het fortuin

In which our heroine goes on vacation, loses 5 lbs in 3 days, and finds herself working (outside the home) again.

Oh, my!  Where does the time go?

Quick recap of where I've been for the past month:

DH and I went to New York.  We had a lovely weekend away from the kids.  The only downside was that in order to have the lovely kids-free weekend, we first had to drive them 8 hours (much of that through a blizzard) to their Nana's in MN.  And then do the same on the return trip (sans blizzard, this time).  The end result was that the relaxation time we did get was sandwiched between some very stressful times and I think it left us both feeling like, "Vacation?  What vacation?" 

Then we all got sick.  Scout and I were really, really sick.  I got the lovely double whammy of the upper respiratory flu followed by the lower GI flu.  Lost 5 lbs in a matter of days but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it!  I was really weak for several days afterward. 

Just when I got my strength back, I started a stint subbing for the Elementary teacher at the Montessori school and was subsequently so exhausted at the end of every day that I could barely climb into bed every night, much less summon the required brain cells to blog eloquently about my day's experiences!

Anyway, here we are, heading into Henry's Spring Break.  I decided on the spur of the moment to take him on a Mommy-Henry trip to see Aunt Barb in Annapolis, so we're doing that next weekend.  Today I am making my Sunday Pilgrimage to Costco and then taking him to try out his new ice-skates at the rink before he starts figure skating lessons (in 2 weeks).

The big news is that come August, I will be a working mom (well, outside the home anyway) again!  The school has invited me to come back as a classroom assistant for the Elementary teacher.  I am thrilled because I'll be at the school with my own children and share their hours/schedule.  I do love working with that particular group of kids and because I'll be an assistant, my hours can be somewhat more flexible than if I were a classroom teacher.  The caveat is that I'll be working in Henry's classroom, but I'm confident we can work out the right boundaries so that my being there won't impact his experience.  (Which mostly means, I will have to get over it if he winds up getting in trouble with the teacher, or if she tells him he's not ready for something that I feel he IS ready for!)  Actually, I don't feel like those things will be a problem.  I am having some trepidation over whether he is truly ready - read:  mature enough - to begin Elementary in the fall.  He will be by far the youngest first-grader she has ever had.  Not to mention that there will be others joining him in the first grade that don't exactly bring out his best qualities!  However, I have to remind myself that it is still five months away and he can do a lot of growing and maturing in that time.

Oh, and finally - we looked at a Honda Odyssey last night.  As far as minivans go, it is a nice one.  I just feel depressed at the thought of giving up my Passat...I just love that little wagon and her lovely German engineering!  Once you go German you can't go back IMHO.  But the Passat isn't meeting my needs to a T anymore.  I need to be able to haul more kids and it's a huge pain in the ass to cram a third booster seat in the Passat.  I may have to come to terms that at this point in my life, my practical needs outweigh the aesthetic ones.  It's hard to think about being one of the scores of Ody drivers out there, though.  Every parking lot is just lousy with them.  Oh, well.  There is obviously a reason why so many people drive them!

OK, off to clean up and steel myself for the Sunday afternoon Costco crowds...UGH! 

Knitting Lesson #1:

"When you begin knitting, you will get a swelled head. You will think that just because you successfully completed a project that suddenly any and ALL projects are within your reach. You will feel a compulsion to begin promising to knit things for other people. RESIST THIS URGE. You will realize that knitting to a deadline is much less relaxing than when you were just knitting for the fun of it. You will come to understand that just because other knitting bloggers can complete an entire cabled sweater with matching felted slippers while watching one episode of 'ER' does not mean that you can. Those people are of the insane sort known as "the childless". They do not reach the end of each day with a to-do list a mile long and energy sources depleted beyond measure by potty learning, dog wrangling, and 5-year old question answering.

Which brings me to Knitting Lesson #2: Learn to knit well in advance of having children, and immediately make EVERY cute kids' pattern you can find. Because once you HAVE children, even if you could find time for knitting, you must continuously change your secret hiding place of yarn and knitting needles because they look like a LOT of fun! And because ocular impalement with a knitting needle is generally frowned upon in the Pediatric ER, you will need to keep your knitting supplies stashed in a high place - preferably in the top of the chimney or perhaps on a sattelite. Making it kind of hard to just sit and purl a few rows when you have a free moment.

To make matters worse, I promised (AGAIN with the promises! Sheesh!) the kids that I would make their Waldorf dolls by Valentine's. Which, when I promised it (before Christmas) seemed infinitely do-able. Aaargh.

I finally decided enough was enough with this godverdomde sinus infection and dropped in to Convenient Care yesterday. I was basically seen by George from "Gray's Anatomy". I had to kind of laugh, he not only looked just like him but had the same goofy mannerisms. Anyway, who cares? He hooked me up with antibiotics and Allegra. Whoopee! Only - and this happens to me with Allegra sometimes - it knocked me out completely at 9 p.m. but then I was wide awake at 3 a.m. So I'm dragging a lot this morning.

It's my turn to go get my eyes checked this morning, and then I guess I'd better come home and knit my butt off. We should probably attempt to get the kids outside some today as they've promised us 45 degrees and sunny!

I find you!

Scout's got two new games of her own invention.

In the first, she suddenly turns to you (you have, in most cases, been sitting right next to her for some time already) and squeals, "I find you!" At this point, she is so impressed with her own cleverness that she dissolves into peals of laughter. Then she pauses for a moment (ostensibly to allow you to forget all about her again) and repeats the process.

The other game is this:

Scout: "Mommy..."
Me: "Yes, honey?"
Scout: "Why."
Me: "Why?"
Scout: " 'CAUSE!" (uproarious laughter)

Suffice it to say, she is keeping herself quite entertained lately!

I spent the weekend pretty much wrapped up in either 1)the cookbook fundraiser for the school; 2)other writing stuff for the school; 3)interviewing and hiring a new babysitter (we like her, YAY!); 4) cleaning the house in anticipation of said babysitter's arrival on Saturday since we of course wanted to make a good impression.

Note two GLARING absences from my weekend calendar: no COOKING and no KNITTING. So, although I really did accomplish a lot, I still felt cheated because all I really wanted to do was make some healthy and yummy food for my family (we've been eating out of boxes a lot lately and I hate getting into that routine) and I really wanted to invest some major time in my knitting and/or making the Waldorf dolls for the kids' Valentines presents. Oh, I guess I did make one doll head on Sunday afternoon. But if I'm going to have those done in time for valentine's day (and the poncho ready for Cammi's birthday in a couple of weeks) I am really going to have to get moving.

Not to mention it's time for Henry to make his Valentines for school. What a job THAT will be. I hope he and I can come up with something really easy so he can do as much as possible on his own.

I did some Pilates and cardio this morning and I can already tell that my muscles are going to be aching tomorrow! I'm embarrassed to admit just how long I've been sedentary. The good news is, I'm not in as bad of shape as I would have thought...I could keep up pretty well so my aerobic fitness and muscle tone hasn't deteriorated as much as I had expected. Which might turn out to be a problem because I think I did a bit too much for my first morning out. You know, you get used to the concept of yourself as capable of a certain activity level and then you sort of expect to just jump back in at that level despite many MANY months of inactivity (and pigging out). Oh well, I hope it means that even though I'll probably be really aching tomorrow, that it won't take as long to build back up to that level of fitness as it did for me to achieve it the first time around!

Well, the girl's definitely got the idea

Alternative Title:  Adventures in Toilet Training

Scout has recently shown a definite preference for using the regular toilet (with an insert) over the little potty seat.  So I had collected all the Baby Bjorn potty seats from the 3 bathrooms and, for lack of anywhere else to store them, had shoved them in a corner of my closet for the time being. 

Tonight, Scout was pitter-pattering around in the master bedroom so I went upstairs to see what she was up to.  She met me at the door, sans pants (which is not uncommon) and said, "Come see, Mommy!  Follow me!"  She led me into the closet and showed me the three potty seats, all lined up, and a great big poo in the middle one!  She was so proud.  I was proud, too - she could have just done it in the middle of my bedroom floor, but I guess the moment struck at the right time and even though the actual toilet was only 6 feet away, the potty seat is a perfectly acceptable alternative.  I had to laugh, wondering if she had tried each seat in turn to figure out which one she wanted to actually use. 

It seems as though the whole toileting concept is clicking with her lately.  She frequently announces "Potty!" either while she is going, after she has already wet her pants, or - about 25% of the time - before she has to go.  I've been pretty good about sticking to a regular schedule for sitting on the potty so she can start to predict the times - before/after meals and naps, etc. - and again about 25% of the time she will actually go when she sits on the potty at one of these regular intervals.  Her bowels have been irregular lately and she's had some constipation issues which I don't like to see her struggle with, but at the same time it makes it easier to spot her working on it and whisk her off to the toilet!

I think the nighttime training is going to fall into place for her right along with the daytime.  She likes to strip naked every night right after we put her to bed.  We always stop in and dress her again before we go to bed ourselves, but sometimes she strips again after that.  So a couple of nights a week, she will wake up after wetting the bed.  Which is a big PIA right now since she's in the big bed and that's a bit more of a headache to make up in the middle of the night than the floor bed was.  However, I do think that even though it's a hassle for us, it's helping her with toileting.  Several times, she's banged on her door during the night to let us know that she needs to go potty!  So when she's able to wake up enough to realize it before she actually goes, she's taking the next step to trying to get to the bathroom.  She doesn't always make it, though.  I'm definitely going to need Stanley Steemer to come soon!

Otherwise, she's handled the transition to her big bed with absolutely no problems at all.  She hasn't fallen out once.  Of course, today we found her stranded on top of her dresser...sigh.  That was to be expected.  The girl's always been a climber.  We met up with Denise and Lena at McD's yesterday and they were shocked at the situations Scout got herself into!

Tracy needs...

OK, I've seen this a few places and finally decided to give it a whirl.  Google "[your name] needs" and see what you get.  My results:

Tracy needs...
Tracy needs comments
Tracy needs wins to get back in title battle

Tracy needs to make the most of these cycles

Tracy needs a sanctuary
Tracy needs bigger boat

Tracy needs to step off the soapbox and tell stories

Tracy needs a family

Tracy needs to be gently coaxed through the process

Tracey is looking for somewhere to live after being evicted
Tracy needs you!
Tracy needs to be taken to task a little here
Tracy needs your attention
Tracy needs an additional water supply
tracy needs to work a little bit more
Tracy needs to develop more fully the extremely important
implications of his claim that as agent God can (and does) perform specific acts ...
“I think Tracy needs me to hold the baby.”
Tracy needs to do an impression
Tracy needs to testify against Big Boy
Tracy needs no such farce to put across his points
Tracy needs more

OK, that was more fun than I thought.

Daisy Does America

If you are not already watching this show, START NOW!  She's adorable and I want her to be my new best friend.  You can also catch Daisy Donovan in the movie "Millions" which is equally adorable.  We watched it with Henry the other night and we all enjoyed it, but Henry was very upset when the boy's cardboard house got smashed.  Throughout the movie he kept asking when it was going to get fixed.

I am about 25% finished with Cammi's poncho.  I hope it will be okay, maybe I should be making something a bit more kicky and fun for her.  I actually started it for me about 6 months ago and it languished, and now frankly I am past the whole poncho craze so I decided to make a smaller version as a gift.  But the yarn color and pattern style might be a bit sedate for a 7-year old.  I guess I'll keep working on it while I make up my mind. 

Meanwhile, the rest of my dollmaking supplies just arrived from Magic Cabin.  Henry has requested that I make them king and queen dolls.  Which means, I'll have to make them some royal duds too!   I'm going to shoot for having them done in time for Valentine's Day. 

Remember when you had a life?

I almost felt like I had one again today!  I met a pal at the mall for shopping and lunch, and boy, was it fun!  That's one thing I have really missed since moving here and having the kids.  I have a small circle of friends, but haven't really had anyone that I could meet up with for shopping, lunch, movies, etc.  The kinds of activities I used to enjoy pre-kids!  Anyway, I had a nice day out and aside from a couple pair of jeans for Henry (which he really needed since he's still wearing his high-water size fours) even bought some things for myself!  And best of all, I can finally stop carrying around the Coach store credit slip I've had in my purse since December 2004.  For a whole year, I haven't been able to find anything in that blasted store that I wanted.  Everything had TASSLEs this year.  FRICKING TASSLES.   So I was very excited to walk in today and find a perfectly gorgeous little shoulder bag that was adorable.  Snapped that baby right up.

So, we made the Big Move yesterday and set up Scout's Big Girl Bed.  I was surprised that even Jason got emotional about it.  Not the "no more babies" part, but the "she's growing up so fast" part.  Of course, all that was tempered with a heavy dose of "what the f&%#, these bedrooms are so f'ing small" because once we put the twin bed in there, we had a heck of a time figuring out how to cram the remaining furniture in.  We did some swapping around and found an arrangement that is safe and looks halfway decent.  She slept in her new bed just fine last night.  The only thing left to do is to get some room-darkening lining for the backs of her curtains because we had to disable the blinds.  The only feasible furniture arrangement basically creates a handy stepstool for her to climb up (and SHE WILL) and strangle herself in the blind cords.  It isn't a big deal right now because it doesn't get light very early, but as spring comes we will definitely need some shades that work.

Speaking of Scout growing up, she's making some great strides in the bathroom.  For a few weeks now, she has been announcing "potty!" right after going in her pants, but in the past two weeks since her birthday, she has occasionally been able to sense it ahead of time and make it - or almost make it - to the bathroom on her own.  Woe to me if I haven't left the potty insert in the toilet ready to go!  Yesterday she climbed up and sat down just in time to pee...too bad the lid was actually down when she did it.  It made a cool fountain, though.  :)

I completed Scout's Snowflake Hat and it turned out SO cute. 

This was my first experience with knitting on circular needles.  It took some getting used to but I think I really like it, especially for hats.  I also got to try the 3-needle bind off for the top, and because of the way the top ties together you don't see it, so it was a good opportunity to give that a shot.  I'm not sure I did it correctly because I got a really severe ridge all the way along the top.  It doesn't really matter for this hat, but I thought I had read that you can use the 3 needle bind off to piece together pieces of sweaters (I could be wrong) and this ridge would NOT work for that, so I must be wrong about something.  Anyway, I loved this hat, it only took me a couple of evenings, and it is so cute.  Perfect for gifts down the line.

Now I'm starting on a hat for Jake (the k2,p2 rib like the one we made for class, but in a brown/green variegated) and I decided today that the poncho I started for myself will actually end up being for Cammi.  Her birthday is coming up, and it will be a LOT less work to make one for her size than for mine!  (She's turning 7). 

No knitting tonight, though.  I've been putting off writing a newsletter for tomorrow so I'd better get it done. 

This chick rocks

New blog discovery:  Diary of a Reluctant Housewife

I've only read two entries, and maybe I'll read back into her archives and find out she's a Scientologist, a Socialist, or - gasp - doesn't like knitting - but so far she seems like "family" to me!

I am still trying to figure out how to display my blog read links in a side column...Typepad confounds me on that one for some reason. 

The internet is sucking my day away once again.  Must get control of the clutter that threatens to consume my family. 

Oh my, oh my...

I discovered today that there are TWO specialty yarn shops in Wheaton.  Luckily, the fact that I ALWAYS have one or both kids with me when I am in Wheaton will help to limit the amount of time I can spend yarn shopping!  Otherwise I'm sure I'm capable of walking in and just hemmoraghing money!

ah, the Internet

Where've I been, you ask?  Well, in between knitting projects, I've been...reading knitting blogs!  And there are a TON of them out there!  A whole gigantic world on the Interweb that I had no clue about before now.  So many fun projects to try, I don't know where to begin!  I really want to make this hat for Scout, these Fuzzy Feet for me, and this Weasley sweater for Henry!  Oh, and I also found Hermione mittens that would be fun to try.

One thing I've discovered is that although I have two huge craft stores nearby (Michael's and Jo-Ann Superstore) I am still very limited in what knitting supplies I can buy locally.  They have very little selection, both in terms of yarn and needles.  I'm trying to figure out which online suppliers are best because I'm definitely going to have to order some stuff. 

I did find myself the Eagle On-The-Go tote bags for my knitting supplies.  I got this large one to hold all my stuff, and the one-skein size to carry around an individual project. 

Henry seems to be having a tough re-entry to school.  Yesterday was the first day back and he ran in all excited but when I picked him up he was sad.  He said that Emma had told him her mom was going to shoot him.  I got from that that he had a little playground trouble.  This morning he said he wished he could stay home with me forever, and also that he wished I could always work at the school.  Poor guy.  Although he did perk up a bit when he was telling me about the excitement of someone throwing up in class yesterday!  Hopefully he'll be able to connect with somebody today and find someone to play with outside.  I think part of the problem is that Caleb plays with him when he stays after school, but during regular recess, Caleb has other boys he prefers to play with - a rougher crowd that Henry doesn't really fit into.  Oh well, hopefully today will be better.  And after school we are going into Wheaton for the kids to get haircuts and to pick up the pictures we had done at Celebrity Kids.  Which, of course, means Potbelly sandwiches for supper, YAY!

Yippee!  UPS just dropped off the bedding I ordered for Scout's big-girl bed.  We are going to take the top bunk down and set it up in her bedroom this weekend. I hadn't thought we would do it so soon, since she isn't even close to outgrowing the floor bed, but she is definitely ready for it.  She's grown up a lot in just the past two weeks.  Plus, Henry has shown no interest in ever sleeping in the top bunk, and it's silly to have a whole bed that never gets used when she could be using it.  I guess the bunk beds was a stupid idea; I always wanted them as a kid, and figured that they would be great for Henry when he had sleepovers and stuff, but he isn't ready for that yet and since he doesn't want to sleep up there, the top bunk only serves as a dumping ground for extra blankets right now and means that every time I make Henry's bed I whack my head on it. 

So this will be a fun change, but also a sad one.  We are done with the floor bed forever.  When I put baby things away after Henry, it was bittersweet but I also knew that we'd use it again with another child.  Knowing that we're putting things away for the last time - for us, anyway - is very different.  I wouldn't say that I had baby fever; I would say that I get wistful thinking about my own two as babies and perhaps wishing I could just recapture those moments somehow, but definitely not wishing for a NEW baby.  Wheras after Henry, I always knew that there was someone else coming, that our family was waiting for one more, now it definitely feels as though our family is complete.  Which is not to say that I don't feel a bit jealous when I see mothers with newborns out and about.  Especially this time of year since just two years ago, that was me!  Which is funny, because Scout seemed to grow up SO fast, that it's hard to believe that ONLY two years ago, she was just a few weeks old!  It's hard to look at her now and imagine her as a helpless infant.  She's such an independent, determined little thing now, and has been for a long time!  Even a year ago, when she was still nursing, just beginning to walk - she didn't seem very helpless then, either.  LOL.  She is her own woman!

I am going to order a nightstand for Henry's room and maybe a shelf unit for inside his closet to help organize some of his stuff.  He has the biggest closet in the house and right now it's just a garbage dump inside.  We started reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to him at night.  Jason and I ended up going to see the movie on Sunday night - we had planned to see "Brokeback Mountain" but didn't make it to the theater in time - and felt bad because we realized that unlike LOTR, this movie was really geared for kids and he would have LOVED it.  Maybe we'll take him to a matinee once we've read the book.  He seems to be enjoying it, although he would really like it if there were more pictures.

I am procrastinating very badly today.  AF is here and she is giving me a hard time. I don't feel like doing anything that requires movement at all.  Sigh.