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!

So Much Going On!

There has been a lot going on around our house, and yet, I have taken very few pictures these last couple of months.  It seems that I have even been too busy to use the camera!

I have joined a couple of committees at church and they have kept me very busy.  We rearranged our house so that the playroom is in the dining room and the sun room (formerly used as the playroom) is now the study.  This was done in part so that a totally kid-proof zone could be established (so that important paperwork, like bills, could not be manhandled by a certain toddler), but also so that I have an area where I can "go to work."  Several evenings after Sylvia goes to bed, I retreat to the study and begin my hours of volunteer work for the church (as well as various other things I am involved with).  I actually really enjoy this at is gives me something other than "mommyhood" in my life.

This was Sylvia when she was sick a few weeks ago.  The poor thing was very ill and suffered with a fever for several days.  I set her up in this green chair and here she remained.  This poor girl was so sick that when the yellow sippy on the chair spilled all its water on the chair and her outfit, she merely whimpered and repositioned herself so that the water spill was not directly underneath her.  I felt so badly for my baby!

Speaking of illness, the flu is making its way through our house right now.  Thus far Dave had it and was out of work two days as a result and I had it this weekend.  I truly hope it ends there and the girls are spared.  I hate how icky it made me feel and I can't imagine how uncomfortable the girls would be.

A couple of weeks ago Dave took a few days off for vacation.  One day during that time we took the girls to Dave's cousin's house in the middle of the state to see newborn goats.  These twin cuties were only six days old.

 Adorable, huh?

And these two cousins just keep getting cuter and cuter!  Here they are each sporting their favorite toys:  "Big Bruce" and "Big Elmer."  They each have smaller versions of this same toy and both have taken a fondness to them, so when I found the larger version I just knew they had to have them.

Veda (and Daxton) are now six months old.  At Veda's wellness check she came out all aces.  She is still quite itty bitty, weighing in at only about 13 1/2 lbs. (10th percentile), but she was exactly 26" and this puts her closer to the 50th percentile.

Here is a "comparison" shot of Lovebug and Dax.  At Dax's 6 month wellness check he weighed 19 pounds and was 27 3/4"!

In the end, though, these two are just such sweet babies and they are very lucky to have one another.  Cousins your own age is always so nice.

This is how we found Orva sleeping a night last week on our way to bed.  She was in the middle of the living room in this position.  She made us laugh and I just had to run and grab my camera.  I guess one can assume she feels very safe and secure in our house!

I know there is so much more that I could fill you in on, but with no pictures to help remind me of what has been going on I quickly forget.  This is one of the "tragedies" of motherhood, I am afraid.

30th Wedding Anniversary

Tomorrow, the 19th, is my parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary.  In my family we always make a celebration out of wedding anniversaries.  Each year deserves to be honored and recognized and I do believe that it is appropriate for close friends and family to celebrate with the happy couple.  A marriage is, naturally, primarily between two people but I do think that the encouragement and counsel of others is what often carries a couple through some of the more difficult times and praise for when a couple has mastered something is often what will spur them forward.

I have spent the last few months trying to think of an appropriate gift for them.  Money is very, very tight.  Time is very, very tight.  But my love and admiration for them is not.  The above is their physical gift.  Originally I was knitting rosebuds to form a bouquet, but I just couldn't get it to look quite right.  Then I had this idea instead-- surround this beautiful wood plaque with five rosebuds.  Two are Mom and Dad and the group of three are Stephanie, Lindsey (aka Rosco) and me.  Of course, there are several more members of our family now (I have added three myself!) but I guess I wanted to acknowledge first and foremost what they created as a couple:  Three girls.  I chose a rosebud because I believe we are all still forming into a mature beautiful flower, and I believe this takes a lifetime to accomplish. 

My parents have seen a lot these last thirty years and I have the utmost respect for the choices they have made, the journeys they have shared, and the love they have shown.  Thank you, Mom and Dad.

Friends

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend."
- Albert Camus

A Picture Story

So, as promised, I have finally returned and have lots of pictures to share!

Our Lovebug is getting so big!  She is really beginning to pudge out and she simply LOVES food.  She is also somewhat mobile.  Yesterday I watched her roll to retrieve a toy and she gets very angry if something is still out of reach despite all her rolling.

Sylvia got a backpack from Grandma a few weeks ago.  She cracks me up because she will want it put on her and then she will leave it on all day if I let her.  She is still not speaking much but she is as sharp as a whip.  She can follow "if, then" commands and her problem solving is simply amazing, and terrifying!  She continues to mimic what I do but it has gotten to be more complex things.  She tried putting a pair of pants on Babydoll, and this morning she nearly put on her own t-shirt.  She is now a relatively clean eater, having basically mastered her spoon and fork.  And despite her lack of words, she manages to communicate nearly everything she needs/wants with us very effectively.

A couple of weeks ago Sylvia and I met Heather and Alexis to go strawberry picking.  It was such a fun day!  We took a hayride to the plants and then we picked to our hearts content until the tractor came back to retrieve us.  Upon our return we got ice cream and strawberry plants to take home.  Then we walked to the barn and fed and pet a number of animals.  Sylvia had the best time and was a total wreck when I told her we had to go home.

They were very yummy berries!  At first Sylvia was really good about helping me pick them and put them in our basket but then she noticed that Alexis was eating them.  Suddenly, picking didn't seem as much fun and she indulged on the fresh from the vine berries instead!

This was the day before Father's Day.  We had my family get together then and we all sat around my dad while he shared stories of his father.  It was really neat and it was something that I was actually planning on asking him to do in the near future.  We never knew my dad's dad, not even my mom, so it was nice to hear my own father share his love for the father he had.

This was Dave and the girls on Father's Day.  He was so excited to be reading to his girls while both of them sat in his lap.  It was right before church and he hollered at me to get the camera so I could capture his special moment forever.

A dear friend of mine got these hilarious glasses for Veda.  They have owls that flip up (which is what you are seeing).  I made some "mommy cards" using this picture as the front, I thought it was so cute.

And here is Sylvia enjoying some of the fun aspects of summer-- playing in the water!  She had the best time and even kept pretty calm whenever the spray would get her.

My grandfather's home hosted "Country Days" last week and Mom and I took the girls for about an hour or so.  It was simply too hot to be there for any longer!  Sylvia saw several animals again and loved petting them all.

And the other thing this crazy girl insisted on doing was hug the trees.  Wherever we go she needs to hug the trees!

Just a couple of cute pics of Veda.  (And Sylvia has no idea her little sister was using her chair so don't tell her!)

Coming Soon

I realize I may need to reintroduce myself it has been so long since I have last updated.  We have not had internet lately.  My life can get quite crummy without internet as so much of my social being is connecting with people "virtually."  This week, other than my husband, I did not see another adult human for four days.  So, I am thankful for the technology we have that can allow me to "talk" with others even if I can't see them, but I can go rather nuts when I no longer have this access. 

We do have a connection at present, but now I am struggling to merge my old computer with my new computer (which is housing all my newest pictures but cannot connect to the internet for some unknown reason).

Anyway, all of this rambling can be summed up in a simple plea:  Stay tuned.  I will post again soon with many adorable pictures included.

Weekend Photographed

Veda got a new friend named Bruce.  And she loves him very much.  Big sister is jealous of Veda's new toy.

This is a posed shot.  I said, "Do you want your picture taken?" and she immediately stood in place with a big ol' grin and waited until after she saw the flash and heard the "click."  Yikes.

A parent's dream:  When asked if she wanted a snack, Sylvia ran to the fridge and pulled out the bag of vegetables.  She loves broccoli.  Don't believe me?  Check out the closeup:

She is a girl after my own heart.  I also love the stuff raw.  Dave just finds the whole thing rather icky.

Lady Bissell?  I have mentioned previously that Sylvia loves to help me vacuum.  Yesterday she hopped out of her bath and came running to assist me in my chore, no clothes necessary!

Yesterday was Veda's first real go at solid food.  The doctor originally wanted to wait until she was six months, but given her "petiteness" we were told to go ahead and begin trying now.  Sylvia was six or seven months before she had any real interest in the stuff.  Veda took to it immediately.  She is currently eating sweet potatoes (and will be for the next several days because of that whole allergy concern thing), and this morning she actually began to cry and fuss every time Dave took the spoon away to refill it.

Yummers.  She was quite pleased with her meal!

But the whole ordeal tuckered her out.  We gave her a bath and a bottle and she was soon out, and I mean OUT.  But isn't this one of the cutest pictures you've ever seen?

This is some of my most favorite yarn in the world.  Ria, Dave's "aunt" from the Netherlands, brought it over for me.  (Yes, they were here for another visit a couple of weeks ago.  I have been waiting to receive their pictures to get the best selection to share with everyone before posting about our wonderful time together.)  Alpaca has got to be one of the best fibres in existence.  It is stronger than sheep wool, is both warmer and cooler than sheep wool, has no lanolin (no itchiness factor), and comes in 16 recognized natural shades.  The skein to the left is an all natural, undyed yarn.  And have I mentioned that this stuff is soft?  I mean, it is really soft.  I am in love.