I thought this might happen

I had no time today to process any blog fodder (something about spending the morning chasing a toddler and a pre-toddler that just totally messes everything up), so while I'd hoped to tell you about my last few days, no dice tonight. I should be able to tomorrow, though...

Long day

Long, busy day today. Will post about it (I hope) in at least some detail tomorrow. Right now, the Infanta needs to go to bed.

Teeth and how to use them

The Infanta is teething again. She has all four upper incisors bulging beneath her gums, champing (if you will) at the bit to emerge. One way I know they're there is that she's gone back to rubbing her (nasty, sharp, pointy) bottom teeth against my poor nipples. She's tending to scrape them against my tender flesh at the end of a nursing session; I generally gasp involuntarily, say "No" sternly, and set her on the ground, or otherwise end the session abruptly. I'll be glad when this set is through.

But at least she's using them for their intended purpose, too. Blueberries last night; she scraped all the pulp out of the skins, making surprisingly little mess (except on her pants). I was making quesadillas for lunch just now, and had propped her in her high chair so she could watch. On impulse, I gave her a few shreds of cheese; when those promptly disappeared, I gave her a few more. When those also disappeared (and not onto the floor!), I decided it was time to learn how to sign cheese, just for future reference.

Tonight's spaghetti sauce...

came out a bit "Cajun-ed". I blame this.

*squee*

eta: if you give your child blueberries for dinner, remember to give them a full-body bib.

D'oh!

One of the ladies in my knitting group posted about our Lenten charity project of more preemie hats. I keep forgetting that I still owe 3 hats for my resolution! Guess I know what I'm doing with the STR left over from Boheme... which I could swear I posted here about, but I guess I didn't, so here's Herself posing in her pretty little sweater:

Goofy Grin

An unusual birth story

I woke up this morning to a woman laboring in bed with me. Go read about it on my doula blog!

The Infanta, by request

Hey, look, Mama's got the camera!


But the cat's way more interesting.

Gran requested more pictures, and I have no reason not to oblige. Besides, she's always good blog fodder. :)

Late Bloomers

Ok, these are late only in that I just finished the knitting on them (haven't touched the finishing yet). I found the pattern on Etsy the other night, and it ended up being my first-ever Etsy purchase. I'm such a dork.

Pattern: Daisy Head Bloomers
Yarn: Lyon Fishermen's Wool
Started 3/22, finished 3/24 (ok, but all I have to do is weave ends in)

Not yet Ravelrized, but so cute I couldn't not share!

Wow

For the first time this year, I failed to post yesterday. So consider this a replacement, and I'll post for today later. :)

Sleepy Sunday

I'm tired, with not much to say tonight. Perhaps I'll feel more brilliant tomorrow.

Shiny Accessories

I got a really good yoga workout last night, and I've been stiff and achy from it all day, but at least it's a good stiff and achy. I also cast on yet another baby sweater this afternoon (Ravelry link here - yes, Bethany, if you want to see this adorable sweater, you have to sign up finally).

Speaking of Bethany, she was a bad person, and is lending me a carrier for the weekend. It's very, very shiny. I don't want to take it off. Since I must acknowledge that I will never, in the normal course of things, be able to afford a shiny like this made by someone else, I'm getting excited again about making one myself. I actually printed out a pattern, and have spoken to the husbeast about getting the fittings for it (straps, buckles, etc.) - hey, he's home this week on Spring Break, he can chase the Infanta while I get some sewing in!

And now for something completely different.

So, it seems the folks at Ravelry are looking for a (in my words) girl Friday.

Job description is as follows:

Hi Ravelry! Erica the Email Fairy is moving on, and Ravelry is looking for a new team member! This is a part-time (~20 hours per week), work-at-home position with flexible hours, and a definite possibility of growth with the company over time. :) We are looking for someone tech-savvy, friendly, and positive who is very familiar with the Ravelry site and community.

essential responsibilities include:

- Provide the first line of helpful support to all emails coming in via our contact-us page, the shopping@ravelry.com, and the advertising@ravelry.com email addresses (and alerting the rest of the staff to potentially important issues that come in). Topics in these emails can cover anything under the sun - designer/yarnie issues, confidential forum issues, happy people, Ravelry mini-mart questions, advertiser help, and more!

- Hook up designers, yarnies, and design teams with their Ravelry profiles and answering basic questions or directing to helpful on-Ravelry resources as needed.

- Assist users with Ravelry invitation issues.

- Provide help as needed on the Ravelry “work” forums: For the Love of Ravelry, Help!, Ravelry Shopkeepers, Ravelry Editors, Advertisers’ Caboodle.

- Assist Jess and Mary-Heather with ad approvals (image feedback, checking groups for competitors, etc.).

- Must be familiar with Ravelry’s site, vision, and tone!

- Must be able to stay motivated, level-headed, and work both independently as a self-starter on your own tasks, and as a part of our tightly-knit (har) team.

- Ownership of cute dog not required.

I think this would be a fabulous position for me - heck, I'm already on email all the time anyway! I could use some help from my faithful readers, however: One of the questions they want answered is

If you were a yarn-producing fiber, what would you be and why?

I offer no prize other than my gratitude (and probable adoration, especially if I get the job), but I'd love to hear your opinions on this! The deadline for posting applications is next Friday, so I'd love to hear back from you all by the end of the weekend.

A Birth Story

Read this, with Kleenex handy.

Mmm, Blueberry Poop!

While the Infanta was visiting Tavy yesterday, she apparently further explored her new-found predilection for blueberries. She came home with the dress she'd been wearing in the wet bag, soaked in an attempt to mitigate the stains covering it.

Since dinner was reheated lasagna, I satisfied my desire to cook *something* by making blueberry muffins. Now, we'd discovered a couple of days ago during a trip to Grandma's house that she now likes muffins, and at Bethany's we've discovered her liking for blueberries. I'd been gassing about making blueberry muffins anyway, since Josh likes them (he's a hard man to bake for) and we still have a bunch I froze last summer. So we had muffins for dessert.

Do I even need to say that the Infanta loved her share?







Postprandially, I discovered for myself the utility of the after-dinner bath. Next time I'll try to remember a bib sooner, or, if it's warm enough, just preemptively remove her clothes first.

Weird.

I'm currently home all alone. No Josh, no Infanta. J, of course, is at work, but the Infanta is over at Bethany's for a couple of hours, because I've essentially had no non-baby time since she was born.

Now what do I do with myself? First thing: leftover lasagna for lunch. Second thing? I'm not sure whether sewing or a nap takes precedence. Hmm. Tough choice.

Oh yes, the lasagna? Turned out excellent. Josh here gives it the thumbs-up of approval (followed swiftly by the nom of approval, not documented because I was nomming too).

Blessed are they

I do a lot of my meal planning for the month on the fly while doing our monthly grocery shopping at WinCo. It's not that I don't have things in mind before that, it's more that that's when I manifest the realities of what I need. Anyway, I saw a recipe a few weeks ago for lasagna made with egg roll wrappers for the pasta, and thought that was such a good idea that I picked up a couple of packages while shopping this month. Then, sometime last week I decided that it was time to actually make the darn stuff, and decided, influenced by this book and this post, that I would make my own ricotta.



So here's my first cheese, draining. I wanted to take more pictures during the process, but I had put my camera battery to charge, so I couldn't... let's just say it all went as planned, and that it really does work to make ricotta out of a gallon of milk from Safeway. Oh, yes, and if you're using lemon juice as your acid, it really works much better if you add it after the milk is heated, not before!

Very cool vid

We're having a few folks over to play board games today, so I can't post much. Still, I saw this very cool video that I thought y'all would appreciate.

Hurricane Tavy

I haven't posted many Infanta pictures lately, so here're a couple.

The baldy in the top photo is Bethany's daughter Tavy (short for Octavia), whom I've begun watching for a couple of hours at a time now and then so that Mom can get some grading done. It's working out well so far; despite being 8 months apart, the girls like each other, and Tavy likes me, so we're getting along pretty amicably. And although Tavy is just as much a Velcro Girl as the Infanta, she's used enough to Mom going off for a couple of hours at a time that she hasn't raised too much of a fuss. Yet.

Worth 15 minutes of your life.

Pamela, fantastic midwife to many around here, posted this today. I watch the video and think why can't I give birth this way not because I think I should be that cool and collected (although I think I may have appeared that way, at least sometimes.. just not when puking..), but because I wish deeply that I could do it in such an amazing environment. The hospital I was at with the Infanta was a good place, and the nursing staff were great at being discreet enough that I was able to fully engage with Laborland - from which I basically didn't emerge until she was fully born - but it was still a hospital. So, no warm wooden floors, no atmospheric candles.

Of course, I might not get that at home, either!

But it is heartening to see that some women really do get to live out what so many of us can only fantasize about.