It's probably a good thing that they're cute.

I swore to myself I wouldn't do it. We finally have both kids sleeping through the night and I swore when it came time for J to start protesting, I would be the good mommy and put him right back in bed, crying or no crying. But then I hear this little voice pleading, "Want Mama." You've got to understand that J was not a cuddly baby. Not alarmingly uncuddly, but his favorite way to show affection was a well placed head butt. So now, finally, at the age of 2 he wants to cuddle with me. So I compromised (caved) and cuddled with him in his room for about a half an hour. Back on the wagon today though, right? Grins.

Thought I'd add these pictures of J after a nap. I've definitely felt this way. Heh. In fact, I was about there today while Adorable Neice was loudly sounding her dissatisfaction with her carseat. I fleetingly thought to myself that it would be so very cool if I could order a beer in the Wendy's Drive-Thru. Luckily National Public Radio came to the rescue. As horrible as it sounds, I don't listen to NPR for it's biting commentary, enlightening editorials, or informative articles. I listen to NPR when I need the kids to calm down. Works like a charm. I really should send them pledge.

Trick or Treat!

Yes, I know it's not Halloween yet, but the kids and I went over to Olde Town for Trick or Treat Street. The kids did pretty well and it wasn't as crowded as I was fearing. L got heaps of compliments on her costume which made Mama a wee bit proud. Hers was pretty much the only home made one I saw while we were there. She was a real trooper with the bucket because (strangely enough) buckets don't make very good hats and it kept falling off. There were no compliments on J's costume since he insisted on taking it off about 45 seconds after this photo was taken. His "Twick Tweet" and "Ank You!" were pretty darn cute though.

I have been knitting, just not finishing things. Heh. The Girlfriend Shrug will probably wait til after Christmas, I just finished up a hat for my IL's new cabin (thought I'd make up a bunch of hats and mittens just to keep up there.) I'm also working on a scarf for a friend as well as a Dreamswatch Headwrap for my sister. I'm sure there's another UFO lying around but I have no idea what it is. Heh.

The Whole Car-In-Backyard Enchilada

SO sorry about the tiny blog entries! Anyway, here's the whole story. From the beginning.

At about 12:30 Monday evening, we were awakened by a loud thud. In my sleepy stupor, my first thought was, "J must have fallen out of bed." Which, in fact, he had. But then it occurred to me that the noise was much louder than J falling out of bed, especially since his mattress had been relocated to the floor after the last time he fell out. I went out to the living room, where I met my brother who apparently had also heard the loud J-not-falling-out-of-bed noise. He looked in the backyard and yelled at me to call 911 for there was a car in our yard. (See picture on previous entry)

Here's the yet to be proven in court theory: Kids go for a joy ride in a dealer owned BMW. It has always been a stupid teenage thing to do here to try and go as fast as you can on the hill I live on to see if you can jump the hill. Mostly it's been harmless because when I was in high school none of us could afford a car that could go faster than 50 and perhaps we were just smarter. I'm not sure. (The drivers did leave their cell phone at the scene so I'm pretty sure they weren't professional criminals.) Anyhow, apparently if you are in a German performance car, you CAN catch air. And crash into an unsuspecting neighbors yard. And apparently walk away from it. Or run away as was the case here. That's right, somehow they got away, which is pretty amazing given the shape of the car. I've heard there is a suspect in custody, but that was at 3 am on Tuesday morning and I was a little bleary eyed.

So I am grateful that nobody was hurt, not just our family, but the kids who did it as well. It so easily could have been much worse. Amusingly enough (yes, I'm at the point now where I can find humor in this), the things that probably saved our lives from the hurtling BMW were aspects of our landscape that I hated. The city owns some Russian Olives that I just can't stand that were probably responsible for tearing apart the front of the car, slowing it down in the process. Turns out Russian Olives are a pretty hard wood. Next was a giant overgrown fitzer that had taken over our backyard and we were afraid to tackle lest it eat our firstborn. It's no longer overgrown. In fact, it's pretty flat. I'm actually considering how much it would cost to have the rest of it removed by the insurance company's clean up crew.

Again, we are very grateful that the only things that were damaged were things that can be replaced. Thank God.

Hey look what was in my yard this morning!

And can I get a Hooray! for a picture finally loading?

Crap.

Yes. It's 1:30 am. And why am I awake do you ask? Because there's a frickin' car in my backyard. A FRICKIN' CAR! Somebody ran their BMW through BOTH of our fences and it's sitting in pieces in our backyard. I'd post pictures, but for some reason my laptop and Blogger aren't speaking to each other any more. Crap.

Little J turns 2! (No pics since blogger is having a problem. :( )

So last Wednesday night my brother comes home from school with my Mom in tow. Surprise visit! Which is very very cool since she lives out in sunny FL and we don't get to see her much. My sister didn't even know. Uncle T kept the secret well! It was very special to have her here for J's birthday and little niece A's dedication (Vineyard version of baptism).



So all was well until Thursday, when the stomach flu fairy came and bestowed her gift upon the family. So for poor J's birthday, we sat around the table, eating Jello in our jammies while little one opened his presents.



We cancelled his party for Saturday and ended up just celebrating with the family members who had already been exposed. A balloon guy my sister knows made a bag full of balloon animals for the kids to play with. Free of charge! What a nice guy! The cousins had a great time with the balloons.



Amusingly enough, J turned 2 on Friday, had his first real tantrum on Saturday and an even worse one on Sunday. At church. AND at my sister's. AND at my sister's church during niece A's dedication. Of course. He and I ended up hanging out in the cry baby room with all the babies singing songs to try and get him to stop crying. Turns out the boy has a thing for the show tunes.



Totally OT story about show tunes: My little 2 1/2 year old nephew L LOVES the movie Annie. He watches it every day, sings along and even acts out some of the dialog. My favorite story is when one day he very seriously looked his mother in the eye and said, "I love you Miss Hannigan." Just what every mom longs to hear...

I'm in! I'm in! I'm in!

I've been Raveled!

Come find me! My id is throwslikeagirl!

Same Knit Night, Different Knit Locale

Last night, we decided to take a little field trip from our usual knitting haunts, packed up our needles, and headed down the street to the DNote for a little drink 'n tink. And there was both. At least I did some tinking. Darn short rows. They even kept the lights on in the corner for us so we could knit. Anyhoo...

Here are some of our fabulous ladies, Marly, Nachaele, and Mary-Kay.

We had so much fun! The Metro Jazz Orchestra was there, so there was some dancing. I didn't get any pictures of that but Nachaele did.

Claudia's husband came too. He's knitting. With one hand even. Ok. Not really. I love Terrie's scarf. I may have to make one.

I think StacyZ should model all my hats.

Hooray Baby Hat, Booties and Urchin!

I made a little hat and booties for my niece, both from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I used some Crystal Palace Bunny Hop from my stash. I also made myself an Urchin from some Manos del Uraguay that was a gift from my friend Blogless Christie. It's a fun pattern, but being European it uses 7mm (US 10 3/4) needles that are just about the only size needles I don't have. I used 8mm (US 11) for a slightly looser gauge, but I'm still pleased with it. The stitches at the edges of the shortrows ended up elongated and although I like it, I'm not sure it's how it's suppsoed to be. I really tried to tighten up my stitches to lessen the effect, but it happened every time. I'm not sure if it was the yarn, the larger needles or my knitting. Hmm. It used a lot less yarn than I expected so I have plenty to make a scarf. Hooray! L was so kind as to model it for me...

Hooray Faux Cable Sweater!

So yesterday both of my children took a 2 hour nap. I'm quite sure this is a sign of the apocolypse, but rather than go hide in the basement, I squared my courage and finally put the Faux Cable Sweater together. I had been dreading it because I found the directions rather cryptic and even after I did what I thought it was saying, the yarn markers ended up in useless places. Basically I ended up looking at the picture and mattress stitching until it looked the same. I did have to knit an extra 4 rows on both faux cable pieces to make it meet in the back of the neck like it was supposed to, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it. Hope the birthday girl likes it. She's been waiting almost a year. Yes, yes, she requested this sweater for her LAST birthday. I'm a little slow.

Cider Vinegar Fly Pool of Doom

The only down side to receiving heaps of lovely home grown tomatoes are the nasty tiny little flies that seem to accompany them. Now I am a fly freak. Can't stand them. The worst torture device for me would probably be to lock me in a room with tiny little flies and no fly swatter while L does her air raid siren cry. Anyway, one day I read a post on Purple is a Fruit, just about the funniest mommy blog ever, and she was talking about having a fly problem and her solution. A little cider vinegar with a little oil to break the surface tension in a bowl with plastic wrap on top. Poke a few fly sized holes in the top and voila! Instead Fly Pool of Doom! I have 9 flies already! It's probably a bit sadistic that I count. Just don't tell the DH. He's really more of a catch and release man. :)

Sometimes it's easy being green...

I'm always looking for ways to satisfy my inner hippie. My latest attempt was crocheting my own Market Bag from Knit.1's green issue. I switched the direction of the handles so that I could hang it on the back of my stroller for extra storage as well. The black bags are from Safeway of all places. They now offer shopping bags made of recycled materials for 99 cents! The price was right and they hold twice as many groceries as the plastic bags. Granted they're heavier then too, but hey, my arms need the workout.