So I'm making this blanket....

I'm so happy to get back to project land. Now that Monkey is taking consistent naps and sleeping well through the night (OK, so he's been doing that for a while now, but it's still amazing) I have time to crochet and possibly sew again! I just finished a baby blanket for a friend, and have 2 more to go (for 2 other people). Then I have one to make for Monkey just because it looks so fun!

Of course, the picture to the right is the sample picture of what the finished product *should* look like, but I'm sure going to try! I'm thinking of doing the birds in my Alma Mater's colors and Ben's Alma Mater's colors, since they go together. Where I'm going to find extra soft yellow, dark green, maroon, and black yarn I don't know. Time to do some research!

I will post pics of the other baby blankets as the people who they are for receive them, but I don't want to spoil the surprise, so it may take a while. I'm really excited about the one I'm working on now as well as the next one...they are by far the most difficult I've attempted so far, but I think I hate myself enough I have it in me to do a great job. Of course, I could be completely wrong and they could turn out horribly, but if I don't post the pictures then the people they are for will never know the difference, right?

Mobility is coming! Mobility is coming!

Soon, Monkey will be mobile. We're talking within 1-2 months...and I'm thinking sooner rather than later. This brought about a slew of thoughts/feelings for me, and not all of them are happiness and light as I would want them to be:

1. Yay! He's developing as he should! I will not be cursed with a lazy sloth child who I have to cart everywhere while he lolls in my arms, determined to put off putting his own energy into getting from point A to point B for as long as possible. This is a good thing!
2. Oh no! I'll have to babyproof and watch him even closer than I do now to ensure he hurts himself the least amount possible. Naps will be even more valuable.
3. I can never leave him with  Ben again. The man can't even keep the dogs off the furniture when he "wants" to...how is he going to contain a child?
4. If I thought it was difficult to get anything done with him awake before, now I'm completely screwed really out of luck. There goes my life...both while he's awake and while he's napping, since now naps will REALLY be the only time I'll be able to get anything done.
5. I need gates. Lots and lots of gates. Would putting him in a large dog kennel to get a load of laundry done be neglect? Wait....they already make those for children. Playpens will be my new best friend.
6. Do they make baby knee pads? I'm sure they do. My house is about 80% hardwood floors or linoleum...his poor little knees are going to be beat to hell.

The child already makes it about 4 feet if he really wants a toy.  It won't be long now, and then the horror of the phrase "where's the baby" will become more of a reality...

The Spartan Helmet

I did it.  Ben  asked for it, and here it is!  (Had to smudge out Monkey's face, so that looks a little weird, but oh well). If you can't tell (but I hope you can) it's a spartan helmet. It was my first attempt, and I must say I'm pretty proud of it!I think there are a couple of things I might try to do differently next time, but all in all I"m very happy with how it turned out. Next he'll be wanting a viking helmet, and then I'll really be in trouble!

I'm all official! (Sort of)

So, as many of my friends and family members know, I have become obsessed with crafting. Well, not crafting really, but crocheting. When I first started it, I though I would so a hat here and there and maybe a blanket or two. Boy was I wrong! It's taken over my life...when I'm not reading Sookie Stackhouse novels or playing horrible games like Plants vs Zombies (thanks, Ben, for getting me hooked on that). I did a count the other day. I am currently in the middle of 3 books, 4-5 crochet projects, and one other crafting project, and I'm seriously considering starting another sewing project soon. I'm nuts.

The next project will be Amy Butler's Everything Bag. I love this bag as a general tote, mainly because it has a divider in the middle. Plus I can choose fabrics that maybe, just maybe, will appeal to Ben so I might be able to get him to tote it around a bit, instead of complaining when I ask him to hold it for 5 minutes.

The big news, however, is that I started a shop on Etsy for some of my smaller crocheting projects. I don't even know if anything will sell, but I get so many compliments on the hats that I make I figure it's at least worth a try, right? I'm also going to expand to some small toys, so hopefully I can make a little cash off of the whole endeavor. The shop can be found HERE.

I'm attempting to make a "Spartan Helmet" a la 300 for Monkey, at the request of Ben. That's great, except for the fact that there are raised portions that are difficult to achieve with crochet...and there are no patterns for something like this (at least that I can find). So I'm writing my own. Fun...I'll have my own pattern! If it works out I'm going to attempt to sell that as well. I don't even come close to expect this to turn into a real profitable endeavor, but at least I can make a little side cash!

What is with our sense of justice?

OK, I'm a little confused. When a woman doesn't report her child missing for 31 days, LIES to investigators about multiple things including a made-up nanny, and behaves as if nothing is wrong when her child is missing,  doesn't that seem kind of, well, odd? Not to mention the smell in her car etc. etc. I'm not saying that it's concrete evidence, but dang people! Circumstantial evidence is not worthless! Seems like a certain famous trial in the 90's all over again (and I was 11 for that one!).

So, Ms. Anthony, regardless of what the jury says I am a) happy you at least got convicted of something even if it is so inconsequential that it's pretty much a blight on our entire justice system joke, b) more than a little pissed the hell off upset that you didn't get more and c) still believe you had something to do with that little girl's death and subsequent "disappearance." I don't really care what anyone else believes, that's their business. I hope that, if you did do it, you live the rest of your life in agony over what you did.

Now I feel better

Crying Babies on a Plane!

This month, Monkey took his first airplane trip and I spent 3 whole days away from him. Family vacation time/visiting grandparents time came and went, mostly without a hitch.

Monkey did surprisingly well on the flights...and we had 4 of them with him. Since we had to travel across the country, we had a 1 hour flight and a 5 hour flight in each direction. Thankfully, after each flight we had people approach us to tell us how impressed they were with him. YAY! 

No one wants to be the mommy with the screaming baby that can't be calmed. We found that our solution did not lie in the realm of pharmaceutical land, or toy land, or walking/cooing/soothing land. Our solution came in the form of food, and lots of it. I swear, Monkey got more bottles on the plane rides than he does in 2 straight days normally. HOWEVER...it kept him happy. Generally speaking, the pattern was play, fuss, food, play, fuss, food, sleep, diaper change (and possibly outfit change from spit up) and repeat. That's OK, if it means that we had one of the best behaved children on the plane.

Once we arrived on the opposite side of the country, we had a car ride. Great, Monkey's favorite thing (not really). It's not my favorite thing to do with him either, especially when the car seat my mother borrowed rocked and moved to the point of me thinking that him riding in my lap would be safer!

Monkey loved seeing his grandparents, and we loved driving through some of our favorite areas with him. Then Ben had to head back home for work, while Monkey and I stayed behind because I had a wedding to attend. Not fun. Well, the time before I left for the wedding was fine...leaving Monkey was not. That and the wedding I went to had batshit crazy difficult people in attendance...but don't they all?

I personally think that someone should have smacked some sense in to me when I said that I was going to get to relax on my weekend away from the baby. I slept less that weekend than I do in a full 24 hours at home with Monkey. The maid of honor and I were so worried about getting the bride everything she wanted that neither of us really slept. To the point where I didn't think I had gotten enough tablecloths and lost sleep over THAT! Wow.

But, the wedding turned out wonderfully, everyone most people were happy, and my friend got what she wanted, so isn't that what counts? And when I got Monkey back, well, that was one of the best moments with him so far...for me and my parents.

The way home was a little more difficult than the way there, though. For one, Ben wasn't there to help me. Two, I essentially hadn't slept in 3 days, but especially not the night before coming home, since I had to be up at 3:30 am to catch a flight to pick up Monkey before starting the cross-country flight. Then I didn't put Monkey in his sling (as I should have) so my arms felt like they were about to fall off. On top of that, he went through FIVE outfits that day...from a variety of bodily functions.

When we ended our 5 hour flight, we almost missed the 1 hour flight because we had not been allowed to land for an hour due to weather. So here I was, sprinting through the airport with an infant (who was throwing up because of being jostled so much while full of milk), a duffel bag, and a rolling duffel that refused to stay on it's wheels. We made it on the plane because of the baby. They actually called the plane back because I had Monkey (and probably looked as though I would go all crazy if they told me I couldn't get on when I could see the plane 5 feet from the jet way). Not to mention after I got on, about 10 other people got on too...you'd think when that many planes are delayed they might hold outgoing flights just a bit.

But we made it home, my bag (that didn't make it on the plane) was delivered the next day, and we are all a bit worse for wear happy that we made the trip.

The screaming haunts my dreams

All day. That's how long Monkey screamed. There were times when I envisioned a banshee living with me, because that's what he sounded like. A tiny, male, screaming banshee in my arms, in my car, in his crib, on a walk, on his playmat...and at times even while eating. Argh.

I just about lost it. I know it was just a bad day and that most days (aka about 95% of them) are not like that, but all I need is the one bad day to realize how lucky I am that he's as calm as he is most of the time. I really started to lose it when he started clutching at my chest with his tiny talons...and drew blood. That was it. He was bathed. He was fed. He was dry. He went to bed with mitts on his hands so that he wouldn't scratch himself, since there was no way I was going to be able to trim his nails. He then screamed in his crib for about 30 minutes and finally went to sleep.

On top of all of this, Ben is gone for a couple of weeks. Stupid military with their stupid "trainings." It had to coincide with one of the worst days for record screaming.

Mommy needs a stiff drink. Preferably something with an umbrella.