Saturday, July 28, 2007

A morning

alone! Rob took baby Robby on a walk to give me some much needed after yesterday, it was hellacious. Robby napped for 1.5 hours the whole day and was fussy, whiny, and cranky for 90 percent of the day, plus trying to get work done, sigh... I normally don't do this, but yesterday I was so overwhelmed, I let him cry in his bouncy chair for 5 minutes because I was so worn out. I'm guessing it's his top teeth coming in, it seems to be extra rough for him this go-round. This past month, I haven't been letting Robby nap in my lap, and it WAS working well, but this past week, he wakes up after 15-30 minutes and doesn't go back to sleep, so I'm torn between letting him stay in my lap so he can get some good naptime in, or just pressing through and continue to lay him in his crib when he's asleep. He hasn't been sleeping well at night, he's getting up 3-4 times a night, and I've read that if babies don't nap well during the day, they don't sleep well at night. Any ideas?

So, here I am, doing one of my favorite things, blogging, and after this uploading some projects into Ravelry :) I've made some progress on Robby's Tomten.I'm 1-2 rows away from splitting up into the arm holes. I think I'll do the armholes as specified in EZ's pattern, but do some mods when I start the sleeves. I'm also making pretty good progress on my MIL's Swallowtail.I'm on the third row of nupps, and it's moving along!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Ravelry

I'M IN! Turns out I got my email May 2nd, but it went to my junk mail, I found out when I submitted my email to see how far down the list I am. I've uploaded about half my stash, but haven't submitted any WIPS in. Being somewhat of a techno geek, and being married to a techno geek, I have to say, it's awesome. The interfaces are all very intuitive, everything has worked great so far, and I love it! It's totally Myspace for knitters/crocheters, etc., but way cooler! My username is bapple, so if you are on, and I haven't already bugged you, add me as a friend!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

The blanket

is done! I just have to weave in 40 ends, YUCK. Oh for other exciting news, I got namedby Jessie! Thanks Jessie! I feel honored to join the ranks of all you other bloggers, it is amazing how much happiness, fun, and friendship I have gotten in the past year! I couldn't even narrow down 5 bloggers to name as Rockin' Girl Blogger, I think you guys are all awesome! And Robby says thanks too. And just to show how we aren't all fun and games around here, here is a picture of Robby when he wakes up from a nap and realized he's not in my lap :PHe's even cute when he's bawling, the little toot, he is SO sad. I also realized this last week that he wakes up from naps because he has to go to the bathroom, so I tried taking him to the bathroom to potty and it works! Weird, huh? Robby gives the blanket his seal of approval.See those little shoes he's wearing? I got them from Johanna. Her daughter Kaya was born the same day as Robby and is EXTREMELY cute, maybe Robby's future girlfriend :) Johanna makes shoes to sell on her etsy shop. These shoes are awesome, they are very flexible, which is good for babies feet, and they don't come off. Robby is an extremely active baby, and while crawling, scooting, walking, kicking, they didn't slip off once! And only 13 dollars for a custom pair made for Robby's big ol' feet.Oh yeah, I better explain, see I was reading through my bloglines, and came across this. My husband saw it and told me this is the sweater that he's been wanting me to knit for him forever, so, I put in an order for some of the Beaverslide color cards. I'm a little nervous about all the mods Brooklyn Tweed did, the smaller hood, the short row shaping in the shoulders, etc., so I'm making a miniature version for Robby using the Malabrigo I got from Knitch. The yarn is a dream to knit up, so soft, and the chunky garter stitch is a nice departure from the entrelac done on sport weight, ugh, and the lace stuff I've been doing. I still love you Swallowtail, but Momma needs a break.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Gasp..Knitting Content!

A while back, when Nona was working on a blanket, she talked about "heft".It's the point in the blanket where you feel that you are on the other side of the hill and nearing completion.I think I've reached that point. It's not so much in the length of the blanket, but the width, and when I block it, it should grow considerably. I think I have maybe 6-8 more rows, and then BO, then sewing in off the ends. I have three weeks left till the recipient is born, wish me luck! Robby also turned seven months on July 4th, and of course I wouldn't want to let down all of his fans :) After all, after he was born, this blog went from blog to a blog about Robby with some knitting thrown in there :) Robby is getting SO big, 19 lbs, 29 inches long! This month has been a little rough with all the moving, and I've been trying to wean Robby off napping in my lap, I know, can you believe I'm still letting him do that :P Actually he's napping in my lap now, but I'm giving him a free pass because of his teething. I've been doing it gently, no crying, just waiting till he's asleep then setting him down in a playpen. If he cries, I pick him up and try again, and slowly but surely, he's starting to nap alone. When I get frustrated, I just try to remember that a month ago he wasn't doing it at all! I've been giving him solid food, twice a day, homemade rice cereal, butternut squash, avocado, but he hasn't shown interest in it, except for chewing on the spoon, and smearing it all over the place. I don't force the issue, I've read some babies don't like to eat and prefer to nurse when teething. I'm not in a rush, plus the 500 calories a day I'm burning nursing him don't hurt either! He's pulling himself up all the time, and now he'll crawl to me and want me to help him stand up on wobbly legs! Something about that really touches me, I guess maybe because it's the first time I've really seen him MOVE towards me and ask for my help, well he doesn't really ASK, but I know that's what he wants. He's thinking, "I want to stand, and Mommy will help me." He is starting to say "Mamamamamama", sometimes he just says "MOM", and sometimes he says "Ummah" which is the Korean word for mom. I don't know if he's just vocalizing or he's really calling me, but I like to think so, especially because I've invested so much time and energy into him so far! He's SO active, the only time he's still is when he's sleeping or nursing. He loves to pinch now and has a serious death grip. He's so happy and content most of the time and it's such a joy being his mom. Here is the obligatory bathtub shot that I will use to embarass him in front of his prom dates.Aren't those toofs cute?! He's been pretty cranky this past week, I think his top teeth are about to make their entrance.Here's the big hat shot.And here he is with his Aunt Kathy, everyone send out your good vibes, Auntie Kathy is in Costa Rica for a month having some fun in the sun, and I always worry about my little sister. She is an ESL teacher and is fluent in Spanish! Why she's still single, I don't know, she's been such a huge help to me, after Robby's birth she was over at our house every night after work, helping me do laundry, wash dishes and holding Robby if I needed a break! She's helped us pack, then unpack, and all she gets in return is some homemade Korean food made by me, and lots of slobber from Robby! We miss you Auntie Kathy, come back safe to us! We spent this 4th with our really good friends, who I'm making the entrelac blanket for, and had a great time. Robby spent some quality time with the COOLEST DOGS EVER, Barkley and Hobbes.They may look fierce, but they are the sweetest, gentlest dogs I've ever known. Barkley is the oldest, he is kind of a "low quality" Doberman, but he has the best temperment. Lately, as he gets older, he's become much less energetic, and prefers to hide out in the barn...until nighttime when he roams around our friends property doing whatever it is that dogs do at night, mostly killing small critters and protecting their owners. This is Robby and Hobbes. Hobbes is the younger one, only a few years old, and he LOVES people. From the time he was a puppy, he just loves to cuddle and be with you. His mom died when she had just birthed the puppies and the breeders bottlefed all the puppies and took care of them as well as their own mother would have, which explains a lot of his personality. He actually is a distant relative of Barkley if I remember correctly. Robby loves dogs, he squeals and laughs and always tries to pull their fur, the good thing about Barkley and Hobbes, is I know they would never try to bite him and their fur is short :)See how Hobbes's ears are laid back? That's because he knows he needs to be gentle with Robby. Here is Robby chilling with Barkley, Barkley actually wanted to do his own thing, but he obeyed my "stay" command so I could get some good pictures in.And, here is a random shot of our house, we finally moved in and slowly but surely are getting it comfortable to live in, our first real house ever! I'll post some more pictures once I find the before shots, and we get it all nice and purty.Sorry about such a long post! I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the hot hot weather!