Sylvia Runs Away and the Solution to World Hunger

So, I am back.  And this time I have more pictures than I ever have had before.  After the shame I felt with my last post realizing how few pictures I had taken over the course of two months, I quickly whipped out my camera and tried to make up for lost time.  I think I may have nearly succeeded.  The Little Pumpkin was frequently more than willing to help, as she would walk around the house and suddenly turn to pose (see above).

Speaking of the Pumpkin, this girl continues to make me smile and laugh every single day.  I didn't know a person could evoke that from me so regularly.  Her favorite song is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and she even manages to do some of the hand motions:

She is also totally smitten with Sesame Street right now.  Thanks to my mother-in-law we do have a decent Sesame Street video collection, so I am not watching the same dvd every evening before bedtime.  But, so many of those same video clips are used again and again and again in that show . . .   It reminded me of why I decided I "outgrew" Sesame Street when I was four; I was sick of the redundancy.

Sylvia continues to mimic nearly everything I do.  From "spreading" hand lotion on her little hands to feeding her dolls and animals:

She also vacuums.  There is a story to this little toy vacuum (see below).  Sylvia has always loved my big, real vacuum and has tried to help me clean the carpets several times (as has been seen in a previous post).  Dave's mom found this cute little toy vacuum at a consignment shop and I assumed it would be perfect and would free me with not having to vacuum only at night (after Sylvia is in bed and can no longer offer her assistance).  I was wrong.  She was terrified of this toy.  She can handle the ear pounding roar and the powerful suction and immense size of the real thing but the toy that offers only a tiny hum and no suction proved to be too much.  After much coaxing and prodding she still wouldn't budge.  I finally put the toy on top of the shelves in her play area a day last week, thinking maybe we could try again in a few months.  The very next day I began to vacuum a small area of the rug and the Pumpkin began to whine and complain and point to that only-hours-before-terrifying-vacuum.  I retrieved it and the results can be seen here:

Meanwhile, our Lovebug is on the rapid move!  It is to the point that I have to really weigh my options:  Do I go tearing after the toddler holding onto all the cash our family has as she makes a beeline for her diaper pail, knowing full well that while I am chasing her the infant is probably putting herself in a potentially dangerous position in the other room?  Or do I rescue the infant but watch our grocery money go into a pile of poop?  Don't believe me?  These are two locations I found Veda the other day within a twenty minute window of time:

Sure, she's smiling.  She always smiles when I come running to her rescue, but I think it's because she already likes the thrill of making her mother panic with worry.  Good gravy, please don't tell me we have a snowboarder or mile-high tight rope walker in our midst.

Veda is, quite obviously, pretty stinkin' cute.  Her sister has begun to notice this and the green monster of jealously has been rearing its ugly head.  Sylvia has two ways to deal with the competing cuteness of her sister.  The first approach is the scare-her-with-too-much-love tactic:

When this fails, the second approach is simply to pack up and move out:

 Auf Wiedersehen!  But just when I think I have gotten rid of her and my life has become slightly easier with fewer crumbs to pick up and fewer toys scattered about my living room and a fifty percent decrease in dirty diapers I see this:

Maybe she'll get further down the driveway next time.

So, what have I been doing other than my ever present vigil over my children?  Why, knitting, of course!  (Well, and cleaning and cooking and doing church work and organizing our crap to host a garage sale this past week and a few other odds and ends here and there.)   Last night I even finished my first Christmas present for the year.  It still needs to be blocked but it's completely knit already.

It was recently Dave's folks' 35th wedding anniversary.  I made them these washcloths.  I know this seems a rather odd item to give a couple for a wedding anniversary, but here's the thing:  I saw the colourway this yarn had to offer and these three colors simply popped out as being my mother and father-in-law.  I am not entirely sure why.  I think the orange is because MIL is fun and loud and a joy to have around.  The blue is my FIL, more reserved and loves to be lost in a deep sea of books and writing.  And the green reminds me of some of my favorite time spent with them.  Summers.  For some reason when I think of going to their house it conjures memories and feelings of sitting in their cool house with the windows open and a gentle summer ray of sun shining through.  I think of reading and talking and taking walks with Dave down his old street.  I think of cracker dinners and laughing.

As the yarn is a cotton-linen blend, washcloths were the perfect creation.  I do not particularly enjoy knitting with a cotton-linen yarn but I simply adore the end product.  Linen is a fabulous fiber that gets softer and softer with each additional wash.  And cotton is a naturally soft and gentle fiber on its own.  The combination of the two is truly something glorious.  Just like my in-laws.

Oh!  Here's a zucchini Dave brought home from work.  It came from a colleague's garden and it could feed an entire village in China.

Until next time!