may thirty-one

Specs:
Pattern: Judy's Grandmother's Baby Jacket by Judy Spector
(Ravelry Link) from Greetings from Knit Cafe
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Wasabi #887

Purchased: Online at Robyn's Nest
Needle: US 5 / 3.75 mm
Size: 6 month size
Timeline: March 19th, 2008 - May 31st, 2008.
Modifications: Followed pattern as published.
Opinion: It was a long knit, but I really enjoyed it. I like honeycomb stitch. I got to learn Elastic Bind Off as well as Three Needle Bind Off during this project.

Now I just need a baby to fit into it. I thought it looked a little large, so I tried it on Sean, but certainly, he's too big for it! (Phew!) I'm thinking it may be more 6-9 month size, rather than 6 month size, but I guess we'll see when Mack fits into it!

Detail of the honeycomb stitch. What a great looking stitch.

Jamie and I watched tv all afternoon being a bit lazy. Lazy (rainy) Saturdays rock. (Especially when you're almost 35 weeks pregnant!) Wow, I'm 1 week shy of being 9 months pregnant. After a few episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond we watched the movie Balls of Fury. It was alright. I think I closed my eyes a few times during the movie, and didn't miss much. It was a comedy, about a Ping Pong Champion who is needed for an FBI under cover operation. Not a movie I'd watch again, but entertaining none-the-less.

Don't forget that Secret Pal 12 Sign Ups will end shortly. We're leaving it open until Monday, June 2nd, 2008. I'm hostessing again, and it's going to be a lot of fun. You can sign up in a price category this time (30$ over 3 months or 60$ over 3 months) to better suit your budget.

Rest in Peace Luc Bourdon, a Canadian defenseman playing for the Vancouver Canucks. He also played interchangeably for the Manitoba Moose, in the AHL. At the age of 21, he died in a motor cycle accident on May 29th, 2008, 2 days ago. It was really nice of the NHL to do a small tribute to him before tonight's game started. The game is still on, but Pittsburgh is winning 1-0. First period just ended. Jamie's watching the game at a friend's house tonight, and I'm chilling out with Sean. We're flipping back and forth between episodes of King of Queens and the hockey game.

I started reading Knocked Up by Rebecca Eckler. I'm just a few pages in, but I love it just as much as her other 2 (which I oddly read out of order, but it doesn't really matter). I'm sure it'll be a fast read.


I'm going to go hang out with my little man, and work on Mackenzie's Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap. I'm about 45% finished it and I want to start getting some FO's before Mack's born. The plan is to finish the cap, and then Sean's Cabled Pullover is next in line. After that I hope to get some more squares done on Sean's blankie.

My birthday is in 16 days, I'm getting very excited. 16 days also marks 37 weeks pregnant (full term!) Time's a ticking!

may thirty :: 74 weeks

Mr. Sean is 74 weeks old today.

He likes to dump out his mega blocks bucket and then sit in it. He's funny. He makes me laugh.

Today I got some mystery mail. I'm certainly not complaining, but I'm not sure who sent it. I received some Dream in Color Smooshy in Giant Peach, a color that I love (and carry in the shop!) and some Cherry Tree Hill, Louet Gems Merino in Dusk. Thank you to whomever sent this lovely yarn my way!

I also received Rebecca Eckler's first book, Knocked Up, which I was dying to read. I had read her 2nd and 3rd books, but couldn't get my hands on the 1st. Rebecca was so nice to send me a copy, autographed as well!

The special part of it, is that Rowan, who is about 4 years old now (I think?) autographed it as well! How awesome is that? Thank you Rebecca for going out of your way to do this for me. I can't wait to start reading it already!


It was decided thatthe little Mr. Sean needed a hair cut today. My mom has been bugging me for a few weeks to get him a haircut (it was growing over his ears again and his curls were getting out of control! As much as I LOVE his curls). We have Jakob's 1st birthday party on Sunday, and my mother said it would be nice if he got his haircut before then. So.... we made a trip today to get his hair cut.

He was REALLY well behaved during the entire haircut. I was very impressed. He even let her use the clipper for above his ears and for his neck. (Not that he really needed it?) but he didn't freak out like the last time. Very impressed!

And we spiked up his hair with some gel for fun. TOTALLY cute! I love it. He is so handsome.

In some gardening news, I cannot figure out for the life of me, what the heck happened ot my sunflower? One is doing beautifully. Actually, as of yesterday, BOTH were doing beautifully. And today... one has shrivelled up...? I just don't get it. I'll give it a few more days to see if it comes back to life, but I just don't get what happened.

My zucchini plant is doing really well. The stem is doing very well and seems to be getting thicker by the day. I will check to see if I can buy already started cucumber plants this weekend to plant in the garden. Very disappointed about the cucumbers, since they are my fave vegetable.


The three types of lettuce in the garden are also by the day getting thicker & thicker with more leaves. I just love it. I can't wait to see how they turn out! (And taste!)

One of my stringless beans is really tall, while the others are starting to slowly push out of the ground. It's all very exciting to me, as this is my first vegetable garden ever! I used to have a vegetable garden when I was really young, but it really belonged to my dad and I don't remember anything at all about it.

And my radishes are starting to grow a lot too. I have no idea how to tell that they are ready either. All I know is that they are fully matured at 24-28 days, and they were planted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008. 24-28 days from the 17th is June 10th -14th, so I won't worry about that until around then.

Here is a 74 weeks shot after the haircut he had tonight. I think for fun, on Sunday for Jakob's 1st birthday party, I'm going to use some of Jamie's hair gel and spike up Sean's hair! It'll look so handsome!


Some pretty tiles I saw today, had to photograph them. I just loved the colors together.

Tonight Jamie & I watched Last Comic Standing from last night, as well as the 2 hour season finale of Lost. Sean fell asleep somewhere in between Last Comic Standing and Lost. He hadn't napped at all today. It's been a while now that he hasn't taken an afternoon nap, and frankly I'm not too happy about it. By the way it looks, he may not ever nap an afternoon again.... is this even possible? At 17 months old to eliminate the afternoon nap?? Please tell me it's a phase he's going through? He's refusing to nap. I am not even sure how he has energy all day long to keep going?

I got a ton of knitting done on the baby sweater. It should be finished by tomorrow. (That's the plan). I've cast off the last sleeve and I just need to seam up the sleeve/shoulder with picking up stitches and doing a three needle bind-off. Very excited to put this project away for when it fits Mack. I need to move on to another project already! So much knitting I want to get done before Mack is actually born!

Sometimes I wish I crocheted.(Is that even a way to conjugate the word?) Well, I don't. But aren't these teether/pacifier holders the cutest?? Maybe one day I'll learn to crochet and make some of these for other babies! (I know how to single crochet, but other than that, not really too sure what is going on, etc...!)

may twenty-nine

**** Warning BMFA's STR Rocking Sock May 2008 Club Spoiler in this post - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK ******

Some garden updates from my house, we have some beautiful stuff going on in the front and the back of the house. Above are some white flowers that are over-taking the front garden. (The garden is on a hill in front of the house, leading to the grass. It's actually very nice!) So happy to have bought this house!

And we have some beautiful Bleeding Hearts in our garden. Oh, do I love them! The person who had our house before us, certainly had great taste for the garden. See the white flowers under them (from the previous photo...) told you they were everywhere!!

And in our backyard, there is some developments on our rose bush!!! I cannot wait for them to blossom.... I am very excited for them. I love roses.

Looks like some of the roses will blossom soon too! And by the looks, they will be red! It's a HUGE rose bush, I can't wait.

This afternoon we had the handyman come back and he put the door back onto my powder room/laundry room so now I don't have to keep running up and down the stairs when we have guests over, and neither do they. There is still some parts to touch up on the molding, etc, but it's just about done! The handyman has to come back next week at some point to finish as he has to buy a part that had gotten broken when the door frame came off.

This evening Sean & I headed just off the island of Montreal to pick up the yarn for the June Sock Club. It was an easy drive and didn't take as long as I thought. Gotta love the country! The June kit will be ready just after the weekend, and I'm hoping to get it in the mail sometime in the first to second week of June. Very excited about the kit - as you should be if you ordered one! Don't forget the July Sock Club is on sale right now, and will be the last one before our little mini-sock-club-vacation for the rest of the summer (to resume in the fall after Mackenzie is born and we have time to adjust to a routine!)


Gotta love the Montreal skyline on the way back into the city. Pretty good photo considering there was no traffic and I was driving!


I need to update my cell phone with a non-winter shot of Sean. But I just heart this kid so very much..... doesn't he make the best screen saver?

Today in the mail I got May's BMFA's Rockin' Sock Club kit. LOVE IT!! They forgot to include my mini emergency skein, so it's coming in the mail. I haven't had a chance to open the package yet, but I absolutely LOVE it! (My new love for purple).

Any of my readers (knitters) in the Kingston, Ontario area??? If so, I'll be there Wednesday with a car full of knitters and one handsome little 17 month old boy, if anyone is around. We're driving down for the Harlot event and to go to Michaels!

We stopped off at Jamie's baseball game on our way home and Sean loved watching Daddy play baseball. It was a late game, so we only stayed 2 innings, I will have to take Sean to a game soon, I think Jamie has an afternoon Sunday game coming up sometime soon.

May twenty-eight :: 17 months old

Sean is 17 months old today. I can't believe in a month he'll be a year and a half old. According to What to Expect the Toddler Years, at 17 months Sean is right on track. (Actually, he's a little smarter, but shhhh!)

Sean got silly and started sticking out his tongue. He's such a funny little guy. So I joined him. (It's amazing how "slimming" the color black is! If you don't see me from the side view, with my basketball belly), you can't even tell I'm pregnant! That's what I love about this time around... from the back, you'd never guess that I'm pregnant. It's all about the belly!

Today we ran some errands with my mom and picked up Angela at one point, who came out knitting with me tonight. Sean was being such a cutie in the car, I just love this kid. Don't you just love his Pirate Airwalk shoes?? I love little boys clothes!

Oh, ya, shoes don't stay on long with this kid. Socks either. Sean wanted to show you all that he can take off his socks & shoes all by himself. Now I just need to teach him how to put his socks back on as well as the shoes!

And a few minutes later it was nap time. He was zonked, being up early and having music class this morning, running around the gym at the Y... he was tired.

This afternoon my mother, Angela & I hit up the La Senza Sale and I got waaaay too many pairs of pj pants. I just love them from there, and at the price that they were, how could you go wrong? There was this really cute cashmere sweater that I saw on "display" at the cashes afterwards, and didn't see the sweater while inside the warehouse. Anyhow, I wish I'd seen it, I would have gotten myself one, or two, or three (apparently there were 5 different colors). I guess I am just going to have to knit myself something similar. I say this because tomorrow the sale opens up to the public (today was by invitation only) and I'm NOT standing in those crazy line ups that they have when it's finally open to the public for 1 sweater. Grrr! Oh well. I did get some really neat stuff today.

Tonight I went knitting with the West Island Knits group, and I had a lot of fun. Blogless Madeleine had a very interesting knit to show us, which she actually knit for my sister. (My sister was telling us about this pattern last time, and it's just too funny!)

We were 7 knitters strong tonight. (My sister, Jennifer, Angela, Madeleine, Hélène, Eugenie, and myself). I enjoyed the nachos and I got some rows done on the 2nd sleeve of Mack's sweater. It's coming along! Pictures tomorrow.

Can someone please explain to me this outfit tonight on Don Cherry? I know he's into wacky suits, it's his "thing".... but this... is well, just over the top. And GO PITTSBURGH PENGUINS! They won tonight, and Sid the Kid scored 2 of the goals! Whoot! (Jamie's still rooting for Detroit for financial (hockey pool) reasons, but because of Sidney Crosby, I'm rooting for the Penguins to win. They are going to have to put up a good fight to win, but the Pens can still win!!

may twenty-seven

Last night I finished reading Wiped! Life with a Pint-Sized Dictator by Rebecca Eckler. Loved it. I'm reading her books backwards (Started with Toddler's Gone Wild, then Wiped! and there is still her first book Knocked Up that I'd like to read). (Eckler is supposed to be mailing me a copy of that book since it's been impossible to get - though I see now it's available 1-3 week shipping on Chapters.ca, which it wasn't before).

Today I got some great mail. I received the Monkey Tote Sock Project bag that I ordered from Bea's Etsy Shop. LOVE IT! Thank you Bea!

And I'd also won a prize from Bea, just for wanting her hand-knit! I loved the button on it so much, I had to ask her to include me in for the drawing for it!

And doesn't it just look fabulous? It's super soft too. I love it. Feels great on. Love the color. Thanks Bea! You Rock!

This morning Sean had his class at the Y. We made chocolate balls for Father's Day. Yes, you read the correctly. Father's Day. Next week is the last class and we're doing something for a Jewish Holiday that is next week, and so we did father's day this week. Sean made 5 balls, and 2 made it home for his daddy. (Jamie enjoyed them). We also traced Sean's foot for a letter to his father for father's day, I'll frame it and put it up on the way next to his hand prints from mother's day. I'll photograph that once framed to show you.

After class the handyman was actually on time at my house. He did a few things that he was supposed to, and then the rest he has to come back on Thursday as he didn't have a few tools that he needed to do the work (new job I asked him to do - putting the door frame back on the door in my office so that the door can finally be put back on from when we took it off to get the olde washer & dryer out and the new washer & dryer in).

The guy for the central air, showed up over 2 hours late, and I was mad about that! But, he came and he checked out the unit and it turns out that there was a leak and it was leaking freon. Freon is the "gas" in your air conditioner that makes the air cold. Otherwise, it will just circulate warm air. Thank goodness it was an easy fix and nothing more than that! And now, the house is nice and cool. I am a super happy very pregnant person now!

This evening Jamie & I sat on the ouch and watched episode after episode of Everybody Loves Raymond that our Tivo recorded for us, as there was absolutely nothing on TV and we didn't feel like watching a movie. I worked (AND FINISHED) on sleeve number 1 on the baby sweater. I'm going to finish up sleeve number 2, and then all I have to do on it is weave in the ends. There is no seaming on it. I love this pattern, it's great. I can't wait for it to be done! I am so close to being finished the sweater, I can taste the end!

may twenty-six :: 34 weeks pregnant

I couldn't sleep last night. After blogging, I got on this crazy nesting kick and cleaned the house as well as did a bunch of loads of laundry, folding them all as well, until about 3 am. Jamie woke up at 3 am to go to the bathroom and was wondering why I was standing by the closet door with the light on folding laundry. I told him I was nesting, and he was like "what? get to bed!"... Nesting. Yep. I'm nesting big time. Must clean. Must organize. I'm on a HUGE organize kick. Once I've finished organizing what I need to organize, then I can continue on and be ready for Mackenzie's arrival.

34 weeks pregnant. My belly is a round basketball sized bump. I love how round it is now!

Today I had some lunch guests, my friend Marga of Firefly Adventures stopped over with her husband on their way home from Montreal back to Rochester, NY. Marga & I have been blog friends for ages now (I can't recall how long it's been, but sometime after I started blogging in late 2005 we started talking). Marga actually got married the day before me, so we've both been married just about the same amount of time! It was AWESOME to meet her finally and I can't wait to see her again next week (we're meeting up in Ontario for the day next Wednesday, more details about that later). I'm finally going to get my Dish Chair! I've ordered it off Target.com to Marga's house since Target won't ship to Canada, and she's bringing it to me next week. YEY! The wait is over! I am sooooo excited!

Before Marga left, Sean had to try on her shoes. He's had this obsession lately with trying on everyone else's shoes. As long as they are bigger than his feet, he loves it. I love watching him try to walk around in them. Silly kid!


My sister came over just before Marga left & then after my mom came by too, and we watched the movie Over Her Dead Body. It was REALLY cute. I enjoyed it. A definite chick flick. I got to knit some on the baby sweater, my sister worked on her project, my mom played with Sean a bit and then towards the end of the movie Sean fell asleep on me. It was really cute how he cuddled in my legs.

He is too funny the way he goes in my lap on one leg...mind you, it's the MOST comfortable way to cuddle with him considering I have a basketball sized belly right now...!

My fence is done! Whoot! I am so super happy with it. It was an expensive project, but worth it. Now I have a backyard that Sean can run around in and I don't have to worry about him running off. What a relief! I can start to enjoy my backyard now. There are a few things that need to be done in the yard, some new grass has to go down and I want to plant a flower garden in one corner along with some Strawberry plants. (Next year I want to add Raspberry and/or Blackberry, unless I can get my hands on some this year, and it's not too late to plant them). We'll see.

Speaking of my garden:

My garden is doing well!
Top: Onion (Red Globe), Early Calwonder Peppers
Bottom: Cantaloupe, Raddish

My tomatos are thriving as well, Sweetie Tomatoes, Beefsteak Tomatoes & San Marzano Tomatoes. Looks like I lost 1 Beeftsteak plant though, and 1 San Marzano. Beefsteak I only planted 2 and San Marzano (Italian tomatoes) I believe that I have 2 more plants.

One cucumber plant is completely dead. (See above left). The right hand pictured cucumber plant, Jamie says that the stem is very strong and it may just be the leaves that are dead, we're hoping for a comeback, but I planted some more cucumber seeds, so we'll see what happens. And my zucchini plant in the ground is doing well, as well I think the 2 that I pot planted are thriving as well, I'll re-check on those tomorrow, I forgot to check on them today.
|And the lettuce is THRIVING! I planted (top) 2 rows of each, Black Seeded Simpson & Paris Island lettuce, one row of which I started in the house before the last frost, and one row of seeds directly into the ground. It was a test, I want to see what happens, and what works best. They are thriving the pre-planted seeds, and the newly planted seeds, we'll have to wait & see what happens! On the bottom in the picture, I have my Boston Lettuce, which I bought plants for because it's the one plant I forgot to buy seeds for, and they are doing VERY well in the garden! I have about 8-9 plants - they look great! I can't wait to be able to eat salad all summer long that I picked from my own yard. That's the plan. And I am so excited!

There are other items also in my garden, once there is more progress, I'll post more pictures! Promise!

A mommy friend of mine introduced me to a song called Mackenzie by Eric Jackson. You can listen to the song off this website I just linked. I downloaded it from iTunes and it's now on my iPod touch. Wow- what a beautiful song. It's all about a baby named Mackenzie. Now I need to find a song with Sean's name in it!

Just a reminder that the July Sock Club has been listed to Robyn's Nest! It's the last sock club for the summer until I have baby Mackenzie and get him & I back onto a schedule. We'll be resuming the club in the very early fall, so don't worry - the sock club is not gone forever. It's just taking a short mini-vacation. A mini-vacation that is must needed under the circumstances! A lot of work goes into putting together the sock kits, and while I totally enjoy doing them, it will be hard with a nursing baby who isn't sleeping through the nights right away. (Wouldn't that be lovely? For babies to be born nursing right away!)

Tomorrow the repair guy is coming to take a look at the Central Air unit as well, the handyman is coming to do a few things around the house that he neglected to do, but that we paid him to do. (Don't you love it when you pay them and they run off with work half done??) (This is the same handyman who built my yarn room shelving units, etc).... haven't seen him since late November or so!

I have about 8 pages left in the book I'm currently reading, I'll be going to finish those off now! I'm hoping tonight I don't fall asleep while reading them.