I have been SO HAPPY lately. My happiness feels so much sweeter than being regular happy because of how down I was at the end of winter. I guess one cannot appreciate happiness to this level without experiencing sadness too. I am just so thankful. Get ready for the weekly review!
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| Sound asleep |
Heidi is getting her first solid foods. Rice cereal, which she hates, and carrots...
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| ...which she also hates. |
I'm in a knitting frenzy. I know the uncomfortably hot weather is coming fast and I have a LOT of projects to get going on. I'm still trying to use up my stash (which might take the rest of my life) so I whipped out two big baby vests:
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| One for Lula and one for Heidi |
And one little baby vest:
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| I had to tweak the pattern for my yarn and size needs. |
Lula is going through some jealousy and gets upset if I put her diapers on Heidi or feed Heidi baby food or if she sees Heidi with a binky. I've tied magenta strings on Heidi's binkies so Lula knows they are not hers. Heidi has her own style of bottle that doesn't look like Lula's old ones. Heidi even has her own brand new flat diapers that pin in place instead of the cute, snappy, fitted diapers. It's easier this way. Lula can have all the leftover baby food she wants, cause, like, yuck. Lula is the only baby in the world that likes baby food.
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| Love the curls cascading out of the helmet. |
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| Do you trust your laundry detergent? I trust mine! :) |
Lula is also signing more. She has her own sweet way of signing...many of the signs look like "apple." Earlier today, I was showing her the Twin Firs and saying/signing "tree." She looked right at my hand and gave me a high-five. It seems as though her siblings are teaching her some other cute tricks!
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| "Say 'flower!'" |
I'm anxious for the "school year" and yearly tests to be over so I can purge out the school room and get summer school started. Amazing things happen to my kids when they get grounded from screens. They go read things or color or play or go have sword fights outside with their younger siblings or do all at the same time, leaving destruction in their wake:
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| One of three piles I swept up yesterday |
Daniel is still, and always will be, doing things that get him in trouble:
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| Rule #1 for vandalism: Don't autograph your work |
We have out here on our backwoods peninsula, a facebook page called Buy Nothing. On it, people can request items they need and post items they want to get rid of, but they have to be polite and friendly and everything has to be free. The people in this group are trying to build community and bring people together, so they are very strict about how you post.
ISO baby bouncer would be deleted. My post:
One of the things I love about having so many kids is seeing their
different personalities develop. My 7th little one, Heidi, loves her
bouncy chair like no other (see cute video attached!). She'll bounce
herself to sleep, she bounces when she is happy, and she bounces herself
for comfort. None of my other kids liked bouncing like this. Today she
started sitting up and nearly toppled over. I would like to try her out
in a jumparoo to see if she gets the same enjoyment before I invest a
buncha money in a new one. I need a free standing one, not the kind
that attaches to a door frame. I have an exersaucer, but it doesn't
have the same springiness that she likes. Does anyone have a jumper
that I can borrow for a week or two? Thanks! Along with an adorable video of Heidi bouncing, got us this here little bouncy toy:
...and sure enough, she loves it. What amazed me about getting this was that people I've only met in real life a time or two remembered my post when they met someone new to the area that wanted to get rid of the bouncer. They told her to join the group and then find my post. I've gotten rid of some junk on this group, but I think I'm going to knit up some dish clothes to gift. Knitting.
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| Seven stitches left to go, but only one inch of yarn. Talk about adrenaline. |
How horrible is it to get this close to the end of a giant fair isle project, just to run out of yarn on the last seven stitches? Evie's solution was to
rip it all out and use a different sized needle. Mark's solution was to
rip it all out and use a different color scheme. Both their suggestions involved
ripping out and you know that will never ever never ever happen. My solution was to dig through a giant box of odds and ends to see if I still had a tiny ball of this color. Found it. Whew! Problem solved and stocking finished!!!
Shane has been wanting a new hobby that wasn't a waste of time. Cooking and gardening are the first ideas that came to mind. This morning, he made a batch of pumpkin muffins with icing! It came in a box, but it was a first project. They were really good!
Go, Dog. Go! Is the best book in the world! I use it as a test to see if my kids can read. Guess what? Fiona can read!
That right there is the first step to her journey of a thousand miles. I'm so proud of her!
