Diapers

Today Emily chose pull-ups for her diapers. Does this mean she's finally ready for potty training? I dunno. However, isn't it odd that, with all these busy days and much going on, this is the biggest most exciting part of today.

Maybe it's the feminist in me

My toddler was playing with the iPad the other day and opened my Words With Friends App. The next morning I realized she had started a game with a person I play with but don't know personally (He was a random opponent like a month ago and we just keep playing).

I thought that was funny, and I now have two games started with him so I sent a message explaining: "My toddler actually started this game!"

He responded: "Wow! He must be really smart!"

Yes...SHE is.

That's the hell of equality for women. This could be a simple mistake, or just an autopilot. It could mean nothing. Or it could mean that it's far more expected for a male toddler to be smart than for a female. Which is unacceptable. Seriously, from a woman who spent her childhood hearing "She's really smart for a girl" it is really, truly, unacceptable.

On the twelfth day of Christmas

I got a five month old who not only sits up, but can play on her own. Today I watched as my tiny little baby happily sat on the floor and played with her giraffe. No help from Mama. No need for her sister to hold her up. When did she decide to grow up?

Sometimes, like yesterday, I think only the big things are worth noting. Then I have a day where my kids remind me that just watching them growing up is big enough.

2013

I have tried this blogging thing many different times. It goes in fits and starts - I'd get pretty good at keeping up, then stop as other things distracted me. The biggest problem was when I ended up doing something just a little interesting I'd be to busy with it to blog about it. So mostly I've blogged about the more boring parts of my life and as it is a tiny life already that can mean pretty mundane blogging.

This year I will try to blog about the interesting stuff.

We started the new year in Las Vegas. That sounds more exciting that it was. We celebrated early with a birthday dinner for my grandmother-in-law. It was a fancy dinner at Nove Italiano on the top of the Palms hotel. I believe our family will be debating which dish was the best for years to come ( in our house we're still trying to decide between the Nove Spaghetti with seafood to the 45 day dry aged New York strip with balsamic glaze).

Speaking of our house: we are not in it. Well, not till June at least. My husband has a military thing to do in Monterey, CA and we have moved all four of us out here for the next few months. The plan is for my husband to not miss the the baby's big milestones and to have a bit of an adventure as a family. So far I've been in Monterey for four days and I love it. We're enjoying the cold weather, so different from our home in Ewa, and I love the view of the ocean. I look forward to the trips and adventures that are so close to our little temporary home.

I also look forward to getting a chance to write about it and reflect on how awesome my life can be at times.

Yarn Along 9

I am not sure if it's just the second trimester energy bump or simple mania, but I have been a knitting/reading fool this week.

I just saw "The Hunger Games" at the theater (a trip to the movies without my toddler which was so, very, thrilling) and now that I have I feel comfortable reading on to the next books in the series.

I also have started one of those girly-feel-good-books.  I tried one a few month ago trying to make a story of strange women becoming fast friends all by being into yoga.  It kinda sucked.  This time I'm reading one about strangers becoming fast friends all by being into walking.  "The Wildwater Walking Club" is not that bad.  It's sorta cute and sorta annoying all at the same time.  My mother keeps getting me these books, so I'll keep reading them.  Even if they aren't the best.

In other news, after weeks of fighting with Interweave to send me something to me actual address instead of some random address they decided I must live at I finally got a copy of their Jane Austen 2011 special issue.  A lot of it is obviously warm weather stuff and I don't care.  I'm making every single thing in that magazine.  All 36 patterns.  (P.S. The articles are also really good if you're into the history of fashion and knitting.)

On the needles...what's not on the needles?  I still have the baby dress going.  Only 20 more rounds till it's finished.  I expect to bind off sometime tomorrow.  On Saturday my husband and I are hoping to go to a party themed around "white" so I made him a white superhero mask (just finished blocking it) and I'm making me a fascinator hat.

It's from an issue of "Knitting Today!"  I saw on ravelry that lots of people tried this pattern but got annoyed at the amount of i-chord it required.  I thought they were crazy.  Then I re-read the pattern:  4 yards of i-chord.  144 inches.  Ugh.  I'm 2.5 yards in and I am quite frankly sick of making i-chord.  And I used to think it was so much fun.  In other news...my toddler just LOVES playing with the yard stick.  So much so that when I use it to find out how far I've gotten she throws a huge fit.  Even if she wasn't playing with it at the time.  Mommy is not allowed to have the yard stick.

Other projects:  Practicing my crocodile stitch in crochet and attempting to put it over a paddle.  Working on two shawls, one in thread and one with said crocodile stitch.  And I decided to re-start the Jan Sweater in earnest...which I didn't do at all because I was making i-chord.  But I decided to be earnest about it.

I also discovered the "que" portion of ravelry, which means I have set up a bunch of new projects and designated my stash yarn to them.  Which is probably better than me just casting on another project...I'm planning to cast on another project.  However, it's not as satisfying.

So that's my crazy knitting mania week.

Cravings

Yesterday I was asked if I had any crazy cravings during this pregnancy.  I wanted to give the funny story he was hoping to hear, but honestly I couldn't think of any cravings I had had yet.

I can think of some now.

I wanted pickles in the first trimester.  We didn't have any in the house though, so after Christmas when I had come home from seeing my parents my husband had stocked up on pickles for me...I didn't really want them anymore.

A few weeks ago I wanted Oreos.  I blame this on NPR which had a bunch of different shows run a story on how Nabisco had to find a new marketing strategy for Oreos in China.  Now it's a big cookie over there.  They talked about Oreos so much I wanted some for weeks, but held off because they aren't exactly the best snack.  I finally got a package, finished it off in a few days, and now I'm over it.

Yesterday I wanted Halo Halo (a Filipino desert).  The nice thing about living in Hawaii is that you can just get Halo Halo mix (dried fruits, beans, etc in syrup) at any supermarket.  Not only is it that easy to get it I actually had some in my pantry.  Even better.  I also found a package of pudding mix (my Dad always made Halo Halo with pudding instead of condensed milk - I like it that way better).  So, right then and there I craved a food and I could make that food.  The jar of Halo Halo even said "easy open."  Perfect.

It was not easy to open.  I spent 20 minutes trying to whack that thing open enough to turn it.  I finally gave up on the Halo Halo and had a peanut butter sandwich.

And here's the real problem with me having those typical crazy cravings and crazy times.  With Emily we were in Korea where my husband had a curfew at night.  It was an attempt to keep military members safe and out of trouble in a land of bars.  So if I did wake up at midnight and crave, say, ice cream - I was out of luck.  He couldn't go out and get me any.  I couldn't really either because a woman walking around Songtan alone at night is not-a-good-thing.

Now that we're in Hawaii there is no curfew anymore.  However, my husband works the wonkiest schedule ever.  Sometimes three days on, sometimes five.  Sometimes in the day, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes at night.  During the week.  During the weekend.  Sometimes he has to go in for 8 hours, sometimes it's 12 - usually it ends up 20.  So it sucks.  Bad.  I never know when he'll actually be home and I never know when he's home if he'll be awake.  And a wonky schedule with a tired husband and a crazy toddler means that half of my house is often off-limits just so he can get a little shut-eye.

So during my Halo Halo attempt he was actually home.  He could have helped me open the jar.  In a normal family he could have driven down the street and actually bought some real Halo Halo.  But he was sleeping because he had been out at 5am to 1pm and was gearing up for work starting at 8pm.  Incidentally, I'm writing this at 7am the next day and he's not home yet.

The thing I'm taking away from all this is it's exceptionally inconvenient to be pregnant when you're in the military, but if you are going to be pregnant - don't be typically pregnant.

I don't crave pickles and ice cream: I crave my husband.

Baby Alpaca!

I took a trip to Goodwill today.  I was in theory going there to find a large pot in order to cook huge amounts of pasta, but I like to look around and see what all is in there.  A few weeks ago when my parents where here we went looking for some clothes for my Dad.  While he got some shirts I found a skein of italian mohair for 99 cents.  Not a bad find, not bad at all.

Today, however I found a bunch of fun stuff.  Including, for 99 cents, two skeins of baby alpaca yarn.  It is so darn soft and lovely that when I brought it home I spent a good half hour stroking it and rubbing it against my cheek.  I would have rubbed it against my baby bump too...just to give the baby some alpaca yarn, except Emily started to get interested:

Yep, she loves it too.

We spent the rest of the afternoon alternately petting the nice yarn.  I have no idea what project this would be good for, but man is it nice to snuggle with now.

In other news the guy at Goodwill said that they had actually received four huge things of yarn.  I had cleaned out what was on the floor today (and picked up the mohair earlier) and he said there was more in the back.  They package this stuff in a weird way.  I had to buy some skeins of Sugar'n Cream in order to get both of the alpaca.  I also got some alpaca blends, and other pretties that I had to buy three bags to get the whole set.  I worry there may be more of this alpaca yarn in the back...waiting to be reunited with it's other alpaca friends.  Also, it'd be nice to have more than two skeins so I could have more project choices.  

Guess who is going to be haunting the Goodwill all week?