Into the four-year-old psyche

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am going nuts with posts today. I have had a couple of these marinating in my brain for a few days and never really sat down to post.

This one will probably be as scary as the title suggests. ;o) I always love watching funny, little brains doing their things, but a couple of Bug examples have stuck out recently. The first is a funny, where-the-heck-did-that-come-from thing.

Bug has been carrying around the stuffed mammoth and elephant for the last couple of days. The mammoth is "Momma Elephant" and the elephant is "Baby Elephant." A few days back we had the following conversation:

Bug: What are those (pointing to white things on the mammoth)?
Me: Those are "tusks"
Bug: What do tusks do?
Me: Well, elephants can use their tusks to carry heavy things or maybe to defend themselves.
Bug: Oh... (thinking about it)

Bug: Well, Baby Elephant has tiny tusks. That's where he hangs his water bottle.
Me: Oh really??

Not a clue where it came from or what it means. I just go with the flow...

The second example is how Bug processed something scary. Kitty Daddy rented "Snakes on a Plane" last Friday (yeah, nothing but high culture in this house...). He started watching it when the kids and I were still in the living room. The pre-plane part wasn't too bad; a little gore, but off screen and the kids really weren't paying that much attention anyway. However, once all the plot elements were in place (i.e., snakes and planes) the movie got gross and scary pretty fast and the kids started noticing it more. It didn't take long to figure out that Bug was getting a little freaked, so we shut it off. I took the kids upstairs and we settled into bed and finally fell asleep. We have three stuffed snakes that had happened to be out with the "active toys" at the time.

The next day, he was playing with the snakes and stopped periodically to explain to Daddy and I that these weren't "scary snakes," they were "happy snakes." After a couple of days of that, he started making some of the snakes do more "scary" things and ask me to spray him with "snake spray." After I made a "fsssst" noise, the snake would leave him alone. Eventually, two or all three snake would be scary at the same time and we would take care of them with the "snake spray." Finally, after a couple of days of "scary snakes" he just lost interest in the snakes all together (incidentally, that is when he started in with the elephants). While we did do some talking about movies being pretend, etc., etc., it was really interesting seeing how he worked through the scary experience on his own.

A poem to share

The kids and I have been reading Shel Silverstein poems. I ran across "The Giving Tree" several weeks ago at the library. We have had a couple of kid's poetry collections (Flamingos on the Roof and The Yellow Elephant) and Bug loved both. In fact, we read The Yellow Elephant at least twice a day for most of the time it was checked out! So, I looked at our library branch for some of Shel's poetry collections. We found Falling Up and A Light in the Attic checked in and took both home. We have already read all the way through A Light in the Attic and are about halfway through Falling Up. We checked out Where the Sidewalk Ends today (which I had read several times as a kid). So we have poems to hold us for a while!

Anyway, in the process of reading so far, I found a poem that I really like. Not only is it pretty good advice, it also sums up my whole parenting philosophy pretty well and explains how I found "Attachment Parenting" when Bug was tiny. So, without further ado...

The Voice

There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
"I feel that this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you--just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.

-- From Falling Up: Poems and
Drawings by Shel Silverstein

The $1.91 Niddy-Noddy

My handspun has been sitting on the spindle. Since there was more than my first sample, I wanted to measure it as I winded it into a hank to wash and set the twist. I had seen one method using two nails in a two-by-four to wrap the yarn in a hank and was planning on putting one together, but I wasn't sure I wanted to buy a whole box of nails. We have plenty of nails, but they are deep in the storage shed. After briefly coveting a niddy-noddy, which is what spinners use to wind hanks, I discovered instructions for making a very cheap PVC niddy-noddy here. So, before our regular Friday trip to the library, the kids and I stopped by Home Depot and purchased 10' of 1/2" PVC ($1.43) and two 1/2" tees ($0.19/each) plus tax ($0.10). When we got home, I dug out the Dremel and turned them into:

Here is the niddy-noddy in action, holding 38 yards of my handspun:

The handspun is in the sink soaking right now.

CO: A sweater for Mollie

Kitty Daddy feels that Mollie dog has been left out of the woolly goodness resulting from me knitting, so he suggested that she desperately needs a sweater. Since I had some Cascade 220 left over from Daddy's Hawkeye scarf and socks, she will be getting a sweater that coordinates with her Daddy, so the two of them can look so spiffy out for a walk on a cold winter's day. Since Mollie is a wee mini-dachsie, she has weird proportions and doesn't fit very well in ready made, so I will be using Esther Bozak's "The Original Custom-Fit Dog Sweater" to make one just for her! I have swatched and measured, so I'm ready to go.

Bug's sweater is almost done...after the third try on the neckline shaping, I'm hoping third time's the charm. The first time I did short row shaping and managed to space off the fact that just doing short rows leads to ugly gaping holes. Frog back to beginning of shaping. The second time I did some beautiful Japanese short rows and promptly discovered that there was now way Bug's head was going to fit. Not even with a giant shoe horn and considerable force. Frog back to beginning of shaping again. This time I did the shaping to make a bigger hole and (here's the kicker) tried slipping it over his head before starting on the neckband! I still have to finish the neck band, but it's getting close. The bad news is that after frogging back the second time, I let it sit for a couple of days and forgot to switch back to the larger needles I used for the entire body from the smaller needles I used for the ribbing. Frog a fourth time? Nah, we'll just call it a "design feature"

Oh ma-a-a-a-ann!

So, two days ago, I was so proud of myself for getting a broken Denise cord sent in to be replaced after ordering replacements for two that have been broken for a long time and disappeared. Guess what? Today, I was working on organizing my office/creative space and found one of the broken cords. I'll probably send it in anyway (extra cords can never hurt!!), but, sheesh, I think I'd rather wait until either my order or replacement cord (or both) get to me.

Getting "my" room organized is going to be a huge job, but it felt good to make some progress today. The biggest problems is that some stuff was in storage for a year when we were at our old apartment and now some of the stuff that will eventually wind up in this room is in our current storage bin. So getting everything settled will actually involve going through everything that is now in storage. Yeah, BIG job. Anyway, the Denise cord I found hasn't been sighted since we lived in Iowa a year and a half ago. Kind of scary.

I have several big jobs in progress, trying to get our lives organized again after two moves and everything not dissertation-related getting moved down on the priority list for almost nine months in between the two moves; all done while juggling two little ones. One of my New Year's resolutions is to try keep making steady progress on this stuff. It's so easy to get overwhelmed and disgusted by the accumulated mess and just throw up my hands and give up, but things never get better that way. So I'm trying to remind myself that if I can slip in even five minutes on one dreaded project, that is going to bring me five minutes closer to done, no matter how far away "done" is.

Cloth Diapering

Okay, my sister-in-law's close friend is having a baby next month and she hooked the two of us up since I have all sorts of information and opinions about cloth diapering. I started using cloth about two years ago, when Bug was just over two and Bean was about six months. So I don't have actual experience CDing a newborn, so those opinions are where I would start if I were going to diaper a newborn based on my bigger baby experience. If any other CD mamas are reading this, please chime in with any other thoughts or recommendations in the comments. I will forward them on to SIL's friend.

I am linking to pictures at diaperco.com. I *think* that is where I ordered my first diapers from. Since then, I have bought them "off-line" at Happy Bambino. I'm not recommending or advocating any particular vendor. This is just the one that caught my eye when I googled two years ago. Punkin Buns has an awesome FAQ page with lots of links to great additional information and a page of links to articles.

Cloth Diapering 101 - some basics, by no means complete, based on my basic research two years ago and my experience so far.

• At its most basic, there is a diaper and a cover. The most basic diaper is the Chinese Prefold (CPF) which is a "diaper service quality" (DSQ) diaper. Other types include contour diapers, which are shaped so you don't have to do origami to put them on, and fitted diapers, which have elastic for a snugger fit. The most basic cover is just some kind of variation on the rubber pants of old. There are also wool covers (or soakers), both commercially made and handmade for knitter or crochet types. There are lots of free and for sale patterns. I could do a huge long blog on the variations of soakers and my opinions, but not here...
  
• Pocket diapers are kind of a hybrid. The diaper is both liner and cover and some sort of absorbent stuff is put in the pocket between.
  
• All-in-ones (AIO) are just what they sound like, a liner, cover, and absorbent stuff all-in-one. They are as convenient as disposables, but much more expensive than prefolds and covers.
  

What we use:

• CPFs with Bummi Super Whisper Wrap covers. I have a minor diaper pin phobia, so I use Snappis instead of pins. They cost a bit more, but calm my child-stabbing paranoia. Both diapers and covers have performed wonderfully. After two years, I am still using the original diapers and wraps I bought, though the velcro has gotten pretty bad on the oldest wraps and a few of the diapers are showing their age and getting holes in the outer layers. We have added some wraps to the collection. We also have been replacing Snappis as we go, since the rubber tends to break down over time.
  
• Fuzzi Buns stuffed with CPFs. These are a total life saver for the wiggle-itis phases. When the littles have gone through these phases, it takes about six hands to put on a diaper, fasten it and put on a cover while keeping the baby from doing somersaults off the changing table. Fuzzi Buns just snap on. We haven't used inserts. I'm not opposed to them, they would make a trimmer fit, but we decided to go the cheap route and use the pre-folds we already had. Bulkier, but cheap!
  
• We also have a few Kissaluvs fitted diapers that we use under the Bummi SWWs. I'm not crazy about these for older babies as they don't hold very much pee and they take FOREVER to dry, but I think they might be nice for brand new babies that get changed more frequently. I had trouble getting prefolds on Bean when we started...a combination of inexperience and minuscule butt. The fitteds would have been a lot easier, but also more expensive. Like everything, convenience vs. $$$.
• We have some wool soakers that I have made. You'd think that a knitter who cloth diapers would have more, but I prefer the SWWs since I seem to be to stupid to keep the soakers out of the hot diaper wash. They are all felted now *sigh*. We also have a couple of acrylic soakers that I made. They aren't as nice as wool, but they are virtually indestructible!
• We also have a handful of hemp prefolds that we use as doublers at night. They are a little less bulky than the CPFs, which is an asset since the night-time butts tend to be huge!
  

The up-shot is that if I was starting over with a newborn, I would probably get a few each of the smaller size pre-folds and teensy-weensy Kissaluvs and see what worked best before committing. If pressed, I could probably make a recommendation about specific sizes and number, but that can be by email. Then I would get a couple each of newborn and small SWWs and see which fits before investing in more. If I weren't so cheap, I would consider Fuzzi Buns (but I'm cheap enough that I would wait until baby wears a medium since they grow out of the tiny ones so fast) and some AIOs as both are very convenient (and Daddy-friendly if Daddy is less than enthused about CDing)

Cleaning

• We use a Mother of Eden pail liner in a garbage can with a foot opener thingy. We have two liners...one in the pail, one in the wash or drying. I put a little lavender essential oil and tea tree essential oil on the little terry flap to keep smell down.
  
• Wet diapers go straight into the pail. Covers can be air dried and reused if they don't smell like pee. Poopy diapers get rinsed in the toilet using a mini shower. Love the mini-shower!!
  
• Since I have had two in diapers, I wash every other day and have a pretty full load. With one, I imagine every 3-4 days would be a reasonable sized load. It really depends on how many diapers you have and how big the washing machine is. With our old washer, I did a cold pre-wash cycle to rinse and soak, then a hot, fairly long wash cycle. With the washer we have now I just do a long hot wash cycle and occasionally run them through a second cycle if they are particularly fragrant. I use slightly less detergent (we use Sears) than I do for regular laundry, a 1/4 cup of baking soda, and a couple of squirts of Bac-out when we have it.
  
• Diaper covers and pail liners hang dry. When the weather is nice, I put stained diaper on the cloths line in the sun. The rest of the diapers and Fuzzi Buns go in the dryer.
  

I have never tried a service, but I don't think washing diapers is too bad, so the extra effort of washing them wouldn't balance out the extra cost of a service for me. Also, you have to use their particular diapers and wraps (usually CPFs and Proraps) and probably not fitteds, pocket, or AIOs. So it would be less convenient diapering, but more convenient (as in no) washing.

Yeah, I'm still here...

The post-travel/post-company blog lull is apparently fast becoming a tradition! See, I just can't cope when folks get me out of my nice, quiet, comfortable rut. That and the fact that it takes the kiddos several days to calm down again after excitement.

I have been working away on Bug's sweater. Once I set the possessed skein aside, progress was much better. However, I am kind of stuck on the neck right now. I got the neck finished and there is no way, no how that it will go over Bug's head. I have been fiddling with it, but I have a strong suspicion that the pattern is just scaled down from the adult version without regard for the difference in head/body proportion between adults and children. I have some ideas to try to fix the problem, but I'm letting it marinate for a little bit.

On Saturday, I got to spend my Christmas gift certificate from Kitty Daddy and the kidlings. I decided on plain ol' Cascade 220. This yarn is earmarked for felted slippers for the kids...two-tone blue for Bug and two-tone pink for Bean. I wound them using the umbrella swift and ball winder at the store. Both of those are on my some-day-when-I'm-stinkin'-filthy-rich list. For now, if I had the money, I'd rather spend it on yarn and, maybe, needles...

I still have a KnitPicks gift certificate to spend. I am adding stuff to my cart, taking stuff out, adding other stuff, and so on. Before I can finalize it, I need to sit down and make some decisions about projects I would like to start and do some math. But, dang, I'm having a lot of fun shopping in the mean-time!

Also, I finally got around to ordering some replacement cords for my Denise kit. I had broken two cords, and even though they are guaranteed and will be replaced if you send the broken parts in, what with multiple moves and baby chaos, I never quite got the broken cords and a packaging material in the same place at the same time, until finally, the broken cords just quit surfacing. So I bit the bullet and made an order. I also ordered an extra long cord that I had been thinking about for a while. Then, just days after getting the order in, what happens? I break another cord working on Bug's sweater! This time, I swear I'm going to get it sent in! These babies have been my needle work-horses for nearly two years. I am planning to start getting some KnitPicks options needles to supplement them, but by no means replace them!

ETA: Okay, it's 1:18 pm and I got off my butt and packaged up my broken cord. Now I just need to get the darn thing to the PO. Life would be so much easier if you could send stuff like this via email!

Definitely yes

I'm not sure where Bug picked this one up, but it's pretty cute. Every time he answers in the affirmative lately, his reply is "Yes. Def'ly yes." Of course, this is said in his ever-so-earnest voice. He's a kid who definitely knows his mind, eh?

Trying to find our groove again

Things have been quiet-ish. We are mostly trying to settle back in after the holidays and our trip to grandma's (a blog coming on that soon). The kids and I are all tired and cranky. No one is sleeping very well, we have had a shortage of naps, and the weather has been mostly gray and dreary. Today was sunny, so we took advantage and made a short trip to close park. Hopefully, we will all be sleeping better and settled back into our daily routines before long.

Does anyone know how to perform a yarn exorcism??

I have a 50g skein that is clearly possessed by evil yarn demons. We drove to Central Iowa on Sunday and celebrated Christmas with Kitty Daddy's family on Monday before heading back home. It is about a five hour drive, so I had--count 'em folks--ten hours of knitting time! Plus, some knitting in the hotel room Sunday night, while trying to keep two bored kidlets from killing each other. In addition to some long-overdue finishing work and a bit on the sock-in-progress, I spent most of the time working on Bug's sweater. Before we left, I had done one skein on the body and about 2/3 of the first sleeve. While we were on the road, I finished the first sleeve, added a second skein to the body (only another 1/2 inch till the armpits!) and fought the demon yarn on the second sleeve:

Notice that there is only yarn and no second sleeve in the photo. This is how it went. I cast on and knit eight rows of rib for the cuff. The whole time I'm knitting, I keep thinking that this cuff is looking looser that the bottom band on the body or the other wrist. I move on to the first couple of rows of stockinette before pulling out the first sleeve to make sure I start increasing at the same place. The wrist is definitely looser and the light bulb FINALLY goes on. I have been using size 7 needles for the stockinette, but size 5 for the ribbing on the other pieces. I had been using the size 7 needles for the second wrist. A few choice word (dad calls it carpenter talk, but knitters have a similar vocabulary!) and I pull the needles out and frog.

Cast on again, re-knit the cuff with the right size needles. Get back to where I left off the first time. Pull out sleeve number one again to figure out where to increase. After checking and double checking, I am convinced that I knit four full rounds of stockinette and then began the increases at the last stitches of the fifth round. Get the the first pair of increases done. At that point, I happen to look at the cuff and find one stitch in the purled part of the ribbing that was knit. Decide that I would rather keep knitting and drop a column of stitches, fix the mistake, and use a crochet hook to pick the stitches. Even though it will mean more stitches to pick up on the fix, I would rather keep knitting than waste prime car knitting time.

Keep knitting. Get to second set of increases (increases are every six rows) and about halfway to the third set. Pull out first sleeve to double check that they are the same. Notice that first set of increases on second sleeve is farther from the cuff than on first sleeve. Ponder this for a few moments. Realize that I have "read" the first sleeve wrong...the first increase is at the end of the fourth round of stockinette, not the fifth. Curse creatively. Pick up a round of stitches just below the first increase, pull out the needles and frog back. Ironically, I am at about the same point I got to the first time around.

Get first increase in the right place, knit five rounds, second pair of increases, knit five rounds, third pair of increases, knit to last few stitches of first round and discover that I screwed up the increase and the two new stitches (that used to be one) magically dissolves into one really big stitch (like a double yo) when I try to knit into it. Yes, at this point, I could have tinked back, fixed the increase and kept going, while keeping in mind that I still need to drop stitches to fix the stinkin' cuff, but I realized that the yarn is clearly possessed and this sleeve is clearly NOT going to happen with this particular skein of yarn, yank the stinkin' needles out and FROG the whole darn thing.

The end result of this fiasco:

One possessed skein of yarn. I parked this bad boy on my desk when we got home and pulled out a new skein to restart the sleeve. Once I work up the nerve. If I had just grabbed another skein, I bet I could have finished the sleeve before we got home!

Do you think that seclusion on my desk while I use up all the other skeins will be punishment enough? Or do I need to perform some kind of exorcism rite before I can ever hope to knit with this particular skein?