She did it!

A couple of weeks ago we finally made it to the pool, thanks to grandma and grandpa who came with us, otherwise we'd never dare in our right mind to go to the pool with kids outnumbering us. With grandma's and grandpa's watchful eyes being there, I knew I didn't have to worry about Maya and Elijah getting out of *my* sight. My worry now was Anya.

Knowing how anti-water she had always been (hence the once-a-month baths) and remembering her encounter with water in Chicago where it took her 3 seconds to start screaming after her toes touches the great Lake Michigan, I was confident it was just a matter of a few seconds before she'd get mad at me for trying to trick her into taking a bath that way. Still, she was wearing a cute swimsuit that cost me a whole $2 at a consignment store, so I had to give it a try. I let her toes touch the water. Nothing. I let her feet touch the water. Nothing. I let her hands touch the water. SPLA-SHING. Not believing my eyes I set her down on all fours and she just started crawling around IN THE WATER, like it was the most natural thing for her to do. So she loved it, the whole hour and a half we spent there she kept crawling in the water and splashing. Grandma and I even took her deeper in the pool, she didn't mind that either.

I guess that was another one of those milestones that I knew would happen some day, but it still completely caught me by surprise. Lovely, lovely surprise!

Finding courage

Meh, don't know what happened. Well, actually I know what happened at the beginning of ignoring my blog. December was a busy month. You know, the usual - making gifts, getting ready for Christmas. And then... nothing. I just couldn't bring myself to click on the link in my toolbar and make a long overdue post. Pathetic. So that's what I did all January, felt guilty for not posting. Time to be done with this nonsence!

I have to thank quite a few people who left comments, emailed or posted on FaceBook encouraging me to start blogging again. If it weren't for you, I'd probably still try to pretend that I don't know what that blog link in toolbar is for and who's blog it is. The sad thing is, I had things to blog about, things I wanted to write about so I would remember them, but I didn't and I forgot what they were. Lesson learned.

This winter has been everything I expected it to be, long and depressing. The leap into February is very welcome here, it means that there's only 28 days left until first day of spring, and each day is going to get longer and hopefully warmer. Much needed hope of change for my weary mind.

My goal for February is inspired by this blog post (and Emily's blog is worth subscribing to, the quiet energy of her posts and thoughts is like a breath of fresh air, so simple and so refreshing). Each day I'll try to find at least one thing about winter that I'm thankful for and hope that this will help me find joy of life in the moment instead of waiting to start living on the 1st of March...

And to celebrate the fresh start, I'm posting a couple of snapshots of Anya, our almost 10 month old bean who's growing way too fast!

Random bits

not a 'real' post yet, just a few photos :)

My 'special' bag that I had to bring with me when we went to visit Mark's family last week. It's full of some delicious yarn and 3 knitting projects I'm working on ;)

Last night's dyeing. Not finished yet, waiting for a second dip tonight.

And a happy milestone for us, little A finally decided that she likes to be on my back, which is making housework so much easier :)

oh, look who is back

Ok, I admit, this poor blog has been ignored long enough... I could list a dozen of reasons why, but I won't. Instead I'm working hard on recent photos and hoping to start posting more often again... But then, there's always holiday gift making, so who knows, lol!

Today's discovery

I stumbled upon this fantastic photo-editing website, Picnik, and now I'm addicted. Yes, a devoted PhotoShop CS user addicted to a free online service that does quick an easy photo edits and has endless possiblities for making your photos look the way you want them to! I spent some time tonight trying out their features and options and here are the results. I started with unedited, never-touched-by-Photoshop photos ;)

Addicting little hats

I recently discovered a wonderful [free!] pattern for baby/toddler hats called Sweet Baby Cap (or Norwegian baby cap) and I'm already working on my 3rd one, they are so fun to knit and so adorable when they are finished :) Anya ended up with one too, it was my first attempt and turned out to be too big for a tiny newborn I was knitting it for. Doesn't she look like a little pixie baby in the Halloween post below? I had to borrow a picture of A with her aunt Angie, because they just look too cute together :) And I did add embroidery on Anya's cap, maybe I'll take a better photo some day...



The newborn sized cap:



The pattern had to be readjusted for worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. For those who are curious, I CO 73 st for newborn cap (0-3 months, my guess) and did 10-10-11-11-10-10 st in places where there 18/19st in the original pattern. For Anya's cap (6-12 months?) I CO 91 st and did 13-13-13-13-13-13 st.

We pulled it off, yet again

Surprisingly, this year we were more prepared for Halloween than last year, when we had to come with *two* costumes just a couple of hours before going out to trunk-or-treat. I guess we are just not much into this holiday and generally try not to stress out about other holidays either.

By some amazing coincidence, I bought Maya's and Anya's costumes during my one and only visit to Kid-to-Kid since Anya was born. It was a disastrous outing with 3 kids that made me swear off taking them all again when I don't have an extra pair of hands to help me. Still, some good came from that, that's how we ended up with 2 ready-to-go costumes a whole month before Halloween.

Elijah's was a tough one however... It was a toss up between Dalek and TARDIS, but we had to be realistic so Mark came up with a brilliant last minute idea. We got out Elijah's tool box and play drill, then drove to Deseret Industries to find some overalls for him. When we got to the parking lot where trunk-or-treat was set up, I threw the overalls on the ground and did my best to get them dirty. My make-up was in the car so Elijah's face got 'dirty' too with some brown eye shadow. He put the overalls on, took the tool box in his hand and turned into the cutest repair man I've ever seen :)

Anya ended up wearing a hat I knitted that day for a newborn baby, but it ended up being too big for a tiny newborn. I thought it complimented her fairy outfit pretty well :)

Maya had to improvise and wear something with her costume to keep up with the weather that night. As always, she's a pro at wardrobe remix ;)

Later that night we went trick-or-treating. Somehow Elijah figured out what his costume was all about, so every time someone opened the door and put candy in his bag, he would ask "Can I come in?" with all the intention to do so before the person at the door had a chance to respond.