Fibreholic

Catch Up - The Big Boys

2011-12-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

Iain is now four years old and Aidan is two. Iain continually reminds me that he starts school next year. He finds that concept exciting; I am terrified.
Both boys started full-time daycare at the end of May. It was great timing as I was getting very uncomfortable with the pregnancy (I continued my habit of extreme 'all day sickness' the entire pregnancy). Iain is blossoming there and I am so glad he has had this opportunity to branch out especially before he starts school. He is a quiet, serious and deep thinking child. The daycare environment has worked wonders on him. Aidan, on the other hand, fears nothing and needs to learn how to sort out his differences with other children such as alternatives to using his teeth/fists or pushing! He has a quick temper which immediately diffuses once he lashes out but, hey, he is two!

Upon Iain's suggestion, both he and Aidan now share one room. Their beds are pushed together at the moment and they can often be found snuggled up next to each other in the middle of the night. That helps to make up for the amount of time they are screaming at and fighting with each other over the course of the day. Fun times.
Iain describes Aidan as having 'no brakes'. That is the best description I have ever heard to describe my second son!
Because of the difference in ages, Iain is in the four year old room and Aidan is in the two year old room at daycare. When I pick them up and they first see each other after a days separation, they run into each other's arms. It is adorable!
Even though they exhaust me at every turn, I cannot get enough of these two hooligans.

2011-12-21T20:13:00.002-05:00

Happy holidays from the two biggest boys (taken at their daycare centre - what a great job! Thanks, Samia!) at our house to yours!

Introducing...

2011-11-01T07:13:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to announce the newest addition to our Clan. Meet Finlay Alexander! Finlay was born on October 8, 2011 and weighed in at a respectable 8 lbs, 10 ounces. His two older brothers are thrilled with him and his parents are so glad that he has finally arrived.

There were some complications related to his birth - one of which required an emergency Caesarean section however we are now both doing fine (I still have three weeks to go on the 'no lifting' policy).

Unlike with our other two angels, this little boy did not come with a move so I managed to have a photographer come in and take newborn picture of him. I am so pleased with them. If you are in my area, I would highly recommend Maggie to come and take pictures of your family too (www.langerphotography.ca).

Blogging sabbatical officially over. Yeah!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T17:44:00.000-04:00

Happy, happy Halloween from our most ferocious Panda and Polar bears!

Trick or treating is very serious business. Off with Daddy to hunt some treats.

Jack o’Lantern by Iain and DH. Supervised by Aidan. What a team!

Hope you had your fill (or more!) of chocolate tonight too!

BOO!

2010-10-30T10:31:00.002-04:00

In the rush of every day when the laundry is always piled up, dishes always need to be washed, and even DH’s usual patience at the state of the place wanes, I sometimes forget why I wanted to stay at home with my children.

It was so we could do things like this.

I feel like this post should be entitled ‘Bad Mommy’ because this is the first time I have ever baked with the children when icing was involved.

That isn’t to say that I don’t involve the kids in baking. Well, to be honest, I haven’t been involving Aidan yet. His big brother is a baking pro as he insists on making pancakes Every. Single. Morning. Luckily, the stone pan I make them in leaves enough leftovers for the next day so we don’t have to make them quite every day unless it’s a weekend and DH has some too.

Iain had fun decorating.

Aidan had fun making himself into a ghoul.

I watched the sugar induced rampage that followed with horror!

BOO!

Gone Green

2010-10-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

While we were away in September, a wee bit of green found its way to our front lawn.

During our first couple of weeks back, it grew!

If you had asked me two months ago, I would have said something like

“Oh, we don’t mind living in a gravel pit. It’s very low maintenance!”

It was not until I was looking at the new swath of green in our front yard that I realised how much I missed the colour that used to surround us.

Para approves.

A lot!

Pet Report

2010-10-24T07:21:00.001-04:00

The pets have been complaining, and rightly so, that their face time on the ol’ blog has been pathetic of late. Here is a brief update on their lives:

Tobi, our 17.5 year old feline, is still feeling and acting very spry for her age. She does not approve of the new leather sofas we just added to our living room. However, she has managed to find other suitable resting spots around our house so I do not think she is too hard done by. She and Checkers still race around the house at night and she is loving the fact that the construction workers are more or less finished so that she can explore all reaches of the house.

Checkers, the youngest of the four legged crew, is still living up to the name Mudder usually calls her by – ‘Crackers’. She is cracked (is that only a Newfoundland and Labrador expression???)! Checkers is turning into a real lap cat which we really appreciate. She continues to be wonderful with the children, still never scratching them even with Aidan is a little over exuberant with his loves! Iain is trying to teach Aidan to be more gentle with the cats and it is so cute to see Aidan trying to live up to his brother’s expectation as those lessons progress!

I’m saving Para’s story for last because our dog is quite sick. She has an inner ear imbalance which the vet tells us is common among older dogs and we are hoping she will pull out of it soon (she is supposed to, according to the vet). She is a sorry sight to watch as her head is cocked over to one side and she staggers and falls when she walks. We have rugs all over the house from place to place because she keeps slipping and falling on the hardwood floor. On a happy note, she can sometimes make is across the floor on her own when Aidan is in his high chair! That being said, we are very, very worried about our 15 year ten month old Para and are unsure what the next few weeks will bring for her and us. It is a sad time at Chez Fibreholic at the moment.

Proof of Life

2010-10-12T22:46:00.002-04:00

I know, I know. It has really been ages. I have missed you. Truly. I have been busy, much like you I suppose. I would imagine that you are better organised than I as many of you manage to write blog posts a little more often than, say, once every two months. As usual, I bow to your superior ability to be able to live life in a balanced way. It is a goal I strive towards.

One thing I have noticed is that the amount of blog posts I manage to write is almost directly proportionate to the amount of knitting I am doing. I believe this to be because when I have time to knit, I usually have time to be introspective. When I find no time to knit, I usually find myself with a catcher’s mitt, catching whatever life is hurling at me at any given moment. Not so much introspective because that would mean a ball in the face.

To show that we are doing well and that we have not quite dropped out of the world of technology, here is some proof taken on part of the East Coast trail close to our house just yesterday (Thanksgiving Monday to us Canadians. Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a hoot; did you?!?).

This was our goal - beautiful Torbay!

Geo Centre

2010-08-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

We had such a great time when our friends were visiting. They were very tolerant of a slightly crazed stay-at-home mother and two children tagging along with them most places they went. I got to enjoy the ‘mothering’ of our twelve year old twin God-daughters who had a boy each when it came time to put them into or take them out of their car seats. I also don’t think I pushed the stroller the whole week they were here! Even their 10 year old boy – and his mother was very surprised by this – was very tolerant of Iain following him everywhere and watching over his shoulder as he played on his DS.

One of the nice things about having company is having the opportunity to play tourist in your own town. One of the places we re-visited during their trip was the Geo Centre. It is a great any day place to visit for a variety of ages and, as before, we also ended up in the Kidzone (the younger children's play space) for awhile.

This particular day was Family Fun Day. We were late getting there so there were very few other families in line for the festivities. There was bean bag tossing, goo making (which Iain did under the supervision of a staff member) and face painting. Unfortunately, the staff face painter was a little slow. When the boys and I lined up, one of the mothers had volunteered to paint some faces to help with the line up. However, she had already decided to finish by the time we arrived. This was the first time that the boys had ever had the opportunity to have their faces painted and, though I have never face painted before, I decided that was not going to stop me from trying my hand at making my three year old into a tiger.

And my one year old into a rather possessed looking clown.

Here’s a gentler clown picture.

This particular photograph is very moving for me as it characterizes Iain’s personality so much. Another family with small children arrived to the Kidzone (we had previously had the space to ourselves) and Iain was studying them carefully.

He always thinks before he acts unlike Aidan as you can probably tell from his picture above. Aidan jumps first and lives with the repercussions later.

Despite my reservations about his skin reacting to long term wear of face paint, Iain loved being a tiger so much that I let him wear his painted face to bed. Luckily, the only thing harmed was his pillow…:)!

Knitting at the Most Easterly Point in Canada

2010-08-02T19:00:00.004-04:00

When I was juggling cooking supper and keeping the children happy/fed/entertained (and failing) one afternoon last week, I glanced out across the bay and saw the drift of a whale spout drifting in the wind. That is a first for me in this house.

This is supposed to be a very good year for observing whales (mainly minkes so far). When the boys and I went to Cape Spear the week before last with our company (and Iain and I stayed in the van and I knit while he slept), our friends came back thrilled with the fact that they were watching minkes from the Cape. During a hike along the trail in front of our place (a hike which is quickly becoming a favourite for all of us especially Iain who can be heard crying ‘Let’s go for a hike!’ on a regular basis) the following weekend, we saw many, MANY pods of whales spouting and dancing in the waves. The food fishery started last weekend so there were also a lot more boats out compared to usual too. Both were a fine sight.

July 18th has come and gone and still, I knit on. Progress is being made though. It took me all of last week to get over a very bad case of second sleeve syndrome but I have managed to break through that barrier.

The only thing that would have made this spot any more perfect for knitting than it already was would have been a rocking chair!

I am certain that a lot of knitting happened at this very same site when the lighthouse keeper and his family were in residence (heck, at least one of the lighthouse keepers and his wife had eleven children so I can rest assured that there were, at the very least, a lot of socks knit on this very same spot!). However, I am almost equally certain that I was one of the few adding to the location's knitting heritage this day.

Have you knit anywhere interesting yet this summer?

Typical Conversation With My 3 Year Old

2010-08-01T12:25:00.000-04:00

Just heard at our house:

Me: “Iain? What do you want for lunch? Meatloaf or a hot dog?”

Iain: “Hmmmmm. Chicken.”

Is it any wonder that I often feel like I’m losing my mind?!?

Basement Renovations Part Four

2010-07-22T06:00:00.001-04:00

The basement workers are on hiatus while we have guests this week this week. DH and I (and our builder) felt that the dust, hammering, paint drying smells, etc might put me completely around the bend while trying to be a calm and considerate host. A construction break seemed worthwhile (the space couldn’t have been finished before our guests arrived regardless). Our builder was also considerate enough to hope that we could use the space as is (with a little bit of damp mopping). We aren’t though. We are using the camper and the campervan. Our guests are, three out of five, Newfoundland and Labradorians (one is 50%, born in the UK and the other is 100% British stock, now Canadian). They haven’t complained yet – much – because camping in a gravel pit is a rite of passage, isn’t it? I think the British stock boy is having some back trouble as a result of van sleeping but I believe such troubles may have come about before sleeping in our van. I think...

Here is where we’re at and, after watching things go so quickly, it now seems like the same old, same old down there now. The green will be slightly toned down upon completion.

Two weeks ago, the following conversation was also heard in our basement:

“Do you want to think about glass doors on the upper cabinets so that you can show off your yarn? I know you like to (probably in reference to the basket of brightly coloured skeins that graces our stairwell)?” DH asked.

“Oooohh.” I managed to get out and then very, very quickly agreed. Sorry, you can’t have him.

The stairwell - reworked due to putting french pocket doors between the already finished family room and the new space:

The new doors before priming:

The new office space:

Looking back across the office space towards the bathroom and wine closet:

Looking back towards the storage room, from the craft room:

Bathroom:

Guset room one:

Guest room two:

Storage room:

Wine closet:

Our builder is hoping to be finished around mid-August. Fingers crossed!

Short Yet Satisfying

2010-07-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

Caution: This is a very picture heavy post!

Although I still feel Marit has one of the best blogging views in the world, I don’t have it too bad in my part of the world either.

I was having a hard day last Thursday. When DH got home I requested postponing my own supper in favour of leaving the house for a walk. I usually motor around the roads and streets when I walk, so as to earn as many WW activity points as possible. However, it was such a hard day that I decided my soul needled some salve too. Therefore, across the road and onto the East Coast Trail I went. It was too short notice to invite the blogosphere but, as I thought you might have wanted to join me, here is my photo journey. Maybe next time?

Double Trouble Birthday Party

2010-07-13T10:27:00.004-04:00

Note: I have been having technical difficulties downloading pictures to my blog due to Blogger using Picassa albums. It has taken me a week to figure this out and switch my pictures over to photobucket. It seems I am also a slow learner so that process is taking me awhile. Bear with me, please!).

The day of Iain and Aidan’s party dawned bright and beautiful and the heat only intensified throughout the day. It turned out to be one of our hottest days of the summer up to that time.

DH wanted something extra special for their party so we rented a bouncy slide.

Iain, Aidan and their guests had a hoot (that's Iain coming down backwards and headfirst on the slide)! It was a great idea on DH’s part as I figured that the kids could just have fun playing with the plethora of toys that we have here. However, it turned into a great combination to have everyone inside playing in the cool and then running outside into the heat to run and bounce around.

Here is what a one year old does with birthday cake.

I think he enjoyed it ;)!

Iain is learning how to lick the icing off the bottom of birthday candles.

I didn’t make the boys their birthday cake this year and, I have to admit, that decision caused me no end of guilt and a few tears. When I was pregnant with Iain, I took two levels of Wilton’s cake decorating courses so that I could decorate my children’s cakes. However, time and the lack of a chest freezer (it is moved due to the basement renovations) worked against me and I simply ran out of time. Considering how difficult it was for me to go out and buy a cake this year, I know that I need to have the cake(s) organised first for future years as it seems to be very important to me even if the boys didn’t seem to mind one way or the other. Ah, parental guilt!

These gorgeous ‘vintage’ decorations used to grace DH and his sister’s birthday cakes when they were children. There are little holes in each figure into which you place a birthday candle. The set is very fragile so I relegated it to a display instead of using it for the party.

Gorgeous.

It was a really, really fun day and the last set of parents and children left late in the day which, to me, indicates that a fun time was had by all. Yeah!

It’s Not Easy Being Green

2010-07-11T20:14:00.005-04:00

Ever since starting this parenting gig in July 2007, I have been looking forward to throwing birthday parties. DH and I loved to throw parties before we had children and, now that the full reality of parenting has hit me in the face, I now know that those days are far behind (and years ahead) of us so children’s birthday parties are really where my partying energy is going these days.

I really enjoyed planning and preparing for Iain’s first two birthdays. It was great to attend the parties thrown by my friends for their children. Naturally, I took note of the things everyone was doing at their parties to maintain tradition and incorporated many ideas into our parties, with a few of my own ideas added for good measure.

There are a few things that have bothered me about the parties we have thrown over the years, however, and that is the level of waste attached: paper plates and napkins, plastic cups that, seriously, barely make it out of their packaging intact let alone through the hands and fingers of one year olds and toddlers, the decorations and, one of the biggest problem areas for me, the loot bags.

Believe it or not, I have spent the year since having Aidan trying to think of alternative ways of having greener parties because I did not want to double the amount of birthday waste we would be creating. It’s not easy being green in this regard but we are trying and, I hope, will get better at it each year.

Fate helped in taking me by the hand when I was reading our Costco membership magazine featuring Mompreneurs Suzanne and Suzanne at Green Planet Parties (and if you visit their link and the site is down that’s because they are taking July off for family time and will be back later in the summer). One of their specialties is fabric birthday decorations and I bought a ‘party in a bag’ which includes a ‘Happy Birthday’ fabric birthday banner that we can use for any member of the family, complete with a matching table runner and cloth napkins. The thought of these decorations becoming a family tradition thrills me no end, means I can use up all those paper napkins that have accumulated after only two years of birthday parties, and can even get/make more reusable cloth napkins in the future if I want them. Could I have made any of these items myself? Sure! Do I have the time? Not even close. Do I love the thought of supporting Mompreneurs, particularly Canadian ones? Absolutely.

The other idea I went for from Green Planet Parties is their loot bag ideas. I didn’t go so far as to fill cloth loot bags with lots of green goodies though I love the idea (but the money tree in the back yard has yet to bloom). I went for the idea of giving one quality piece of loot (in this case, their bean bag bugs). It is my hope that the children attending the party will think of Iain and Aidan for years to come when they play with their piece of loot.

What else are we going to do different this year? For starters, we did not send out/give out party invitations. I will be using potted annuals to add colour to our home. Like I said, I’m working on small steps here.

I already have some thoughts for next year. Some of these to add to the reusable decoration theme would be great and requesting that presents be ‘green’ packaged.

Any suggestions to add to the idea jar?

Through My Window

2010-07-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

I may as well fess up: I do not think I will make my end of the World Cup deadline on my Not-So-Shrunken cardigan. Then again, according to my non-conformist ways, I really should set a slightly different date say, a week after the competition ends? Sounds good to me! New deadline for those knitting with me: July 18th’ish. ‘Ish’ because in an effort to maintain our non-conformist ways, you really should pick your own date!

And a big congrats to Suzanne who has already completed her WIP for the Cup. Isn’t it gorgeous?!? See, when I grow up, I want to be just like Suzanne. Gorgeous, smart, talented and, best of all, a SUPER fast knitter to boot! Yep, that’s exactly what I want to be when I grow up.

I thought you might be interested in some pictures of where I’ve been working on my sweater since starting knitting for the World Cup competition:

Sandy Cove Beach, Gander Bay, Notre Dame Bay:

My parents' cabin in Victoria Cove, Gander Bay. I love this place. Visiting this building is like stepping back in time:

The ever present cup of tea now that I have two children and haven't seen a full night's sleep since July 4, 2007. Brand? Tetley (orange pekoe) - the perennial Newfoundland and Labradorian favourite (though my personal favourite is Twinings' Earl Grey):

Enjoying some knitting time on our drive back to Torbay from Victoria Cove.

I am working on sleeve number one and have three balls of yarn left. My fingers are crossed that the Knitting Goddess forgot that I even know how to knit....

Memorials and Celebrations

2010-07-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

July 1st is an interesting juxtaposition in Newfoundland and Labrador. Whereas the rest of the country wakes up ready to don the country’s red and white colours and celebrate, Newfoundland and Labradorians instead remember a significant and tragic event up until noon after which we too don the colours and celebrate with the rest of the country.

On July 1st, 1916, the then Newfoundland Regiment fought in its first engagement on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in a place called Beaumont Hamel, France. After that day, the Regiment was granted the title ‘Royal Newfoundland Regiment’ because if enough people get slaughtered at a time, you are entitled to have ‘Royal’ attached to your name (no bitterness from me, eh?). A generation of young men from this province were virtually wiped out when 798 went into the fray that morning and 68 answered roll-call the next morning.

When DH and I lived in Germany from 1998 – 2002, the first weekend trip we took was to Beaumont Hamel. The caretaker at the time was Steve Austin (no, not the bionic one) who, coincidentally, was married by my father (the Anglican minister). Steve was a great tour guide and we spent a couple of lovely weekends at the Beaumont Hamel site, enjoying our caretaker friend’s hospitality and equally enjoying the private tour of the site itself as well as the local area. On one such weekend when we were driving through a field near a small village, a man yelled out to us as we drove by,

“Vive les Canadienne!” in response to our Canadian Forces overseas red and white license plates. The memory of Canadian sacrifices in that part of the world are still very real and current.

Beaumont Hamel is commemorated by a bronze caribou on a mound, the caribou being the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. There is another in Bowring Park where DH and I held our wedding reception and is a symbol that I grew up with as playing around the statue in Bowring Park was a rite of passage when I visited the big city.

I have not been home for July 1st in many, many years. As we were on our way to Gander Bay for the long weekend, we did not take part in any Memorial Day ceremonies. However, we did see Sea Cadets spiffied up in their uniforms heading for the Cenotaph in Torbay. Flags poles held their flags at half mast and several front doors held wreaths encircled in red poppies. For both events this year, my family and I remembered and celebrated in Victoria Cove, Gander Bay, Notre Dame Bay with my parents. We celebrated with a bar-b-que, remembering that, if it was not for the sacrifice of those boys and men, we might not have been able to sit back and enjoy such a holiday with family.

On the West Coast of Canada, the BC part of the family was also celebrating another very significant event. Happy birthday, FIL/Grandpa D! We hope it was a great one!

Bittersweet

2010-06-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

That lovely house that we loved so well belongs to another family as of the end of today. Though I will not miss two mortgages (NOT!), I will miss, miss, miss that house. I will miss the secret room that we never had the opportunity to develop. I will miss the built in furniture (china hutch, bookshelves, a dresser, etc) and the beautiful, beautiful garden. I will miss the floors and the house’s history and the street and the neighbours and our lovely friends in Middleton.

I hope the new family enjoys this house as much as we did. I am very sorry to see it go.

Basement Changes Part Three

2010-06-29T22:22:00.006-04:00

The folks who install insulation (the pink fibreglass kind) were in this morning. It was the first time I have ever seen someone decked out on stilts for working. Is it amazing only to me that stilts are actually used for something other than kids to play on in the summer? Anyways, I asked the young feller if I could take his picture with his stilts on and he seemed quite flattered.

Here he is, full GQ pose and all!

Hysterical! And I love those stilts! Our builder said that the painter who is coming in has an even newer style of stilts. If he’s willing, I’m capturing him for posterity too. I wonder if stilts are expensive…? I’m sure I could find a use for them around here. Much more fun to get to the upper kitchen cabinets than using a plain old kitchen ladder…!

This evening, all of our new space is insulated, including the wall between the bathroom and one of the bedrooms to cut down on, ahem, noises. Even though the drywall is not up yet, the sound proofing already works really well as DH was trying to catch my attention when I was downstairs taking pictures and I could not hear him. Prior to now, if I was in that section of the basement (which is below the main floor bedrooms) I did not even need the baby monitor on as I could hear Aidan loud and clear if he woke up. The drywall team is due to start on Friday.

Lookin’ good!

Storage room and left bedroom:

Office space/hall/bowling alley with the craft room at end:

Right bedroom, bathroom and wine closet:

Another bathroom/wine closet view:

And another gratuitous craft room shot:

Middle Cove Beach

2010-06-28T18:03:00.005-04:00

The weather over the past weekend was absolutely stunning. DH had the brilliant idea to hit the beach for an hour or so before supper on Saturday afternoon. Brilliant not only because the weather was so nice but because the boys’ ‘whiney hours’ start around 4:00 until bedtime and distractions such as those offered at a local beach are how we survive those hours.

We headed off to Middle Cove beach which is about a 5 minute drive from our house. You go there for the beach itself though as the undertow is too strong for ocean swimming. There is a little river going down to the ocean that provides plenty of entertainment for children though.

Para got to go along for the ride. She was really well behaved. Since she has gotten older, Para is not as tolerant of other dogs as she used to be so I always get a little stressed out when we take her places where there are other dogs. However, all dog owners kept their dogs leashed and away from each other. She was excellent with all of the people attention she got from beach going children and adults.

Aidan really enjoyed trying to taste the entire beach. He almost attained that goal too.

Iain and DH went on a couple of little adventures together.

It was such a great, relaxing day and so needed after the stresses of the week. Thanks to everyone for all of your comments and support over the past few days. Aidan still has a heavy chest but is doing much, much better with no other emergency incidents. Whew!

Breaking the Seal

2010-06-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

Before I started this parenting gig a little under three years ago, I felt I had some idea of what we were getting ourselves into. I have two siblings eight and ten years younger than me so I had spent a considerable amount of my growing up years looking after them. My undergraduate and graduate degrees are in social work, particularly in the area of child development, and I have spent a number of years of my working career in child protective roles. Therefore, you would think that I would have had some idea what might be ahead. I am trained as a lifeguard, poolside and waterfront (a more specialised training). I was also lucky enough to spend one of my summers employed as a Special Constable with the RCMP. With both jobs I performed First Aid and CPR on a regular basis. Therefore, I thought I was fairly prepared to deal with the usual cuts and scrapes of a child’s life.

I knew becoming a parent would be hard. I just had no idea just how hard. I knew I would need to be patient. I didn’t realise that I would need a patience creating factory pumping out the jam all day long, every day. I knew that we would have some good and some bad days. I didn’t realise that the bad days would be like working with a boss who, if he were a paying boss, would have received my resignation, had a good speaking to about poor treatment of his employees and, oh yeah, hand over that danger pay cheque.

I also had no idea of the feelings of sheer panic and helplessness that would overwhelm me when one of my children is very, very sick or hurt.

Last Tuesday afternoon, I decided to take the boys shoe shopping. Seems an innocent enough plan, eh? Aidan is walking everywhere and needs the protective soles that shoes offer. Iain desperately needs sandals to go with the walking shoes he and his father picked out a few weeks ago. In the process of having the boys measured, I took Aidan out of the stroller. He is amazingly stable for his age and, if he loses his balance, he quickly regains it. One of the ways he does so is by leaning forward onto his hands and then pushing his way back up to standing. At the shoe store that day, he did the same thing but hit his head in the process. He started crying and it wasn’t until I picked him up to comfort him that I realised he had not hit his head. He had driven one of the end hooks of the metal brackets that hold shelves up into his head. All of sudden, there was blood everywhere and I was on my knees in a complete panic. Iain, oblivious, was jumping and running around and generally doing what any almost three year old will do in an interesting place – getting into everything.

Luckily for me, the sales person was a mother of two now adult boys. She administered first aid and talked me through the experience. I called my good buddy, L, whose house is on the way to the hospital and she and her family took Iain for me. Aidan turned out to be fine with mostly a superficial cut, only part of it requiring some glue (they don’t use stitches anymore on that type of wound and for that age bracket. Thank goodness!). He cried over the whole event – including during attaining the injury - for about two minutes and I lost at least 15 years off my life.

When I got home and the drama and adrenaline had faded, I contacted DH in Rome (aren’t they always away at such times?) to discuss what had happened and made some kind of comment that perhaps that was just the first of many trips to the hospital for Aidan as that experience had already scared me more physical health wise than his older brother ever has. Breaking the seal, so to speak.

Fast forward to Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Aidan woke me up around 1:00 AM very agitated and struggling for breath. I got up and managed to calm him down but had enough sense to know that I would need some help and woke up DH. I called the NL Health Line who advised that I needed to get Aidan to the hospital and, should his breathing worsen, call 911. In the meantime, have Daddy steam him in the bathroom while I was getting ready to go to the hospital.

Well, I don’t know if it was the steam or just that he fully woke up but when I heard DH call out to me in an extremely worried voice and I opened the bathroom door, Aidan was blue and panicking. Last night was the first time I have ever called 911 (and I hope it’s the last). The firefighters arrived first and were excellent with both kids (as, naturally, Iain was upset by all the commotion and woke up) and us. Aidan had calmed down by then and was quite interested in that oxygen mask they gave him. The paramedics arrived shortly after and were also really good. Aidan and I rode together in the ambulance to the hospital with DH and Iain following.

It turns out that Aidan has croup and we were given a list of suggestions for dealing with that over the next couple of nights. Aidan slept peacefully in the back of the van while DH, Iain and I pulled into an open McDonald’s and pigged out on fast food at 4:00 AM. Iain was in the backseat jumping around (as much as a car seat will allow) yelling ‘I want a cheeseburger!’ when we hit the drive thru.

DH found this post difficult to read (I had him preview it before I posted it as this one hits close to home for us) as the events described just happened. I needed to write it out and thank the blogosphere for giving me a venue in which to share it.

And, seeing as this was a rather alarming post, here is a little something to lighten your day/weekend at the end of it:

More Milestones

2010-06-24T10:55:00.015-04:00

I missed writing blog posts for quite awhile therefore you are not quite up to date on all the news at Chez Fibreholic. Here are a couple of updates.

Iain no longer wears diapers!

Aidan is a moving, shaking, WALKING machine and has been for over a month and a half!

Aidan's first teeth!

The top four are all in too!

My sweet boy showing off one of his camera induced fake smiles.

Basement Changes Part Two

2010-06-23T06:10:00.000-04:00

It is really amazing what three men, uninterrupted, can accomplish in a construction zone in four days. Here are a few updated pictures from Friday evening.

This is DH's 'wine closet' to be.

The whole space is framed and the plumbing for the bathroom has been started. That's a huge linen closet next to the tub.

We decided on a 6'-0" bathtub especially for Grandpa D and Auntie V. That size of tub doesn't come in an insert so soon I will be picking out wall tile.

Next come the sub-contractors (e.g. electrical, heating, drywall, etc) which, as we hired the original builder of our house, is organised for us. However, due to the sub-contractors’ schedules and summer holidays, getting those jobs completed may take a little longer thus the two month to completion date.

Drum roll, please.

Here are the skeletal beginnings of my artistic space (the wee room where the ladder is standing).

I have grand visions for this room not the least of which is the ability, for the first time since we left Kanata, of having all of my craft containers unpacked and stored away where I can admire and use their contents at will. Yes, I am very, very spoiled and very, very excited. I have not had such intense thoughts about the potential of built in cabinets in a long, long time!

A Shine of Rainbows

2010-06-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

On Friday evening, I was in a foul mood. Iain has a cold and he had been extremely whiney which puts me in a bad mood in about 30 seconds. Luckily, he was easy to put to bed last week despite DH being away. Aidan, on the other hand, was more of a challenge. After a week of experimenting, it turns out that it does not pay to let him have two naps in one day unless you want him up until at least 10:00 PM.

I do not agree with eleven month olds being up much past 8:00 PM and feel that any later than that is an infringement of my infant rule book. It is a little different if they are sick but Aidan was not. Nope, not even a bit. He just wanted to party!

I was trying to walk him to sleep (no small feat with a 24 lb sack of pushing, pinching, punching potatoes!) when I noticed these outside our front window.

My foul mood disappeared and Aidan and I raced outside for some pictures.

Aidan then got put back inside because he kept grabbing at the camera. It is very hard to take good pictures when your baby is grabbing at your camera.

He was sure to keep Mommy in his sights at all times though.

Hard to stay mad at that face.

See? 9:00 PM by that time and he was still thrilled to be up and playing and enjoying some solo Mommy time. Rainbow approved.

First Up!

2010-06-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

I should get involved in these sport related KALs more often – look at the progress!?!

Here are one of my pairs of languishing socks (there were only two) now complete and were immediately placed on my feet while watching Stargate (Season 4. Yeah, a little behind) as the basement was so nice and cool (it is a bit humid here for me right now). They fit beautifully. I still need to practice using DPNs as ladders between the needles are still a problem for me. However, the ladders got better on the second pair and have encouraged me to try knitting with two circular needles or the Magic Loop method for my next pair.

Here are the sock specs:

• Toe Up sock pattern from Wiseneedles ‘ Simple Toe Up Socks in Four Sizes’ pattern. I really did not like the way the heels turned out but checked out comments on Ravelry and others were having the same problems with the same type of heel therefore I was convinced that I was not just doing something wrong.

When I find Wendy D. Johnson’s Socks From The Toe Up book from one of the basement boxes, I will be experimenting with other heel types. That being said, I loved the Figure 8 cast on once I figured it out. I also love, love, LOVE toe up socks! Way easier to ensure a good fit.
• Yarn: Online’s Supersocke 6-fach Relax-Color. I still have enough left for another pair of socks or close to it.
• Many thanks to April over at Clandestine and Candour who recommended the ‘Miraculous Elastic Bind Off’ link. Easy peasy and lives up to its name.

Off to try to knit a row or two on my other WIP before I slip into another cold induced coma. Luckily, it’s only stocking stitch and DH got back on Saturday…

PS My new LYS owner, Jenny, has just started a shop blog. She is new to blogging so, if you have a chance, let her know what a friendly bunch us online knitters are by dropping on over and saying ‘hello’. It goes without saying that you need to drop over in person if you are ever in the St. John’s, NL area!

What Were We Thinking?

2010-06-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

With the way DH and I do things sometimes, you would think that we had a carved in stone mantra that goes something like ‘why do things that way when you can do it so much harder this way?’ I mean, seriously. We have been in this beautiful home for barely six months and already we are week one into several weeks of a significant basement renovation which will result in the entire house being developed.

Why?

Because we finished our renovations on our home in Kanata the same day we signed the real estate paperwork to sell the house. Those renovations took us five years and countless weekends and evenings spent either working on the house or overshadowed by the guilt of taking time away from working on the house. We didn’t want to do it that way again.

My ‘settle into this house’ plan deadline is 2012 (I strive to underachieve in certain life areas!) so it seemed to be a good time for us to force the household into short term pain for some long term gain. Because, fellow blog readers, I am hoping that this renovation with close the door, so to speak, on the whole renovation process on the inside of this house (the outside development will be ongoing and lengthy) for at least ten years. Remind me of that when I’m whining about the perpetual building dust All. Over. The. House. In future posts, will ya?

Here are some before photos to keep you up to date.

The workspace.

What was once a neat and tidy recreation room (who am I kidding? It was never that neat and tidy but generally better than the rest of the house).

The car and a half sized garage stuffed just under one inch of its life (seriously too much stuff).

The ‘tunnel’ to get out the side door in the garage, the door we most often use.

This renovation will take at least two months. Someone pass me the Earl Grey and my knitting bag because I’m going to need a whole lot of relaxation therapy to get us over this one.

I can tell you that the likelihood of DH and I ever splitting up is very, very slim considering the crazy things we have put ourselves through over the years (remind me to tell you about our ‘Christmas from Hell’ sometime…!). I can admit it: DH and I are nuts. Seriously.

Something to be Proud Of

2010-06-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

This one is for you, L! Thanks so much for being such a great support through this process. It has felt great to develop such a great friendship too!

At the beginning of March, I made a decision. I wasn’t feeling that great. I was tired and achy a lot of the time. My iron levels have been consistently low since having Aidan and though that exasperated feeling tired, it was becoming my crux for not doing anything else. The weather was causing me to have visions of our aspirations to hike the entire East Coast trail with the boys over the next few summers and I had the thought,

“You know, I don’t know if I am going to be physically able to go on any of those hikes.”

That is around the time that I decided it was time to make some changes.

A friend of mine, L, has been a Weight Watchers (WW) member for awhile and I was attracted to the idea of making a healthy lifestyle change. Despite the fact that I had been trying to gain some positive control over my health, I found that I needed a little more motivation and accountability than trying to make changes on my own. It has been a neat experience. L and I have become WW buddies and totally motivate each other. We started a walking program about 6 weeks ago en route to a 5 km fun walk on June 23rd and that is the reason why I can often be found on the treadmill in our basement late at night (when DH is away and I’m unable to go outside).

This little key chain represents a great deal of commitment, fun, and a change towards living my life in a healthier, more enjoyable way. It is Weight Watchers’ award for losing 10% of your body weight. I met that goal a few weeks ago and am now looking forward to adding charms to it (the 5 km walk, for example, will be one).

It is also interesting to me how such a positive change (e.g. healthy eating and more physical activity) has positively affected other areas of my life, for example, my knitting. I have been knitting much more regularly since starting Weight Watchers because it is something I do for myself – knit therapy so to speak. I am also juggling our weeks with more attention to ensuring that I get a break during the weekdays, as well as the weekends, especially on those weeks when DH is away. And, guess what? I'm a better mother and wife because of it. L and I have added a walk around Quidi Vidi Lake the hour before our Saturday morning WW meetings and that is a treat (because to get out of the house on a non-child related activity coupled with great company and gorgeous scenery is a treat indeed) that I strive to rarely, rarely miss. In fact, I might be addicted to it!

All of this is to say that I’m feeling good these days and I hope you are too!

It’s the 24th of May…

2010-06-16T06:01:00.000-04:00

It's the 24th of May and we likes to get away
Up in the woods or going out the bay
There's all kinds of places but the place we likes to get
Is up on the highway in the gravel pits.
Written by: Wayne Chaulk
Performed and Recorded by ‘Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers’

Newfoundland and Labradorians have a tradition that I would like to share: gravel pit camping. It is such a strong tradition that one of my all time favourite Newfoundland and Labrador bands, ‘Buddy Wasisname and The Other Fellers’, wrote a song about it. You really should give this a listen to. As an aside, I love ‘Buddy Wasisname’ for many reasons not the least of which is that, if you ever go and see them in concert and are not from this province, you are going to spend most of the concert elbowing the representative Newfoundland and Labradorian next to you for a translation. I love that I am from a place that has such a strong dialect that people often do not understand what we are saying (e.g. National news reporters interviewing someone from the province have been known to use subtitles for the interviews so that the rest of Canada understands). Heck, we even have our own dictionary!

Gravel pit camping is something I did as a child and as an adult. Keeping in mind our love of gravel pit camping, I would like to introduce you to our new cottage.

Look familiar?

Due to the fact that we are now living in a new build, we are also living in a gravel pit. I was rather surprised not to see other campers in for the night over the May 24th weekend!

DH and Iain have spent a couple of nights in the van in our backyard over the past few weekends. It is a great way to get Iain used to sleeping in the van before our first away from home camping trip (Aidan is pretty much going to sleep anywhere as long as Mommy is around) and, generally, Iain doesn’t even wake up cranky from van night sleeping (having Iain not cranky is something we strive for around here).

Here he is having a morning granola bar with Daddy and discussing whatever important things toddler boys discuss with their Daddies first thing in the morning.

Beautiful.

Nonconformist

2010-06-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

I will never be an Olympic athlete. Or play World Cup football/soccer. I do hope to run a marathon (or a few of them) some day. Maybe even a triathlon. But I know that I will always sit on the sideline watching elite athletes do their thing and admire them for it.

And that is where I will be for the 2010 WIP Cup on Ravelry too. Suzanne alerted me to this great challenge but, to my dismay, I am too late to join officially. Despite the fact that I didn’t sign up for the challenge on time, I am going to do it anyway, my way. Here is my strategy, blatantly breaking many of the 2010 WIP Cup rules:

• I am participating even though I am joining after the official start date.
• The only thing ‘official’ that I’m going to offer up here are before and after pictures.
• My end goal is to have WIPs finished by July 11th like everyone else.
• I have two knitting WIPs in mind. One has been sitting for over a month awaiting completion (this is in accordance with the rules). One has not been sitting for at least a month but I’m going to work on it anyways (this is against the rules).
• I might add other WIPs as I go along. Heck, they might not even be knitting projects!
• I will be watching some of the World Cup while I’m knitting. I’ve already watched a little without knitting and it was on day one so I still feel like I’m ‘in the game’ (no pun intended ;)!).

I am not knocking the 2010 WIP Cup rules, by the way. I know that you need rules, especially for what I hope will be a rousing competition. And I will be following the results with great interest. I am just going to be sitting on the sidelines playing with myself - ahem - knitting up my own little game.

Anyone else want to join me?

And, in accordance with my nonconformist rules, WIP # 1 (which I’m hoping might just push me over the edge to add a third WIP as I have so little left to finish on them):

And WIP # 2:

Wish me luck. May the knitters with the most WIPs win!

Lights, Camera, Action!

2010-06-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

There were so many things to decide on when we bought this house. As a brand new build, we actually weren’t involved in much of the finish choices as we bought fairly late in the process and just before the construction was complete. However, we were able to make a few decisions such as how the staircase would be stained and in choosing light fixtures. Choosing light fixtures is something I find really hard because I/we are really picky. I tend to not like the standard fare and this means lots of research and lots of thought. Therefore, there were a few areas of the house where we just had bulbs put in until I found fixtures that I like. I figure that, if you are going to pay that much money, you may as well take your time and find something you are really happy with.

First up was the choice in island lights. We had purchased a pair close to when the house was finished but, and I take total responsibility for this, they looked terrible. In fact, our builder and the electrician had a “what was she thinking?” conversation when they opened up the delivery boxes. We were not on site that day so they were installed and subsequently uninstalled as I could not bear to look at such a huge mistake on my part day after day.

After much research, including DH’s calculating eye each time he went to Europe (which continues to be often), I settled on a pair that I thought would work well and got really excited. Unfortunately, my taste runs a bit on the expensive side and I was not going to make the same mistake twice. I got the exact measurements for two sizes of the new fixtures and went to work.

Before lights:

The mock up lights, both sizes:

The final product:

They are exactly as fun as I wanted, make the kitchen island stand out (something else that was a necessity for these fixtures) and even have some features I did not count on but now cannot live without (three options for lighting: down, ambient and both at the same time).

Over the next few months I have to choose a bedroom fan/light combination and a fixture for the staircase. Both involve cathedral height ceilings. It should be interesting to do mock ups for those locations for a person who is terrified of heights!

Almost the Bloggiesta Finale!

2010-06-13T21:00:00.004-04:00

This was a fun challenge for me. I haven’t been blogging at all lately and that’s been really bothering me. Having a dedicated weekend to work on some writing and creative blog formatting was a lot of fun. I managed to accomplish the following:

• Four blog posts written.
• Gave the ol’ blog a long overdue makeover.
• Identified other blog details that still need fixing up but at least I have some ideas now and
• Am working on a design for a new profile pic.

The only downside? I didn’t knit a stitch. I did, however, devote almost six solid hours to blog improvements! Not bad considering that we went on a road trip on Saturday and also moved the stuff out of our basement and packed it into our garage for a two month renovation which will result in the basement living space being completely finished. And, oh yeah, I have two children under three and DH is at the airport about to fly to Rome (as in Italy). I think I did pretty well considering.

Again, thanks for the great idea, Kristen! We are desperate for a cleanthehouseiesta over here too! Go Bloggiesta!

Fun Times

2010-06-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was one of those perfect days you wish wouldn’t end: beautiful weather, childcare for Iain for half the day, Aidan and I driving around the city getting errands run which gave me a great sense of accomplishment, a picnic in the park, an afternoon on the deck… Both boys took an afternoon nap enabling me to ignore the spit up smeared floor (great image there, huh?) and hair balls to go outside and knit. Yesterday marked the very first time I have knit on our back deck. It was heaven!

DH was home ‘early’ (aka on time) and the five of us (Para too!) enjoyed supper and games outside – another first for the deck. Although we have had some gorgeous weather since we moved into this house in January, yesterday was the first day that it was the perfect temperature to sit outside in a t-shirt and knit. There was just enough of a breeze to keep it from being too warm or for bugs to find me.

After I picked Iain up from drop off childcare at the St. John's Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC), we had a picnic and then played in the playground across the street from the Centre. The MFRC is located on the base at Pleasantville.

The particular section where the Centre is housed is pretty much a ghost town these days so we almost always have the playground to ourselves. Because Pleasantville is located on a hill and next to Quidi Vidi Lake, it is almost always windy. Iain kept himself pressed up against me the whole time he was eating his sandwich for fear he might blow away. Iain is often concerned about blowing away. That makes living here a little tough some days as wind is just part of life here, ranging from a breeze to a gale at any given time. I’m not sure what gave him the impression that he could blow away but it is something he takes very, very seriously.

Aidan, on the other hand, doesn’t take much seriously.

Bloggiesta!

2010-06-11T19:27:00.004-04:00

I SO need this! Thanks, Kristen!

A Breath of Fresh Air

2010-06-10T14:19:00.003-04:00

Yes! I’ve been knitting! Yes! I’vc been seen at a couple of knitting get togethers at The Rooms! I have been getting to know my new knitting community and, I tell ya, it’s awesome.

Holy crap! Is anyone else with two or more children under five (or under twenty for that matter) finding it busy or is it just me? I have loads to share but little time to type. However, I had to write a quick post about something wonderful that happened in St. John’s in April.

A NEW LYS opened! It is called A Good Yarn (the perfect name here on so many levels as a ‘yarn’ here is to have a chat/tell a story as well as its fibre related associations) and is owned by Jenny (and her puppies Bessie and Franklin). It is gorgeous, has lovely, lovely, LOVELY, yarn (can you tell I’m excited?) and is my new favourite place to hang out. I don’t get to drop by often enough so I’m telling all of you so that you too can drop by. I will warn you though. Jenny is a yarn enabler of the worst kind. In the nicest possible way ;).

Here is the store’s Ravelry link as I cannot get the store’s webpage to open for some reason. I forgot my camera (again – argh) when I dropped by yesterday but if you check out Daniel’s post here, you will see a great collage of opening day. Naturally (for me), I was two weeks behind the ball knowing that A Good Yarn had opened. The moon was in the right position and the stars aligned the very next day after I found out (from the Blue Sky Alpacas website no less) for me to stop into the shop sans children though.

So, the next time you are in the area, stop in!

Mountains

2010-04-03T07:00:00.001-04:00

In my fantasy, I have reached the point just before company arrives when I feel at peace with my house. The rooms are spotless and waiting with open arms. I imagine there is a Zen like feel about the place. Dishes are dried and off the counter. Laundry is all clean and put away. Flowers adorn the guest rooms. Martha would be proud.

In my reality, the house has been overrun with mountains. Mountains of dishes (our new dishwasher turned out to be a lemon and the new one will not arrive until April 9th at the earliest. Do you know how many dirty dishes two adults, a toddler and an infant can make???), mountains of laundry (one of which is threatening to avalanche over Aidan’s head as I type…must run and fix that…), and mountains of paperwork waiting to be filed from a six month build up of mail etc that we accumulated this fall prior to having our own space and filing cabinet.

Martha would recoil.

Sigh.

But, who cares? Lookie what my boys are doing these days (before a cold wiped them both out)!

Update: Thanks for coming to help me get at least the guest rooms and bathroom to some resemblance of order, Mudder! Sorry we gave you a bad cold for your troubles…FIL and SIL safely arrived on Wednesday.

It's a Date!

2010-03-27T07:15:00.004-04:00

I have one sister, J, (you have met/seen her at least once before here as the recipient of my one and only lace project to date) who is ten years younger than I am. When we were younger, I remember hearing her whining to my mother about something to the effect of,

“How come Patty gets to do everything?!? When do I get to do something?”

And my mother reassuring her by saying,

“Don’t worry, J. One of these days, Patty will be wishing she was your age.”

Well, at ages 29 and 39 respectively, we have reached the magic age that Mom was talking about.

J and I have not lived in the same time zone for years. She had her heart stolen by a nice American guy and, in 2007 when DH, Iain, the pets and I had just moved further East to NS, J, M and their not insignificant four legged family moved back to M’s farm in the mountains of North Carolina.

By virtue of the wonders of our modern age, my family and I got our first tour of their property in North Carolina only a few weeks ago when J walked us through their house compliments of their laptop.

When we were visiting Mudder and Fadder last week and speaking to J via Skype, I mentioned that she and I should try knitting together using our computers some time (she restarted again this past fall and has been a handknitting producing dynamo!). J was interested so we made a knitting date for this past Wednesday evening. Despite some technical difficulties (the keyboard on my HP Mini being dead so that DH and I could not get the ‘mute’ feature off for example), J and I managed our very own private knit night.

It was so nice to be able to knit and talk about knitting and life and everything in between. For. Free.

Five years ago, the thought of using visual media to meet up with somebody would have not been something I was even interested in, let alone instigating. Fifteen years ago, I refused to consider using email until I got a job in a work environment that demanded its use. I have learned to love what technology can do for me and that I can enhance an already firmly established love affair with yarn using my computer. Knitting together via Skype was freakin' cool. And we will be doing it again. Soon.

Ready and Waiting

2010-03-19T11:46:00.003-04:00

I think the first time I saw clothes for sale in what I considered to be a grocery store was at a Tesco in the UK. At the time, I thought of it as a quirky cultural difference between the UK and Canada. The first time I saw the same type of set up in Canada, it irritated me. I do not know why but it did. Mudder tells me that it still irritates her.

Then I had children. Now, the concept of picking up clothing etc at the same place I have to go with the kids to get groceries seems imminently sensible.

Especially when said items are cute.

Here are the boys’ 2010 puddle jumpin’ boots.

Hello? Spring? We’re ready (and, guaranteed, that should bring on the last end of the season snow storm that I’ve been waiting for!)!

Splittin' the Rocks

2010-03-17T13:59:00.002-04:00

DH left last Monday for another business trip. After living with Mudder and Fadder for over six months, it turns out that I do not enjoy being alone with the kids day in and day out. As his most recent trip is/was about a week and a half long, out to Upper Gullies we traipsed. The weather has been wonderful ever since we arrived. We head back to our house not a moment too soon this evening as DH is due in just after midnight.

The weather has been so nice that I have even managed to convince my 2 year 8 month old son that going outside is a good thing and worth getting dressed for (bit of a nudist, him. And the reason why you won’t be seeing a whole lot of indoor pictures of him for awhile).

Getting him to go outdoors makes me crazy as he loves it once we are outside and he is properly dressed. Dressing him can take up to 20 minutes of inside fighting and wrestling and he still often gets outdoors without a hat and mittens until the cold gets to him and he relents. Here are some pictures of one of our walks along the old rail bed (affectionately called ‘The Track’). Calling our excursions ‘walks’ might be a bit of a stretch though. More of an adventurous meander involving lots of puddle jumping, puddle sitting (no, I’m not joking) and icy puddle falling. We are sure that the child’s nervous system isn’t connected properly as he gets wet almost every time we head out yet he insists on staying out once we get there. Go figure.

Notice the bag in his boot? That’s because he soaked his boot earlier in the week and it still wasn’t dried out enough for this walk.

In other exciting news, my brother, D, and my lovely SIL, L, welcomed a beautiful baby boy to the world at about 2:00 AM on the 14th. So as not to pre-empt their right to post the first pictures of their son to the family (some of whom check into this blog occasionally), here is a picture of my son proudly holding the welcome balloon that we picked up today for the newly enlarged family’s arrival.

Just like us, they are buying and selling homes with a newborn so are going to be staying at Chez Mudder and Fadder’s for a couple of months. My crowd are like salmon, always coming home to spawn!

The sun has been splittin’ the rocks here all day and it is currently 8 degrees in Conception Bay South right now. Heaven!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day (or, as I call it, St. Patty’s Day when you get to celebrate all the great Patty’s of the world ;)!).

Firsts and Finishes

2010-03-16T08:16:00.005-04:00

First foods:

First time feeding himself:

First time in a shopping cart:

Last time in his infant car seat:

Last time trying to carry him in his infant car seat (Holy crap is he ever heavy?!? My wrists, back and shoulders are screaming in this picture):

First shared kiss with The Baby in the Mirror:

First time playing cards with Grandma at our new house (Iain is a good little Newfoundland and Labradorian. He can already tell the difference between the different suits):

First identifiable crane that Iain has made with playdough:

First toe up sock:

The View From Here

2010-01-21T21:02:00.013-05:00

Warning: This is a seriously picture heavy post.

When I first found Marit’s blog, I thought she must have, and continues to have, one of the best views from her house that I have yet to find on the Internet, let alone in knitting blogdom. I know I found Marit’s knitting blog through another knitting blog though I cannot remember which one at the moment. I seriously consider packing it all up and moving to Norway each time she posts a new view picture. Have a look for yourself - I will wait patiently while you go check it out. Back? I didn’t lie, did I?!? Can you imagine waking up to that each morning?

In September when the deal on the first house fell through, several people assured me that that only meant that the next one we found would be even better. I had a hard time believing that at the time. Turns out there was a very silver lining in our cloud. Here is the view from any window in the front and front right side of our house.

Wow.

The view on the inside is not as nice.

I should be embarrassed to post this picture but our stuff arrived a week ago and I only managed to get most of our belongings under one roof on Tuesday. Those are my excuses anyways. Piles of stuff around does mean that lots of boxes have been opened and put aside. It’s the putting away that is killing me right now.

We were due for a snow storm yesterday (and we got it) and the weather on Wednesday was simply too beautiful to ignore. Knowing that we likely wouldn’t be able to get out on Thursday (and we didn’t) I ignored the unpacking and Para and I took the boys for a small hike. As you can probably tell, Iain was thrilled with the idea:

Aidan seemed up for it too:

Our house is situated just across the road from the East Coast trail (if that sounds familiar, it is because the first house we ‘bought’ in September was also similarly situated). We also live on the better side of the road for young children as this section of the trail is bordered by sheer cliff. Sheer cliff does make for spectacular views though and that is certainly what our neighbours across the street have. And, don’t worry. We were very, very careful on our walk.

Most of the trail along this section follows a grassy field with enough room for vehicles to drive on so there was plenty of room for our little convoy without worrying about one of us going for a plunge.

I am terrified of heights and it was safe enough for me to feel comfortable.

The possibility of these types of views out our front window is one of the reasons we moved home.

Iain had a blast and Aidan is really enjoying the new wagon Grandpa D gave him and Iain from Lee Valley.

It is a great little wagon and has already allowed us to get to a bunch of places that are inaccessible to us with the stroller.

The wheels are rubber and fantastic on rough roads. They can also be swapped out for skis when there is enough snow. I hope to try out that option soon.

Here is a cute brother shot as Iain gives his slumbering little brother a kiss.

Shortly thereafter, giving-up-on-his-naps-boy climbed in the wagon on top of his brother (I shifted Aidan around so that he wasn’t too squished) and ‘let’ Mommy pull both of them back up to the top of the hill and home while he drifted off into an almost slumber. A bit of a work out and, turns out, not nearly as difficult as I had thought at the bottom.

Fun.

And, The Moment We Have All Been Waiting For!

2010-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Ta da!

A Short Holiday

2010-01-16T19:20:00.005-05:00

For a treat, and as part of our ‘thank you for putting up with us’ present for Mudder and Fadder, DH and I planned a night for all of us at the Sheraton St. John’s last Saturday. Like the best laid plans, we neglected to book the weather appropriately so we had a wee snow storm instead. Therefore, we postponed the holiday to Sunday. We had a great time. By the time I got back to my parents on Monday evening, I felt like I had been away for a week!

We checked in around 5:00 PM to two lovely rooms (we had the room with the two doubles and Mudder and Fadder had the room with the king sized bed to themselves). Great service – there was milk and cookies waiting for us in our rooms when we arrived! After changing, we all traipsed down to the pool and hot tub. Aidan and I spent most of our time poolside taking pictures. Actually, Aidan spent all of his time pool side.

I managed to get in the water for a couple of laps before we decided supper was way overdue for the toddler.

After the pool and cleaning up, we went to the Narrows Lounge (the only restaurant open in house as they are currently working on renovations to their eating establishments) for a gorgeous supper meal. The staff was very accommodating and we practically had the place to ourselves. Aidan slept through the whole meal and Iain was in a television induced coma which assisted the adults in having a conversation.

Iain does not get to watch much television. DH and I do not watch much ourselves and I really do not want our children watching much. It has been a struggle with guilt over the past few months to accept that perhaps the television is not as evil as I sometimes perceive it to be. It might actually help me get supper ready without the screaming matches that usually occur when I am unable to find something else for Iain to do. And the DVD player has really become an asset in the van when I have to pull over to nurse Aidan or when Iain is yelling “OUT!” of his car seat. The poor child really has had to endure quite a bit more driving than he has ever been used to these past few months as I have been driving back and forth from Upper Gullies to St. John’s for children’s programs (not that there aren’t any closer to where my parents live but I stubbornly wanted to get to know families in the area where we were looking for a house rather than starting over again when we finally found a home).

Anyways, that long story is to introduce this picture of Iain in another television induced coma as I desperately tried to get us out the door to a program at 9:00 AM on Monday morning.

I wonder if all children are like this when they do not watch a lot of television? I’m pretty sure I look like this when I am watching television...

The child was too enthralled to even smile for the camera with me (cruel mother that I am, I am holding his head towards the camera in this, the best of all four shots)!

Here is Aidan enjoying his view on the floor.

He is almost ready to move off that quilt under his own steam and has progressed to being up on his knees and rocking back and forth this week. Heaven help me!

DH, the children and I enjoyed breakfast and the sunrise over The Narrows. Both bedrooms had a view of The Narrows and Signal Hill and it was just gorgeous.

All in all, it was a great break and did not even feel that short. Next I’m off to find a chocolate bar. Elizabeth tells me that that is the secret ingredient to getting through this move. I received a 1 kg bar (so more of a chocolate slab?) of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate from the motherland of chocolate (the UK – my brother was there before Christmas. Thanks again!). Now, all I need to do is find the box I put it in…

Packing Time

2010-01-12T12:25:00.001-05:00

As we get ready to leave Mudder and Fadder’s, I have to keep reminding myself of why we have been ‘in the process’ of moving for the past six months – short term pain for long term gain. I know that we are moving to a location and into a house that will provide a longer term, stable environment for us and our children (it was looking like four moves over the next five years with the CF, starting this coming summer). We look forward to becoming re-acquainted with old friends, making new friends and living near them for years and years and years.

All that still does not make me look forward to the coming weeks.

DH went to NS and packed the house (with the local moving company). He got back last Thursday and we hope to be reunited with our belongings after almost six months this week. But, you know what that means? Boxes. Lots and lots and lots of boxes. Boxes that I have to systematically open, sort, wash their contents and stow away. Boxes that might become furniture as it might take me that long to unpack them.

I will try to be optimistic and look at it this way: it will be a little like Christmas as I have no idea what is in any of those boxes. It will also offer the opportunity to start getting rid of things because, if I have not really needed all that stuff for six months, it might be time to say that I do not need it at all.

Hmm. Nope, still not looking forward to it. Sigh....

Comedy à la Toddler

2010-01-06T15:30:00.002-05:00

Warning: If you are not interested in reading about bodily functions involving a toilet training toddler, skip this one.

Life with Iain is a pretty wild ride. He is able to make me laugh hysterically and then do something to drive me around the bend within seconds of each other. He is inquisitive, joyful, serious, introspective, stubborn as heck and expends a crazy amount of energy. He can melt my heart with his “I love you, Mommy” before bed time and almost cause an aneurism any other time of the day when he jumps off the toilet, throws open the door (I’m not allowed in there for the most part anymore) and runs screaming towards Mudder’s nice cream coloured couch before I’ve had the chance to wipe anything.

His vocabulary and sentence structure amazes me as does his elephant-like memory. The boys and I are not in NS helping with the move because Iain still wants to go to ‘Iain’s house’ in Nova Scotia. He remembers it and the toys it contains vividly and gets quite upset when we mention that we are moving to a new house in Movieland (Iain’s word for Newfoundland). We were afraid that a visit back would cause too much confusion for him. I guess the decision for DH to retire from the CF so that we would stop moving was a good one especially in light of this little piece of Iain’s personality that we are just getting to know.

Here are some cute (I think) Iain stories that I do not want to forget and want to share.

While at Dominion in August, Iain, Aidan and I were in the paper products aisle picking up toilet paper. In his toddler voice, which is just a shade below 'bellow', Iain says

"Toilet paper! That's for wiping my penis!"

I smiled and agreed with him. And I’m pretty sure the man a little further up the aisle didn’t hear… (I decided this one was blog worthy after all, ML!).

While at home (currently Mudder and Fadder’s house in Upper Gullies), Iain can usually be found in his birthday suit. Luckily, he is a bit reticent about meeting strangers at the door at any time so, by and large, I do not mind his streaking around. He tells me that he wants to be cold when he is covered in goose bumps and I have tried to cover those goose bumps with clothes but, frankly, it is not worth the fight. Sigh. Besides, he rarely has an accident and almost always tells you when he needs to go to the toilet. Sometimes he even goes on his own. That can be very exciting let me tell you.

He was sitting at the kitchen table for breakfast with Grandma awhile ago and dropped whatever he was eating on his chest. As he was wiping it off, he said to Grandma,

“Uh oh. I’m going to have to change.” Mudder told me I had my work cut out for me when I got back to the kitchen.

During a bathroom visit when I was wiping Iain’s rear end, I commented on the fact that he must not have had a BM because there was no, ahem, evidence on the toilet paper despite the fact the he told me he had. Puzzled, Iain’s little head peered into the toilet bowl for a minute. He then looked at me and said, quite seriously,

“It’s hiding.”

Grandma (what am I going to do without her when we move???) was folding laundry the other day. That is a chore neither her nor I enjoy doing around Iain. Months and months and months ago, DH taught Iain a fun game involving throwing dirty laundry in the air on the way to the washer. Unfortunately, toddlers cannot distinguish between fun games and clean versus dirty laundry. Therefore, he has been a bit of a nightmare with respect to clean laundry and dragging it all over the house ever since. Iain noticed that Grandma was folding laundry and ran over to help out. Nothing but nothing pleases Iain more than to be helping out (bless him!). Mudder was trying to convince him that helping her was not a good idea and finally said something to the effect of “but you don’t know how” to which he responded,

“Maybe you show me?”

And tonight on the telephone he said “I love you” to his father for the first time.

Thank you so much for spicing up our lives, Iain.

My Kind of Diet!

2010-01-05T21:26:00.001-05:00

Fads come and go. I am a child of the 1970s and was a teenager in the 1980s. Although there are fads that I cannot believe have come back from those decades (e.g. shag carpet which, horrifyingly enough, I’ve discovered that I want. In the form of a shag rug. In black. In my living room. Go figure), there are also a few that would be kind of neat to see again. My favourite colour is orange after all.

When I mentioned to Mudder that I was interested in a Weight Watchers cookbook for Christmas this year, she pointed me in the direction of her cookbook collection. I should probably add here that my parents have a motto: If we ever had it, we still have it. If objects from the late 1960s and on can be considered vintage, then look no further than my parent’s basement. Off I trotted to find the cookbook she was talking about.

The premise behind the 1981 publication that I found is the provision of a menu for a year – all 365 days of it. The first section is divided into weeks with menu suggestions for each day of a given week. If our scanner upstairs was working, I would scan day one of week one to show you because this is really the type of food lifestyle change that should be making the public sit up and listen. Amongst the food options for the midday meal, with your cauliflower and zucchini soup and your shrimp scampi, you also get to enjoy 4 fluid ounces of champagne.

For Christmas this year, I was lucky enough to receive a (new) Weight Watchers cookbook, new running shoes and a treadmill (I was also assured that no one was trying to tell me something…;)!). Combined with Mudder’s ‘old’ Weight Watchers book, I should be able to exercise, drink beer (or champagne), and lose weight. Now that is my kind of menu planning!

Excuse me. I’m off to check out Weight Watchers’ 1981 take on chocolate…

Where Was I?

2010-01-02T19:10:00.006-05:00

Oh yes. We moved back to my home province late in July and DH began work immediately. His first ‘week’ of work was comprised of 12 days, non-stop and close to 16 hour days. That was a little scary especially considering that, on his first day of work, my parents traipsed off to Gander Bay for a much needed rest (for Mudder, work on their house for Fadder) and I was left with Iain and Aidan for my first hours on my own. After day three I was less scared = less cranky and found out that I could do it. Aidan is an easy newborn and has been a pleasure to incorporate into our lives, which has really worked out as Iain has been much more challenging.

For most of the month of August, we were lucky enough to share the house with my youngest brother and his family. It was a little difficult negotiating toys and sharing between my four year old niece and my two year old son. It was also difficult for both of them to share toys that they each considered to be their own (the toys that Mudder keeps here for visiting children to play with). I was also feeling a great deal of pressure with house hunting with a newborn and feeling bad that I had dumped my whole family, a lot of luggage and our three pets onto my parents (my parents have been awesome and, apart from both boys exhausting all of us, have yet to complain about the upheaval we have caused), so was more than a little cranky and stressed during this time and into the fall.

In August, we also put an offer in on a house in the Quidi Vidi area of St. John’s and were happily making plans to move and picking out great grocery shopping areas when, ten days after the deal was supposed to close in September, it fell through. We were devastated. Additionally, we had made the mistake of bringing Iain to the new house so he continually asked when we were bringing our stuff from Nova Scotia and moving, questions we both found difficult to answer and exacerbated our feelings of guilt. I stopped looking for a new house for a few weeks after that.

October found us on an airplane and a quick trip to British Columbia for the interment of DH’s mother’s ashes. That was Aidan’s first flight across the continent (not the last I’m sure!) and the boys were great on their way West. We were only in BC for three days, less the travel days, so it was a fast and intense trip. The ceremony at one of Victoria’s beautiful cemeteries was lovely and Aidan slept through the whole event allowing me to chase Iain around, only coming back to the ceremony when it was our turn to lay red roses on the plot site. The trip did allow Grampa D, Aunt V, Great-Aunt R and Great-Uncle G to meet Aidan for the first time and enjoy playing with Iain who warmed up to his relatives nicely after a remarkably short period of time. He is a good kid.

Finally in November, after Aidan and I (and, occasionally, DH) viewed many, many homes, we found another house in Torbay that we liked. Torbay is a community on the Atlantic ocean just outside the city. Our new home has a view of the ocean, many features that we were looking for and then some and is close to the local school. We are thrilled and, I am pleased to say, it became ours on December 16th. We even spent our first night in it as a family by sleeping on the floor (on camping mats!) on New Year’s Eve.

DH heads off to NS tomorrow (Sunday) morning to start the process of reuniting us with our possessions after six months of separation. His work over the fall has meant several trips away to locations such as Hamburg, Germany and Brest, France. He seems to be averaging a trip at least once a month which I am sure to find challenging when we move out into our own home and I am separated from my parent’s babysitting support. However, we are eager to live closer to the Military Family Resource Centre which has become such a support to us this fall, as well as closer to friends. Not to mention, I think it’s high time I moved our not so little family into our own home and leave Mudder and Fadder some peace and quiet!

Our desk top computer was fading and that created a few months of coordination as my family and I negotiated the use of one functioning computer. Finally, DH (bless him!) decided that I needed my own little piece of electronic heaven in the form of an HP Mini and it is from that little gem that I’m typing right now.

I know I have not written in forever and I apologise for that. Thanks to all of you who dropped a note to see how we were doing or dropped by the blog to check on updates. Hopefully this post will help ease the dry spell. I love this blog. I love to write and I love the fact that the blog ‘forces’ me to practice that craft. I really plan to get back into writing for it regularly.

And, seeing as you have not seen us for so long, here are a couple of pictures of us from a very special morning last week.

Happy holidays and 2010. Share with you soon!

‘K’ Is For Knitting!

2009-09-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

As anyone who reads this blog on occasion has probably noticed, I find it hard to find time to knit. With two young children, I have no idea why that might be the case ;0). I still have my Not So Shrunken cardie on the needles but, as it’s fitted as you knit and I was rapidly changing size last Fall when I was working on it, it got put away until I gave birth to baby number two. I do not like having two sweaters on the needles at the same time (despite my habit to have many other types of knitting projects on the go at the same time!) and I have been concentrating on small projects. They still take me forever though.

Here are the second pair of Tangle’s Fingerless Cable mittens that I’ve knit this year.

The lucky recipient, whose birthday was in April – whoops! – only just received them. Project specifics: free Tangle pattern found here. Misti Alpaca’s 100% Baby Alpaca, Chunky 2 ply in black, which was lovely to knit with but holy cow does alpaca ever run when you lose a stitch! I also used less than a skein to knit the pair and have enough left over for something very small.

Here are the second pair of Fetching gloves that I’ve knit lately.

Here are the specifics: Mission Falls 1824 100% merino superwash in the Wildflower 662 colour. I had a very accomodating model! Iain calls these the "arm ones" and was breathing down my neck to wear them when I was binding off the second one.

These are going to a very special lady in my life who occassionally reads this blog so I hope she does not mind the 'spoiler'!

I have really fallen in love with this colour and would love to knit a sweater for myself with it someday.

Here is a picture of the gorgeous Malabrigo that is to become a Whisper Cardigan someday.

I bought 2 skeins.

And here are two other DK weight sock yarns that I picked up at Baadeck Yarns. Yummy!

Believe it or not, I actually have another project that will be ready to come off the needles soon. Go me!

A Journey Home - Part Two

2009-09-03T12:50:00.000-04:00

Warning: Unlike my last post, this post is very picture heavy!

The rest of our trip went much better. I think the knowledge that we had no more schedules to keep, other than getting DH to the East coast by Sunday the 26th to begin work on the 27th, changed our mood into a holiday one and that certainly helped with the driving.

On the morning of our third day of travel, we arrived into Port aux Basques, NL around 5:00 AM and to a beautifully calm and clear morning. Daybreak promised a beautiful sunny day and we headed to the hotel, where we were supposed to have spent the night, to cancel our reservation. As luck would have it, they had no record of me booking two rooms, despite my having a confirmation number! It didn’t really matter as we no longer needed the room but could have been an issue the night before had we arrived on time to a ‘no vacancy’ sign. DH had the discussion with the hotel people leaving Mudder and I with the boys and pets to fend off the mosquitoes (we call them ‘nippers’) – the only downfall of a windless summer morning – out in the parking lot.

Our next stop was at a Tim Hortons for breakfast and then we hit the road again, with the people van only stopping once to nurse Aidan before pulling onto the highway again and making the three hour drive to Deer Lake in good time. The zoo van stopped more often for coffee and we arrived with poor Mudder having a caffeine withdrawal headache. Luckily, we had two rooms booked at the Deer Lake Motel and one of them was available for us to check into early. By that time, I decided to use my “‘we’re all exhausted after getting off an unexpected overnight ferry with a two week old’, can we please check in early?” card.

After showers and a bath for Iain, we headed to the beach. When planning our trip home, DH and I had tried to factor in short driving days, ideally when the kids were napping, and hoped to incorporate some fun time over the course of the trip. To me, fun time on the West coast of Newfoundland in the summer means ‘beach’. Our day in Deer Lake was ideal as the weather was beautiful and there is nothing our toddler likes better than to play in a lake with his dog. The newborn and I enjoyed the view from our sun shelter (well, as you can see, Aidan enjoyed the view of the back of his eyelids). I got a row of knitting in before succumbing to the chip wagon up on the parking lot.

Playing with Iain in our motel room.

Bath time for little boys!

Mudder and DH went for pizza for supper while I stayed behind in the people motel room with the children (the pets stayed in the ‘pet’ motel room with Mudder). After supper, we all went to our respective rooms and, at least in the case of our room, quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny again and marked day number four. While DH packed up the vans, Mudder, Iain, Aidan and I crossed the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) to the Irving gas station across the road from the motel to check out the giant moose that Iain had had his eye on. I’m not sure which he was more entranced by: the moose,

the big rocks or the transport trucks!

Off we went again only to have the people van pull over at the Howley exit to tend to Aidan. By that time, we were enjoying the drive without the stress of a schedule so stopping did not hold any of the stress it had on day two. Unlike most of our forays off the highway to tend to the boys, DH was able to meet up with us for this one and he, Mudder, Para and Iain played while I nursed and changed Aidan. We set off again and made it as far as Lewisporte for a late lunch. Here are some pictures of Iain showing how much he loves his new little brother.

Holding hands.

A hug from big brother - aw!

After Lewisporte, the feeling of getting closer to home really set in as we drove to our destination for that night: Victoria Cove, Gander Bay where my parents intend on eventually retiring and where we had ‘booked’ accommodations with my second cousin, Mudder’s first cousin and one of her best friends. Thanks for the room and board again, V!

News of our arrival had preceded us and, in true Newfoundland Labrador style, we had people dropping in to see us (lets face it – they came to see the boys!). We had a nice evening chatting and relaxing.

The next morning, we visited my great-great grandfather’s house that is the construction zone where my parents intend on retiring within the next couple of years. Doesn’t it look great?

And here is the view from their sun room and the front rooms. Wow.

We left Gander Bay after gasing up at my cousin’s gas station in Gander Bay South, our usual stop when in that part of the island. We managed to see a few more relatives there and to show Aidan and Iain off to a few more people. Our next food stop was at a park in Clarenville where Mudder and I entertained Iain and Aidan while DH brought us lunch. Iain really enjoyed the jungle gym and it amazes me how good a climber he is at his age (amazes and terrifies…)! Day number five of travel brought us all the way to Upper Gullies, Conception Bay South and my parents house. Mudder had been away for 5 weeks and was, I think, very pleased to be home. Although we were tired, it was so nice to drive in the drive way, be greeted by Dali (the family dog) and to see the Atlantic from the back windows.

Before we left NS, DH asked me if I wanted to do something special or symbolic on our way back to the island to signify the importance of me moving back home after being away for thirteen years. At the time, I could not think of anything. Now that I’m here, I’ve found that what I want to do and what has become a symbol of this journey home for me is my intention to bring my children to as many of those spots that I remember from when I was a child as possible. More on that in another post!

Since arriving home, I have seen two pothead whales from Mudder and Fadder’s back windows (on two separate days). The children and I have visited many family members, friends and many St. John’s city parks. Most exciting of all, we finally found and bought the third house Aidan and I viewed our first week back! We take possession of it on September 15th. All in all, it has been an exciting first month here.

The adventure continues in my next post and there might even be knitting content!

A Journey Home - Part One

2009-08-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

We left Middleton on Tuesday, July 22nd in two vans. Mudder and I drove in the ‘people van’ with the boys and DH escorted the zoo in the camper van. We were absolutely loaded down (and I didn’t get any good pictures of that. Sigh) and got away from our house and Middleton much later than we’d hoped for. However, we only drove as far as Truro that day and the trip went a lot faster than anticipated. We stayed at a hotel that took pets (the Holiday Inn Truro in case you need similar accommodations) and had a reasonably good nights sleep. Not bad for our first day of travel.
The next day was a bit of an adventure and established a pattern. Aidan began screaming for the first five minutes of most legs of the trip, resulting in Mudder and I finding the next exit off the highway and me tending to him. I thought the van’s DVD system was a bit over the top when DH mentioned he wanted that option (I wanted the leather seats to assist with easy spill clean up so both of us have expensive taste) but it really helped appease the toddler and maintain my sanity as I do not deal well with a newborn screaming when I cannot get to him immediately.

The 1988 camper van overtook us on the highway at some point when we were stopped tending to the children so we met up with DH and the pets in Baddeck, on Cape Breton Island. I highly recommend visiting Baddeck if you are ever in that neck of the woods as it is a lovely town. Setting Baddeck as our next meeting point worked out well as DH really wanted to see the Alexander Graham Bell historic site (it's the Centennial year of the flight of the Silver Dart) and he took Iain while Mudder, Aidan and I went to Baadeck Yarns. As luck would have it, Aidan was hungry as soon as we arrived so I sat and nursed him while surrounded by yarn. That was lovely until he needed a significant diaper change so we went back to the van to do that and for me to top him up. Disaster struck when I realised that one of the ladies I saw working in the shop leaving and I noticed the time – 5:00 PM – closing time! Almost in tears, I handed Aidan over to Mom and scrambled back into the shop in hopes that they closed at 5:30. I have been trying to get a relaxed and lengthy visit to browse in that shop for two years now and each time something seems to prevent it.

When I stuck my head in the door and asked what time the shop closed, the owner said “We close at 5:00 but we knew you were outside with the baby so come on in and shop.” Be still my beating heart - what sweethearts! It turns out the owners live in the same building as the yarn shop (be still my beating heart again!) and are a retired Canadian Forces couple like DH and I! We had a lovely chat and I walked out with some gorgeous yarn including two skeins of Marlabrigo Lace (100% Baby Merino) in the Mariposa 125 colourway. Marlabrigo is a type of yarn which I had only heard about on Suzanne’s blog and had never seen in person. It is gorgeous and, when I saw a knit up sample using this yarn in the shop, I decided that it was going to be my leaving NS treat to myself. My newest stash addition will become this Whisper Cardigan.

After that very happy experience, the whole family grabbed sandwiches at a local deli and got back on the road. The original time to catch our ferry from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques, NL was at 6:30 PM. However, we had heard that Marine Atlantic was having trouble making their booking times and were not surprised when we received a telephone call from them advising that our ferry crossing was delayed and we had an extra hour before needing to be at the terminal. When we arrived in North Sydney, the ferry traffic line was, literally, backed up past the terminal line up area and out onto the highway. None of us had ever seen the line up so bad. And, our situation got worse.

Aidan started screaming the last 40 minutes of the ‘creeping forward at just fast enough of a pace that Mudder could not jump out of the van and grab him and walk next to us’ phase of the line up. When we finally got to the ticket gate, he was pretty much hysterical. The ticket agent then proceeded to have an extensive telephone call with somebody about an issue unrelated to our booking before completing our registration process. Aidan continued to scream and I was very close to tears myself, so Mom saved us by getting out and taking Aidan from the van and walking with him until we got through the booking process and parked in our waiting spot for the ferry. I may just blank out the whole four hours prior to leaving NS due to emotional trauma!

Through the jigs and reels (and the luxury of time having softened the memories somewhat), we did not leave port until about 12:30 AM after struggling, exhausted, into our cabin. Thank God I insisted on only taking a crossing that had a cabin for us as I was not sure how I would be feeling after the delivery and a journey with a newborn. Iain was so overtired that it took about 30 minutes of him screaming before he finally dropped off to sleep. After that, the rest of us managed to crawl into the bunks for about four hours of sleep (Aidan sleeps wonderfully next to Mommy :)). I must note that, despite the number of times she has taken this trip, this was the first time that my mother had ever been able to sleep on a ferry crossing from NS to NL. Apparently anything is possible if you’re tired enough!

The first part of this trip was so stressful for me that I did not take any pictures and I am already regretting that oversight (the pictures above were taken in Deer Lake, NL the day after our ferry crossing). However, reality was that we were all exhausted, physically and emotionally, from just having had a new baby and packing and preparing for a big move. I have some great images in my head from that first gorgeous morning when we arrived back on the island in Port aux Basques and of the drive East. However, our first pictures of the trip are of our first day back on the island in Deer Lake where we spent most of the third day and night number three of the trip. Unfortunately for you, those details will be in my next post. Catch up with you soon!

We Are Here!

2009-08-12T13:28:00.001-04:00

I have a lot to tell you about the past month but wanted to drop by quickly to let you know that we are all here safe and sound. It has been a journey of ups and downs. Aidan has done wonderfully. He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 7 ounces today at the Doctor’s office. He continues to be a wonderfully calm little boy who likes his naps – bless him!

It seems as though we have thrown a bit too much at our wee two year old who has really had a change of personality. Like DH said over the weekend, it’s as though someone flicked a switch. However, who can blame him? New environment in which he doesn’t have free rein as usual, new brother, new job meaning Daddy worked for 12 days straight for 16 – 18 hour days (that is now over and Iain has done much better the past two days when Daddy was home at supper time), sleep deprived and overly stressed mother…. You get the picture. Our days are a work in progress and I’m trying to get him/us back on a schedule similar to our days in Nova Scotia and he seems to be responding very well to that. Suggestions welcome and appreciated and, please, wish me luck.

I will write a longer blog post about the exact details of our trip here soon. We are currently ensconced at my parent’s house in Conception Bay South. I spent our first week here looking for a house and we seem to have found one that we really like. I will provide further details if/when the transaction is complete.

I also have another FO to report on – a pair of Fetching gloves in Mission Falls’ beautiful Wildflower tri-colour colourway. I love the colour and hope to use it in a sweater in the future.

So many things to tell you when I find the darn whatsit to get the pictures off my camera…

We're Off!

2009-07-20T15:54:00.002-04:00

You may not have noticed but there is a flurry of activity around Chez Fibreholic these days. Not only have we been blessed with a newborn but we are moving...tomorrow! This is a quick post to let you know that I will be out of contact until we get semi-settled at my parent's place in Newfoundland. We are taking our time with short driving days and are hoping for great weather so that we can visit a couple of beaches along the way.

Wish us luck!

Sweater Model

2009-07-14T20:24:00.004-04:00

Here is Aidan modelling the sweater I knit for him a few weeks back, providing proof that we have another active boy on our hands.

These pictures were taken just before we left the hospital.

Aidan was two days old when these pictures were taken.

I predict active boy trouble in our future!

Luckily, the child sleeps...

Breaking News!

2009-07-12T16:58:00.005-04:00

On Tuesday morning at 2:06 AM, our family welcomed a baby BOY! We have decided to name him Aidan Allan. He was 8 lbs 6 ozs when he was born (exactly the same as Iain’s birth weight!) and 20” long. Not that labour is ever easy; Aidan made it a bit more of a challenge by being born face up. He is beautiful and a joy. Now, if we can just get him on Nova Scotia time versus European time (he is up from 11:00 PM to 4:00 AM usually) we will be all set!

Aidan and I returned home on Thursday evening. We seem to be adjusting well to the new addition. Having DH at home and Grandma here as well has been a Godsend.

Iain is quite taken with Aidan and calls him by his name or by ‘baby brother’. He often stops to look at his brother adoringly during the day, which just makes my heart melt!

By the way, April, you were the ONLY one to guess ‘boy’! Send me your snail mail address via email and I will get some cool pressies off to you.

No Baby Yet!

2009-07-01T16:14:00.006-04:00

I know a baby update is the real reason why you dropped by so I thought I’d talk about that first so that, if you don’t have time, you can just read sentence one and move along. Baby number two has definitely moved down and I’m definitely going to have a baby soon but, really, even the medical system needs a psychic to know when the baby will actually be born! For now, I’ve been luxuriating in lots of naps (thanks, Mudder and DH!) and lots of help around the house. I have also managed to finish another pair of fingerless mittens. Let’s see if I can get a picture of them before Canada Post gets them…

Since Iain’s birthday party, we have been mainly sticking close to home. Mudder, Iain and I have been out for short forays into town for groceries and the post office. We (less Iain) even went into the Greenwood Mall to go to the bookstore on Monday night – a rare treat! I also got back the proofs from my and Iain’s pregnancy belly photo shoot the week before last and I am really pleased with them. What a great memory for all of us.

This past Saturday, DH really wanted to go on a day trip. As the weather has been overcast but still very hot and heavy, we headed out to Blomidon Provincial Park’s day use area where it is usually several degrees cooler. It was cooler and LOVELY. Iain does not fall asleep well in a vehicle but was due for a nap when we left the house. Therefore, he drifted off about 10 minutes before we arrived at the park.

I love how deeply he sleeps once he gets to sleep!

Para thought a nap was in order too!

It was a fun time. I opted not to go down and up the stairs to the beach so sat and knit at the picnic table while DH, Iain, Mudder and Para went walking on the beach. The Bay of Fundy Tide was coming in so the beach got smaller and smaller rapidly.

DH and Iain also found the creek just below where we’d secured our picnic table and Iain was pretty wet and happy by the time they found their way back to me. Para drank a minimal amount of salt water. She is a very smart dog in some ways but there are a few areas where she needs help. Around salt water is one of them. I assume that because we spent most of her early years exploring fresh water (rivers and ponds in and around Goose Bay, Labrador and Cold Lake, Alberta), she figures all water is drinkable. It just means keeping a close eye on her when we are near the ocean.

Just before Iain was born, we purchased a new camera. In keeping with that precedent, a new Canon Power Shot SD780 IS arrived at our post office box last week. Our old camera kept eating batteries (e.g. after four pictures you would have to replace the batteries) and it was driving me crazy. I think I like this new, very little camera but I still need to play with it more. I made DH buy the red coloured exterior one. I think he’s coming to grips with that.

I have also been trying to concentrate on taking lots of pictures of Iain these days. I am very aware that these are his last days as a ‘single’ child and I want to record them. He is growing into such a wonderful, silly boy with such a great sense of humour and adventure. Of course, all of this means he has his challenging moments but, hey, he turns two on Saturday so that is expected! Here’s our silly wee 'about to become a big brother' boy:

And last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday FIL (father-in-law)! And, Happy Birthday, Canada! It’s a hot, wet, and overcast Canada Day in the Annapolis Valley so we are staying here at home enjoying some ‘down’ time.

Moving Right Along

2009-06-21T21:38:00.006-04:00

It’s been an eventful few weeks. We celebrated Iain’s second birthday party a few weeks early (on June 13th) so that the big event could be celebrated without A) me going into/being in labour and B) a brand new newborn. That plan went well as baby number two is still safely (though heavily…) contained within. Here are some shots of the big day.

The van's official introduction to 'Mommyhood':

The outdoor decorations (unfortunately, after a couple of rainy days, it was too wet to host most of the party outside. We moved out later in the afternoon):

Some of the guest shoe collection:

Iain loves balloons and so did all of his guests! These balloons provided endless entertainment and made it all around the house:

The finished cake. This was a bit of a coup. I like having a theme to plan a party around and Iain loves horses (which he calls 'neighs'). Therefore, the invitations I designed had a horse on them. I wanted to decorate a cake with a horse but the cake pan from Wilton was discontinued. I checked locally for a cake pan but wasn't willing to part with $30 for the only beaten up one I could find. Enter ebay (which I rarely use) and a $6 USD pan and here it is!

And here is the birthday boy!

I picked up Mudder from the airport this past Tuesday. Anyone who knows my mother will know that this was a big deal as she is terrified of flying. However, after considering her options (e.g. driving here by herself or taking the bus/ferry/bus which would take over two days), she decided that flying might be the best option of all. She seemed to do well or at least was feeling good enough about the whole one way experience (she will be returning to the island via ferry with us on July 24th) to give Iain lots of big waves and smiles as she came down the escalator to arrivals. For his part, once he saw ‘Gramma’, Iain didn’t stop smiling. He wasn’t quite brave enough to run into her arms however, one she bent down to give him a hug, he wanted ‘Up!’ immediately! They have, pretty much, been inseparable ever since. They are upstairs playing a rendition of golf/hockey as I type.

I am working on designing thank you cards for Iain’s birthday (I made his birthday invitations) and then getting onto the new baby announcement and thank you cards (designed already in my head which is a wonder). I am also doing some knitting. I finished a set of 100% Misti 2 ply chunky baby alpaca fingerless mittens (I got mine from Wool-Tyme online) from this Tangle pattern (and just realised that I have them upstairs, ready to send in the mail and forgot to take a final picture – argh!). It’s a really quick and fun pattern if you’re not me and want a quick and fun pattern. I may have started these this time last year and only finished them about a week ago. Ahem. Moving right along, I have another glove almost finished for another family recipient. Another late birthday gift but not as late as the ones above which were due in July. Of 2008…! I’d hang my head in fibre shame but I’m so pleased to have a genuine knitted FO that I’m too proud! Oh, the alpaca is gorgeous and I have leftovers from knitting two gloves - yeah! This is also a one skein project.

As for baby number two, there are no signs of an imminent release program apart from the fact that the baby has really dropped. S/he is giving me some cramps but not too many and, thankfully, I can eat again. In fact, since Mudder arrived and I’ve been put on a ‘nap at least once a day’ program, I’ve been feeling pretty good. Still tired but almost human. It’s been wonderful – my mother actually LOVES to do laundry. Seriously. She loves it and loves to hang it on the line, take it in and fold it. Too bad I didn’t inherit that gene! Then again, she also does not mind cleaning up after a meal one bit and I MUCH prefer for cook or bake and have someone else clean up after me. Therefore, we’re a great team.

DH has two weeks left in the Canadian Forces. He has mentioned that me having a baby early would help him retire ‘early’ but I’ve been ignoring his and Mudder’s offers for me to go and wash walls. After all, the baby isn’t due until July 4th and my recollection of the whole labour experience is just less than two years old (aka fresh in my mind). Regardless, I likely should get my hospital bag packed. Right now I have about three piles designated to go with me but really haven’t concentrated on getting too organised with putting it all in one bag.

Here’s a belly shot from June 7th. I know, I know, I’m overdue for a new one. I’ll keep that in mind for this week.

The Five Hour Sweater

2009-06-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

You might want to sit down for this one because Fibreholic has an FO! A KNITTED FO no less!

After knitting three dishcloths, I decided I might be ready to commit to something a little more intense. I was taken with a sweater entitled ‘The Five Hour Sweater’ on Ravelry (love that site. Too bad I visit it so infrequently). I thought to myself,

“Self? Do you think you can dedicate five hours to pulling something together for the new baby?”

But even as I accepted the challenge, I was not bold enough to assume I could actually knit this sweater in only five hours. And, I didn’t. However, I did start and finish it in 16 days. For me and my limited (and interrupted) knitting time, that really isn’t too shabby. Here are the details.

Five Hour Sweater pattern available for free here (and, before you get all excited, ignore the "Baby Boy Five Hour Sweater" title. I intentionally knit the sweater in a lovely neutral colour and happen to like buttons on the side I placed this one on because it is easier for this new Mommy to do up on a newborn! I still don't know more than you do...).

Materials Used:

Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton

I used 1 skein plus a bit of another because I decided to make my sweater longer than the pattern called for. In fact, I believe the yarn I used is likely a larger worsted weight than called for in the pattern but the sweater seems proportionate to me.

Time to complete: May 19 to June 4th (yes, I was holding out on you. With so many unfinished objects in my house, I was too shy to say that I was starting something else new!).

I think it’s cute, soft, soft, soft and am thrilled that I will have something Mommy-made for the new baby!

Here's a little video of what Iain and Para were doing in our backyard yesterday afternoon to tide you over until I get a chance to post again. Enjoy!

Note: In case you really wanted to see Iain and his new words from this post, I finally managed to get it uploaded to YouTube. As I mentioned before, it is a long one.

More June News From Here

2009-06-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

A few weekends ago, my neighbour had a great garage sale with lots of larger children’s play items. I went a little crazy but, hey, I’m getting too uncomfortable to be out at o’dark early scoping out garage sales. Getting up and over to her drive way within 15 minutes is much more my style! Amongst the loot collected were a Little Tikes kitchen set (Iain LOVES it and it even cut short his outdoor play time for the week as he kept wanting to come back in the house to cook!), a grocery cart, a doll and stroller, and a Little Tikes picnic table.

Here he is taking such good care of his new baby that my heart just melts.

The bear on top of the doll is his special bear put there because his baby needed it, according to Iain. DH and I figured him having a doll would be a great introduction to the concept of a real live baby living at our house. At just below two years of age, he does not understand everything that my expanding waistline entails. However, just today he strolled in with his baby and told me that he needed to wash her bottom, like we do with him for diaper changes. He is adorable (and I am truly biased!).

DH was away the week before we left for NL and he put me on a mission to catch pictures of Iain in a few of the variety of hats he has to play with. I fell short on that project (but you did get to see Iain in his Santa hat in the previous picture) but here he is showing off his ‘say cheese’ silly face in his ball cap.

He is really funny when he is wearing a ball cap or his sun hat as he insists on wearing it right down over his eyes. Therefore, you see him doing this a lot:

One event that DH missed (and greatly regretted) while he was away was an airshow held at CFB Greenwood dedicated to the Centennial of Flight celebrations this year. It was Iain’s first airshow and, as he is very taken with airplanes, I just had to take him. Despite the walk from the parking lot to the show itself, I managed alright with Iain usually contained in his stroller (he runs way too fast for me to catch right now and the crowds were big!).

Here he is flying his first airplane:

Iain and I sharing our picnic blanket with friends.

We watched The Snowbirds and the CF-18 show from this spot. The Snowbirds snuck up on us and were loud so Iain spent their show buried in my shoulder. However, I heard the fighter jets coming beforehand and was able to cover his ears in time for him to not be too startled and to watch the show, as long as my hands were clamped tight over his ears. I noticed other parents had brought big ear defenders for their children. A great idea for future airshows.

Iain and one of Daddy’s airplanes (an Aurora).

“Look! A helicopter!”

I didn't think I would fit in and out of the doorway of this aircraft (an older airplane called an Anson) so one of my friends took him in for me. It was all fun and games for Iain until he realised that he wasn't going to be able to go 'up in sky' for a ride! Luckily, with an airplane trip that Sunday, I was able to appease him by promising a trip 'up in sky' in the near future!

The aircraft that started it all: the replica of The Silver Dart.

One of the things that I really like about Iain is that he always wants to help. One of the things that drives me the craziest about Iain is that he always wants to help! On another day a couple of weeks ago, he decided to brush up the ‘mink’ (his word for ‘pink’. He was running around that morning, in his PJ’s no less, crying “Mink fall! Mink fall!”) blossoms from our apple tree.

Note the ever present dishcloth in his hand…

I had to add this one. Proof that Iain does get dressed when he is outside on occasion. My little Sunshine Boy!

There, you are now up to date.

Homeless

2009-06-03T18:57:00.004-04:00

Things have been rapidly moving along here even if you have not heard much about it. Another catch up post and I’m afraid it’s going to be picture heavy!

We got back on Sunday after a week in Newfoundland trying to find ourselves a new house. Here is what Checkers thought of us leaving.

Checkers and Tobi stayed at a cattery while we were away. The house is still for sale and we felt it was too much to ask a friend to cat sit for us and ensure the house was kept up to spec for showings. I was lucky enough to find The Valley Cat Hotel online and was very pleased with the lovely owner and the facilities. Unfortunately, Checkers and Tobi did not want to come home with us… Para stayed at her usual kennel and seemed to fare alright. We requested that she be groomed while we were away and she came back to us more gorgeous than ever! That reminds me – I must get a picture of her gorgeousness.

Before we left, I had been trying to get Iain to repeat the word ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’ for several weeks to no avail. The minute we drove up to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Iain said,

“Grandma!” just like that! He says ‘Grandpa’ too. Well, he says an Iain rendition of ‘Grandpa’ which is ‘Grumpa’. Grumpa doesn’t seem to mind.

Iain and Mudder had such fun this past week. Iain has started to parrot everything and will point at things so we will say what they are and he can repeat the word(s) (as an aside, DH was reading him a book on Kwanzaa last night and he kept hearing Iain saying ‘Kwanzaa’ over and over on the monitor after he put him to bed – too cute!). They visited the ‘osheay’ daily and even went to a sandy beach and to visit ducks on some days. We also beat Grandma out and left her with a cold that we brought (sorry, Mudder!) that I thought was allergies before we left Nova Scotia. Despite all of that, she is still coming to help us out on June 16th until we move.

Unfortunately, you will not be seeing any new house pictures in this post. We did not find our dream house. Prices in the St. John’s area have gone through the roof and we were not comfortable spending a lot of money on something that made us go ‘Meh.’ It looks as though we will be staying at my parents for at least the first few weeks and, perhaps, renting for awhile. Our material possessions will be moved into storage and, likely, we will start looking for a piece of land to build on. We had two criteria on our trip 1) to live right in the heart of the city with all its amenities and, hopefully, a gorgeous historic house or 2) to live just outside the city with a gorgeous view. Here is a sample of why we know there are gorgeous views out there – the view from my parents kitchen and dining room.

Apparently we are too picky so will keep looking.

I have booked our trip from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland on Marine Atlantic. We will be sailing back to Newfoundland for good on July 24, 2009 with three adults (Mudder will be with us), a toddler, a newborn, two cats and a dog.

Our other news is the latest addition to the automotive side of our family – our new 2009 Volkswagen Routan.

Here is a picture of DH driving it off the lot

(I will be driving it most of the time so I thought he would enjoy the thrill of driving one of the few brand new vehicles we will likely ever own off a lot.

He did enjoy himself too and has spent the last two nights in the driveway worshiping it! Mind you, he would likely say that he is not worshiping it but is going through the users manuels ;)). We are taking both vans on our trip home. Without moving into our own house as soon as we arrive, DH and I are anticipating having the vans loaded with excess to make settling in wherever we end up as smooth as possible.

Now that we are home and over the stress of trying to find a house in a week and flying with a toddler (the Canadian Forces, bless them, paid for Iain to have his own seat.

It made things SO much easier. Mommy doesn’t have much in the way of a lap these days), I am settling down to the joy of anticipating a new baby. Not that that means I’m not busy. We have planned Iain’s second birthday party well in advance and that will occur on the 13th. On the 14th, friends are hosting a new baby shower for us. Mudder arrives on the 16th and Iain, my belly and I are having a photo shoot on the 18th. Baby number two has really suffered from a lack of appropriate attention with everything else going on and I thought a partial family portrait would be a nice touch. S/he is already low on the ultrasound pictures (one compared to five or so for Iain) so I wanted to do something extra special for this particular child. I really hope they turn out and have every confidence in the photographer.

Apart from that, I have one more cooking show scheduled for Sunday afternoon. I also have two catalogue shows running currently but they are so easy as I simply accept the orders, punch them into my little ordering program and send them off. The orders are couriered to the hosts and I just get on the telephone after the deliveries are made to see if everyone is pleased/not pleased with their products. Even a nine month pregnant woman can handle that.

Yes, nine months. I have just crossed the threshold to a larger belly (believe it) and weekly OBY appointments. Here is a shot from last Saturday evening.

Mudder cannot believe I still have a little over a month to go still.

Mother's Day Fun

2009-05-15T11:27:00.008-04:00

When DH asked me Mother’s Day morning what I wanted to do that day, the only thing I could think of was running away from home. With the house on the market and the continual upkeep, I wanted to get in our camper van and just go. I especially wanted to go to a beach, a nice sandy beach. Now, if you live in the Annapolis Valley area, you may remember that Mother’s Day was not a particularly nice day to go to the beach. However, if you like beaches and dress appropriately, the Mother’s Day weather guaranteed that we were the only visitors to Rissers Beach, one of the most popular beaches in Nova Scotia in the summer.

I have no idea how my gore-tex coat fit around my belly as it’s been too small for me for months. However, with some ‘sucking in’ to get it done up, I managed. Thank goodness or I would have frozen my arse off! We were prepared for the weather with respect to Iain, however. He was dressed head to toe in his rain gear (including his beloved ‘froggie’ boots which are never far from his feet if he is outside, no matter what the temperature!) and fared quite well. He also showed us that he does know how to say ‘ocean’. In Iain terms that means ‘oceay’ and he yelled that he wanted ‘more oceay!’ most of the way home.

Naturally, Para enjoyed herself as well. We kept her on the leash for most of the visit, as per beach regulations, but have to admit it came off for some stick throwing. Having her on a leash is not such a trial these days as it ensures she isn’t as stiff from over exertion days after an outing.

As for what else is new around here, our new 2009 VW Routan van should be in our driveway within the week. DH heads to NL on Monday for meetings with his new job (he will be on leave from work here) and will return next weekend to assist me getting Iain, the pets and the house ready (for hopeful showings while we’re away) for us to go on our house hunting trip to NL from the 24th to this 31st. As is usual for military house hunting trips, we have five days to find and purchase a house. No pressure there! Is it any wonder I wanted to run away from home on Mother’s Day?

I am now knitting dishcloth number three. However, I think I’m being lured into something else, fickle creature that I am! I will keep you posted!

And here’s my latest belly photo taken last week (week 31).

Here is a comparison picture – this is me at week 39, just two weeks before Iain was born.

People, I still have two months to go. I am very, very afraid. However, I am not as scared as my maternity pants are! BTW, I haven't heard from anyone guessing the gender of baby number two. Hmm. I sense a contest coming up...

The Latest From Here

2009-05-09T12:30:00.002-04:00

“What do you mean, you’re leaving in July?!?”

“We’re going home!” I exclaim to another Newfoundlander in the post office. She stares at me.

“Really? Can you please take me with you?” This was from a woman whose immediate family (children and grand-children) all live in the local area. Yet, she would still prefer to ‘go home’.

How many times have I heard similar sentiments from other Newfoundland/Labradorians? It’s sad really. So many of us live outside the province, generally due to needing employment, yet so many of us would choose to live ‘at home’ given the opportunity. Another lady I was speaking with described heaven as taking her friends and house from here and transplanting them/it all in Newfoundland. The fact that I am now returning is almost making me feel a bit guilty…almost!

We had our first house showing this week. Conveniently, Iain was up at 5:30 AM which meant he was tired enough to nap at 10:15, giving Mommy ample time to run around the house opening doors, turning on lights and generally spot cleaning anything that seemed out of order before 11:00 AM. Selling a house is very stressful and, unfortunately, being followed by a toddler bent on ‘helping’ is even more stressful. To compound things, DH was away (back now for a week) which means I got to do the nightly vacuuming, mopping, dusting, wiping, etc. The housing market in Middleton is not nearly as busy as it was in Ottawa so having half the house barred up and having to continue being anal with the cleaning could go on for some time. Sigh. I prefer our sloth-like, pre-house selling existence!

It has not been as hard as I expected to keep Iain in one part of the house. The kitchen and play room are our most accessible rooms during the day and, as long as it’s nice enough outside for Iain to also get outside (that means, anything less than torrential rain as he is thrilled by puddles and rain), he has usually been pretty content.

Spring is here and we are loving being outside. We had a 30 degree day last week (No, I’m not exaggerating. We set a new temperature record). The flowers are out, the grass has already been cut once and the birds are back in force. I love this time of year before it gets too hot!

A friend of mine keeps asking about our pets and how they are doing. Sadly, our pets are quite neglected these days.

Due to my bad hip, Para has not had her usual daily walk in ages and ages. That being said, her weakening back seems to be doing well with only exercising in the back yard (she and the neighbour’s dog run back and forth the back fence to play together) and she is rarely limping anymore. She is also doing well getting up and down the stairs. Her spring ‘elbows’ (incessant licking causing open sores on her elbows) are back so I have to find the jean jacket I made for her last year to both give her elbows some padding and to limit her licking access.

The cats, on the other hand, are able to get their needs met quite well. Demanding would likely be the right word.

I think Tobi is reacting to the move stress around here. Both she and Para have been through every move that DH and I have experienced as a couple (this is location number five) and, that cat in particular, seems to have a very upset tummy by the turmoil and ‘lock down’ on parts of the house. I think she knows exactly what is going on. Poor kitty!

Checkers, on the other hand, benefits from being oblivious to things like stress or understanding that there is another move coming, compounded by a new human for her to get used to. Her only complaint is that we will not let her outside (I'm sure you can tell how hard done by she is by her photograph!)! She keeps waiting by the door in hopes of getting out (and does, occasionally, make a run for it, which is a real pain in the arse as I cannot run to catch her). However, seeing a dead cat next to the road on Thursday (who looked alarmingly like Checkers) has only reconfirmed our decision that our cats remain indoor cats either A) forever or B) until we have a property big enough and out of the way enough to allow them to roam. Checkers’ lawyer is still fighting this part of her adoption contract….

In knitting news, I have been knitting (don’t faint!). I’ve chosen a project that fits in with my stress level (thus the need to get back to knitting!) and toddler induced/pregnancy influenced attention span: dish cloths. Iain is thrilled as I finished a predominantly ‘blue’ one for him (‘blue’ being his colour of choice, partially because it is one of two colours he can say and partially because he just seems to love blue). He still loves playing with dish cloths. AND, he said ‘knitting’ yesterday for the first time! I’m so proud! I’m working on number two now. Too bad I don’t like the colours (green, turquoise and yellow) as I went and bought a super-sized ball of dishcloth cotton for it. Luckily, I did the same with Iain’s blue so I can go back and forth between the balls with each dishcloth without causing too much eye twitching. I should go through my downloaded patterns for market bags as I’m pretty sure my friend Alisha over at Tales of a Self Taught Knitter has made a bunch of them using dish cloth yarn and they always look gorgeous. That would use up the colour I don’t like pretty quick…

In other news, Iain has gone from hardly any talking (two months ago) to talking up a blue streak! He is learning words daily and consistently surprises me by the words he mimics and then proceeds to remember days later! Wish I could learn a new language like a toddler. Here’s a video (warning: it’s a long one) of him and I reading Tails by Matthew van Fleet. Iain loves all of the animals and had just learned how to say one special animal on the day I videoed:

‘Bush baby’ in his wee voice sounds just adorable to me! Tails is a great book too, by the way. The variety of different animals is huge and I’m still looking up where some of the animals are from or what they are as there were a few I had never heard of such as a ‘pangolin’.

Welcome Back to My Ghost Blog!

2009-04-29T11:51:00.004-04:00

Thanks for checking up on me, Elizabeth! Everything is fine here. We just decided to make things a little busier for ourselves than usual. After all, adding a new baby to the mix just wasn’t challenge enough. We decided to add a couple of other fish to the fry. Here’s a list:

Mid-February – I decided to start a home based business with The Pampered Chef (www.pamperedchef.biz/pattybrake) which meant 4 shows had to be completed within 30 days of signing up. I did it – yeah! And I’m continuing to do shows and loving it – yeah! However, owning your own business really cuts into your blogging time – boo!
I am now in week 30 of this pregnancy and realise that baby number two syndrome (the syndrome of not getting as much face time on this blog as baby number one) has gotten ridiculous. I’m enclosing a couple of ultrasound pictures in an attempt to make up somewhat. I would have posted them sooner but I, um, kind of lost them…Poor baby number two. It is hoped this trend does not continue into her/his future. These are from ages and ages ago in week 12 but I think they are pretty cute regardless!

We have decided that our Mazda Protegé simply isn’t going to fit four humans and a dog therefore we have been mini-van shopping. Ugh. My apologies to all you mini-van lovers out there but I’ve never been one of them. However, after renting one over the Christmas holidays when DH’s family were visiting, both DH and I were impressed with the roominess and convenience. Therefore, we could become mini-van owners over the next few months (if not weeks).

And, our biggest news of all apart from our latest Wee Kicker (who must be doing great as s/he has a very, very strong heartbeat, loves to kick her/his mother with alarming strength and has me puking regularly again which, I’m told, remains a good sign) is the following. July 4th is a big day at our house. We had our first baby on July 4, 2007. Baby number two is due July 4, 2009. And on July 4th, 2009, DH will have completed 20 years of service with the CF, and will be retiring shortly thereafter. He has found an excellent job in the aerospace field in St. Johns, NL and we will be headed East pretty much as soon as baby number two is born (we're kind of expecting s/he to be a week or so late like Iain was so are looking at moving mid-Julyish). Naturally, we are very excited about this huge change in our lives but, the stress! Whoo boy!

This change carries a lot of sadness too as I love being a CF family and am very proud that my husband wears the uniform. I am anticipating a lot of challenges in our future as we adjust to life as 'civilians' (I keep teasing DH that he's not going to be able to wear PJs (combats) to work anymore!) and I know that we will really, really miss our military family and the support the CF has always given us. However, that being said, the wonders of the modern electronic age (like email!) will continue to allow us to maintain great contact with all of our friends and family all over the world.

So, after 13 years of being away from 'home' this summer, my family and I will be returning to the province of Newfoundland/Labrador. This means that I will have to change part of the introductory header of this blog as Patty will no longer be homesick!

To add to the list of things happening in our lives above, we have just listed our house to sell (just, as in, this morning) and hope to be headed to Newfoundland to find a new abode sometime later in May.

I’m not really sure why I haven’t been blogging regularly. If you figure it out, please let me know.

Spring Fever

2009-03-29T20:02:00.004-04:00

Para has it. She has me up at night almost as often as Iain. Since the time change, Iain has been taking longer and longer to get to sleep at night. However, he is also sleeping through the night more often so I’ll take the later bedtimes! Checkers, the cat, is tearing around the house like a mad thing. Our other ‘old lady’, 15 year old Tobi, is out and about to visit us more and more despite the fact that she had surgery two weeks ago (a cyst which was too close to her eye and some dental work).

Iain got his feet wet walking in puddles earlier in the month and I simply could not resist these.

Historically, Iain has not liked hard soled shoes AT ALL. Therefore, he has been wearing Robeez or Bobunz, heavily insulated children’s boots from MEC covered by Stonz slip-ons when we go outdoors (hmm, bit of baby wear advertising there…). Anyways, when we had a spring melt a couple of weeks ago (followed by winter), Iain had to visit every puddle he could find and, for the first time, his feet were a bit wet when we came inside. I thought these rubber boots were adorable and bought them big so that I could use wool socks inside them as it might be getting more Spring-like around here but it’s pretty cold still.

To my surprise and glee, Iain loves his boots! Here is a video of Iain wearing hard soled boots for the very first time.

Isn’t he pleased with himself? He is even saying ‘boots’! I love how he is sticking off his tummy and just strutting around!

And, the picture you’ve all been waiting for. The mommy-to-be at week 25 (last Thursday evening):

And with the proud big brother.

It’s interesting. I find that Iain looks like a very big boy when I take pictures of him by himself. However, when he is in a picture with either myself or DH, all of a sudden he looks so wee again. He is really growing up too fast.

Pregnancy Brain

2009-03-11T07:00:00.001-04:00

I went to my regular obstetrician appointment by myself yesterday. It was a first. DH is away and he had never missed any of my obstetrics appointments with this pregnancy and attended all of them when I was carrying Iain. We consider ourselves very lucky.

Additionally, I did not have Iain with me. Iain is at that interesting age when bringing him into new situations is usually charming and fun. However, I find both of those behaviours a bit much when it involves stirrups and medical garbage cans (ew!). Luckily, one of my very good friends here in town offered to take Iain for me while I drove all the way to Kentville for my appointment. Usually, I meet up with my doctor here in town but, with once a month appointments and him only in the local hospital the odd week, I occasionally do have to drive to Kentville (a 45 minute drive) to see him.

So, I dropped off Iain, complete with snack and a good mood, a bit of a miracle considering he had just woken up. Iain usually takes about 15 minutes to get accustomed to the harsh world of Not Napping. I was almost to Kentville when I noticed that the ‘you need gas now’ light was on. I also thought that perhaps that light had been on for awhile and I had only just noticed it. No problem. DH is always telling me that I have more gas than I think once the gas light turns on (he’d know. He is also the person in the family who has run out of gas more times than the other adult in the house but, I digress…) and I have to admit that I panic a little when I see that light come on. In fact, I was mad at myself for not checking the gas gauge before I’d even left Middleton but it was too late by then.

The exit I take for the doctor is at Coldbrook where, luckily, there is a plethora of gas stations to choose from. I pulled up to my choice station and that’s when it hit me. Because I had dropped Iain off, that meant that I had also dropped off his diaper bag (a knapsack that goes with us everywhere). And, if I’d dropped off his diaper bag that also meant that I’d inadvertently dropped off my wallet. So, there I am, sitting at the gas station with no money, no credit card, no driver’s licence and no cell phone. The credit card and cell phone were particularly important because not only could I not buy gas but I also could not call anyone for help as I do not know anyone personally in Coldbrook/Kentville and it is a long distance call from there to Middleton for help. I didn’t think that the gas station would let me call long distance and solicit help but, hey, I’m pregnant right? I might get a break?

Turns out that gas attendants in Nova Scotia do not offer special assistance to pregnant ladies who are out of gas. So much for East Coast friendliness and hospitality.

With my fingers crossed, I limped to my doctor’s office and appointment praying that I would make it there, at least, before I ran out of gas. After all, two doors up from the clinic is a gas station. I could walk a can of gas over from that distance, I figured.

I made it to the doctor’s parking lot.

I also made it all the way into my appointment where, after telling the receptionist/nurse about my predicament, the office staff managed to come up with $10 cash so that I could fill the car with enough gas to get me back home again.

Pregnancy brain. I’ve got it bad.

Remember Me?

2009-03-10T07:55:00.003-04:00

Hi there! Remember me? I cannot believe I’ve missed more than a month before posting another blog post. For shame!

Here’s a little glimpse into some of the things we’ve been up to:

Playing with parts of Daddy’s uniform:

My Daddy is in the Air Force!

One of the reasons I’ve been so blog negligent – laundry. Yes, this is the clean pile and yes, I thought that a clean laundry pile this large deserved to be posted on the Internet.

Working hard to make Daddy a handmade Valentine’s pressie:

And going home to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Newfoundland for a week. Bliss!
Are you ready for some big news? Yes, Suzanne and Elizabeth’s suspicions were correct. On July 4, 2009, DH, Iain and I are expecting a new addition to the family. Yep, that would also be Iain’s second birthday. Yes, I’ve heard comments about my organisational abilities already, thank you.

I am now 23 weeks pregnant and I’m very slow posting about this pregnancy because A) I didn’t want to jinx it (we had many, many problems before Iain), B) there’s a significant case of ‘second child’ syndrome around here. That means, there are no pictures of me pregnant (yet) and only one ultrasound picture taken at 12 weeks and C) I was throwing up violently for the first four months. Feeling sick and writing eloquent (have I ever?) blog posts do not go hand in hand. This does not mean that we are not thrilled with this news. We are absolutely thrilled. My belly button became an ‘outie’ within days of becoming pregnant and, when I tell Iain and there’s a baby in there, he pulls up my shirt and presses on my belly button! He is too young to really understand what all of this means but we’re having fun with the concept just the same.

Alright, I promise, I will post a pregnancy pose soon. Just as soon as I take one…

A Week on a Hill

2009-02-05T19:23:00.005-05:00

Caution: This is going to be a picture heavy post about a family holiday. Not interested? Stay tuned for future posts!

Our trip to Sugarloaf, Maine on a ski trip was lovely. Unfortunately, I was not able to ski but conditions were ideal for DH and he and his best friend skied as much as possible. Iain and I tried our best to have a holiday too. We decided that an indoor pool (that someone else takes care of…) would be ideal and took advantage of the spa pool in our building for four of the five mornings we stayed on the hill. Iain really enjoyed it but, as the pool was a little cooler than he is used to and, after making the mistake of dangling his toes in the hot tub after the pool on day one, all he really wanted to do the other three days was hit the hot tub.

On the morning that he did not go skiing, Iain went sledding with Daddy! DH got some really cute video footage. I’m just going to show you the third of the videos DH took – I don’t want to bore you with ‘someone else’s holiday videos’ but, as you can see, Iain really enjoys winter sports!

The whole trip was a bit of an adventure for Iain. From playing in the condo,

to swimming, playing with S and ML, playing in the snow, his first afternoon at a daycare (gulp! I did it and he enjoyed it so much that I signed him up for our last two afternoons!),

I think the week turned out to be a great holiday for him. It was the first time in a long time that getting him to sleep at his usual bedtime was not much of an issue. He was pooped!

We stayed at a condo on the mountain from Sunday through Thursday night and then spent Friday night at the lovely Three Stanley Avenue B&B in Kingfield, Maine.

If you are ever in the area and need accommodation, we highly recommend it. Great rooms, great rates, a lovely breakfast at the restaurant (also a restored and stately home) next door and, best of all, they love children!

We also figured out a new use for knitted items on our rather long drive home. I forgot to pack a plastic container for Iain to eat snacks from. Necessity being the mother of invention…

Worked a charm!

On a separate note, it’s really interesting some of the comments you receive when you use ‘Ghost Blog’ as a post title…

Ghost Blog

2009-02-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

It’s embarrassing to me how much this blog has become a ghost blog of late. I have to thank those of you who keep checking in for updates - bless you! There are lots of things happening at Chez Fibreholic that I’m not yet at liberty to share but which make writing blog posts a little more difficult than usual. Do not fret, I will tell you all about it in good time. The frustrating thing is that it is not like I don’t have blogging fodder because I have lots!

For example, last week was our annual ski trip to Sugarloaf, Maine. I have lots of lovely pictures and stories to share with you about that trip. I also have some knitting progress to show you. No, no FOs yet but I have been working on my Marilyn sweater. It’s been off the needles for sizing twice and still needs another inch of knitting before I can start on the sleeves. Unfortunately, this stage of the knitting process is of the invisible variety. I knit and knit and knit and the measuring tape still doesn’t show any signs of growth. Something to do with the increases at either side of the raglan sleeves and the fact that I want to start on the sleeves NOW! I have also been doing some sewing and am working on a blind for our dining room.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on the blog before but Iain is taking swimming lessons at the base pool.

This session, he is the only child in his class! Although this means he is at a disadvantage for interacting with other children in a wet environment, it does make it easy to take videos of him during class without having to worry about having other children in the pictures by accident.

Here are Iain and Daddy during Iain’s first lesson of this session.

I watch from the sidelines as thirty minutes of constant exposure to chlorinated water is not good for the skin on my hands. I did brave the aquatic elements during our ski week and had Iain in the pool for four of our five mornings there. He is getting more and more comfortable in deep, cool water (the warm bathtub water certainly isn’t an issue!).

And, for this week at least, here is one of the reasons why I have not been blogging. It is also one of the reasons why I do not like the first week home from a holiday.

Can you blame me? Sigh.

Catch Up

2009-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

As I did not post at all during the holidays, I thought I would catch up with a few overdue pictures from our holiday at home. Enjoy!

We celebrated Christmas on Boxing Day this year. My FIL and SIL got stuck in Ottawa for several days due to their airplane breaking down en route and thus missing the good weather window to get into Halifax. Unfortunately, the ripple effect of cancelled flights, bad weather and Christmas travel resulted in their not being able to get here until late evening, Christmas Day. Luckily, Iain was too young to notice that Santa found his stocking an evening late (what a smart Santa!).

Here are Iain and DH opening Iain's 'big' present of the year:

The big box contents being enjoyed (he loves it!).

I can’t remember what this meal was exactly but I suspect pasta and tomato sauce were involved. It is so nice when he enjoys a nice, big meal!

You might want to turn your volume DOWN before watching this one. Para thought making snow angels was very exciting and, when Border Collies get very excited, they get very chatty!

Checkers has not been on this blog for ages and ages. Yes, this is our crazy cat enjoying the bathtub. I suspect it's her haunt for fresh water. She would be a good candidate for those 'running water' bowls for pets, I think.

Iain is, perhaps, a little too athletic for his mother’s taste sometimes.

Hmm. What to post about next?

Sleigh Ride!

2009-01-16T08:11:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, my friend Wonder Woman (I’ve alluded to her before here) organised a group of us to go on an hour long sleigh ride with our families. It was Iain’s first sleigh ride and he really, really enjoyed it.

It was a beautiful, bright sunny day so, unfortunately, this shot is a little overexposed. It's the only one I have yet though (still haven't collected from my friends digital cameras!).

Unlike the first time Iain saw a horse, he was not scared of them this time. We made sure to keep him well back or up on DH’s shoulders so that he wasn’t overwhelmed by the big animals. That may have helped. We were seated at the very end of the sleigh and Iain stared at those horses arses for the entire 55 minutes, before drifting off asleep in the last five minutes (and assuaging any fears I might have held that he could be cold. A toddler won’t drift off to sleep if they’re cold, right? Well, if we disregard the later stages of hypothermia of course…). A few of the other parents were laughing at him because he was so seriously looking at the horse’s for such a long time, then pointing and saying

“Wa’s da?”, which is pretty much Iain’s entire vocabulary repertoire at this point.

It was a fun hour followed by a lovely potluck at Wonder Woman and her family’s house. There were eight families in all and all of the children know each other so they had great fun playing. Or, in Iain’s case, great fun taking away toys away from any other child who didn’t fight back. It was one of those days!

Iain is eighteen months old now and has officially survived that set of needles too. How time flies!
By the way, is anyone else out there Knitting Daily email recipients? It’s a good thing I have no money or I’d have to build a barn in the back yard to hold my yarn and pattern supply.

Once Upon a Time…Cont'd

2009-01-12T12:10:00.002-05:00

I realise that I’ve been very blog negligent and, for that, I apologise. Yes, I’m fine and thank you to those of you who have checked up on me just in case! What sweetie’s knitting bloggers are. I won’t go into a detailed list of reasons why I’ve been away from the blog but some of it has to do with Christmas holidays and ‘holing’ up for two weeks with DH during the holidays so we could really enjoy doing family stuff, as well as feeling very, very tired most of the time because wee Iain is up at 5:00 AM each morning go, go, GOING!

For somebody who averages reading five books a month, you don’t hear about it too much on this blog. I’m really low on knitting fodder (that means I have none to share with you – sob!) so here is another book review for your reading pleasure. You can pass right onto my next post if you’re not interested, I really don’t mind. I note in advance that the following may be a little opinionated but, hey, this is my blog and I’ve given myself permission to get up on my soap box when I want to.

My first two books for discussion are of the fantasy genre, Eragon and Eldest by Chris Paolini. I had been waiting for the third book to come out in soft cover so that I could have this set given to me as a complete trilogy. However, this year I got impatient and put them on my wish list. Luckily, I was very spoiled by DH over the holidays and these two books were waiting for me on Christmas morning. I saw Eragon in its movie format before reading the book and, if you do it in that order, assume that the movie was ‘gently flavoured’ by the idea behind the book and you’ll do fine. In other words, there is a huge difference in the storyline. Rather than call them discrepancies and make myself crazy about why screen writers are unable to pull the written word that worked so well in a novel and present it to us cinematically, I will simply say that Eragon the book and Eragon the movie are two entities to be enjoyed onto themselves. I loved these books and now can’t wait for Brisingr to come out in softcover so I can complete my set! The fact that these books were started when the author was 15 years old (Eragon was published when he was 19) is also very inspiring.

Before I review my next selection, I want to preface it with a bias of mine: I tend to avoid books written by celebrities (e.g. actors, musicians). Now, when I think about it, that’s a ridiculous form of censorship. Celebrities, after all, are artistic people. Why it unreasonable for me to accept that a celebrity can shine in areas other than acting and/or music and branch out into, say, writing? There is really no basis for my narrow-mindedness but there it is. I have been trying to get over it ever since I picked up Yakov and the Seven Thieves by Madonna (yes, the Madonna). You see, I bought Yakov and the Seven Thieves because I loved the story and the illustrations so much that it had to be mine, in hardcover even. It wasn’t until I had it home that I noticed who the author was and I have admit that my first thought was “Oh. Madonna wrote this”, combined with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Completely unrealistic considering that I love Madonna’s music so why couldn’t I like a book she’d written? I gave myself a little pep talk.

I wonder how many other great books out there am I depriving myself of because of my prejudgements? Anyway, my next book for review is Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. This is another book whose idea I was smitten by before realising that the author is married to Jerry Seinfeld. Not that I have anything against the Seinfeld’s themselves, I’m sure they are lovely people but, reread one paragraph up and you’ll understand my reticence. This cookbook was another addition to my Christmas wish list and I just started using it today. Iain doesn’t know it but he’s having cauliflower in the homemade mozzarella sticks (why, yes, I am a Mommy goddess now that you mention it…) that he’s having for lunch. Go me! I’m really enjoying the book and I have high hopes of getting a greater variety of vegetables into our little boy than he is currently eating by using a few new recipes. If you have fussy eaters and are worried about their vegetable and healthy food intake, look no further!

Naturally, I can’t do a book review without mentioning a couple of children’s books too. These two were also under the Christmas tree and have rated a ‘read several times a day’ since then.

Jamberry by Chris Degen. This is a lovely, rhythmic read with great illustrations. We signed this one out from the library some time ago and it came with the CD version like the one I linked to above (ours is a board book). I would highly recommend that option as I thought the actor did a wonderful job!

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. I purchased this book through Scholastic Canada for Iain's Christmas book pile after having enjoyed it with Iain through another library sign out. DH, in particular, is very impressed with this book and it’s already been read over and over since Christmas morning. We love this book and highly recommend it in your home or as a gift. The illustrations are stunning!

Perhaps I will get a post with pictures ready for later this week? Send good knitting thoughts this way and stay tuned!

Jam Jams

2008-12-19T14:28:00.005-05:00

See this? This is an, ahem, opened Christmas gift. It’s not even mine although I did ask the recipient’s permission before I cut the tape and Iain and I dove into them. The fact that the recipient is currently attending a Christmas party and had likely downed a couple of alcoholic beverages before I called for permission does not mean that I was asking when he was weak. Rather, I feel it shows excellent planning on my part.

Additionally, I certainly did not call up the gift giver (Hello, Mudder!) and ask her permission on whether or not I could open DH’s Christmas present before Christmas. Oh no! I already know what her response would be, the same response I received to that question for over 2 decades of living at home,

“No! You cannot open Christmas presents before Christmas morning!”

She’s over 1,000 kilometres away and, despite the guilt I’m sure I’m going to experience when she reads this post, it’s simply too late to stop us, Mudder.

Here is a little story about these cookies called ‘Jam Jams’ in Newfoundland and Labrador. In fact, they are a specialty where I come from. Purity makes them and most years, DH would get a Purity Jam Jams package or two with his birthday and/or Christmas gift from Mudder and Fadder. Until the year Mudder decided that DH should be made the homemade kind. The first words out of DH’s mouth when we arrived in Mudder’s kitchen and he saw them were,

“I didn’t know Jam Jams could be homemade (a small eye roll here as Newfoundland and Labrador has been settled longer than Purity has been making and packaging Jam Jams and he is a bright enough guy to have figured that out but, I digress)!”.

Yes, DH, it was a carefully guarded secret so that I wouldn’t be forced/cajoled/begged/pleaded with to make them at our house on a regular basis. They aren’t that hard, I’m just a lazy baker and usually stick to squares or drop cookies when I bake.

Ever since, whenever we go home or on special events such as birthdays and holidays, DH receives a box of Mudder’s homemade Jam Jams.

And, according to this picture, it looks as though it’s like father like son around here!

The fact that a box of homemade cookies inspired me to write a blog post after so long really speaks volumes about the importance of treats in my holiday world! In case I don’t get back before the big day, a very Merry Christmas from all of us at Chez Fibreholic!

To Blog…Or Not To Blog

2008-12-08T08:56:00.003-05:00

What I’ve been doing with my blogging time at this, the start of the silly season:

Christmas cards (over 70) sent out – check! (This includes writing a Christmas letter, signing letters and cards, labelling all correspondence, cutting out Iain’s Christmas portraits and labelling them and stamping all the envelopes (thank God for peal-able stamps!) – Whew!

Christmas decorating – check!

Hosting DH’s work party (Saturday night) – check! This included making two hot appetizers, two cold appetizers and an assortment of desserts. Thank God DH cooks too…
House cleaned before guests arrived – check! Yes, it may have been 30 seconds before they arrived as a not-so-closely-watched Iain had the broom (after an unfortunate Cheerio incident…) and was using it to dip into the dog’s water dish and mop the back porch floor with it. Naturally, all of this occurred around the wall and just out of Mommy and Daddy’s sight.

Attending a choral Christmas concert last night – check!

Three of six Christmas parcels sent –check! I have GOT to get the rest out today/tomorrow. Well, two of three. I’m still waiting on the artisan I ordered another present from to call to say that the gift is ready.

I’m still feeling under the weather and Iain has been fighting a cold. And this list doesn’t include the usual drudgery of laundry, meal preparation and clean up (no small feat with a toddler), etc.

We have two more parties to attend this coming weekend.

Is it any wonder I’m tired…?!? ;)

The pictures? Oh, well, they represent knitting content to keep you hanging until the next time I get to sit down in front of this computer...

Hairy Days

2008-11-26T14:19:00.002-05:00

I picked up Iain’s Christmas portraits from Wal-mart today and was stunned. Although they are gorgeous (proud mom, eh?), he has already changed so much!

I wanted Iain’s pictures taken before he had his first hair cut. The portraits were done at the end of October and he had his first hair cut at just the beginning of this month. And here is why I wanted his last portraits done with his long baby hair.

He went from my little baby,

To such a big boy in no time flat!

Here’s a goofy one from Iain to you. Up until the past week, I, literally, took pictures anytime Iain had a big solid food meal because Iain still prefers to nurse and solid food is still not his forté. I hit a great option with slow cooker spaghetti sauce and pasta this day though!

The Big Snow

2008-11-24T13:17:00.005-05:00

Hi there! I’ve got something to show you. It snowed here. All. Weekend. Seriously, the snow did not let up at all. It was great! Here are some shots to help you capture exactly how much fell this weekend (the most in any one fall since we’ve moved to Nova Scotia).

I took this picture on Saturday morning. The snow started sometime after midnight, Saturday AM. We already had about three inches down from the fall earlier last week:

The snow shovelling team (our nice neighbour still plows for us. Thank. God.):

A close up of the short members of the team. The wee balaclava hat is one Mudder knit for Iain recently. He looks adorable in it!

This one was taken later Saturday evening:

And this one is from this morning, when things were still nice and crisp (and, yes, it was still snowing) and before things started to melt.

We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow. !!Sob!!

Sorry, I can’t write more. Very. Busy. I’m knitting….

First Snow Day and A Knitting Angel

2008-11-20T19:00:00.001-05:00

Some things are just more fun when you have a child to share them with.

Here is a shot from this morning that captures a little of Iain’s excitement when he realised the world outside had turned white overnight!

When Iain and I were bringing the car for it’s annual Motor Vehicle Inspection (yep, we do that every year here in Nova Scotia. That’s one year more often than any other place we’ve ever lived. Yep, we’re late doing it and still wouldn’t have it done if some stranger wasn’t admiring our van in the parking lot of a store and happened to notice our inspection sticker was expired), a Knitting Angel visited our door.

There used to be six in this jelly roll of dishcloths parcel. By the time I got this shot, one had already been taken for other pursuits.

What a sweetie Barbara is! When she was over on Monday, I mentioned in passing that I needed more dishcloths (I posted about that here awhile back too. Nope, still haven't been able to knit any). Turns out, she’s a really good listener.

Thanks again, Barbara, for the very sweet and MUCH appreciated knitted gifts! Hopefully we will be home next time to greet you in person!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-11-20T13:18:00.003-05:00

It was my birthday on Monday. I certainly got spoiled and also had the opportunity to do some things I had never done on my birthday before. Here are some highlights:

Not being able to overcome the 11:15 AM munchies, there is a rumour that I was seen cutting off a piece of the previously uncut birthday cake. Seriously, I could not help myself and can you blame me? DH made a lovely Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake for my birthday cake. The siren call from the fridge was stronger than I was able to withstand at that hour of the morning. Or any other time of the day since…
Something new for me was spending two hours at outpatients at our local hospital waiting to confirm that Iain had the chicken pox only to find out that he has a strep ear infection (never heard of such a thing) and the rash he has was caused by that! He is now on 5 ml of antibiotics three times a day. Fun times.
I was lucky to receive a gorgeous bouquet of roses compliments of DH and Iain – what great taste they have!

After our visit to the hospital, Iain and I managed to run a couple of errands (via stroller) into town. On our way home, we found Barbara wandering around our neck of Middleton killing some time while her children were involved in a program. I invited her over for some cheesecake and a chat. The house was a mess (hopefully she didn’t mind – I had no cleaning time what with the hospital visit and all!) but we managed to have a great snack and a great chat. Iain was certainly under the weather but Barbara still managed to get him to ham it up for the camera. She told me that she will be posting a picture of us here soon. Too bad we weren’t knitting..!
I put my first Christmas parcel in the mail (one of six). Don’t hate me. The likelihood of the last parcel going out on December 24th is extremely high. I’ve done it before. No, I’m not proud.
I received so many celebratory birthday telephone calls that I actually missed some people before toddling off to bed! What a nice complaint!

And, since then what I have been doing? Did I mention that Iain has an ear infection?!? And DH is in Halifax for the week? Whew!

The Secret Room - A Journey

2008-11-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

One of my good friends often comments on my blog posts via email. She is an avid reader (lucky me!) and is often making comments on this and that. For her last several emails, however, there has really been a common theme:

“Ages and ages ago, you mentioned a Secret Room in your house. When are you going to tell us more?”

Well, M, the truth is, the Secret Room is making me a little sad right now. I love it. But it is only being used for minor storage and that is part of the reason why it makes me sad. We currently have no development plans for it. The basement has come to the forefront of priority (it will give us more family space) and Iain’s wee ‘Secret’ room play room? Well, it is way back on the development back burner somewhere.

All that being said, one of the reasons why I fell in love with this house in the first place is because of the Secret Room. It is accessed through the closet door in Iain’s bedroom and is, really, the attic space above the living room. I call it ‘Secret’ because you do not realise that there is access to another part of the house when you glance in Iain’s room. You need to open his closet door. Seeing another door there for the first time was, for me, a bit like looking into the back of a wardrobe. Having been a fan of C.S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia ever since I can remember, (and resolutely stating that I wished to be buried with them when I was about nine years old. That might seem morbid for that age but, remember, my father is a minister so the subject of death and who might be dying were regular facts of life our house) any house that stirred up images of "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" could cause powerful things and force money being put down on any property.

Without further ado, join me on a quick journey to our Secret Room.

The innocuous bedroom closet:

The Secret Door:

The Secret Room from Iain’s closet:

Looking back into Iain’s room:

More of the (messy) space:

It really is a neat space and I had a design to finish it planned out before I walked out of it that very first time. Now the challenge will be to see if we’re here long enough to make those ideas a reality…

Happy Birthday, DH!

2008-11-13T12:17:00.005-05:00

Happy Birthday, DH!

It was DH’s thirty-something birthday yesterday. Iain was a big help making Daddy’s cake.

Supervising from his high chair (I love how confident he looks with one of his arms draped across the back of the chair!):

Quality control:

Look, Daddy! A cake!

Assisting with the opening of presents:

Ooh! A knitted present (a pair of lovely socks from Mudder. Sorry, this is the best shot I got of them last night):

I think Iain may have figured out the whole opening of presents deal…

I cannot believe it’s been a week since I last posted. SORRY!

Awarded!

2008-11-06T20:55:00.004-05:00

It is not just every day that I receive an award. It is especially special when the person who gives you the award is someone you look up to, really, really like and who inspires you to no end with her knitting prowess. Sweet, sweet Suzanne (aka Yarnhog) has graciously given me the following award:

Squeee! Thank you SO much, Suzanne! I agree with you that hosting a blog is as much for personal satisfaction as the knowledge that somebody else out there might be reading. For me, hosting a blog also offers me A) great incentive to work on projects and B) writing practice. I love to write but, honestly, would not put the time aside if I did not have this blog. It is a thrill to know that, not only do you regularly read my blog posts, but like it enough to award me with a lovely blue ribbon! Thank you so much for passing this award torch onto me. I will ‘wear’ the ribbon with pride (and post it on my sidebar, just as soon as I figure out how…!).

The rules for award acceptance are as follows: 1. The winner can put the logo on their website/blog. 2. Add a link to the person who gave you this award. 3. Nominate at least 5 other websites/blogs. 4. Provide links of the nominated websites/blogs. 5. Leave a message at each website owner that you've nominated.

I would like to nominate the following fellow bloggers. These are folks that I visit most every day and finish their posts with a smile. Narrowing down my list to just five was really, really hard. So, I interpreted the rules as ‘at least 5’ and chose six instead. That was still hard. I would have loved to have listed everyone that I regularly read. However, that would probably be stretching the rules a wee bit too much.

I am nominating:

Renée over at Froggiemeanie – Renée is another ‘misplaced’ Newfoundland and Labradorian who is a knitter and mother to two, with another miracle due in April. Renée is the reason I started a blog of my own in the first place. Check out her calendar win over at Knitty. Renée is ‘Miss April’ and her submission is truly a gorgeous Newfoundland shot.

April over at Clandestine & Candour – I have been an avid follower of April’s knitting prowess for almost as long as I’ve been following blogs. She has decided to make some big life changes and go back to school and still manages to get knitting done. Go on over and wish her luck!

Samantha over at Wilderness Witch Knits – Another Canadian with whom I seem to have a lot in common (knitting, love of the outdoors and camping, pregnant at very much the same time…). Samantha has a very impressive ability to start and finish knitting projects. With. Three. Children. Be still my knitting heart!

Alisha over at Tales From A Self Taught Knitter – I think one of the things I really like about Alisha (apart from the fact that she is a great role model of a mother) is the amount of knitting she just randomly gives away. Like these socks? Here, take them! Like this market bag? It’s yours! Alisha is such a sweetie, I know you will love her too!

Jen over at The Life of a Busy Little Bee – I am fairly new to Jen’s blog and just love it. Jen is a busy lady with a full-time teaching position, all of the homework that goes with being a teacher and running training on the side. Naturally, she is a fantastic knitter too.

Elizabeth over at Home-Spin – Elizabeth’s blog is another fairly new one for me and is another one that I just love. Elizabeth is another mother who (gasp!) manages to stick to One. Knitting. Project. At. A. Time. I look to her for leadership and monogamous role modelling regularly.

Thanks again, Suzanne! Have fun passing on the torch, Ladies!

Off The Wagon

2008-11-05T17:44:00.002-05:00

Sorry. I seem to have fallen off the blog wagon this week. We went to Halifax this past weekend and managed to fit in finishing Christmas shopping together with visiting with great friends and their 3.5 and 1 year old. It was a great weekend but one of those great weekends where you arrive back to your house and reality and feel a bit deflated. Or, perhaps for me, the better description is that I am just plain tired. I guess I’m out of shopping shape! Therefore, the usual 1 to 2 to 3 hours worth of ‘me’ time ( = blogging time) I get when Iain is napping has seen me snoring away next to him. I usually manage to get up and shower before he gets up but that’s about it (the neighbours are thankful for the small effort, I’m sure). Plus, my hands are terrible. Killing. Me. I went to the doctor again today and came home with a new type of cream to try and a referral to a dermatologist. Thank. God. I will choose to ignore the 6 – 8 month waiting list in my hopeful glee…

I’m sure you’ve guessed that horrendous hand skin = no knitting. I have been getting some hooking done – the drive to Halifax put a great dent into that project – and I hope to have something interesting to post for you within the next couple of days. It’s still fibre related so I feel I’m still hitting my blog parameters (heck, it’s my blog so I can do what I want! Yeah!).

So, what’s up with you? Want to come over for a cup of tea and to reflect on the world? Wait. Iain has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow (funny how these things can never be arranged for the same day, isn’t it?!?). There goes my ‘me’ time again. It’s hump day though and I hear there’s a weekend coming up soon…

Here are belated Halloween wishes from our house to yours!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

2008-10-30T17:40:00.001-04:00

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

(Turn and face the strange)

Ch-ch-changes

Don’t want to be a richer man

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

(Turn and face the strange)

Ch-ch-changes

Just gonna have to be a different man

Time may change me

But I can’t trace time

From: Shrek, The Movie

“Now tell me, girls and boys, what is a knitter to do when she can’t knit?” Asks the Powers That Be.
“Gee, Powers That Be, we don’t know. What is a knitter to do when she can’t knit?” Ask the children.

In this post, I mentioned that I was working on something fibre related which was not knitting and I never got back to telling you more. I took another rug hooking course when we were in Newfoundland this past summer.

This time, I was the lucky student of my cousin’s fiancée, J. We enjoyed our class in their stunningly beautiful new home just outside St. John’s.

DH had already headed home in hopes that I would get another five days of visiting with family and friends before taking the ‘easy’ route and flying home with Iain. Little did we realise how much the challenges (and stresses!) of coping with a busy baby in not so child proof houses was going to work out. This is how it worked out: Iain + him getting into everything = frazzled Mommy.

The night of the hooking course, I had it all planned. Iain would eat his supper, be bathed in time to be nursed and would be off to sleep before I put him in the car seat. We’re lucky, Iain is usually moveable like that when he is asleep and that night was no exception. Unfortunately, when the movement of the car stopped where the course was being held, Iain woke up. And he bloody well stayed up for the whole evening!

Luckily, the other two classmates were two of my aunts (who likely have their projects finished by now. Do you, Aunt J? Aunt P? Let’s see some progress shots!) and were pretty forgiving of a baby frolicking around the kitchen, wired for sound. My instructor, J, was also a sweetie and took Iain a few times so I could at least practice hooking a bit. J teaches using strips of wool fabric and the class I had taken before used knitting yarn. I found the wool strips more difficult so there was a lot of whining coming from my side of the table. Additionally, because Iain was awake, I ended up feeling really, really frustrated by the end of the night because I had been hoping for a relaxing evening enjoying a new craft and some great company but, instead, and ended up leaving in a rush (I apologise again for being contrary, Ladies!) so that Iain could get to bed.

Let us come to more recent events. My hands seem to be healing but are still very sore. I am not out of the woods yet by a long shot. I tried to knit with alpaca on the weekend, just in case it is wool that I am sensitive to (shudder). Knitting was a big mistake. The feel of any type of fibre moving over the patches on my hands drove me to just this side of insane. I cannot paint because the skin on my right forefinger is so badly damaged that it feels ‘deadened’ so I cannot handle a brush properly (I don’t think I’m whining, just trying to state a few facts. Okay, so I am whining!). However, all that being said, I am not giving up on fibre. No Siree.

Instead, I’ve found something that involves fibre and doesn’t seem to give my hands problems. I’ve been hooking!

And, if you are interested in taking rug hooking classes from one very talented lady who can provide lessons in either Newfoundland or Toronto, simply contact me and I will hook you up (no pun intended…). The beginner pattern I’m working on here is one of J’s original designs and, in her classes, you get the option of a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter colour selection in your kit. J is really neat and talented and just won her first rug hooking competition on a rug she both designed and hooked this past summer! Go, J!

“And what is it very, very important to do when a knitter is unable to knit and realises this fact for the umpteenth time?” Asks the Powers That Be.
“Tread vewy, vewy carefully. Vewy, vewy carefully indeed!” Whisper the children.

A Sewing We Will Go

2008-10-29T07:00:00.005-04:00

I know I’m not the only one out there who was/is doing this, frantically planning and cutting out fabric to sew up a handmade Halloween costume. Why do we do this to ourselves? I think it has a little do to with stories like this one.

A long time ago, in a province not too far away from where I’m sitting and typing, there was a little girl living in outport Newfoundland who wanted to be a ballet dancer (well, actually, if you’d asked me at the time I may have meant ballet dancer but I said belly dancer. My mother couldn’t figure out for the life of her where I’d gotten the idea to become a belly dancer. Don’t get me wrong, none of us have any negative associations with belly dancing. It is just that in the early 1970’s in outport Newfoundland, the thought of a four year old wanting to become a belly dancer would have created something of a stir. Mudder finally figured out that I meant ballet dancer, after I gave her a demonstration of my prowess).

The story starts with a young girl with a burning desire to become a ballet dancer. And what is a loving mother to do but try and make that dream a reality? She did it too. My mother made me a ballet dancer costume and I just loved it. It made me feel like a ballet dancer and a beautiful princess at the same time.

I still love it. It’s in my basement safely packed away as I type.

I still love that green fabric on the bodice. You can’t tell from this picture but close up it looks as though it has been sewn through with silver thread. I have no idea where my mother found this fabric but it still ranks up there with my most favourite fabric. Ever.

With this story in mind (and, yes, I realise that Iain will likely have NO memory of this particular Halloween), I embarked on the following journey. I rooted around in my fabric stash until I found some lovely fun fur that I was lucky enough to have been given a few years ago. Black and white were the choices so I decided on Iain becoming a very ferocious Panda Bear. I trotted off to the fabric store and found a ‘quick and simple’ pattern. Luckily, the cutting and sewing went as advertised.

I had to sew fast, though, as Iain’s first Halloween event was this past Saturday – almost a whole week before the actual date! The pressure!

The fur was interesting to work with. The white fur is just as you probably imagine fun fur to be. The backing is rough but, on the whole, it wasn’t too difficult to work with. The black fur, although still synthetic, is of very high quality and shed like a real animal. It was also a bit of a nightmare to sew as it was so darn thick. On the good side, though, the backing of the black fur is like a soft suede and feels gorgeous against the skin.

Note: No actual Panda Bears were harmed in the development of either this blog post or this year’s Halloween costume. You’d never believe it from this picture though.

And this is just a small example of how the black fur shed when it was cut!

I was up until 1:30 AM on Friday night/Saturday morning sewing. But, I got ’er done.

And it was totally worth it.

It is also an exceptionally great costume for cold Canadian outdoor Trick or Treating. A little on the warm side for wee indoor Panda Bears however…

PS I should probably mention that the very cute little boy, excuse me, Superhero, standing next to me in the pictures above is one of my little brothers - the one closest to me in age. He granted me permission to use these photographs as he did not feel you would recognize him when he was wearing ‘civilian’ clothing. Interestingly enough, this same brother is now 6’3” tall, built like Laird Hamilton (and he is a surfer too!) and shaves his head. The opportunity to present him to you for the first time wearing tights was just too good a one to pass up…

The Bane of Halloween

2008-10-28T14:18:00.006-04:00

I try to buy our Halloween treats as close to the 31st as possible. Yes, I realise that this means I might not get the best bargain or, necessarily, the best of the best treats (my apologies in advance to those coming to our door). However, there is a very good reason why I put off buying our treats to the last minute. Obviously, this past Sunday was still too early for me to be trusted. This is why we shouldn’t buy our treats too early.

To be fair to me, the boxes aren’t completely full when they’re packaged. ‘Settling’ the companies call it. I call it a rip off but I still seem to buy them anyways. And, I swear, DH did help eat a bit too. Still, I'm a big girl and can admit that we can place about 95% of the blame on me.

Sigh. Here I sit all alone on my chocoholic wagon.

Did You Know?

2008-10-27T07:00:00.001-04:00

That a week ago today, DH, Iain and I were in Newfoundland? I know, I know, I didn't tell you, did I?

We left here at o’dark early Saturday morning, October 18th, for a 7:15 AM flight and returned on an o’ungodly early 5:30 AM flight from St. John’s on Tuesday, October 21st. It was a quick trip but a wonderful one. The Atlantic smells the best to me when I’m home and it was so nice to get big hugs from Mudder, Fadder, one of my Little Bro’s that is living on the island right now and our SIL, especially considering everything else that has gone on with us over the past month and a half.

This picture was taken on the flight to Newfoundland – Iain enjoying the great Air Canada ‘food’ (aka the food we brought with us).

Although short, we actually managed to see almost every person we usually see on a two week visit home (my apologies to Aunt J and Uncle L in Mount Pearl who we didn't manage to see. I am ashamed…(picture me with my head hung in shame here)). Newfoundland is prettier in the fall than I remember and that I really, really miss my home province. Sadly, we have very few pictures taken with Iain and our relatives so I am counting on my Fadder for some pictures of our trip (yes, that is a hint, Fadder!).

This is one of the reasons why I miss home. Here are some shots of Iain heading for the North Atlantic from my parents front garden. It’s a good thing it isn’t pretty….

DH told me that Iain had his hands right in the water. That child has no fear and no sense of cold either as it’s looking pretty chilly to me out there!

DH took these pictures while Mudder and I were off for a shopping trip to Dominion (a local supermarket chain known as the Superstore in other parts of Canada). When family is visiting from ‘away’ (that’s what Newfoundland and Labradorians call anywhere outside the province), you can be guaranteed that there will be a crowd at the house that wants and needs a feed.

On the way back from the island, we were all exhausted. Not only was it an early flight but we were up late the night before with Iain who, for the first time, got really, really carsick on our way home from my brother’s place in St. John’s. We all had a really rough night. By ‘morning’ (I use that term loosely as 3:00 AM when our alarm went off is not really morning as far as I’m concerned), we had been up with Iain several times, he was running a fever and had to be dosed up with Tylenol. Not. Fun. Therefore, by the time we boarded the plane, we were very tired. DH told me that the flight attendants were poking fun at the exhausted parents when they went by with the service cart as the three of us were sitting there with our mouths hung open, sleeping. I didn’t even hear the cart go by.

We spent the rest of the week recovering and, ahem, sewing…

In Case You Needed a Smile Today...

2008-10-20T08:30:00.000-04:00

...Here's one from Chez Fibreholic to you.

Iain is turning into such a ham for the camera. This is definitely a fake smile but, I think, cute just the same.

Nope, no knitting yet. Sigh.

A Knitted Hat

2008-10-17T09:08:00.005-04:00

Hurrah! Knitting content on this blog! Too bad it’s not mine…

One of the lovely presents we received when we were expecting Iain last year (was that only last year?) was a gorgeous hand spun, hand dyed, and hand knit Blueberry Hat from a very close friend of ours (who also happens to be the same wonderful lady who was such a fantastic support to DH’s family when my MIL passed away. We cannot thank you enough, D). I blogged about that lovely present here at the time.

When I received this wonderful gift, I remember thinking ‘Wow! It’s so big. My baby isn’t going to fit into this present for years.’ Ah, the cockiness of pending motherhood. That is a small indication of just how little I know and how very, very much D knows.

This is Iain modelling his hat exactly a week ago today.

DH turned the brim up because he thought it made Iain look something like Relic (non-Canadians may not get this...). That’s something we aspire to around here, you know? A child that looks like Relic (he's the guy in the middle. Not a great shot of his hat but you get the idea)... Incidentally, D knits and lives in Gibsons Landing so there is a bit of a Beachcombers theme to this particular knit.

I tried and tried to get a smiley picture to no avail. This is a great shot of the bruise on Iain's right cheek (caused by a collision with a chair leg) and his split lip (caused by falling down one step, onto his face on the concrete walkway below). Poor kid had a bad week.

“Playing in your sandbox is very serious business, Mom.”

Passionate About Pumpkins!

2008-10-15T17:55:00.003-04:00

I should have just started off the blogging month with a blanket title declaring the month of October pumpkin month. Yep, I’m going to talk more about them.

Last Monday, after sitting back and licking our wounds a bit from our red eye return into Halifax that Saturday morning, I decided that Iain really, really needed some ‘other children’ time and managed to get our arses in gear and brought him pumpkin picking. The Annapolis Country Family Resource Centre is excellent and this was one of the planned outings for one of the child programs we attend during the course of a regular week.

Although we had already harvested pumpkins in our back yard, really, can you ever harvest too many?

Here is Iain searching for the perfect pumpkin with the larger group in the background.

There is nothing cuter than toddlers searching for the perfect Jack O’Lantern. As you can imagine, it was photo op central for more than just this Mommy.

It is really too bad I can’t knit right now. Iain is desperate for a light pair of mittens (we have one pair for him and they are a heavy sheepskin pair perfect for cold, cold winter days and not bracing Fall ones).

His wee hands got pretty cold on Monday. And Tuesday…

My hands? Healing, albeit slowly. Typing still hurts (thus the decrease in blog posts and lack of lurking or commenting on most blogs or Ravelry). I promise I will be back soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-10-13T22:07:00.005-04:00

One of the neat things about living in the Annapolis Valley is having the opportunity to see, experience and participate in traditions that we are not familiar with.

One of those traditions are Pumpkin People (my name. I have no idea what their real title is).

I really must get some information regarding their history (I suspect it has something to do with scarecrows but I am really only guessing).

Here is a glimpse of some of the Pumpkin People we saw today on a Thanksgiving family drive.

And, the grand finale (Yep, I made DH stop and turn the car around to catch this one...)!

I hope you all had a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend (See?!? When I can't regale you with tales of knitting, I can always overwhelm you with family tales and pictures!)!

Fallish Fun

2008-10-11T10:00:00.004-04:00

Autumn is my favourite time of the year. It is probably not surprising that my favourite colour is orange, followed by brown. I love the colours, the smells, the fresh breezes that come with the change of season. I love the harvesting, the preserving and freezing, the baking. I love the feeling that snow is on it's way but that we still have some glorious days to get outside and play without the heavy layers required by winter temperatures.

I also really love sharing this season with my little boy. Although this is Iain's second autumn, it kind of feels like his first as he was so wee last year and, really, not so much into the whole autumn season. He was more into the 'keep me warm and where is my food source?' kind of mind frame. This year, though, things have changed.

Iain loves apples. It's unfortunate that he does not yet have the grinding teeth required to eat them properly so he ends up spitting out quite a bit of skin and apple when he gets his mouth full. He really enjoys the challenge though!

He is also so interested in anything and everything!

Here is he quite seriously contemplating diving into the water fountain during our visit to Victoria, BC.

We have really enjoyed our first pumpkin harvest from our very own garden!

Our pumpkins are gently ripening up now that they are scattered around the house and yard as decorations and not under their frost bitten vines. I find it very satisfying each time I see one of them peeking up at me.

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,

And turn your eyes around,

Where waving woods and waters wild

Do hymn an autumn sound.

The summer sun is faint on them -

The summer flowers depart -

Sit still - as all transform'd to stone,

Except your musing heart.

From Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, 'The Autumn'

I Cannot Knit

2008-10-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

Warning: You may notice some whining ahead. If you're not in the mood, skip this one. I'll try and do better next time.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent emails, cards and comments regarding my mother-in-law passing away. DH, Iain and I very much appreciated them all. We arrived back last Saturday morning into Halifax from the red eye flight from Victoria and have spent the week trying to get back to some semblance of normalcy. That's been difficult considering we have no heat, a leaky chimney, both the dishwasher and computer are not working (thus the lack of blog posts and consider this my advance apology for spelling/grammar errors in this and subsequent posts. I am unable to open MS Word on our computer and cannot complete a spell check at present), and it does not look like we will be able to get anyone in to help us fix our house problems before December. See? Whining!

I can't knit. For those of you who are faint of heart, you might want to sit down. It is true and you did read that right. I simply cannot knit right now. Have not been able to for a week or so. Heck, I can barely type. The responsible problem can be summed up in one word: exzema. I will not submit you to pictures of my poor hands but I feel it sufficient to say that the skin on three of my fingers no longer looks so much like skin and I am in agony quite a lot of the time.

I did not suffer from exzema before I had a baby. The doctor thinks my hand problems are due to excessive dryness due to hand washing. DH thinks I might be allergic to wool. I'm ignoring DH. Some things are just too terrifying to contemplate.

Although I have been experiencing a problem with exzema on my hands for over a year now, it was only on our trip West that things got really out of control. Prior to that time, I was lucky enough to have exzema patches on my hands but always where it did not affect my knitting. However, I am allergic to the baby wipes that we only use when travelling and the over two weeks spent away from home has been hellish on my skin. In particular, on my right forefinger. That's the one I need to slide my yarn over to knit.

The silver lining in this very dark knitting cloud is that I've been wanting to learn how to knit continental for a long time. I hear it's faster. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time at all, you will appreciate how much I would benefit from the powers of faster knitting. If I knit using the continental method, I wouldn't have to run fibre over my right forefinger at all. The question is, though, would I get the same gauge as I do with English knitting? And do I have the patience to learn under the time contraints of 'the holidays are coming' coupled with itchy, weepy skin? I'm not sure but it's certainly worth considering. And, I know someone who lives near me who knits using the continental style...

Stay tuned!

A Great Loss

2008-09-25T10:50:00.006-04:00

DH and my SIL (sister in law) lost their mother on Monday. My FIL (father in law) lost his wife. She was also a sister, a daughter, a grandmother, an aunt, a colleague and a friend. At only 63 years old, my mother in law (MIL) passed away Monday afternoon, BC time after unexpectedly suffering a stroke on Saturday. Although she had been unwell for several years, her death was sudden and has come as a very great shock.

We are currently in BC with DH’s family. I am unsure when we will get back to NS but it will have to be over the next week or so. For now, we are immersed in the emotions and paperwork that come at such a time.

My MIL was a wonderful woman. She was kind, generous and beautiful, mind, soul and body. She had that wonderful trait of being able to look on the bright side of things. She is the parent the man I married most resembled.

She was famous for her fastidiousness – a trait honestly come by as she was a nurse – and had a bit of a reputation as being a ‘wiper’ of everything! I am happy to say that my MIL and I had a lot in common. We both like to shop and we both like to touch things in shops (very tactile are we!) which has occasionally gotten us into trouble. She had recently re-taken up an interest in knitting and has gone to see the Yarn Harlot speak. I was the lucky recipient of signed Yarn Harlot books from that event.

My MIL was present for Iain’s birth.

She organised the household to host a baby shower for us minutes before she and my FIL flew back to BC. She made the welcome to the family speech for me at our wedding. She was 50% part of the parental package that created the man that I love so much and for that, I will always be grateful.

She will be greatly, greatly missed.

On The Road Again

2008-09-19T10:30:00.003-04:00

There will be a brief commercial interruption here at Fibreholic while DH, Iain and I fly to Kingston, ON (via Toronto), making this coming weekend a long weekend for us (and that would be why I am on the low post side this week. I’ve been busy doing laundry and packing!). I will be back the middle of next week. Yes, although they are not in the bag yet, I considered which knitting projects to take before I decided on clothes. A true knitter am I!

Until I return, here is some knitting candy to keep you entertained. The picture at the beginning of this post is of my second Fetching glove yesterday morning.

And here is the completed set yesterday evening – a full FO!

Let’s see that again!

I’m very pleased with this knit. I followed the pattern to the letter for this, my first Fetching pair. For my next pair, I will be experimenting with the bind off, finger length, etc. Although the picot bind off the pattern calls for is pretty, is does curl quite a bit. This particular FO is a pressie for someone who uses a computer a lot and has a propensity for being cold. I felt the bind off curl was okay as it allows your fingers to move very freely which is a good thing when using a keyboard.

Details: I used some of two balls of Mission Falls merino wool (I used 'Mallow' 025) on 3.25 mm DPNs. There’s enough yarn left over to add to something else or for a very small project.

Just to keep you up to date on other knitting progress, I managed to get to my LYS on Wednesday and picked up a longer Addi Turbo for my Not-So-Shrunken cardie. Here’s a progress shot.

I really have only knit a row to get the sweater moved over onto the longer circular but I think I had knit some since I last posted a progress shot so you might notice some movement forward.

And, last but not least, we had our first hard frost last night. Yes, fall is coming – my favourite time of the year! Here is a photo of our last rose of the summer. My sweet boy was behind me saying “Mmm! Mmmm!” as I was taking this picture. It turns out he wanted up so that he too could smell the rose and say “Mmm!” more!

Gotta Keep Me A Lifeline

2008-09-16T20:00:00.000-04:00

When April noticed the Celtic Cable scarf I was working on, she mentioned and then showed me how to install a lifeline. What a lifesaver! I had made a mistake about six rows up from my lifeline, tried to fix it, could not, and simply ripped back to the lifeline to start again (and learned that I need to install a lifeline halfway through my repeat as well as at the end of one or watch a lot of work get ripped out! ;O))!

Thanks so much, April (and good luck with your first week of school)!

This past Sunday, I managed to join two other knitters at a local café. We’re considering a Sunday afternoon knit together to be a bit of a regular thing. Imagine my excitement and what a great time! Fibre was fondled, techniques and other knitting accessories discussed. One lady was using her brand new ball winder to wind, gasp, Malabrigo. She is right, it is like butter. It was my first time touching this fine, fine fibre. The other lady brought a pattern binder for us to pour over patterns. Sigh. It is so nice when you can get together with people who speak the same language.

One of the bits of information I passed on was the use of a lifeline which one of the ladies (like myself before April mentioned it to me) had never heard of before. I have to admit to not being the most confident knitter. Unlike others before me, I have never taught anyone to knit and I’m not sure that I could (but will certainly try when Iain gets a bit older). However, being able to pass on this little bit of knitting knowledge was a feel good situation for sure.

And, we can all use a few more feel good situations, can’t we?!?

How Things Change!

2008-09-15T07:30:00.000-04:00

Remember this?

That is how I used to mow the lawn this past Spring.

Looky what Iain can do when Mommy is mowing the lawn now!

And Para doesn't even knock him over when she runs past him anymore. How things change!

Feast or Famine

2008-09-14T20:50:00.001-04:00

That’s what I’ve been telling DH that the past seven days have been: feast or famine. I have little in the way of a social life for 14.5 months and then attend three adult only events in seven days! All of which involved babysitters, a significant development in my life.

Let me tell you knitters who have small children and family members in your local area: count your blessings. And, even if you have recently done that, count them again. It has been very difficult for us coming to a new community where we know very few people (none in the immediate area) with our first child, then three weeks old. I am lucky to have made several great friends through local baby groups and one of those friends is a teacher and her husband who also a teacher and who comes from a family of teachers. It is wonderful to have friends such as these who are able to refer you to babysitters.

Our first event of the week was the Wing Commanders Garden Party last Sunday afternoon, held from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. It was a ‘smart casual’ type of event (are military events the only ones where dress code is specified these days?!?) where I got to wear a skirt. This is a fairly significant fact considering that, apart from my family reunion in July where a couple of events dictated I wear a dress, I have not worn a skirt since well before Iain was born. In fact, I guess it to be at least 2.5 years since I’ve worn a skirt. This is striking considering I am the same woman who used to wear skirts most of her working career including when I was a case working social worker and going out on calls (they were long skirts that I could hike up and run in but skirts nonetheless). On Sunday, we were trying a new babysitter and this event was the perfect set up as 2:00 – 4:00 in the afternoon is Iain’s best time of the day to be joyful and playful and this offered a great introduction afternoon for both of them.

DH and I went out confident that all would be well and we were right. This was particularly wonderful given that that same sitter was at our house again Wednesday evening when DH and I went out for our first restaurant meal without Iain in 14.5 months. Yes, you read that right. And, no, it was not all that romantic. We were sharing the meal with all of DH’s immediate work colleagues and their spouses as they welcomed their new squadron Honourary Colonel. You may have heard of him – Leonard Lee – the founder of Lee Valley (well, you’ve likely heard of him if you are Canadian and have family members who are interested in gardening and woodworking). Despite the lack of romance, it was a nice evening out, Mr. Lee is a strikingly handsome man who is also a very entertaining storyteller and I really savoured every mouthful that did not involve a baby hanging off my leg and whining as the poor creature is wont to do every supper time when he is getting tired and wants to go to bed but does not realise it yet.

Then, the biggest event so far, was held on Friday evening. Our sitter was not available that night but, remember that teacher couple I mentioned earlier (lets just call the female half of the couple Wonder Woman)? Well, Wonder Woman offered to take Iain from supper time until we got home at midnight or so. I call my friend Wonder Woman for several reasons. The first is that she is due to have baby number two on October 5th yet did not hesitate to offer to take Iain when she knew that I likely wasn’t going to attend Friday nights event due to my sitter not being available. Wonder Woman also has baby number one who is only a few weeks younger than Iain. She is one of those people to whom the label ‘over achiever’ does not apply because she is a level above that title. For example, when most of my one year old party planning friends (like myself) were happy that we’d managed to print out and deliver first birthday party invitations, my friend scrap booked all of her invitations, loot bags and thank you notes. And that is only the icing on the cake. Wonder Woman indeed.

Anyway, this wonderful lady who I am so fortunate to call a friend offered to take Iain for the evening and I was pretty confident they could handle anything he threw at them. He was very, very good, we were told. It was their daughter’s first sleepover – ha! So, Friday evening saw us trundle off to the Greenwood Mess to enjoy their annual Wing Welcome party which included food and live entertainment. The food queue was long but the slightly tipsy young military members kept us entertained. There was deep fried turkey and a pig roast for eats.

The entertainment was excellent. The opening act was The Fables, a fabulous Newfoundland band. The second act was The Trews who we also really, really enjoyed. DH and I left around midnight when The Trews were starting their second set. Although I was enjoying the music, the crowd was getting to the ‘stupid inebriated’ stage and I was overtired due to it being way past my bedtime. I do not deal with drunken strangers at the best of times during the day but, when I’m tired, it’s worse so we left before things really got hopping.

And now, here I sit in the peace and quiet that is my home, enjoying the music on the radio, the sleeping breathing through the monitor from my baby upstairs and wondering where DH is currently as he is flying to Ottawa from Halifax tonight.