New dress for the girl:
Grrr… A bit too big around the top, a bit too short overall… I may rip out the bottom and knit a few more rows, or just leave it as is and call it a tunic for summertime.
You may also notice that she has the standing down pat–it’s her favorite thing to do. She’s also picking up more signs and can now sign “dog” and most importantly, “brother.”
_
Not sure exactly which colors to pick, though…
My best friend from med school came out for a visit last week with her family. I was so excited for our kids to meet–she has a 4 year old daughter and a 2 year old son. The older kids met almost 3 years ago but obviously had no recollection of each other. When thinking of presents for the kids, B told me that her daughter was really into fairies, and her son into balls. What’s a knitter to do? Enter Sally the Eco Fairy and a set of knitted balls.
Not quite finished here–she needed a set of wings, hair, and eyes. In my usual fashion I was sewing these on in the car to Vail. While I managed to finish in time, my camera ran out of batteries so I don’t have a picture of the finished product, but will try to get my friend to send me one. Really, she is so cute–even my boy looked at it and told me, “Mommy, that doll is really beautiful.” Honestly, I don’t know if the girl will really love it–it seems that so many kids these days are more enchanted with plastic versions of toys that look like the movie characters they see.
The knitted balls are adorable too, and of course suffer from the same lack-of-camera syndrome. I almost put little jingle balls in them, but then took pity on the parents and decided against it.
I’m of course going to make a fairy for my girl–darker yarn, darker hair. I’ve realized that there are very few representations in children’s media that involve non white children or voices. Some I find frankly racist (the Latino car in the movie “Cars,” for example, complete with hydraulics and flame paint job). Sesame Street is going off the air, and Dora/Diego are so unpalatable that I can’t bear to watch. But Bob the Builder, Thomas, Curious George don’t really have any. Any thoughts on others?
On a recent museum trip ( with mild paraphrasing)…
Me: “Let’s go see if they have any paintings by Rousseau like in your book at home.”
A: “I don’t like Rousseau anymore.”
M:”Why not?”
A:”Because they took away that painting with the man who was firing up the books and the people said
‘nooo!’
M:”Oh, honey, that was Daniel Richter, not Rousseau.”
A:”Oh. Where is that painting now?”
M:”They moved it to a different museum.”
A:”Oh! Can we go to the Different Museum sometime to see that painting, because I really loved it.”
M:”Maybe, kiddo.”
A:”Mommy, is Rousseau dead?”
M:”Yes, he died a long time ago.”
A:”That makes me sad because Rousseau is my friend.”
M:”Sorry, sweetheart.”
A:”Is Van Morrison dead?”
M:”No, he’s not. He’s quite alive.”
A:”Oh! Can we go see him sing sometime? Because he is my friend!
Neil Armstrong and his moon lander
Remember “Mr. Wizard” from when you were a kid? No? He was this guy on TV who would do simple science experiments with kids. I loved this show and watched it obsessively, much like every other kids science show. “Newton’s Apple” with Ira Flatow? My heart still goes pitter-pat when I hear him hosting “Science Friday” on NPR.
Mr. Wizard
There was one experiment he did in which you mixed cornstarch and water together and played around with it. I recently found a book of science experiments for toddlers and found this in it. Remembering how much fun it had been, I did this the other day with the boy.
It’s pretty cool stuff. Cornstarch suspends in water, making a substance that is a liquid when poured or manipulated slowly but will act like a solid when hit. You can roll it into a ball but it will melt a second later.
We had a blast, talking about what is liquid and what is solid. And, really, it doesn’t make too much of a mess.
Okay, maybe by your standards it makes a terrific mess. But it really isn’t hard to clean up at all.
I’ve realized that my daughter gets a bit of a short shrift in these posts. Truthfully, it’s partly because she hasn’t been doing all that much. She’s wickedly adorable:
And as noted before will eat anything put in front of her. She is starting to sign a bit–she’s got “fan” “milk” and “more” down pat. We’re working on a few others. Her brother had over 100 signs at his peak, and it was really fun to be able to communicate with him that way. She also says “mama” and babbles a lot. We’re still working on the whole movement thing. She has figured out how to get around by a combination of rolling and spinning, but isn’t really all that interested in crawling yet. Who knows? She may surprise us yet and head directly for walking.
The boy is obsessed with Neil Armstrong.
At first, I thought this was another naming phase. At one point or another, all members of the family (and some friends) have had names corresponding to various TV shows. We have been Bob the Builder characters, Sesame Street muppets, and friends of Christopher Robin. At school, the boy read a book about the first moon landing and since then he has been Neil Armstrong. At first, I was Sally Ride, Sapana mawashee was Buzz Aldrin, and Eric was the mysterious astronaut “Billwam.” I’ve since been demoted to Neil Armstrong’s mom (sad, but true) but Neil persists.
This has now been going on for about 2 months, and it’s to the point where the boy asks to have his clothing labeled, “Neil Armstrong” instead of with his own, given name. He has built rocket ships out of cardboard, and loves to dress up at the museum:
But more recently, and somewhat bizarrely, he gets himself together like this:
This is when he is Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. He uses the links to connect himself to his toolbox and then proceeds to walk around the house, dragging the toolbox behind him, taking large wide steps. If he’s wearing pants with belt loops, the box is connected to those. He is almost always shirtless in this scenario, which makes me wonder exactly what “moon landing” book they were reading at school.
The girl, of course, has a name in this parallel universe.
She’s the SpaceDog.
No, not a gory doctoring post.
I was thinking about the differences between my two kids. Though I wouldn’t have believed it before becoming a parent, I’m beginning to think more that personality is determined at birth. Really, the Boy has always had that same look in his eye, the same fervent curiousity about the world around him and the same restlessness since he was born. The Girl hasn’t had as long to show herself, but so far she’s just sweet, happy, and there’s something really beautiful about her that just shines. (Someone, please remind me of this post when they are teenagers and slam their bedroom doors in my face and shout, “You’re ruining my life!! I hate you!!”)
To that end, this morning at the breakfast table I commented to Eric that the difference between the kids is that the Boy has more of an inner fire and the Girl has more of an inner light. I’m hoping this doesn’t come across as too cheesy. (I have an inner traffic light that is perpetually set to blinking red, if that helps)
The Boy was having none of this.
“I DON’T have a fire inside me!!” he kept insisting. “I don’t WANT fire inside me!”
“Well, what do you want inside you?”
“Just blood!!”
okay then.
I did say I was going to blog about the knitting, right? Somewhere in between all of the other things I’ve managed to finish a couple things.
First, the Clapotis:
I had some issues with this. When it was first done, I thought it was a bit frumpy and wasn’t too happy. After blocking it and ironing it (yes, it’s suggested by the manufacturer) it was pretty but a bit flat. I re-blocked it and scrunched up the drop stitch ladders and voila, a bouncy gorgeous scarf that is not frumpy. Make sure you compliment me if you see me wearing it–it will make me happy and I will get to say with false modesty, “Oh, this little thing? It was nothing!”
I’ve decided I quite like this pattern and may want to make another one someday.
The other recently finished piece is another scarf made from a gorgeous thick and thin yarn from ArtFibers in San Francisco. I was lucky enough to visit recently and make a pilgrimage trip to the store. It’s warm and yummy.
close up of texture
I’ve also learned that it is difficult to get a picture of yourself wearing a knitted piece if you are the one holding the camera, which is why there are no pictures of me actually wearing said objects. I’ve seen other pictures where people put them on stuffed animals, but I think that looks dumb. My son wouldn’t stand still enough for a picture, and my daughter would eat the scarves. I may be able to wrangle my husband into taking some pictures for the next one.
Next project: Lace Ribbon Scarf for my sister, which is coming along nicely.
No, this isn’t about the Girl learning how to walk. She’s really quite content just to sit there and shows no signs of wanting to crawl anytime soon.
I speak of myself, on skis for the first time. The whole family went cross country skiing yesterday, and had a blast. I was a bit skeptical after seeing cross country skiing so widely mocked, but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was. I like snowboarding, too, but you don’t really get much of a chance to enjoy the surroundings.
We stuffed both kids into a rented ski trailer:
Hooked them up to the ski sherpa:
and off we went!
and then, to the lodge for some well-deserved hot chocolate:
I did pretty well, with only a couple falls. At times I felt like an elephant with flippers, but I think I generally managed to get around okay. The Girl slept most of the way and looked a bit disgruntled the other times, as if to say, “Why aren’t you carrying me?” She’s never been in a stroller so she might have found it a bit confusing. The Boy just loved it. He kept searching the woods for heffalumps and was disappointed that we couldn’t go deeper into the woods to look for them as the trails were too steep for me. I think his favorite part was peeing in the snow, after which he proudly exclaimed, “I made the letter I!!”
fretzes on the loose 