

The second thing on the needles is the Reading in Bed shrug. I'm about 2/3rds of the way done based on the blocking I did this weekend and it is going pretty fast. I have the 8 row repeat memorized (even rows are purled across) and it is easy to toss in my bag. My motivation for finishing is that I think it would be nice to have for cool evenings this summer, but I don't have a particular deadline.

The third thing is a toddler sweater that will be a gift. It's going well and quickly. The body is done except for weaving in ends and I started the first sleeve on the bus this morning. A week of bus knitting should finish it off.

Since two of my three projects have a limited number of hours left on them and I foresee a good amount of knitting time this weekend, my goal last night was to plan and start a couple of new projects. I'm going to need at least 5 baby gifts this year and I'd love to start another big project for me and maybe something new for Heather for the fall. So after Heather went to bed I started browsing my books with baby and toddler patterns.

I found zero inspiration.

Sure, I saw projects that I want to make at some point. But nothing that I *need* to make right now. There are things in my ravelry queue, but nothing calling to me over anything else.

I think part of it is my stash. I know that there is yarn in there that I really want to use. And I know that I have enough that I don't *need* to buy any more right now. So I think a better strategy for my current state of mind is to "toss the stash" and find the yarn that is calling to me right now. And then I can swatch and find the pattern that works for the yarn I want to use. I could even bring a bunch of different skeins with me this weekend plus my Harmony options needles and spend the weekend swatching. Maybe. Then again, maybe not. My brain falls asleep just thinking about that idea. :-)

I guess if I can't figure out what else to make by the time I finish my WIPs, then I will just start making bibs and baby washcloths until inspiration hits!

Close

The process of sewing up Ivy has been a "two steps forward, one step back" sort of affair. Sewing up the sides was pretty straightforward. Check. I knitted around the collar and attached it to the back. Check. I tried it on and the collar bulged out like a circus collar. Oops. 2 tries later (rip, sew, rip, sew) and the collar lies well. Check. I set in the first sleeve and sew the sleeve seam. Check. I try it on and the sleeve is 3" too long. Oops.

(This is a prime example of why a swatch should be washed before you measure it and I take full responsibility for not washing my swatch before starting the sweater. I'll also tell you that there is a slight difference between the back, which was worked on metal needles because I was impatient and the fronts which were worked on wood needles. But you really have to look for the difference to see it and I don't notice it when I have it on.)

So I take my other sleeve and rip out the sleeve cap and top 3" of straight knitting. Then I reknit the sleeve cap and sew that sleeve into my sweater. It fits. Check. Do the same thing with the first sleeve, but I don't have to rip out the whole sleeve seam since I sewed it from the cuff up. Check.

(The sleeve caps look a little sloppy at the moment because I reused the yarn that was attached which was kinked from being knitted. If this doesn't block out I will be very sad.)

All that is left is to weave in my ends and attached the belts (which I think will need to be shorter). And then, of course, another round of washing and blocking.

I'm a little nervous that the sweater seems wide at the shoulders...but since it is a wrap sweater it seems like that shouldn't be an issue with a nice snug belt tightening. I also know that it was difficult to really see the sweater with Stewart attacking the loose ends while I was trying to put it on. So I'm reserving judgment for a little longer.

I *think* it's going to be a great sweater. It's just a question of how much more blocking and tweaking is required to get it there. I'm certainly not giving up on it. :-)

******************

I've only started one of the many needed baby presents and it isn't currently portable. So I've made a lot of progress on the lace shrug this past week on the bus. But now I'm nervous to knit much more until I block it and see what its real final dimensions will be. I'm using lace weight yarn and the miracle of blocking will determine how far along I am in this project. It will be my first time blocking lace while it is still on the needles. Should be interesting.

15 month check-up

Weight - 20 pounds, 10th percentile

Length - 30.25 ", 45th percentile! (she's been at 25 for the past year...!)

Head circumference - 45 cm

The doctor was impressed with how little she's been sick for an infant in daycare. No sign of an ear infection and I didn't give any answers to his questions that concerned him. He could hear her jabbering on when it was just the two of us in the room, but once he came in she stopped talking and just stared at him. Later the stare turned into a coy little half smile, but she didn't talk to him at all.

She was pulling her clothes and shoes off the chair as though she wanted to get dressed and get out of there. :-) I was glad that she wasn't the cranky pants that she was at her 12 month appointment. She walked around the room a bit, practiced opening and closing the straps on her shoes, and kept an eye on both of us while we chatted.

She was a little miffed about the physical exam, but cooperated pretty well and didn't cry. Today was just one shot and she only cried for about 30 seconds afterward.

A few Heather updates

Sitting in mom or dad's lap is only an acceptable activity if (1) Heather is being fed, (2) Heather is surrounded by strangers and feeling a little clingy for the first 10-15 minutes in some new situation, (3) Heather is asleep, (4) Heather is having lotion applied by daddy (she doesn't stay still as well for me, go figure), (5) Heather is being read to or (6) Heather is nursing. In any other circumstance there is really no reason for her to sit still.

We are pretty sure that Heather is saying "outside" (a-wa), "woof" (woo) when she sees a dog and she is saying "more" (mo) many times when she signs it. I think I heard her say "night" yesterday and "apple" over the weekend, but I couldn't get her to repeat them. Her babbling is diverse and continuous, so I really expect that one week she's going to double or triple her vocabulary.

We have a meeting next week about her move to the toddler room at daycare. We'll get to meet the teachers and hear about how they structure their day. Miss Laura has already confessed to R that she's going to miss Heather a lot. Awwww. Who can blame her?

We see bits of tantrums here and there when Heather doesn't get what she wants. But we are thankfully still in the stage where she is easily distractible and the fits are short lived. Don't know what we will do yet when little miss strong and stubborn can't be distracted.

Several times when we were out walking this weekend, Heather was holding R's hand. She stopped, turned to me and put out her other hand for me to hold. Awwwww. She also likes to "Row, row, row your boat" with each of us holding one of her hands.

*************

I've done the initial blocking of Ivy and started the sewing up! I hope to spend Sunday playing with Heather and knitting, so if I don't get to wear my new sweater on Mother's Day, I at least expect to have time to finish making it. :-)

Another week gone by

Busy, busy, busy.

Another business trip this week. This time an interview for a new
project. I'm honestly torn about whether I want to get it. It's a
fabulous chance for me to be the project architect on a job from day
one. But it will require regular travel and my plate is already very
full at work, and it will start before other things are done. I
certainly did everything I could to help in the interview and I think we
presented ourselves well. So it just depends on how comfortable they
felt with us and if they think we're the best fit for the job. We
should know one way or the other very soon.

The upside of the travel is that I'm almost done with the knitting on
the Ivy wrap cardigan. All that is left is to finish the second tie.
It's 52 inches long (8 stitches wide) and I think I'm about halfway done
with it. I did the first one yesterday in the car and on the plane.
Soon I will do the blocking and then the sewing. Woot!

I hope to start a few baby gifts this weekend to make sure I have good
bus knitting ready for the next few weeks.

My thoughts are bouncing all over the place, so I guess this isn't the
best time for a blog post. I'll try again in a few days. :-)

(Oh, and apologies for being a bad email coorespondent lately...I do
think about all of you. There just aren't enough hours in the day. And
when there is free time it is reserved for Heather first!)

Random

I need to write something or its just going to be that much harder to get back on the bandwagon. Besides, it seems like I think of multiple things a day to post and I just never get here...

1 - I keep thinking about upcoming "anniversaries" in May. Next week will be one year since I came back to work after maternity leave. Somehow that seems stranger than celebrating Heather's first birthday. And later in the month is the 4th Anniversary of when blogless-Erin taught me to knit. And the obsession continues. :-)

2 - I could do a whole post about Heather, but let's run through the big stuff before I forget.
- She learned to sign at daycare! This weekend she started signing "more" and a friend said she saw the sign for food at brunch on Sunday, too. Just another link in our expanding ability to communicate. R is going to check with daycare and see if there are any other signs she knows that we should be aware of. :-) I tried doing the sign for "All done" after I looked it up and she gave me five...so I don't think she's picked that one up!
- Her eating is totally unpredictable. I'm not sure if it is related to teething or being a toddler. Last night she had toast and milk for dinner despite being offered a frittata that contained pasta, her usual favorite food. But a few days earlier she was eating with gusto and trying everything on her plate. The last time we got Boston Market, they made a mistake and gave us spinach instead of sweet potatoes. Heather ate as much of the spinach as she usually eats of the sweet potatoes, but the next day she wanted nothing of it.
- She would spend all of her time outside if we would let her. Saturday morning she went on a walk with Daddy and in the afternoon the three of us went to the botanical gardens and a nearby park for a snack and a carousel ride. Sunday morning she and Daddy went on another walk, but she insisted on a stop at the playground and spent so long on the swings that they never made it into the woods where R had intended to go. She was literally on a swing for 30 minutes.
- She seems to be a more reliable milk drinker than she was initially. Some of it has to do with thirst from all this outdoor activity, I'm sure. But it is a relief to not have to worry if she's getting enough.
- She very clearly seems to understand us quite a bit of the time. Certainly there are moments that she's choosing not to listen...but when she does choose to listen you can tell how much she is getting.

3 - I'm learning to crochet. Yep, you read that right. I bought the S'n B Happy Hooker book by Debbie Stoller and I'm taking the plunge. Part of it is just because I don't see any reason not to learn more ways to play with yarn and I've also begun to see patterns that I like. And it most cases those patterns are dependent on being crocheted and not something easily translated to knitting for the same effect. Those on ravelry might already have noticed the two crochet projects in my queue. Those are two of the reasons why I'm learning.

Saturday night I made a swatch with single, half-double, double, and triple crochet stitches. I don't have them all memorized yet, but I understand the basics and the structure of a crocheted piece. Next is an "in the round" swatch, increases and decreases. So far so good. Although if I really go far with this I'll need to replace my set of plastic hooks with something that doesn't squeak. ;-)

And for the record, my mom did teach me to crochet (at least the basics) a long time ago. My that knowledge was lost as soon as I lost interest in my first project.

4 - I'm knitting like gangbusters on Ivy again. I finished the first sleeve on Friday night and knit several inches of the second sleeve on Sunday. Given the recent warm, spring weather I might finish it just in time to put it away until the fall. But that's okay. That would be better than trying to finish knitting it in the heat of summer!

5 - I've finished a baby sweater and just counted that I now have five gifts to work on. Two for this summer (one started), two for the fall and one for the end of the year. And I realize that more could come up, so I don't want to dawdle. I think I'm going to make at least a couple of knitted toys for this group. Heather's tortoise was fun but she has plenty of soft toys to entertain her, so I think future knitted toys will probably only be made for her by request.

6 - I started a shrug for me, too. My SIL is getting married in June. Last week I found two dresses on my lunch hour, one for the rehearsal dinner (DH is a groomsman) and one for the wedding. The dress for the wedding is sleeveless and it is always cooler in the mountains of Johnstown, and the alpaca lace shrug should deal with both issues. I've only done two repeats so far, but I'm traveling for work later this week and in two weeks, and we're traveling to visit family soon, so I know there is lots of knitting time between now and the wedding.

7 - Work is still rather insane. Slightly more under control...slightly. The travel later this week is to interview for another job. Wouldn't have been my choice, but I wasn't asked. It's nice that they like me so much, but I was hoping to avoid another job involving overnight travel. But this will be the first time (if we get the job) that I'll be in on the process from day one, so that is a step up and a chance for a big increase in responsibility. Which is simultaneously great and incredibly scary, and something that would be much more welcome if I didn't have so much going on already.

I guess the good news for me is that the interview process was supposed to occur in February. So since the process is already behind, it seems likely that the job wouldn't get underway until at least July...and by that point my load should be starting to get lighter at least on a couple of fronts. Fingers crossed that that stays true and that Heather continues to deal well with my traveling.

8 - It seems like females keep getting killed off in the shows that R and I watch. Of course, in some of them, being killed off doesn't mean that you are done working on that show. :-) But as we were catching up this weekend on the programs in the DVR it finally looked like a male cast member was going to be lost instead of the female one in one particular season finale. But then the female got killed off, too. :-(

I don't know that this really means anything in particular. It just struck me as interesting. There are still female leads and major ensemble members on these shows, so maybe it is just a result of more and better roles for women in TV. Or maybe shows that have sci-fi or fantasy components are more likely to have more and better roles for women!

...............

I haven't thought of anything else to share with you while this post has been sitting on my desktop. That must be it for today. Congratulations if you made it this far. :-)

Super Duper Busy

I expect things to stay relatively quiet on the blog for another week or so.

Things are really, really busy at work. I traveled earlier this week ((Sunday night through Tuesday night), so last week and the weekend were very busy preparing for the trip - getting drawings done, staying at work late, working at home during naps, doing laundry, packing, etc. And now that we've gotten input from the clients and consultants there continues to be a lot to do. Plus there is the project I haven't worked on in several weeks because of other projects and we're traveling for the unworked project in a few weeks...

The trip was fine, except for the trip home. Our flight was canceled and we had to fly through Boston to get home. Being three hours late meant that I didn't get to see Heather and I didn't get to sleep until after midnight. :-( All the travel time gave me a jump start on getting back in the knitting of Ivy. I'm now nearly done with both fronts and the back was already finished. I hope to be able to seam the body together this weekend (to make sure it fits) and start the sleeves.

This weekend I am hosting knitting, so even though I plan to come home on time for the next few days, I need to get cleaning around here whenever I'm not making up for lost time with Heather. :-)

Belated Easter post

To make up for the fact that I haven't posted in over a week and I'm not really inclined to write much tonight, I'll take the easy way out and let you see how we spent our Easter weekend.

Coloring the eggs:



Exploring the easter basket and looking for eggs:

For Andrew

I'm trying not to limit my posting about knitting progress to ravelry, since I know not all of my readers are members. So I will at least post a few photos of my latest finished object.







This is my first baby surprise jacket (designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman). For those unfamiliar, it is worked entirely in one piece...in a way that you don't really know where you are in the sweater as you knit it. Now that I have done it, I have a little better idea of how it works, but I still don't know if I understand it well enough to make any modifications.

Honestly, as it is all garter stitch and doesn't have a lot of shaping, just some pairs of increases and decreases, I don't find myself anxious to make another one. It is fine get together knitting, but too boring for the bus and I don't like that you can't "see" what you're doing as you go. Most people I know find the pattern to be clever and intriguing, so don't avoid it just because I'm not fond of it. :-)

I will also add that I LOVED working with this yarn. It was purchased at the Pittbsburgh Knitting and Crochet Festival from the Brooks Farm Yarn booth. This is their superwash wool. The color is spectacular and it was lovely to knit with.

I find myself interested in both starting and finishing more knitting projects. (I think this is partially influenced by listening to Stash and Burn.) So I've been making a little more time to knit in the evenings and trying to split my time between casting on and working toward the cast-offs of existing projects. The last two nights I started a pair of fingerless gloves and a toddler sweater. Both will be gifts.

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I seem to be all about the cell phone post lately. Time is tight. Here is a photo of Heather's turtle in the Easter sun. :-)

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For those who were curious, it took about three and a half hours to seam the patches together. I was so close that I couldn't stop. :-) Good night.

ETA - The color rendition of this camera phone photo is way off. Better color photos when it is done.

Tortoise Pieces

I finally forced myself to return to the Patchwork Tortoise this week when I realized that it would be really fun to put the finished product in Heather's Easter basket instead of just giving it to her "whenever" I got around to finishing it.

I finished the patches last night and they are currently blocking (second photo). If it isn't too painful to sew this thing together I could see myself getting it done for Sunday. :-)

I still really like the look of the Hempathy yarn and it seemed to bend to my will pretty well when I was blocking it. And I made it on size 1 needles, so it is hard to image that the fabric could be any tighter...so I'm not worried about the stuffing coming through.

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Good morning! I'm just entertaining myself with my phone at my bus stop. I dressed more for this afternoon's weather than this morning's and texting keeps my fingers warm. :-)

Stash and Burn

I'm way behind the times here, but I am finally getting back into the world of knitting podcasts. I found Cast On with Brenda Dayne in 2006 thanks to a blog post from Amy Singer at knitty.com. I spent worktime, bus rides and nights at the theater catching up on old episodes. I got caught up a month or two before Heather was born and I think I managed to stay current while I was on maternity leave. But I got behind again, partially because the podcasts weren't posted as regularly but mostly because I just wasn't able to multi-task as well with an infant and a full time job.

Even though I am still not caught up in all aspects of my life (ha), the fact that Heather has a regular 8pm bedtime and a more predictable schedule makes it easier for me to carve out time for myself and get back into some of my old routines. I don't know that things have really changed that much, but they have changed enough.

So I got caught up with Cast On again, just in time for Brenda to decide that she would only be posting episodes once a month. So I went searching for new knitting podcasts to listen to. The first few I tried didn't really click with me, so I posted on the Brenda Dayne fan forum on ravelry looking for suggestions. I found quite a few good ones and also discovered some podcasts put out by the American Theater Wing.

Now there are close to 200 podcasts on my iPod waiting for their turn to be heard. :-)

I'm currently about halfway through the "Stash and Burn" podcasts with Nicole and Jenny. I find them to be very fun to listen to and an interesting perspective on stash. I understand where they are coming from and their feelings of being overwhelmed by their stash, but I don't find that I feel the same way. I don't want to choose projects because they'll use up more stash...or put fringe on a project to use more yarn...or make hats to use up oddballs. I want all of the yarn in my stash to become the best projects that I can make at the time and to be something that I really want to have or to make or to give to someone. Sure, I could spend lots of time making washrags with my cotton...but I don't really need any of those right now and personally they aren't a present I like giving (unless we're talking about a cute baby washcloth).

So I wondered if my state of mind was different because of how I view my stash or if I just had less yarn than Nicole and Jenny. I'm not sure where they are now, but when they started, Jenny had more than 60,000 yards and Nicole had about 38,000 yards. I couldn't resist on Monday night and I did a quick count, too. I only counted full skeins and this doesn't include the couple of cones I have since I don't know exactly how much is on them (although it is probably 1,000-2,000 yards on each of the 4 cones). My quick and dirty total was 42,150 yards.

I don't feel the need to say anything drastic, like I can't buy any more yarn, or make rules about what I can or can't buy. I will say that the next time I want to make something for me or for Heather (when Ivy and the patchwork tortoise are done, at least in theory), I will go into the stash. Same for gift bibs, burp cloths and baby wash cloths. But for baby sweaters and other gifts, I generally know what I want and it usually isn't in the stash already.

It probably also helps that the stash is located in our dressing room right now instead of my office. So I see it multiple times a day. It doesn't make me feel guilty or overwhelmed. Mostly it makes me delighted about my future knitting options and excited to try the new yarns that have been waiting patiently for me.

Sorry for the long, rambling post that is more like a diary entry than an interesting blog post. It's just something that Nicole and Jenny have me thinking about and I wanted to state where I stand. :-)

Dinner

This is not really a food blog, but I like to write down meals that work so that I can look them up someday. And since I've gotten a few nice tips from my friends, it would be nice to share the wealth. :-)

Tonight I made a frittata.

I sauteed garlic in EVOO and then added cubed potatoes. Once they were browning I added broccoli florets and some more EVOO, salt, pepper and basil. A few minutes later I added some cooked pasta (spinach linguini) and then 8 beaten eggs. I stirred it a little to make sure the egg was well distributed to hold it together. Then I sprinkled the top with shredded cheddar, reduced the heat to medium-low and covered the dish. After 10-15 minutes the cheese was melted and the egg was cooked.

You can try a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, pastas and spices or just use up leftovers in the refrigerator. :-)

Yum! (and Heather agreed)

I remember...

...what I've been trying to remember to post about Heather.

She knows how to operate the Glow-worm. She has known for a long time what we do to make it play music, but she could never quite press the right point with enough pressure.

Now she's got it. And the reason I know she has woken up from her nap is because I can hear the Glow-worm playing over and over. ;-)

One more thing please

Two families we know and a member of my family are in need of any spare prayers you've got to give.

My aunt is having surgery next Saturday. A friend's daughter is having medical tests on Tuesday that will confirm or deny a chronic condition. Our friends have encountered another significant obstacle in their quest to adopt their daughter from Guatemala.

Any good thoughts and vibes you can send for all of them would be greatly appreciated.

Saturday update

I did stay a little late at work last night, but thankfully I am not working this weekend. In my pre-Heather days I probably would have gone in this weekend to deal with the overabundance of work on my plate. But it will have to wait until Monday. I'm hopeful for a focused and productive week. My fingers are crossed that no one gives me any more work. :-)

My trip to Bradford this past week was good. The public forum went well and the rest of our meetings were generally positive. It's sad that I'm now even further behind with meeting minutes. So I might "try" to work on them in the evenings after Heather goes to bed to get caught up. I might.

Heather and I were going to attend a playdate today, but it was only going to work if it was a one-nap day since it started at 11am. At 10am she started to get tired and trying to keep her awake caused a meltdown at 10:30. So no playdate for us. Considering that there was freezing rain followed by snow falling 90 minutes later I'm not totally upset to stay inside. Although we still need a first birthday present to give at brunch tomorrow, so i might need to brave the weather for a few minutes.

I've done a little straightening up, but I'm actually using Heather's napping time today to start to work on our taxes. I at least want to get to the point that I can figure out what information I'm missing and maybe come up with a rough estimate of how our federal taxes look. And after that, I'll hit the thank you notes that I'm determined to finish this weekend. Most of the things from last week's to do list are still outstanding...but I don't want to wait to do our taxes until the last minute again this year. Plus, my parents are coming in two weeks and I would love to have my dad review them since I've never used the childcare tax credit before. There is still the chance that I could do some cleaning during tomorrow's naps. ;-)

On the knitting front there is a little sad news. I realized yesterday that I made a mistake on the right front while working on the left front. I repeated the cable pattern two times too many. I didn't have any option but to rip back to my mistake. So now I have a completed back and about 5 inches of both the left and right fronts. Oh well. It was better than having to rip out the back which has many more stitches per row!

Hmmm. The snow is blowing harder now. I might be going out for that birthday present tomorrow morning...

Quickly

Ummm...let me see if I can be coherent on 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I'm pretty sure there is something about Heather that I have been meaning to post and keep forgetting.

Oh well. I'll remember someday.

I do want to tell you that Heather LOVES pasta. Spaghetti sauce, pesto sauce and mac'n cheese will be eaten enthusiastically. If anyone out there has any great sauce recipes with healthy ingredients (especially with interesting vegetables) I'm all ears.

This weekend I thought it would be nice to let her try out the toddler crayons she got for her birthday. After spending some time banging the little plastic animals together that act as the crayon "grips", she set them aside and focused her attention on the paper. :-)

So industrious and serious!

Since a few people have asked me, here is a little update on my progress and it isn't great. I ended up working rather late on Friday night and spending much of Heather's nap time doing work, too.

So, I dealt with the items in the upstairs hallway. I dealt with half the clutter in the foyer and made a minor dent in the dining room. I did a couple of loads of Heather's laundry and made a quick pass through her clothes to pull out what's too small.

I didn't go to bed as early as I would have liked and was up too late last night working.

I travel for work this week and have other deadlines, so the insanity will continue through most of this week.

And with that, I have to get back to work...

This weekend

I'm going to start making my to-do list public and we'll see how much I get crossed off. I've been hesitant to make a real list because I thought it would just be overwhelming, but now that I've made a dent in the cleaning process it doesn't seem so bad.

Other than some laundry I haven't gotten a lot done this week, but I have managed to maintain the clean state in the kitchen. I guess maintaining the status quo is better than sliding back into messiness! I also managed to cook four of the past five nights and the fifth night was leftovers. Not bad.

Must do:
- Write birthday thank you notes
- Deal with clutter in foyer and dining room
- Laundry
- Put away items currently "hanging out" in upstairs hallway
- Sleep

Next steps:
- Deal with clutter in bedroom and dressing room
- Clean bathrooms
- Dust, vacuum and mop first floor
- Dust, vacuum and mop second floor
- Weave in ends and sew up baby items that I finished knitting this week
- Start next couple of baby gifts

In my mind I would like to get the house to an easy to main state so that during the next few visits from my parents we can deal with more long-term projects - like cleaning my office and maybe finally finishing the mural in Heather's room. ;-) At least the alphabet is complete...but I never got to add the bugs and butterflies!

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Also, a nursing note. For the past four days, Heather has gone to her high chair for a snack instead of requesting to nurse after daycare/work. I thought this was going to be the last session she would get rid of, and it looks like it is going to be the first. It will be interesting to see if she requests a late afternoon/early evening session this weekend or not.

I'm not really ready to wean, but dropping this session isn't bothering me as much as I thought it would. So I guess if she decides to wean I will probably be okay with it. A little sad but okay. And relieved that we don't have to force her to wean down the road.

We're down to 2-3 sessions a day and I guess we'll wait and see what happens!

Goal?

There's probably no way I'll get that much knitting time in the next couple of weeks...but it would be cool to wear "Ivy" on March 20th. It is a cardigan, after all. :-)

Sweater day to honor Mister Rogers

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

No one knows what the weather will be like on March 20, but the people behind "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" are declaring it sweater-wearing weather.

March 20 would have been the late children's TV host's 80th birthday, and Family Communications Inc. is urging everyone -- not just in Pittsburgh, but all over the world -- to wear a favorite sweater that day in honor of Fred Rogers' legacy. Family Communications is the production company behind the long-running "Mister Rogers" public TV series.

David Newell, who plays Mr. McFeely on the show, stars in a YouTube video created to spread the word about the March 20 sweater day.

The sweater event will cap off the "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Days celebration March 15-20, in which area cultural institutions will offer family events and free or reduced admission prices and family activities. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Days is also part of Pittsburgh's 250 anniversary celebration.

-- Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Productivity

The kitchen is clean.

This might not seem like a big deal, but I feel like we've been digging out from under tons of clutter and disarray for months (House Tour - Mastitis - Holidays - Thrush - Work Travel), and this past weekend was the first time in a while that I went to bed on Sunday night feeling like real progress had been made. We are caught up on dishes, the counters are clean and I did some of the reorganizing needed to free up counter space and only keep the really necessary items out all of the time. My spring cleaning goal will be to go through all of the cabinets and drawers to organize some more, but it is not a time-critical project.

Now that Heather is going to bed rather reliably at 8pm (*Knock on wood*), I'm going to try to use my evenings to make some more dents in the laundry and clutter. It would be great if I could get more done during the week so that weekend nap time could be used for longer projects like cleaning out my office and spring cleaning/purging/organizing. It's just a matter of not sitting down in front of the TV after I put her to bed. If I do, the night is toast. :-) I at least need to find a balance where I'm not spending 3 hours every night in front of the TV. There are no knitting deadlines that require that right now!

The Tulip Cardigan

I finally uploaded some photos of this finished sweater to Ravelry, so I figured I should post them here, too. The pictures were taken at Amelia's first birthday party. We had a lovely time. :-)




I will do this pattern again. Probably not with the called for colors/yarn, but it is a really nice top down cardigan pattern.

There is enough of this yarn left that I might try to make a newborn sized sweater with what remains...

1 year

I keep thinking of sentimental and sappy "1 year ago" posts, but seriously there are just not enough hours in the day.

I just got back from two days in Canton, NY and things at work continue to be insane. I just have too much work and there aren't enough hours in the day. Period. And everyone in the office is overloaded, so there is no one to "give" any of my work to. Plus, the guy helping out with one of my jobs is new to us, new to our CAD software and has only worked in residential architecture before...so he has a steep learning curve and need very specific instructions that I don't really have time to put together.

So, I will hold you off with a super quick list update and I'll try to post some more pictures this weekend.

- Pedi appointment went well on Monday. Ear infection and thrush are gone. 18 lb, 1 oz (15th percentile) and 28" long (25th percentile) are the stats. So status quo on growth.
- I finished the back of Ivy on the plane Tuesday and cast on for the left front yesterday. As of this morning, I'm almost through the cable section of the left front.
- I watched the first episode of "Weeds" on my iPod on the plane yesterday. I love Mary Louise Parker, but I don't know that I enjoyed the show enough to pay for more episodes. I love Elizabeth Perkins, too, but so far her character is just too evil to want to watch. Any fans out there that think I should try a couple more episodes?
- I'm still not totally healed, but we can comfortable nurse in a variant of the football hold position (just like we were using 1 year ago(!)) without further damage. I think the thrush is totally gone, so it is just a matter of the tooth marks healing. I no longer dread nursing and my supply seems to be fine even without pumping all day at work...so I am a happy BFing mom again. The only downside of our new position is that it is very difficult to do discretely, so nursing will be limited to home or private rooms for the foreseeable future.
- Heather is doing a great job with whole milk in a sippy, so we are basically done with bottles! (R did use one overnight while I was gone, so we won't put them in storage yet...but we no longer have to wash 2-3 every night!)
- We are looking forward to celebrating Amelia's birthday on Saturday and I'm looking forward to knitting on Sunday. I might force myself to get out the patchwork tortoise just so it doesn't languish forever...
- I have yarn for two baby gifts. One child was born last week and the other is due in April. I need to figure out exactly what I'm making and get them going soon.

That's all my brain can handle at the moment. Back to my stairs!

Happy First Birthday, Heather!

We all had a lovely time celebrating Heather's birthday today. Personally, I had a fabulous time at her party. All of the adorable children having fun, all of the lovely friends and family chatting away and everyone celebrating our beautiful daughter.

I have to admit, we've been keeping a secret for a little while. We thought it would be fun for everyone to see Heather walking for the first time at the party. :-) She started taking steps on her own more regularly last Saturday and she's been getting more and more adventurous every day. She can even stand up on her own without pulling up!

It was a delightful and exhausting day! And we're going to the knitting festival in the morning! What a weekend...

Bye-bye pump!

It's official. I'm done pumping at work!

I was planning to pump through Friday, but after a bad session last Thursday I decided to go ahead and quit so I have time to heal during the day. (I'm still not totally back to normal, but things are better.)

I will have to pump when I travel for work and I don't have plans to wean Heather soon (assuming that my healing continues), but I am free from daily pumping! Woot!

...but I'm hanging onto my key to the storage room for a couple of weeks, just in case. ;-)

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Other tidbits

- It seems more likely that Heather associates the sound mamamama with me and dadadada with R. I wouldn't say that she is calling us by name, but she seems to use those sounds at the right time. I also think she says duck "Duh" to the rubber duckies in the bath and the other day R & I were sure we heard something that sounded like kitty while she was in the high chair and the cats were wandering around. I'm hesitant to say that any of these are real words, but they are sounds that she associates with things, so I guess by loose definition they are words. ;-)

- She rarely waves anymore. She used to love it and now I don't think she's done it in a week or two.

- She might officially be down to one nap a day. Because she is primarily with older kids, that is what she is doing at daycare, and that is what she did this past weekend at home, too. I'm just trying to be really watchful in the evenings to see if her bedtime needs to be earlier. Some mornings she wakes up while we're getting ready and other mornings she wakes up around the time my alarm goes off to nurse and then goes back to sleep. (Selfishly) I don't really want to get to a point where she wakes at the same time every day because rigid schedules really don't work for us...but I don't want her to be sleep deprived either.

- I ordered gates yesterday. I've been meaning to do it for weeks, and it is just a hard enough process given the strange and large sizes of our openings that I never followed through on it. One of us is with Heather all of the time, so it's not like she is in any danger. But someday that isn't going to be so easy anymore. Our plan is to keep her gated in the living room and dining room. At some point we will probably need a gate to put at the top of the steps on the second floor, but doors will have to work for now. We also need to make a serious pass through the living room and dining room and figure out what needs to be put up or away. There are a few shelves that need to be cleared and some lower tables that need to be kept free of clutter. Maybe with the grandparents around this weekend we can make a dent in the work.

- The tulip sweater is done. If it hadn't been 59 degrees this morning I might have sent her to school in it today. It will probably make its debut later this week. (Note to self, I need to buy some sew-in labels. The iron-on ones just don't work.)

- Ivy is going well. I'm about halfway up the back. I'm a little sad to be in the 'boring' stockinette section on the bus, but I know it will get interesting again.

- I keep forgetting that my birthday is tomorrow. We don't have any specific plans and I don't even know if Heather can stay up long enough to go out to eat after work. I would normally take the day off, but there are a number of reasons why I'm not doing that this year. Heather and I will just have to celebrate on the 18th when we're home together. :-) I guess the most surprising part is that I don't really mind. Strange coming from someone that used to start counting down to her birthday a month in advance!

Info for parents and a little rant

I've heard great things about the book "The Wonder Weeks" by Frans Plooij and I've also heard that copies aren't so easy to come by without paying through the nose.

Well here is a link to a summary of the book. The highlights for those of us who want to understand sleep regressions and developmental milestones better without having to track down the book and read the whole thing. :-)

http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/wonder_weeks/content_ww.html#ch06

For those unfamiliar, Ask Moxie has some great posts on the topic, too.

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_what_are_sle.html

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2005/12/quick_and_dirty.html

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/01/qa_11weekold_an.html

http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/02/qa_9montholds_s.html

I find the sleep regressions kind of fascinating. Not only because they are so predictable (the number of message board posts I've seen titled "4 month sleep issues!" and "8/9 month sleep issues!" is astounding), but also because absolutely NO ONE warns you about them. If I wasn't a regular reader of Ask Moxie's blog I would have no clue why Heather went from sleeping all night to waking 2-3 times a night at 4 months.

Is there a reason that pediatricians don't talk about this stuff??!! No offense to the doctors out there, but I hear about so many doctors telling their patients to just let their kids cry or that their BABIES shouldn't be waking up overnight after a certain age or weight. Is there not enough guilt in our lives already without making us feel like failures because our babies want a little comfort or food when it is dark? If the parents aren't upset about getting up then why is there all this pressure to change the behavior? And if we know that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to adults, why would we possibly expect that every baby should be doing the same thing at the same time?

And most importantly, adults don't sleep well when there are stress or changes in their lives. They might have trouble falling asleep, or bad dreams, or they might wake frequently. With all that babies are learning and the all the ways that they are changing and growing, how can we possibly expect them to sleep like perfect angels every night from the time they are weeks old?

And no, this isn't sleep deprivation talking. Heather slept from 8pm to 6am last night. (We were just woken once by a cat having a hairball on the bed. Thank you, Stewart.) I'm hopeful that the breaking through of her 4th tooth and the antibiotics for the ear infection that we didn't know she had will mean more good nights of sleep in our near future.

*knock on wood*

And by good nights I don't mean that I expect her to sleep from 8 to 7 every night without a disturbance. It would be nice, but I'm not going to push my luck. :-)

I hope that some of this information is helpful to those of you with younger babies. You might be lucky and have kids who sleep through all of this developmental stuff, but if you aren't at least you will know why it is happening!

Mood and Milk

I started a blog post like this yesterday...

"I'm really, really, really trying to move beyond my crankiness.

Granted, I probably have a right to be cranky. Even before the thrush I felt like I was barely holding it together and this new 'fun' has added another layer of things that 'have to be done'.

But yet, I'm also really lucky. I have a very happy and mostly healthy baby, and we have been able to breastfeed for almost a year (and we're still going). I have a wonderful husband who has been very helpful and supportive (especially lately). I have a good job that I enjoy with nice coworkers and good clients. I have so many friends both in and out of Pittsburgh that I can't possible see and knit and talk with them all as much as I would like...or even as much as I should. My grandmother has recently made a fabulous recovery and my other two grandparents seem to be doing well."

And then I didn't know what to write.

I guess the point I wanted to make is that I'm trying to be very aware of my mood and how I interact with others. Even my boss made a passing comment about me being cranky (he wasn't being mean), and that's really not the "Amy" I want to project to the rest of the world. So, I'm allowed to be annoyed about things. I'm allowed to be tired and overwhelmed. I just don't want to allow myself to let it take over my life.

Some other tidbits:
- Heather stood on her own for 5-7 seconds last night. I'm not sure if she even realized it. She let go with her steadying hand so she could open her Elmo book. Later R was helping her stand and letting go, and she seemed to think that was pretty fun. We may need to come up with make-shift gates if we don't get on the ball soon and order some. :-)
- I cast on for "Ivy" last night. It's a wrap cardigan pattern from Knitty. I've got two cones of Jaeger Wool Silk (I have no idea how many yards/cone, but I'm sure it will be enough) and I had to buy a new circular needle. In my desperation to start asap I bought a metal needle. I hope I don't regret that decision.
- The Tulip sweater is close, but not done. I have to wind the extra skein of border yarn in order to finish the knitting.
- I would not wish thrush on my worst enemy. I hate feeling like a germaphobe and I hate pumping now more than I did before. We will see whether I make it another week.

Lastly, a quick question for the moms and pediatricians who read this. I plan to stop pumping at work next week and once we get the go ahead for whole milk, Heather will just get that at daycare instead of EBM and formula. I still plan to nurse morning, evening and overnight (as needed) for some time frame yet to be determined. (I'm not anxious to wean, but I don't want to go on for years or consider tandem nursing). When I travel for work, do you think R is going to need to give her bottles of EBM or formula? Or will she just eat more solids when I'm not around? Any advice or thoughts? My next trip is right after her birthday, so I'm sure he'll need milk then, but I'm more curious about what to expect in March or April. Thanks!

One more obstacle...

(If you aren't a reader with any interest in breastfeeding or women's health issues, then you can just skip this post.)

I considered taking a photo just like someone I know, but I decided that if I haven't been posting any fun pictures lately, then I don't want to post "unfun" ones like that. :-)

Heather and I have thrush. Ugh. I'm not really sure when it started. My right side hasn't been quite the same since the bouts of plugged ducts and mastitis in November/December...but it was never really bad enough to call anyone. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. What's done is done, right? What I can tell you is that I started noticing some real discomfort and even a little pain overnight on wednesday. I freaked out a little, but then pumping and nursing sessions on Thursday and Friday were okay. And the irritated areas were primarily the side where Heather's new upper tooth was hitting. Starting Thursday morning, I applied lanolin religiously after every session and kept myself in clean breast pads. By later Saturday afternoon, I knew that my problem was not getting better and I'm sorry to admit that I was a bit of a cranky pants myself for the rest of the weekend...at least to poor R.

This morning Heather and I visited the pediatrician and this afternoon I spoke to an LC and made an appointment at a local Breastfeeding Center. We're primarily going to get a prescription for me for a cream that will fix my pain and I plan to ask about other strategies we can take if Heather's meds don't work. (From what I've read, about half of the yeast strains out there are resistant to what she's been given and the pedi found an ear infection, and the antibiotic she's now on isn't going to help our situation either.) I'm also going to ask about how best to clean and steralize around here. I've boiled all of the bottles, pump parts and pacis. And my bras and her blankets are currently in the washing machine in hot water.

I don't know what to do about all of the stuffed animals that I can't put in the washer or the plastic toys that make music, noise, etc. I'm hoping the doctor will have some good suggestions for us.

If we were down to fewer feedings, I might consider weaning. But I'm just not ready yet and I don't think Heather is either.

Ah well. I must extract myself from under the sleeping kitty to go pick the peanut up from daycare. (I dropped her off so I could get the boiling, washing and cleaning done. I had hoped to do some work, but I didn't sadly didn't get to that. Sadly because I don't want to get any further behind...)