Ok but what about the yarn?

So yeah my kids are cute and all but the question I know is on everyone's mind is:

WHAT ABOUT THE YARN? WHEN WILL THERE BE YARN?

And the answer is...soonish. Honestly I thought Destination Yarn be fully functional and up and running again by now. Yeah. I underestimated how thoroughly outnumbered I would be with two kids. But I did ship off a big package to Yarn Cravin' ... and I have started dipping my toes into the whole dying thing again:

And really it didn't feel like the Fourth of July without dying up some America the Beautiful:

it's a tradition.

A really, really pretty, and rainbow-y tradition.

And this year I dyed it up in my new, previously unlisted on Etsy, base yarn "Letter".

OH IS IT SPROINGY.

So just to get the ball rolling I put a few skeins of that limited edition loveliness up on Etsy along with a few other fun summer colorways.

Other than that I'm working towards the Ohio Fiber Day at River Colors on July 16th.

Here's the blurb from their newsletter:

River Colors is hosting Destination Yarns and the Fiber Network to revisit (in some cases) and introduce you to a wonderful group of local fiber people. The Fiber Network are members of Ohio Proud and want to encourage you to support Ohio-based yarns and fibers. Destination Yarns is local dyer, well known for incredible colorways and River Colors is proud to have Jeanne back to sell her locally dyed yarns. As a team, we are hoping that everyone will then spread the word about our awesome local fiber resources. Join us on 7/16 where you can choose from yarn, roving and raw fleece from a variety of animals, including alpacas, goats, sheep and llamas. In addition, The Fiber Network has some expert dyers who are happy to share their dye process. Come meet our local people, learn about the importance of local yarns in the fiber world and celebrate our area!

I'm super excited about it! I think I'm going to try to have some sortof drawing for a spectacular door prize for anyone who shows up wearing a finished object made with Destination Yarn.  A little peer pressure might motivate me to actually finish that Citizen Shawl I started in Girl Scout Camp:


Unfortunately, though, the etsy site will be pretty bare-bones until after this show. I just don't have the depth of inventory right now to do both.

Someday, though, there will be yarn.  Lots and lots of pretty yarn.

The Toddler Breakfast of Champions

So. My toddler doesn't really do breakfast. Yeah. I know. Insert recommendation about kids doing so much better with a healthy start and childhood obesity and blah blah blah. I know. I've tried. She doesn't really like many breakfast foods and she's just too busy. Seriously. Her typical response to breakfast:

LET'S. JUST. GO.

And you know what? I feel exactly the same way about it. So we eat alot of granola bars in the car. On the few days I do manage to get her to eat something before noon it's because I offered her this:

The Toddler Breakfast of Champions (not really)

Step 1: Toast a frozen waffle.

I usually just get plain but if you really want to tell nutritional value to go screw itself you can use chocolate chip. Those are delicious.

Step 2: Slather with Nutella.

It's best if you do it as soon as the waffle comes out of the toaster so the chocolate goodness melts down into the waffles.  But if your life is anything like mine you put the waffles in the toaster and then 20 minutes and a whole lot of distractions later you remember they are there.  Meh.  Still delicious.

Step 3: Top with sliced banana



I prefer mine separate, thank you very much.

And that's it! Delicious and we'll pretend it's not so bad for you what with the protein in the hazelnuts and the vitamins in the banana. I've also used peanutbutter in place of the nutella before but then she wants jelly and at that point we may as just call it an early lunch.

Matching LEEOW SHOES and SKIRT.

So. I mentioned before that my daughter is now potty trained. And while I'm not going to talk about details (NO. Seriously. NO.) I will say that the most important thing about the whole process is finding something that motivates your kid. Mine? Was motivated by a combination of Bubbles, being a Big Girl, Yo Gabba Gabba Underpants, Elmo, Coloring, Shoes, and - I'm so not even kidding about this - me hula hooping.

Yeah.

Anyways somewhere during the middle of it all I took her to Target, turned her loose in the shoe aisle and said "You can pick whatever you want but you can't wear them until you potty all the time." (and now you have that Eddy Murphy song going through your head.  You're welcome.)

Shoes are a mighty motivator for this kid.

After examining every pair in the store she decided on the ones that I knew she would pick as soon as I laid eyes on them:

LEEOW SHOES. Leeow as in Meow with a L. I don't know why but she's always said it this way.

Kid loves her potty shoes. And wears them proudly. All the time. And since I believe that positive reinforcement is as important as negative (aka if you listen to mommy awesome things happen) I whipped up this little skirt to match:

I made it during a naptime after she was particularly good on a trip to the park. Listened to me, followed directions, left without a fight. All those things that make you feel like maybe something is getting through:

More gets through than you think, mommy.

The pattern is the MADE simple skirt. I didn't measure the fabric, just used selvedge to selvedge. Which meant this is less than an hour worth of sewing.

Less time sewing more time RUNNING.

I love how the tutorial calls for an extra line of stitching at the bottom and along the top of the elastic casing:

Details like that really take a project to the next level.

The fabric was, of course, picked out by my daughter. Jo Anne's is quite possibly her favorite place on the planet. Despite the um... trashy... tranny... shiny... insane... nature of the cheetah print with gold sparkles she loved it so much I had to get it.

I don't know what you're talking about.  Shiny and kitty cat?  How can that be anything but AWESOME.

Besides. Who cares if she looks like she's about to board a bus to Vegas with the over 65 crowd (or work there in one of the shows) when you get a reaction like this:

Her exact words? "OH. MY. GOODNESS. MOMMY MAKE IT UP A SKIRT. LOOK. HOW. SHINY."

Indeed.

It goes so fast.

So. I was prepared for the whole newborn phase to go by in a blink. Not a problem. In fact it's a damn good thing it goes so quickly b/c there's only so much sleep deprivation anyone can take.

Pictured: A child who sleeps through the night in his own bed.  AKA Not a newborn anymore, thank God.

And I tried to prepare myself for the thing everyone told me would happen with my first born. That she would instantly transform into this ginormous kid the second I laid eyes on the newborn. That I wouldn't have patience for how big she was and that she would seem so, SO different.

Those last few weeks I tried to force myself to remember her being small, remember her being a baby, before she wasn't. But you know what? That didn't really happen. She was still a little toddler and I really didn't know what everyone was talking about.

If anything it was the newborn that was odd. Impossibly tiny and fragile. He was the one I didn't know and didn't understand yet.

And then over the next few weeks she Grew Up.

No really. Somehow while I was distracted and sleep deprived she turned into this kid:

She has 5 new teeth since he was born. Including her molars (yeah that was fun).



She's measurably taller and her 2T stuff finally fits.

She's potty trained.

She no longer has her own little language. Yeah there are still some things I have to translate but not really.  Pretty much anyone can chat with he now.

Chatting and coloring with her buddy.

She speaks in whole sentences that make sense. Subject Verb Object type sentences. And uses pronouns correctly (most of the time.) It's no longer NEEEAH It's I and You and We.


We have whole conversations now. To the point where she *might* not speak in all caps anymore.  For example it's no longer just JUICE.it's "I have Juice Please?"

MORE AGAIN SPARKLER

 And she really taken to the role of Big Sister. She took it seriously from the very beginning:

Helping him get dressed to go home.  In the outfit she bought for him.

Leaving the hospital.  I thought she would want to ride with me.  Nope.  She wanted to help push b/c she?  Is a Big Girl.

Always with the helping.

But now it's all the time. "I help you. I help mommy."  "No. I do it." Or the phrase that she's been wanting to say since she was born:

"I do it myself."


And she just... looks like a kid. Her face has lost that baby roundness.

I'm not the type of mom who freaks out about my kid growing up  To be sad that the next phase is starting or any of that.  But when you take a step back and look at the big picture of what can happen in just a few weeks.  Let alone a few months.  Or a few years:

May 2009.  Same age as her brother is now.

It's pretty damn amazing.

2 month smiles

So I thought after that last post this blog needed some smiles:

My little guy is such a smiley dude.

Unless, of course, he's hungry. Or hot. Then it's REDFACE INDIGINANT SCREAMING.

What. I don't like to be hot. Just like my namesake (hi grandpa!).

But most of the time I get lots of these:


He had his 2 month appointment yesterday. He's 11lbs 4oz. Which is 50th percentile.  He's also 23 3/4 inches long - or 75th percentile.

I'm already bigger than my sister was at 4 months. Boob food for the win!

And he's so, so, SO close to really figuring out his hands.

Hey what's this? Can I put it in my mouth?

Wait.  Where did it go?

Oh there it is.

I also have to mention that a bunch of people have told me lately that they enjoy my updates. Thank you! Hearing that I'm not just talking to myself is pretty awesome. And makes me want to update even more. Even if it's just with silly pictures of smiles.  How about one for the road?

I love this little dude.

Hidden Gems

So I finally downloaded a whole memory card and a month and a half worth of photographs and amongst the pile of "seriously, you smile all the time. why won't you smile for the camera" pictures of the baby I found these gems:

I did not take them.

Why were they so upset? Where was I? How did Matt get her to put her arm under him while screaming like that? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

According to Matt: I knew you'd find those eventually and be really amused.  Yup. Highly amused.

And somehow posting pictures of kids screaming seemed all too appropriate after last night. I don't really have anything to add to the conversation that wasn't said much better in this article:

LeBron’s failure warms Cleveland’s heart

"The distaste for James didn’t come solely from the desperate...to suggest as much is to miss the entire point, to insult the entire region"

EXACTLY. In any case it was good to be a Cleveland fan today (for once).

Outtakes

So. I finally, FINALLY got the birth announcements in the mail. I think people probably got them today so I thought I'd share some of the outtakes.  Because to get one semi-usable photo where both of the kids look... sane... there are a billion that look like this:

Is she winking?  What?

Or this:

Redfaced angry baby.  Awesome.

Or this.

Screw it.  I'll use clipart or something.

Yeah. Noone was happy that day.

She's crying b/c she didn't have creative control over their outfits.  Seriously.

Perhaps I should have just used a picture of the dog.  She's pretty cute.

In the end - with some creative photoshopping - I think it turned out ok.  But I can only imagine what I'll have to do for this year's Christmas card. I'm guessing candy bribes will be involved.

Bitch, Please. (I tried so hard to caption this with something less cussy but... no. This is her "Bitch, please" look. No way around it.  She's 2 and has the death glare of a teenager.)

So anyways here's the final card.  Meh.  Could have been worse, I guess.  At least he looks adorable.

Initially Yours Blue Birth Announcement

To see Shutterfly's birth announcement designs, click here.

View the entire collection of cards.