Rest in Peace Little Handknits

 

I just called the last place I could think of that they might have been left. 

Goodbye little vest.  You were soft and warm, even if you did get yellow dye on a couple of Little Brother’s onesies.  You took a lot of drooling abuse, but you kept trucking.

Goodbye little hat.  This would have been your third winter with us, keeping Big Brother’s big head warm.  You were fun and spunky and made cold days just a little bit sunnier.  You even made it into Grandma and Grandpa’s Christmas cards.  I particularly loved the specks of chartreuse-y-lime in your yarn while I was knitting you.

(links are Ravelry links).

A week in pictures

Mini baking soda and vinegar volcanoes.  Yet another activity where what I thought would be cool (fizzing!  foaming!) was not nearly as cool as something else (smooshing the baking soda around with his hands).

It’s fun hanging out in Mom and Dad’s bed on a lazy morning.

A week in pictures

Yes!  Just one!  Because there are some good ones this week.

Yes!  Halloween!  I’m a bad sewing mommy and didn’t make either of my children’s costumes.  I didn’t have any fun ideas, and thus lack of motivation to go to the crazy lengths that I see other sewers online going to.  So we had a daytime racoon/nighttime hot dog (you’re welcome Dad), and a skeleton trying to eat his candy before it has even been unwrapped.  We made it to probably 7 houses before calling it a night.  But it was fun, even if the two times I attempted to get video, no one answered the door (come on people, get with the program.  Lights on==Halloween fun, okay?)

Big Brother is disappointed in my cleaning efforts.  He got out the vacuum, took all the cushions off the couch, and then left the vacuum there for me.  I did not take the hint.  In my defense, I did vacuum the sofa within the last two weeks.

For those of you who can’t tell what’s going on, Big Brother is taking Little Brother’s measurements (so he can sew him some clothes, don’t you know?).  After careful observation, he recorded the results in his notebook.  He did this back and forth at least 10 times.  Meticulous, that one.

My artistic endeavors.

Five months

 

Little Brother is five months old!  He and Big Brother are starting to really interact, and boy, can they crack each other up.  He’s starting to reach out and grab things, which is making Mom and Dad’s lives a lot more interesting.  Particularly Mom, whose long hair is proving quite tempting to the chubby little fingers.

Lots of people say he has an old face.  We’re thinking that’s mostly because he’s relatively lean-of-face.  He’s still cute and chubby, but he was in the 80th percentile for height and the 40th for weight at his last doctor’s visit.

He is almost ready to sit up—he leans way forward whenever we try it and supports himself on his hands.

We love him!

Two weeks in photos

This does seem to be turning into more of a bi-weekly thing than a weekly feature, eh?  Little Brother usually gets short shrift in these things, so you’ll see a little extra from him this time.

 

Weekend walk.

Big Brother pulled the wagon all the way to the end of the little Nature Walk behind our house.  It was a long walk.

Doesn’t he have beautiful eyes?

This is my view on these walks.

Big Brother’s photography skills are improving.

He’s good at holding his head up.  He just doesn’t roll over.  Whenever you’re ready, little guy.

I posted a similar picture on Facebook, but this one has bubbles!

A. remarked that Big Brother’s overclothes were kind of incongruous with the bow tie, but I finally remembered this week that the playground is often wet and/or dirty so overclothes or a change of clothes are needed.  Overclothes are easier with Little Brother in hand, so there you have it.

Two weeks in photos: Chicago and before the party

 

Boy, it’s been a busy two weeks.  And I think I say that every time, so maybe you should take what I say with a grain of salt.  At any rate, we’ve been cleaning, and travelling, and guest-having, so I think that totally counts.

It’s amazing how empty our family room feels (and sounds!) with the soft furnishings removed.  Less amazing is how often that happens (read: very infrequently).

Our two prettiest trees (lucky us, they’re in the front of our house), have already colored and dropped their leaves

While travelling, Dad invented a new mode of transport.  Big Brother was a fan.

Look!  It’s the whole family!

Whole family shot graciously provided by my college roommate who came to Chicago (from Nebraska) for football, pizza, and a quilt.

The Bean—source of many wonders.

After a trip to the Big City, everyone has to pitch in assembling the new Ikea furniture.

The rest of the two weeks was a party, so I’m going to wait until I have some more pictures of the festivities in my hot little hands.

Four months*

It’s true!  He’s four months old!

I never did get a three month update up… sorry about that. 

At four months, Little Brother is the giggliest, happiest baby around.  At least when Dad’s home.  He loves chilling out where all the action is, whether it’s at the dinner table in his Bumpo, at knitting night at the yarn store, in the jumper, or just laying on a blanket.  If people are around, doing their thing, he’s generally content. 

He likes sitting better than reclining (the swing is about to be retired to the basement). 

He takes a little nap in the morning, and a gigundo nap in the afternoon. 

He’s skinnier than his brother was at this age, though I am about to put away some of the 3-6 month clothes, partly because the cloth diapers make his already long torso a little bit too long for the smaller onesies.

He continued to drool like a maniac.  When he first started, I thought maybe he was teething super-early.  Nope. 

He likes Big Brother, but Dad is definitely his favorite. Except for the whole milk thing.

This month he went on his first bus ride, and discovered his toes. 

He’s such a great little guy, and we’re so happy he’s a part of our family!

*It’s difficult for me to know whether Little Brother turned 4 months old yesterday or today.  Actually, I suppose it’s difficult for anyone to know;  I think “Leap Babies” get a year older on different days, depending on state law.

Photos from the week

We’re not anywhere near school age around here, but things still feel like they are shifting into a slightly higher gear.  Library story time started again after a summer hiatus, and for the first time we went to toddler time at the main library, rather than baby time at our local branch.  While we’ll miss Miss Jeanne and the other babies, toddler time was pretty awesome.

We’ve found ourselves in Kalamazoo a couple times this week.  Rather than waiting in the bank parking lot for our rendezvous, we headed across the street to the McDonald’s Play Place.  Big Brother loved the little airplane cockpit the most.

Football makes a good after-church activity, especially when you had to get up for the early Mass.  The matching gingham shirts were purely accidental, but they do look quite cute.

Four month post for Luke to come…

Sad lack of photos

I owe you (or myself in ten years) two weeks worth of pictures.  But I just emptied my camera and there wasn’t a whole lot for the taking.  I’ll blame it on having too much fun, and then on being sick, and then on having fun again.

Little Brother (almost 4 months now) is growing by leaps and bounds.  The semi-reclined position, as seen in car-seats, swings, and bouncy seats?  That’s for babies.  He’d like to sit, thank you.  Or at least play with his toes.

It’s a little bit of a lie.  I did take some pictures.  It’s just that a number of them were pictures of sewing projects I was preparing to put in the mail.  Little Brother accompanied me outside for the photoshoot.

Big Brother is really starting to show his imagination (or actually, he’s just getting really good at imitating us).  He’s warming up to his doll (which, apparently I never blogged about… for shame!), and I recently found him attempting to diaper his brother.  He wasn’t going to have much luck, as the baby was doubly swaddled, but it’s pretty funny to watch the process through his eyes.

Photos from the week

I noticed two themes from this week’s pictures:  outside time and sleep (or lack thereof).  First we have Labor Day wherein I attempted to enforce family togetherness by taking us all to the playground.  It was too darn hot.  We made it about halfway there before we turned back, but the boys enjoyed the nice grass and attempted pony rides.

I sometimes resort to desperate measures to get my semi-communicative toddler to take a nap.  He was in the crib, gesturing madly at the changing table.  I asked him whether he wanted to put on his pajamas (they were on top).  He nodded, so we proceeded to remove his clothes and don the pj’s.  Except that as soon as the clothes came off he freaked out some more.  This (and still no nap) is the end result.

Just boys being cute.  Big Brother is going through another “I should hold the baby” phase.  It’s entertaining, if a bit stressful.

I have never, ever had this happen before.  Big Brother has fallen asleep in the stroller or in the car, but never just in the middle of the floor.  Another missed nap (he napped for twenty minutes in the stroller on the way home from the store, and thought that was sufficient), and at 4 pm, my house was quiet for longer than I like.  I woke him up a few minutes later, he sat beside me on the couch for a few minutes, and then he was out again.  I left him that time.

Went to the neighborhood art/craft fair on Saturday.  Not too much we wanted to buy, but a gorgeous walk, and a fun playground.

Our church picnic was Sunday after church.  Mass and the lunch itself were not so hot.  It was the first week of choir again, so I had both the boys in the pew, and, wouldn’t you know it, Little Brother was more upset than he’s ever been (and I still don’t know why).  Then we stayed in the sanctuary talking and barely found a place to sit (the family sitting at our table told their teenagers to sit elsewhere to make space for us).  But we got snow cones!

Keeping my hands busy

When I asked my cousin to teach me how to knit, it was explicitly so I could have a crafty pursuit to do in college when space and time were both at a premium.  Knitting, so I had heard, had the potential to be a social craft—something I could work on while talking about Great Ideas and all that.  Little did I know it would also be what I turn to whilst blathering about nothing at the breakfast table.

My toddler is not a particularly quick eater, except when it comes to cherries, but I want to set a half-decent example and not race away from the table as soon as I’m finished with my food.  Don’t get me wrong, I still make my escape to throw laundry in the wash/do other jobs that are just easier when my helper is strapped in and entertained, but I like to have something sitting beside me to keep me at the table a little longer, and not scurrying off to the computer.

Enter knitting.  This is the Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief (Ravelry link).  I saw it on a Yarn Along post at Small Things (can I tell you how much I love the things she knits?  They’re beautiful, but simple enough to do without overtaxing one’s brain).  I liked the look of it, but loved it more, I think, when I saw the name of the pattern.  I am such a sucker for good names—anything with a sort-of-geeky name gets extra points in my book, which may be why my queue also includes a shawl called Scalene.

Notes on Ravelry.

Oh, and I know I still owe you a 3 month post for Little Brother.  I’ll work on it this weekend.

Photos from the week

Last Wednesday we finally made it to storytime at the local ice cream shop.  Just for showing up, kids get free ice cream, and a free book.  The boys were nice and shared their ice cream with us.

Little brother turned three months old (a post with a picture from our photo shoot to follow).  He celebrated by attempting to roll over.  Big brother had to help comfort him when he got tired of pictures (Big brother is saying “shhh” in the picture).

We had two trees taken down in our side yard.  I contemplated asking the tree guys where they were going next, because Big brother was absolutely glued to the window most of the time they were here.  The big piles of mulch where there used to be 35+ foot trees are still disconcerting.

Two weeks in pictures

We were on the road last Monday, so here's a double photo dump.  I finally got Little Brother to smile for the camera.  He smiles for us a fair amount, but when the camera comes out, it's all business. 

We hit the road for Ohio last Thursday after A. got off work.  Big Brother was asleep before we even started playing "Family Vacation," and Little Brother wasn't too sure what he thought of that musical interlude.  Both boys enjoyed time with their great-grandparents, cousin, and aunt and uncles.  Big Brother also enjoyed his first hot dog at the "World Famous" Hot Dog Shoppe. 

We drove back on Monday, just in time for Grandma S. to arrive for the Quilt Show.  Unfortunately, when she's here, I seem to slack off on the pictures, so you'll just have to imagine it.  We brought a cold back from Ohio, and had a really rough night with Big Brother right after she got here.  Welcome to Michigan Grandma!

Big Brother has been rapidly developing new interests, including rice hair treatments and fort building.  Also, helping me sew, going for tricycle rides, telling us he needs a diaper change, and cheering for my high school football team.

9/3/2012.  Edited to fix broken picture link.