The vacuum chronicles

Bug absolutely adores his "orange vacuum." He uses it daily and doesn't want to stop for naps, for bedtime, for diaper changes, for anything! One night, he even wanted it to sleep in bed with us. Another day, the only way I got him to go down for his nap was to lay the Swiffer on the sofa, cover it with a blanket and tell Bug that the vacuum needed a nap too.

I think we are the only parents in the world that threaten to take our child's chores away if he doesn't behave well. I only hope he is this enthusiastic about his chores in a few years.

We're gonna FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT for Iowa!

As Kitty Daddy and I are both University of Iowa alums (that's where we met as undergraduates), here is the scarf and socks that I made for him for last Christmas.
The scarf was my first stab at double knitting. Both ends have the same design, but it is folded so one end shows each side of the fabric. I "borrowed" a Hawkeye logo that I found on the web and made my pattern using Excel. I set the rows and column sizes to be of the same proportion as my gage swatch, imported the graphic and stretched it to size, then proceeded to color in the grid cells to make my design. The scarf was knit with Black and Gold Cascade 220.

The socks are the same yarn and I knit them cuff down and used the same tubular cast-on as for the scarf, followed by 1x1 rib. It worked out okay, but I'm not complete enamored of it. I used "afterthought" heels (aka Peasant heels) for the first time and like that technique a lot. Those are my feet modeling the socks, so they are a little big, but not as big as they are on Bug:

They fit Kitty Daddy much better!

Laundry Quandary

Ugh! Laundry has never been one of my favorite chores, but after eight years of having my own washer and dryer in my own house, I have just about had it with living in an apartment again. We live in a three-unit and there is one washer ($1.25) and one dryer ($1.00) in the basement. To do a weeks worth of laundry for four people, it usually ends up taking five or six loads, in order to get the loads small enough that the stoopid washer gets things vaguely clean. This is in addition to the three to four loads of diapers per week.

The alternative is loading clothes, kids, quarters, and laundry supplies into the van and making the trek to the Laundromat. While I was finishing my dissertation, we did this every Sunday and Kitty Daddy would take one of the kids with him to run errands at Walgreens. Now, I am trying to get laundry done during the week so the four of us can have some fun family time instead of cranky laundry time on the weekend. Even though the Laundromat takes less than 2 hours to do a whole week, that significantly stretches the patience of the two littlest family members. Plus, I have to keep close watch on Bean so she doesn't go play in the toilet or go outside and play in the parking lot, her two favorite laundry-time hobbies.

Either way, I am very happy that there is less than three more months of this. We have put in an application for a townhouse style apartment that has a washer and dryer in the apartment. Assuming all goes well, we will be moving there the last week of August!

More crumpets

I am now three skeins (50 g each) into Bean's dress. We took a car trip to visit grandpa, who lives about an hour and a half away and I got to bliss out with mindless stockinette in the round with the nice, soft Shine Worsted there and back. The skirt part of the dress is now about 2" long.

Since the skirt has twice as many stitches as the bodice, it is going to be A LOT more stockinette. There is nothing better than the mindless knitting of stockinette in the round to relax and achieve a zen-like state. Or at least as close to one as a mother of a 3-1/2 year old and a 1-1/2 year old can ever hope to get.

Shhhh...if you listen very carefully...

You can hear the angels sing:

(softly, as if from a great distance) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Yes, people, our crappy little un-air-conditioned apartment is now a crappy little air-conditioned apartment! Two days at or near 90 and it isn't even June yet. I turn into a slug when it gets much past the mid-70's. Give me 6 foot snowdrifts anytime!

We found a portable A/C on sale at Menards and did the deed. We got it up and running and, while it isn't powerful enough to keep the whole apartment cool all the time, I think that we can keep the living room bearable during the day so the kids can nap and I can find the gumption to make dinner at home.

A renewable (and seemingly inexhaustible) energy source

Since Bug likes to help with the cleaning and has become very fond of the vacuum cleaner (at least when it's turned off). Everytime the vacuum is out, he wants to "pee-tend" vacuum, which drives Mollie Dog crazy. She HATES the vacuum monster and feels obligated to harass it and drive it back into hiding whether it is making noise or not. So, as a solution, we started looking for a silent carpet sweeper (like the ones they use in restaurants). Since we didn't find one at Target and Bug was extremely disappointed, we decided to try a Swiffer Carpet Flick. What a solution! Bug started sweeping with it after lunch and only parted with it to take a nap with a major tantrum. We promised that he could vacuum more after his nap. We can only hope that he takes ownership of chores with such ferocity when he gets older!

Speaking of tantrums, we also found a pair of summer sandals for Bean at Target. We took off one sneaker and sock to try one on and she was most upset when we went to take it off. So we did all of our shopping with her in the cart seat wearing one sandal with the other dangling from its elastic band. Taking it off to have it scanned so we could pay was also a major trauma. The bright side is that this morning, when she was being very opinionated about not wanting to get dressed, I just handed her the sandals and all tantrums subsided and she muttered about her pretty "shoo" the whole time she was being dressed.

What a great book!

I just picked this book up from the local library, and it looks like I might have to add it to my "must buy" list! Extraordinarily cute, very creative projects to make for kids are in here. Among the coolest (in my humble opinion) are:

• felted fire fighter's helmet (Bug would adore this!!!)
• tool belt and tools (hammer, saw, and screwdriver)
• bowling ball and pins
  

All sorts of cool dress-up things too:

• felted wizard and princess hats
• crown
• princess dress
• Egyptian queen
• mermaid outfit
• Viking outfit
  

If I can be a good girl and get some (non-knitting) things crossed off of my to-do list, I think I will have to add the fire hat to my "In Planning" list. Also, Bug might need a set of tools and a tool belt next time we go to visit grandpa (he's do-it-yourselfer and woodworking hobbyist).

Spring Bean

Oh man...how cute is that? Big brown eyes, wavy hair, seersucker and rickrack sundress...

Well, big brother has been getting more than his fair share of blog space since he has the larger vocabulary and we tend to tailor our activities more toward his interests. But Bean is keeping us entertained, too! Her vocabulary is growing, with favorite words including Mom-mom (yours truly), Dada, Go (with an outstretched hand to pull you along), Dipe (diaper), Shoo (shoes), and Neh-neh (nursing). Skill-wise, she is trying desperately to jump, and can't quite get both feet off the floor. It is a pretty adorable tippy-toe thing though!

With warmer weather here, Bean is finally getting to wear her new sundresses from Grandma. It also means that we get to spend more time outside, especially at the park. She loves slides, which means I have to keep my eye on her since some of the slides at Bug's favorite park end several feet off the ground. She climbs like a monkey and does her best to keep up with big brother's exploits. Fortunately, Bug is just starting to get very social at the park, so he finds "fends" to play with and I can follow Bean around and just keep an eye on Bug. The other day, he dragged a little girl about his age over to me and said, "She my girlfend." Not only sociable, but a little Casanova in the making! Of course, he also (on another occasion) dragged a little girl over and patted her and said, "She my brother." Go figure...who can tell what is going to come out of a three-year-old mouth!

Back again!

Last Friday, the internet connection puked off. I was able to get online for a short time Sunday night, but since then, I have been lucky to get online for more than about 5 minutes at a time. What a PAIN!! Finally, the cable company was able to get a technician out yesterday and it seems to be fixed.

Before getting the internet back, we went to the last story time for the spring session in the morning. We'll have two weeks off and then story time will start up again for six weeks in Bug's favorite park! Since it was the last day, there was a special theme of fire engines! We read three fire engine books, sang two fire engine songs, and got to meet real firemen and see a real fire truck! Very exciting!

Crumpets update

While my internet connection was gone for six days, my yarn arrived for Bean's Crumpets dress. It is going pretty fast...mostly because I really like the feel of working with the Shine Worsted and the pattern is pretty straightforward considering how fancy and complicated it looks! I have the bodice done, the loop holes for the ribbon sash and I am working on the increase row for the skirt. Bean is just going to be SO ADORABLE in the dress! I can hardly wait!!!