Baby Picture Mania!

This weekend I had "Baby Shower Weekend!" My friend threw me a shower here at my house and then a gal from work threw me a shower at her house. It was pretty awesome. I loved being able to see everyone (it is amazing how not being able to leave the house really puts a damper on seeing people) and everyone brought Baby such amazing things. And in case I haven't shared this, you can find a lot of the pictures I post here (and a lot that I don't) on my flickr page. Here are lots of pictures... be prepared....

From left to right, handmade burp rags from Whitney, a variety of toys from Karla,  bottles and music player from Carol

The music player is very cute! I love all the animals on it... and the wrist rattles, I think those will be amusing for me! :) And, who doesn't love handmade things (well, I'm sure there are some people, but I am not one of them... that is Baby's theme... handmade!)

Our shower "game" was to decorate clothes for the little one! This was the result... I love them all!

From left to right: duck set from Dee and Jessica (they also bought me a Boppy pillow which I forgot to take a picture of), onesizes from Allie (she is obsessed with being an Aunt.. can you tell!?), striped sweater and moose bib from Marlene, and farm animal clothes from Leah.. the caption on the cow is "udderly adorable" hahahhhaa.

Clothes and books from the shower on Sunday. Books and green chicken sleeper are from Brandy. The other two sleepers and the quilt that everything is laid on are from Kelsey.

A handknit Baby Surprise Jacket from Toni! It is knit from baby bamboo and is super snuggly.

Handknit bibs from Kelly. By baby will sure be stylish!

Farmhouse toy from Brandy. Have to make sure the dogs don't get a hold of those animals! They are so cute. 

Diaper bag made by Lynda. I picked out the fabric, but it turned out even more amazing than I imagined!

Quilt, booties, fish toy all handmade by Kelsey.  She also got me the alligator crocs and the socks. Those were cracking me up! The monkey blankies were made by my mom, she made me a quilt to match, but she took it back home to finish it. The bird fabric peeking out of the bottom right corner is a baby sling Becky made me! I will be so stylish with my matching bag and sling. :) 

Close up of the knitted booties.

Close up of the fish toy!

And last, but not least, the Zany Zoo toy I received in the mail yesterday from a Rav friend, April! I was playing with this toy constantly while taking pictures. I hope Baby is as entertained by it as I am.

Whew! If you made it this far... congrats! I think that is all. :) My baby is so lucky to be surrounded by so many people who care for it so much already! And I am super lucky to have such amazing friends and family. I'm hoping this weekend that W and I will be able to figure out where we are going to put all the furniture (well, the changing table and the bassinet... that is really all we have) and I can wash all the clothes and get everything put away. The house is kind of in a state of disarray and it is driving me crazy.  Also, only 2 weeks and 1 day until I am allowed to be off of "bed rest"! That means I will be allowed to WALK around as much as I want (so I will be heading to Target to spend our gift cards!) which will be pretty amazing. Not that I'm anxious about it or anything.... 

When it comes I want to yell, MAIL!!!!

33 weeks pregnant today... Baby and I are still doing well.

Last night we bought a changing table off of craigslist, which I am super excited about! (Pics of it later, I have lots of other stuff to show you) It is more like a dresser, which is exactly what I wanted because I wanted it to be useful for a long period of time. I'm not one for things that only have one use, or are only useful for 6 months. I don't want to spend $100 on something I'm going to use for a short period of time and then have to get rid of.  Which is why when we picked out a car seat, we got one that will last the child's whole life. I knew that I would never carry around the infant carrier one... it weighs a ton! (I'm lazy too, plus, I don't think I could get it in and out of the car by myself, and that has been one of the things that I am pretty set on... being able to do things by myself since W will still be working.) So, I knew I didn't want to get one like that. Plus, a kid grows out of it pretty quickly and then you still need another car seat. And the price difference between one that lasts 6 months and one that lasts until they don't need one anymore is maybe $50. And when you are talking about having to buy TWO car seats that are $150ish or one that is $200, it seems like the second option is a better deal.... BUT, I digress.  Anyway, I'm super excited about the new changing table. It even already has stuff in it!!

Which leads me to my next topic: I had a SUPER mail day yesterday!!! The mailman had put two packages on my porch, which I promptly ripped into... one was half of the cloth diapers I had ordered, and the other was a gift from a Ravelry friend! How exciting!!! Then, when W came home and checked the mail, I had TWO more smaller packages in the mailbox!! WHAT!?? Amazing. One of those was the other half of the cloth diapers I ordered, and ANOTHER present from a Ravelry buddy! What a great day! I felt super lucky.... so here are the pictures of what came in the mail!

First up, the cloth diapers. How cute are these?!? I'm totally excited about them. I do have more, but they are just flat diapers, and not as fun to take pictures of. These are the cutest ones. I bought a sampling of different types of diapers and covers to figure out what works best for us before I shell out a bunch of $$ for a ton of them. One of our friends was over last night and I was showing him how awesome they were. I asked him, "doesn't this look more comfy than paper?" And his response was, "Heck yeah, I'd rather wear those than my boxers!" hahahaha. So, there you have it, they are amazing....

This was one of my presents. I fell in love with this roving, but I couldn't click through fast enough to buy it during the Bohoknitterchic birthday party last week, so I was a bit bummed. So imagine my surprise when it made it to my doorstep anyway!! Complete with a baby catapult! :) (She was giving out goodies with purchases made during the birthday party) A friend on Ravelry decided to have it sent to me even though she bought it because I had posted about how much I loved it... isn't that sweet! I am planning on spinning it and knitting it into some fall type jacket for Baby for next fall... the colors are just amazing.

And, here is the other present I received! Three hand knit soakers for Baby! Weston is totally in love with the pants, which are pretty amazing. I was so excited to get these! I love that Baby has so many hand knit and hand made items already... such a lucky little one to be loved by so many talented people! 

In other news (besides the awesomeness that came in the mail), I finished the first sleeve of the Baby Christ-ma-kah (our Christmas/Hanukkah celebration) sweater.  It is pretty amazing. I knit it in three days, so it went pretty quickly considering it is colorwork on size 1 needles. I'm looking forward to getting more of it done, but I need to focus on the baby blanket today... I'm half way through that... I also need to sew the binding on one little baby quilt for the little one. It can't wait too long or it will be too small to be useful... it is just a little quilt for the car and things like that.  I also need to sew on the buttons for Baby's coming home outfit... that is pretty urgent too! 

Alright, off to get busy... well, not really, because I'm still taking it easy and staying off of my feet. I spend most of the day in bed listening to podcasts and knitting... but, I need to get to doing that! :) 

Labor Day Weekend

It's a holiday weekend. Which means it is raining. :) Luckily, I spent a lot of time outside this past week while it was still sunny... my sandal tan will be sticking around for quite some time. I'm spending my weekend watching The Office and knitting. I just couldn't lie in bed anymore. My hips hurt. All of the weight I have put on (about 20 lbs so far) has been in my stomach area, which is awesome... BUT it means that there is no extra padding on my backside or hips to help cushion the extra weight. So, I'm sitting like I'm allowed to, and knitting, and enjoying some great comedy.

I'm test knitting a blanket, and I'm half way done. SO, I'm rewarding myself by casting on my colorwork baby sweater as soon as I finish this post. Why am I not just continuing on with the blanket? Oh, because I have to wind yarn for it, and I have delegated this job to W while I am supposed to be resting... and he isn't home... and the baby sweater yarn is wound... and well, I feel like it. :)

OH! The one other thing I wanted to let you know was that Spilly Jane is having a labor day sale on her patterns. I love her mittens, and she has some wonderful cabled socks. The details can be found here on her blog. I will be buying a few patterns to work up for gifts. Just have to decide which ones I really want. If you have a favorite, let me know... and if you've knit any of them, please share!!

Quick Update

Just a few things.

* I'm 32 weeks pregnant today, whoo hoo! (If you want to see what that looks like, scroll to the bottom) So 5ish weeks to go. I'm still on modified bed rest, meaning I can sit up now, and I am just supposed to be "off my feet as much as possible" as opposed to "in bed at all times unless you need to go to the bathroom". So, things are going well!!!

* I am still stuck in my knitting monogamy rut. I'm test knitting a blanket right now (it is pretty small...) and that is taking all of my attention. It is an easy knit, but I need to stay focused to finish it in time... you know me and blankets. :) I did wind the yarn for the baby sweater I want to knit, and put it in a project bag... so I'm working towards my goal....

* I still really want to knit those mittens. I picked out the yarn, but didn't wind it, because of the previously mentioned monogamy problem.

That's really it. Baby and I are doing well. Off to get ready for bed....

The Case of the Missing Toothbrush....

And other dental hygiene adventures...

The other night Weston yells from the bathroom "What did you do with my toothbrush?"
"Nothing" was my response...
"Well, then someone or something has taken my toothbrush"
"That's weird"
"I say something because when we first got Bud (W's childhood dog) he stole like 12 of my toothbrushes. We had no idea what was going on until one day my sister moved her bed and there was a stash of them"
"Well, if Bud could get up there to get the toothbrushes, it is possible that both of our dogs can"
"Yeah, I know, weird though..."

It is weird. Who knows what happened to his toothbrush. And why would the dogs take his and not mess with mine?? Our bathroom is kind of the center of a lot of controversy in the house. I'm pretty sure that having two sinks has saved our marriage. Having two tubes of toothpaste may have been the best idea we ever came up with as a couple. We have very different ideas on how the tube of toothpaste should be squeezed. W believes it should be squeezed like some sort of ape... right in the middle, all crumpled up. It drives me CRAZY. It gets so hard to get the toothpaste out when you are towards the end of the tube... I choose to squeeze the tube like a normal person with two fingers, typically starting towards the bottom. I don't flatten or fold it as I go, but it remains in a state that it would be easy to do so should I choose to.

About three months ago (or more, hard for me to gage time anymore....) we switched to natural toothpaste, (Josh kindly informed me that one of the ingredients in toothpaste is saccharin, which is known to cause cancer. So once he found out that natural toothpaste is still endorsed by dentists as being effective, he switched, and because I value his opinion so much, I did as well...) which is incredibly expensive.  (Like $5-$6 a tube depending on the store you get it at...) So we went back to having one tube of toothpaste. BIG mistake. Every time I went to brush my teeth I would become immediately annoyed. Then, Fred Meyer had a big sale on the toothpaste we use (2/$6) so we stocked up... but still, we were only using one at a time for some reason... THEN, I was admitted to the hospital and W brought me my toothbrush and a NEW tube of toothpaste. So now we are back to two, one for each of us.

I mentioned the other day that the toothpaste we use now likes to get everywhere (it is a bit more runny than the previous toothpaste, not like a liquid, but not as solid....) and I hate when it gets on my shirt.  Then he says that he is glad we both have our own tube because apparently I am the only one who has this problem, and I "get it everywhere" even in the lid and on the tube... so I was driving him crazy. :)

Even if we have to go back to sharing a sink at some point, I don't think we will ever go back to sharing toothpaste. And the Baby is going to get its own tube too when it has teeth to brush... then Baby can figure out how s/he wants to squeeze the toothpaste all on his/her own.....

Off to brush my teeth....

Monogamy

As we learned yesterday, I am a process knitter. Also, I am typically not a monogamous knitter. (Which W asked me this morning if that was a "real thing" of if I was making it up) Although, lately, I have been rather monogamous. I will start AND finish something. Weird. Maybe because I have so much more knitting time? (Not being able to leave the house or really get up and do anything does lead to a lot of knitting time) Maybe I'm nesting? (Which, I don't really think is true... I don't feel a need to get these things done, they just happen to get done.) Who knows. But it is driving me crazy. I don't like being monogamous... as a knitter anyway.

I have dreams of start-itis. I have the yarn for three projects sitting next to me begging to be put on the needles. Somehow, it is still just sitting there. I want to have different projects to choose from. And, I need something that doesn't have a ton of finishing to work on... the things I have finished lately have too much finish work to them and I do not like finish work. So today, I will cast on the second of W's socks. (Can you believe that!?! I only just finished the first one like a week ago... this is monumental!) The finish work of a sock... weave in the ends. Easy, peasy. I also want to cast on the colorwork baby sweater... my awesome friend picked up the yarn from the shop for me since I can't go anywhere... and it is amazing, and I think the sweater will be even more amazing.... AND I want to cast on this felted sheep bag. I did a practice swatch for it last week and while it turned out fine after the felting, I hated the knitting of it. So, I have devised a way to make it easier for me to knit and do less finishing, both of which make me happy. Plus, it will look better pre-felting, and since I don't really want to felt it that much, I think this will be better in the long run. So that is the plan. Forced start-itis. Because if this whole monogamy thing keeps up, I will have a lot of FOs but I will be crazy. I can't take it much longer.

Alright, off to go eat lunch. W took today off of work to work on the shed, so he is making me some food and then I'm going to go enjoy the sunshine... the weather people say it is supposed to start raining again tomorrow, so get out while you can!!

Process vs. Product

I'm not sure if I have talked about it before, but here is a whole post about the type of knitter I am.  The Yarn Harlot describes two different types of knitters in her books, process knitters and product knitters. Process knitters knit to knit. They enjoy knitting, they like the feel of knitting, they like to keep their hands busy, and will knit and knit and knit. Product knitters knit because they like FOs. They want to knit a sweater, a pair of socks, a hat, etc.

I am a process knitter.

I love to knit. It is weird when I go a day without knitting, even stranger when I go more than a day. I constantly have multiple projects going, strewn about the house (much to W's dismay), and yarn is a way of life for me. I typically don't care what I'm knitting. Sure, I like FOs, but I don't always pick up my knitting with the goal of finishing it in mind. I knit things that are fun, interesting, challenging, pretty, and catch my eye. I mostly do not knit for myself. I think I have one hat that I knit for myself out of some handspun that is stuffed in the back of my trunk by the front door (which is kind of sad, because it is beautiful...). I did keep the lace shawl that I knit, but it has a specific purpose in mind, I plan on using it as a nursing cover when in public... Oh, and one pair of socks, but one is on display at Quilt Tree, so I can't really wear them. So three things. One of which is useful. All of my other knitting is given away to other people. Or in a box for Baby.

I enjoy giving my knitting away because other people enjoy it. Only a few of my friends are knitters, but everyone always admires my knitting and ogles my projects. So I knit for them. I pick something that I think will be fun to knit, grab some yarn that they would like, and go. It's a win-win. I get to knit, which is what I enjoy, and they get a FO, which they enjoy.

I think the other reason that I don't knit for myself that much is that when I start things for myself, they rarely get finished. Even smaller things. This goes back to why I knit. I love to knit, and I love to see others get enjoyment out of my knitting. When I knit for myself, I miss out on that second half of the equation. So, things get pushed to the side that are for me and projects for others move to the top of the rotation. I guess one could argue that knitting for Baby is kind of knitting for me, because the baby won't really know or care that it is wrapped in handknits... but when it is older and looks back at pictures I think my hard work will be appreciated.

So what kind of knitter are you??