And I'm spent...*

There has been a lot going on in the past week and a half. Baby Girl got her first ear infection last week, along with her first fever and first medicine. While we were at the doctor’s office, she left the room to go write the prescription and left the door open. From down the hall I could hear two of her nurses talking and one was telling the other, “That’s like the fifth baby we’ve seen today with an ear infection. I can’t believe how many little babies are coming in with that today.” I wasn’t surprised by the diagnosis because my son had tons of ear infections, so when I saw how she was acting, I knew that it was her ears. Hopefully she won’t have them as frequently as the boy did, but since she’s in daycare I suspect she will. Just another reason to make me long to stay home. Damn those mortgage payments and utility bills.

Remember the cute little pink sweater I showed off a couple of posts ago? Well, I ran into a little problem. As I was getting ready to sew the side buttons on, I took a good look at the neck opening and realized it looked a little small. I tried to put it on the baby anyway. Believe me, I TRIED and she wasn’t too happy about it. There was no way it was going to fit over her head so I resigned myself to the fact that it is just too small and frogged it. I learned an important lesson about gauge – it does matter in a knitted garment for a baby. Then I swatched with several different size needles and I have started it again using size 10 needles (where the pattern calls for size 6), and get this, I’m exactly on gauge. Gauge…who knew?

I just got a call from the boy’s pre-K teacher (who I adore, by the way) and she wanted to let me know about his day. He was standing on the furniture, very disrespectful to both the teacher and her assistant, and was apparently very liberal with his use of the word “no” today. So instead of going outside to play with the rest of the class, he had to stay inside with the teacher which he didn’t handle very well. He cried and told her he would “be good” and they had a lengthy discussion about appropriate behaviors and making good choices. Bless her, she was consistent with him and hopefully tomorrow he WILL make better choices. I apologized and told her that we were working on some of the same issues at home. She’s aware that there are lots of changes going on right now with the new baby and starting school and losing nap time (which I think is the single biggest contributing factor to his behavior) so we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully he can get adjusted soon.

*Does anyone remember that line and which movie it’s from? I can see Mike Myers saying it, possibly in one of the Austin Powers movies.

Big boy

The boy officially started school on Monday. He goes to pre-K for 2 ½ hours each day, and so far he really seems to like it. I walked him to school on Monday and I told my husband later, “This is really weird. I don’t even feel like crying. Maybe the whole post-pregnancy hormones are finally back to normal.” Then when I walked over to pick him up, I saw him lined up against the wall with the rest of his class and he looked so grown. I felt the familiar lump in my throat and my eyes started welling up with tears. I looked away quickly and managed to keep myself together long enough to find his teacher and ask how he did. She said, “He did really well. We’re still working on learning the rules and he’s got a lot of energy, but overall it went well.” A lot of energy, huh? I think that’s code for “holy crap, your child needs to be on ADHD meds.” I’m telling you, he has fully earned the nickname Crackhead. His teacher seems really nice though so we’ll see how the year goes. Here are some pictures:

He looks thrilled in this picture, no? I assure you he was excited. He was just annoyed that we had to stop and take a picture. And how cute is he in his uniform? Even though he's attending public school, they have a uniform policy and let me just say that it made school shopping quick and painless, not to mention cheap. I hope he always has to wear a uniform.

And here we are on our way home. Sigh. My boy is growing up…

Need an opinion

I'm have finished knitting a cute little outfit for the girl and I'm now in the dreaded "finishing" stage where you sew buttons on and weave in all the ends. I'm happy with the top, but I'm not so sure about the diaper cover. The top has a cute little crocheted trim around the edges. Do you think the diaper cover needs some of the same in the variagated pink? I asked the husband last night and he said yes, but I'm sort of torn between adding some crochet edging and leaving it plain. And if I add some edging, would I add it all over or just certain spots? What do you think?

Three months

I can hardly believe it has been 3 months. Didn’t I just give birth yesterday? Jeez… So anyway, what can I tell you about Miss Kelsey lately? She smiles all the time and has started vocalizing more with the most adorable little noises. She has excellent control of her head and neck and likes to sit up so she can see everything. She also likes for you to hold her upper body while she stands up, and she can actually support her own weight for a little while. She usually only wakes up once a night for a quick feed, and she is a great sleeper. At the risk of jinxing myself, I will go so far as to say she’s an incredibly easy baby. She only poops once every few days and she seems to go more at daycare than at home so the odds of me actually changing a poopy diaper are amazingly low. How awesome is that? Of course, if I do happen to be the lucky one who gets to change her, it more than makes up for all the ones I might miss. But that’s enough about that. I know what you really want to see are the pictures, right? Well, here you go:

An incredibly generous coworker of the husband gave us a wicker laundry basket filled with goodies for the kids. I was blown away by this gift because she had made two quilts and a crocheted afghan. And as if the handmade gifts weren’t enough, she also included a Build-a-Bear for each kid. Kelsey's bear is just a little bit bigger than her right now.

But wait – there’s more. Each bear was wearing an outfit and she sent along an additional outfit for both bears. The boy’s additional outfit was a fireman’s uniform. If there is anything in this world that the boy absolutely loves, it’s firefighters and firetrucks. After asking me to help him change his bear into the fireman’s uniform, he found last year’s Halloween costume and put it on. I can already see us dropping a fortune at the Build-a-Bear stores in the future or, heaven forbid, having a birthday party there. Guess I better start saving now.

I think it’s also safe to assume that he loves his quilt. You probably can't tell in this picture, but this quilt is machine stitched in a fancy swirl pattern.

Here are better pics of Kelsey's quilt and afghan:

It reminds me of little fences or partial train tracks. It's very cool.

And lastly, a couple more Kelsey pictures:
Milk Belly

Aunt KatyaR got her the hat and we just HAD to buy the matching bikini. She seemed to enjoy the water too.

That's all for now. Stay cool out there!