but we still love each other

If you follow my blog’s facebook page, then you know that this week has been this sort of week:

My kids have been varying degrees of sick since Saturday, and Chris started up a few days ago and now I’ve joined the famjam in the sore throat department. Both girls are on antibiotics now, and as far as I figure, what happened was that Nicole got a sinus+ear infection and then a sinus cold, and Olivia got a sinus cold and then a sinus+ear infection. I had figured both girls had a sinus cold from the get-go but when I took them in b/c I was strongly suspicious of infection in Olivia and thinking Nicole was starting to get there, it turned out Nicole was much further along. The doctor assured me she probably has a high pain tolerance, because I was stalking that kid with questions about how she felt and nothing was declared hurty until the night before.

Low moments of the week include that my kids hate each other when they’re sick. Well, really just Olivia kind of got a Man Cold or something b/c from day one she was draping herself all over me and only me, and if Nicole got too close she’d swat at her or wrap her arms around me and declare, “MINE!” Kind of hilarious except poor Nicole just wanted a family cuddle. Anyways, that got old fast for her and they were glaring each other down in no time.
Other low moments include Nicole having several fever spikes, the highest of which was 103.7F … poor Chris was manning the thermometer while I was running to Safeway and he was freaking out when I got home. It’s really scary watching that number go up… and up… and up! We were lucky though, a close friend of mine’s son had this same cold and he had a febrile seizure at a much lower temp and they wound up in the hospital, scary stuff. (And she went into labor what, 24 hours later? Nadine wins Exhausting Week Award, no contest.)

High moments include them starting to feel well enough to get along this morning and being quite sweet together. Olivia was feeling sucky yet and burrowed her face in my arm, and Nicole rubbed her back and said, “Oh, Olivia is such a sweetie baby; I sure picked a good sweetie baby.” “Oh, you picked her, did you?” “Yes, I told Papa. ‘I want this baby, Olivia.’”
Earlier in the morning Nicole brought me a hardware store flyer and showed me some drill set or something and wistfully told me, “I hope Papa can buy this.” “For who? And why?” “For himself, because it’s AWESOME!!!”
There were a few other sweet moments playing with Olivia’s blankie and stuffed bear, where they kept passing him back and forth and Olivia kept saying, “Thankyou.” That’s her new word, and she repeats it over and over while I change her poop diapers. And the way they have been lately, trust me, it is well deserved.

I’m quite used to my kids being little demons when they come out of a really sick spell, so I’m beyond pleased that they’re actually being quite sweet this morning. I’ll come back and re-read this post in about 7 hours when they have me pulling my hair out….

Coming soon to a … monitor near you.

This blog post has been brought to you by the letter “I” for “Ipod Photos”

Okay girls and boys. I’m slacker of a blogger, I know. No Friday Favorites even. Lame. But I’ve been a busy bee in real life. It’s been some things like painting a hallway, meeting with people at Home Depot about my impending kitchen reno, cleaning and recleaning my home and laundry and children. Nothing really worth pulling out the camera for. (Although I confess, I’m tempted sometimes to take a picture every day at the magical moment where I’ve just finished cleaning everything, just to prove half an hour later that it was, in fact, clean.)

I’ve also been working on this. By which I of course mean, napping. No, not really; my sleepy time coincides with Olivia’s wakeup time. Somehow I press on. Mostly I keep forgetting I’m even pregnant. I’m 18 weeks (and a bit) somehow? Normally by now I look like I’m about 7 months pregnant, and I tend to carry like my torso is an egg with bosums on the top. This round I’m sporting more of a ‘I shoved a soccer ball down my shirts’ sort of a look. Until a few weeks ago we all kindof kept forgetting that I was even pregnant because I just looked sort of beer-belly-ish most of the time. Normally I head straight for ‘third trimester’ and work up from there, so it’s an odd thing.

However, in the last few weeks I’ve also created a cute chenille-cut-monogram pillow for Nicole, nearly finished Olivia’s topsy-turvy-squares quilt top, and created a 18m+ backwards-zip sleep sack. Olivia is a bit of a stripper. When placed in bed and faced with the concept of sleeping, she often chooses to rebel by stripping completely naked, occasionally peeing and a few times more. Um, not cool, Olivia. Not cool. So I responded by making her a hugely long sleep sack that zips in the back. I spent a few days anxiously pondering a different way of making sleep sacks from my previous way, and when I finally decided to put my seam ripper beside me and just try it, I was quite pleased to find that I’d found a much more efficient way to create lined zipped sleep sack than what I’ve used in the past.

The topic of Nicole’s old sleep sack came up, which was polarfleece, simple, and used a wide ribbed neckline instead of a zipper so she could just be slipped into it and I didn’t have to face my zipper-fears. Then out of nowhere, this weekend I got a request for a tutorial on that type of sleep sack from someone who’d read a forum post where I’d mentioned it, from years back. So I think I may do a tutorial on both types; I’d had intentions of creating a .pdf pattern in multiple sizes of the zipped sleep sack and selling it, but I think I may just do a tutorial including how to draft your own size. After all, most of what I learned when it comes to making things, I learned from others’ free tutorials!

All I talk about lately is sleep, not sleeping, sleep sacks, and the like. Clearly I have developed an obsession. With sleep. Sleeeeeeep.

If I Have A Boy

I’ll hopefully be finding out whether we’re expecting a pink or blue bundle at my 20 week ultrasound next month. Boy, that came up fast! We’re pondering the idea of a boy because a) obviously, it could go either way, and b) the heartbeat came up at 145, and both my girls maintained a steady 165.

A friend of mine jokingly asked me what I would do with a boy, since I couldn’t make him tutus or headbands or hairclips. I proposed that I could dress him up like an english gentleman until he’s old enough to hate me for it. Later, I was thinking I could make him some quilts. Here’s a roundup of some other things I could do if I have a boy!

First things first, this quilt pattern comes to live with me and I make the coolest baby quilt ever. EVERRRRRRR. Allegedly it’s not even that difficult but my brain is dazzled and I assume if it is actually something I’m capable of, everyone else will be dazzled too. Especially the baby, who will write me a thankyou card as soon as he learns to write.

 

 

Baby boys need clothes, too, and this reversible vest strikes me as the perfect way to hide at least two food incidents before running out of clean.

Reversible cuffed pants? Girls and boys alike look cute in cuffed pants, and reversible is just french for magical as far as children are concerned. I need to make Olivia a reversible shirt for when we go to Costco and she rubs samples all over herself.

A comfy version of the gentlemanly look, I think yes.

Indulge my vulgar side.

Obviously.

Button up shirt converted to a onesie? I think yes.

And that’s barely skimming the barrel! Let’s not forget every single rad boy tutorial over at I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar, for after the baby child grows. Plus I will knit him many a tweedy sweater.

Now, as to what I would do WITH a boy child? Hmmm… I don’t know. Rescue him from his sisters mostly, I imagine. Time will tell!

(girl or boy… what a joy!)

Sour Soother Valentine

I thought I’d share the cute little Valentines we made for Nicole’s preschool class, and the printable we created for them. Kind of last minute, but if you want to use them you still have time!

I thought I had cardstock but I was wrong, so we wound up just printing these on regular printer paper. The front is a pale pink heart (made of many hearts) with the words It’s hard to be SOUR around you, Valentine! and the back features a funny little kissy face and plenty of space to write who the Valentine is for and who it’s from, and we also added a foamy sticker to each one. The heart and kissy face were both graphics that come loaded in Adobe Elements 10.

We took Jumbo-sized sour soother candies that we picked up at Costco and put one (but could have easily fit two) in a 6 x 3.75 treat bag. If you’re worried about the elements, the top of the bag can be sealed off with a curling iron, but we’re giving them out today so we just cut out the four Valentine’s from each page, folded in the center, and then after filling in the back, stapled them onto the bags.

You can click on the above graphic to get the full-sized sheet. When printing, be sure to deselect ‘fit picture to frame’ or whatever similar option changes the sizing of the graphic to fit the paper, this should fit your typical printer paper without adjustment and will be way easier to cut that way. (I got my hubby to print it off for me and forgot to mention that, and it’s possible but way more fidgety and your Valentine’s will be inconsistent sizes)

Oh hi

Nicole got some sticker earrings, play rings, and lip gloss for Christmas. She coated her face in two of those three things one day. I told her she was fancy and took a picture.

It’s really hard to properly convey the amount of lipgloss that was all over her face, but suffice it to say she was quite shiny. (She sure does look tired, I know. It’s a trendy thing around here. More on that later.)

As for me, I know, I dropped off the face of the earth for just over a week. I’m alive. I had a root canal, got puffy and sulky, did a bunch of house work, had company, got tired and sulky, knitted things, cleaned and housework and all that in repetition… you get the picture.

I’m going to give you some stellar advice now, so heed and harken. If you require a root canal, do not schedule it first thing in the morning. I figured I would get it over and done with. It went something like this.

Oh, this isn’t so bad. Freezing helps. Somewhat uncomfortable still, but whatever.

Okay, I’m done. I feel spiffy, I think I’ll pick up a few groceries on the way home. I’m a hero.

Okay, I got a root canal and I don’t get the big deal. I’m going to blindly dither around for the next two hours, completely and blissfully unaware of the pain that’s coming my way when that local anaesthetic wears off. (Please note that spellcheck is not required for me to spell anaesthetic. Applause.)

Okay, so this is starting to hurt. Maybe there’s something to the root canal phobia that gets generated, after all.

Waaah, my face hurts with the hurts of a million hurts and all my teeth feel like they also had root canals because I don’t know, sympathy pains or they are all letting out a rebel yell at the death of their noble comrade.

The rest is less interesting, mostly just me in the fetal position for a few hours, and then dosing on Tylenol and pulling it together to make spaghetti noodles and sauce for supper. (I have a pasta maker. So now I don’t buy noodles. I like to make things more complicated, if I can.) If you got through all that, the moral is, get a root canal at the END of the day so you can go straight to bed afterwards.

That aside, this week’s big project is a big old room swaparoo. For a while now we’ve been facing the grim reality of the fact that while our girls love sharing a room, it’s a bit of a nightmare.

Olivia wakes up crying at 3am, Nicole the light sleeper also wakes up. Tired Nicole.

Tired Nicole is also Naughty Nicole. Naughty Nicole throws a fit at bedtime after they’re both tucked in, because she knows that if she yells I will be quite ticked off because then Olivia will wake up and/or not fall asleep.  Tired Olivia. Frustrated Mommy.

Tired Olivia goes to bed ridiculously early the next day, leading to her waking up ridiculously early and waking up Nicole. Tired Nicole. Tired Mommy. Frustrated Tired Mommy.

Cycle of DOOM!

So, Chris’ office is 90% moved into my craft room, which temporarily renders it unusable, but I’m going to make it work so we can share the space. We just both have to work hard to keep it clean. It’s going to be a rough ride but guess what? I’ll have so much more sleep and less frustration – THEORETICALLY – that I will be able to take on anything.*

So then we will be finishing the flooring and closet in that room, repainting it a neutral color just in case we decide to move this summer, and moving Nicole in. By week’s end, hopefully.

 

 

*I am fully willing to acknowledge that I may or may not be a pregnant hormonal mess who cries about anything and more sleep won’t likely adjust that much because I did get a decent sleep Saturday night but that didn’t stop me from tearing up when the minister prayed for the expectant mothers in the congregation and how they get tired and I was like YEAH I GET TIRED and teared up and then got all annoyed that I tear up over everything… and then got so annoyed over tearing up over everything that I teared up over tearing up over everything. But I got it together before the prayer was over so that’s our little secret. Just you, me, and the internet.

P52 2012 - Mallory Cowl

Today’s project 52 photo is of me, not by me. I figure I need to get in there every so often, though.

My husband fancies himself a bit of a photographer. I’m here to go on the record… that I agree and disagree. He can find focus on my manual focus lens pretty darn well, considering he rarely uses it. But a portrait photographer he is not. A less flattering set of photos I have never seen. Here we have the best and second best of the set.

Best – angle is still a bit unflattering for my head shape, but at least I’m smiling (at my girls who watched through the doorway.) When I saw these photos I went and checked for Double Chin, because I am known to get one if I’ve been slacking off and I have definitely been dipping into the poutine a bit lately. But my fears were fairly unfounded, things are not perfect and it’s time to start using the second trimester workout video that came in the mail today, but it’s not half as bad as the angle on these photos led me to believe. This is, however, one of the best of the lot.

Second best. Yes, this really was the second best out of about 20 photos. I was talking. I was asking if it looked better when I was smiling or not smiling, and if I should be looking at the camera or not. He was wearing a tshirt because he hadn’t bothered to put his jacket on and just wanted to get back inside.

How unprofessional. It’s like he doesn’t even take me seriously when I say, “Come take a picture of me in this cowl I knitted.”

I’ve already gushed on and on about the Mallory pattern. I used a knitca.com wool yarn and Shannon from luvinthemommyhood.com’s pattern. It’s perfect for Winnipeg where that little v neck on your peacoat is ever so stylish but terribly impractical. It’s doubled up, and if it’s –40 and the wind is howling I can do the one wrap around my neck and the other around my face. The wool isn’t like wearing silk, but it’s not too itchy either. I can wear it comfortably and will even likely knit up a matching hat.

I’m a knitting machine!

I can only assume that, like some sort of disease, knitting is contagious. I used to do knitting, when Nicole was just born. I jumped into it with both feet, starting off with a baby sweater. Things went swimmingly (despite my fear of cables) until I tried to knit a beautiful brown sweater for myself in a bamboo yarn. It took me a year of picking up and putting down (because I’d pause for a few months here and there) because it was a really fine gauge yarn. When I finally finished, the sweater was drapey, lovely, yummy looking. And absolutely positively did not suit my figure, at all. I was traumatized. I’ve barely picked up my needles since.

Then I repinned this little vest pattern, and a friend commented that she’d knit it and it was a quick, simple, lovely knit. Feeling bold, I knit it up for Olivia. Having made it too small, I made it again. This time it was a bit roomy but perfect, in my opinion. I had deliberately made it a bit long so it would last a long time. And then Nicole stole it and claimed it as her own, and because she’s kind of a twig, and the vest was made a bit roomy and long, it actually fit her. I did enjoy myself, and noted that knitting is quite good for watching Shows. But it was supposed to be a one-time deal.

More recently, Shannon finished her Adult Mallory Cowl pattern. “Well, that looks pretty simple.” I thought to myself. “I bet I could find my big-girl pants and make that.” Then I filed it away in my brain / Pinterest forever. OR DID I? No, the stars aligned. I won the ability to choose a WagJag deal from www.bargainmoose.com and the only thing that interested me was a $60 credit to www.knitca.com … soon after, there was yarn on its way. Lots and lots of yarn. “I can just crochet with the rest of it when I’m done the Mallory,” I thought to myself.

 

some of my lovelies; the first is already my cowl 

But no. I finished the Mallory up lickity-split. (stars have not aligned for that photo yet. I even put on makeup yesterday, and straightened my hair today. But no, not yet. On the bright side I look 57% better than normal lately.) And something was lit up inside of me. Something about those rows of little v’s… they called to me. My first love is still crochet, and I do have this pattern started, but then Olivia and my couch conspired together to have the hook go missing. I need to start buying doubles of my hooks, because is it just me, or do hooks go missing 600% more often than knitting needles? They fall out of your work so much easier. (although I’d cry if my kids pulled my needles out of my work. I’m pregnant, I can cry over whatever I want to cry over.)

So now until I have either found the missing hook or bought a new one, I’m starting up on this pattern. Both sweaters are for Nicole, but seriously, I know for sure that provided she doesn’t mutilate it, items knitted for her can be passed down to the next little girl. We may be betting on team pink, but I’ll still reach for the size four pattern first. Not to mention if I make something for Olivia she’s like “Oh clothes, can I rip them off easily to be free and naked? No? Then it’s not exciting.” Whereas for Nicole she’s so excited she’ll steal things from Olivia and stretch them to fit.

And if you’re wondering, pink. It’s all pink. I have some grey yarn and good intentions but the public cries out for pink. And the public includes daddy, of course. (the first pink yarn pictured is for this one, the second is for the flower bolero.)

Kicking Pillows

I’ve been on a bit of a pillow kick lately. I bought some sweaters a while back to turn into pillows for my livingroom and finally got around to it the other day. I have to shrink up the front pillowcase a bit, it’s a bit wide. The one behind turned out a bit sad and misshapen so it’s hiding back there for a reason, but it’s perfect to shove behind my back. The nicer pillow was kind of an ugly sweater, I think. Covered in pearl and rhinestone buttons, including the sleeves, it was… a lot. I paid around $2 and cackled all the way home, then asked Chris if he liked my pretty new sweater. I was expecting awkward silence but I like to take home ugly things and pretend I love them and then laugh and explain what I’m doing with them, so he had picked up on the pattern and was on to me. Whatevs.

When I did the second pillow I had learned from my mistakes a little bit, and decided I would make my pillow open-and-closeable. Next time again, I’ll do this a bit better; After I’d already cut out my pillow shapes, I decided to use the bottom hem of the sweater as my button plackets. So I had to piece it together a bit, but next time I would just cut off the bottom hem first and have the front and back pieces as two perfectly good placket pieces. This sweater had an actual hem instead of ribbing so it worked out quite perfectly. Add in some fabric-covered buttons and you have a happy pillow. Nicole tried to steal this sparkly princessy pillow and refused to give it back, until bedtime when she realized that sparkly gem-covered pillows aren’t great for putting your face on.

Pillow forms are about $5 a pop at walstoremartplace. So for the pretty pillow, which (mildly imperfect placket ignored) would have cost about $30+ and not been washable, I spent about $7.

And for the record, I used white thread and a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. Yes, my serger is perfect for this kind of project, but it had pink thread in it, which would have shown through. (ask how I know. Pillow number one, that’s how.) I have another project in mind which calls for that pink thread so I didn’t feel like rethreading it when a zig zag works perfectly fine and I knew this pillow had a life expectancy of about a year. (I have kids and a dog. The dog likes to sleep on it like a big priss, and the kids like to throw it on the floor for her because it looks funny.) After the pillow is permanently stained and half the buttons are gone, I can take the pillow form and make a new pillow! 

Tomorrow I’ll share an even cooler pillow project that will come with a bit of a how-to. I’m trying to decide if I should go for a full-blown tutorial, since I’m pretty sure I made it up, but I have to do a quick search first to confirm that. If I do do a full tutorial I won’t reveal the project until I do.

I’ve been very on-topic and that’s almost disturbing, so I’ll random it up a bit with a little tale I just remembered. I like to self-diagnose on google and WebMD and a few months ago I was feeling completely exhausted and under the weather. I had some cramping as well. I plugged all my symptoms into Web MD and I was informed that I was experiencing terrible PMS, or pregnant.

“Stupid WebMD. Wrong on both counts.”

Lol nope.

Friday Favourites

Does anyone feel crazy over how I spell that? If I recall, the American way is favorites. We Canadians do love to sneak u in wherever we can. Interpret that as you will.

 

If this isn’t the prettiest cookie I’ve seen all year, I don’t know what is. I kind of want to make them for Shannon’s knitalong and feign total innocence over my loose interpretation of knitted mittens. Except I think actual mittens would probably be easier.

 

Speaking of Shannon, she released her Mallory Cowl adult pattern this week! I have yarn on the way for this. Ironically, by the time the yarn arrives our butt-numbingly cold spell will have ended and we’ll be experiencing normal weather again. For now.

 

This needs no explaining. Where I found it on Pinterest, the linkback brings you to Facebook, but obviously this is brought to you by the cynical minds at www.someecards.com

 

I made this French Onion Soup last week. And then I ate it. And then when I could find it in me to fit more food in my body, I ate it again. And then I ate it again the next day. Because this is quite serious and generous when it says it serves six, and Nicole isn’t a soup person, and mainly because it’s amazing. I used Canadian Rye Bread (it’s a different creature. When we ordered rye bread in North Dakota, the waitress took one look at our bewildered faces and kindly said, “You’re Canadians, aren’t you…?”) and chedder cheese on it because it’s what was in my kitchen, and it was magical. This recipe calls for red wine, and it gives it a nice richness that just… yumm. I want to make it tomorrow.

 

Oh, how sweet, how fresh, how darling. This simple little leaves headband just makes me think of warm weather and fresh air. I love it.

 

Googiemama’s 4-bunk bed is only the beginning of as far as this lovely bedroom is concerned. Not only do each of the beds have their own light and privacy curtain, there’s hidden storage. There’s space to play. There’s a striped ceiling. There’s dresser space for four girls, and sparkly light fixtures, and some of my favourite colors. Go look, it will make you feel like a slacker if you painted your kids walls and called it a day last time you redecorated. (guilty.)

 

I think I have some more rad things I found this week but my monsterface baby is sitting beside me – she is supposed to be in bed, to start off with – and she’s pulling my hair, right in the back where it hurts. If I go “OW!” and scold her she laughs this out-of-breath-I’m-laughing-so-hard laugh. This baby does not take me seriously, at all. My mom-voice has been known to cause grown men to stop dead in their tracks. Stuff of legends here, folks.

But Olivia? Olivia laughs her bum off at me.

I never thought I’d be a mom who would ask her husband to give her kids trouble for her. But there are times when Chris walks in the room and I turn and desperately ask him to give her trouble for something, like pushing the glass top off the coffeetable or standing on the dining room table. If he sounds mildly displeased, she bursts into tears. I’ve tried all range of emotions, facial expressions, etc. and I am just a clown as far as she’s concerned. A sitcom character. I sincerely hope she outgrows this.

a monster, the likes of which the world has never known

And to conclude on yet another unrelated note, I’m in my second trimester now! Exciting. I celebrated by feeling the constant desire to put food in my belly lest I feel unwell. I need to stock up on celery or something…

P52 2012 - miles of smiles

Olivia greets me cheerfully while people-watching in the front window

This picture could definitely be sharper in focus, I’ve been coming to realize that my auto focus doesn’t actually necessarily do a better job than when I manually focus with my favourite lens. Kind of a bummer, actually, but at the same time a good thing; on both parts, because that means I don’t actually need a new lens, it won’t likely actually help me out that much. I could maybe use a new camera body so I can bump my ISOs without killing with noise, but boohoo cry me a river because that is not on the menu. Mama needs new shoes. Or rather, new places for shoes. More square footage. By reno or moving van, this just under 1000 square foot home is at maximum capacity with 3 adults, two children, a dog, a business, and a ridiculous amount of hobbies betwixt them all. Sometime in the next year, something needs tweaking. Time will tell!

Speaking of what time will tell, I heard Baby V3’s heartbeat yesterday! Always such an awesome thing. I hope I’m not alone in sort of suspecting that I’m not actually pregnant despite all signs to the contrary until that little galloping sound. Baby V3 had a heartbeat over 160, so we are placing our wager in the Team Pink category just for fun, old wives tales, and the fact that this is the third fast heartbeat in a row. But once again… time will tell!