Big and Bad!

I've done it!  I finally finished this blanket for my friend Lexi, who's due to have her second baby, a boy, at the end of July. 

As soon as I saw the pattern for the Big Bad Baby Blanket in Stitch n Bitch, I knew that I was destined to knit it for her.  I started back in April, and the pattern kicked my ass more than once.  It originally started out in pistachio and white Babysoft yarn, held together to make an interesting marble-y pattern.  I cursed and frogged so many times, and eventually threw it down. (And may have even dramatically stomped a little on it, but I won't admit to it.)   Later on, I chose this mossy green yarn, and instead of holding together two baby-weight yarns, I settled on worsted weight.  And it came together, slowly.  After a while, the pattern actually got repetitive and boring, but I forged ahead.  There's plenty of mistakes, but I am very proud of this blanket.  It shows stick-to-it-ivness, and I rose above!

Now for some INSANE math....there are 126 individual stitches in a row.  And there are 208 rows in the pattern.  126x208=26,208 individual stitches!  I don't think I've ever had that many of ANYTHING!  Also, note to self:  Do NOT run those kinds of numbers mid-project!  

Baby Hatchling II will be a summer baby, and will of course not have use for a Big Bad Baby Blanket right away.  But this will be perfect for those chilly autumn Maine nights!

Fabulous Wisconsin Vacation, in Photos

Wisconsin was fantastic!  Good friends, good food, good times.  It was more of a laid-back vacation, which is just what the doctor ordered.   We hadn't seen the Ratties in about two years so there was a lot of catching up to do!  (I've been meaning to post pictures since we came back, but the Internet hasn't been entirely cooperative)

Both boys LOVED playing with Gilli.  As I was posting this, Will kept telling me how "cool" this photo was because Gilli is in it!

Trevor climbing up the rope maze.  He and Will sure did have fun together. 

Will playing on the swings at the coolest playground that we have ever been to!  It has an all-rubber surface and is designed for everyone, including kids with disabilities, in mind. 

Livvie is the Queen of the Castle!

Sean, waking up from a nap at the playground.  He really enjoys being outside.

Will and Liv getting ready for the pool.

Me, Will and Gilli playing in the pool.  Gilli spent a lot of time playing with the boys this week and they loved every minute of it!  Will kept forgetting her name and would just call her "the girl with the glasses."  :)

Sometimes we give Daddy the camera, just so there's proof that Mom goes on these trips, too!  Posing with the boys at the fountain, Lake Geneva.

We got some eats before we boarded for our ferry tour of Lake Geneva, or the "Newport of the Midwest."  This is a "Chicago-Style Hot Dog."  It was a monster!  Delicious, and something I'd definitely have again. 

Jen and I.  A hot and humid day at Lake Geneva!

 

Will was a little tired and under-the-weather from all the traveling.  Here he is, being carried by Scott before we boarded the ferry.

The boat! 

Daddy and his (sleepy) boys on the ferry.

Soft Spot

As I've said before, I've got a soft spot for preemies.  That's because I was one.  (2lbs 2oz, December 1976)  Plus I have a friend who had a preemie (she's now three and a total spitfire) and know of others.  So, in my quest to "knit for good," I thought that some preemie hats were in order.  It's also a family thing, my sister-in-law has made oodles of hats for a preemie support group, and shipped to a group collecting hats in North Carolina.

Hats are something that the parents of a new baby tend to hold onto.  I still have Will's hat from when he was born.  Oddly enough, I didn't get a hat for Sean when he was born, just this sweatshirt thingy that tied closed at the top that ended up getting destroyed.  And sweetly enough, my Mom still has my preemie cap:  a little white bonnet with a red yarn tie, being so close to Christmas and all.  I believe that Mom told me that one of the nurses crocheted this hat especially for me, since none of the hats that the hospital had would fit my little head. 

So, in the weeks leading up to and then during our vacation, I've now got eleven preemie hats to add to the donation pile (making 23 hats total) and have two more on the needles.  Not too shabby, considering those are all "in beween" bigger projects.  Not to mention, when it's really hot, who wants to be working on something bigger and have that yarn in your lap???

Quips on the Road Trip

We took it a little slower on the way home with the kids.  At first we thought about traveling to Toronto for the last two days of our vacation, but after realizing it was eleven hours away and remembering the drive TO Wisconsin, it was decided unanimously just to take our sweet time getting home instead.  For the most part, the boys did pretty well on the trip home, though there were some figurative bumps in the road. 

With our usual road trip music queued (The RENT soundtrack, Brian develops a nasty cough during  the curse words)  We left Wisconsin on Thursday morning, driving through Illinois, Indiana and stopped for the night in Bryan, Ohio.  On Friday morning, we headed back onto the road after breakfast and trudged across the rest of Ohio, stopping for lunch in Erie, PA and then into New York.  Brian didn't want any more than 300 miles left for Saturday's drive, so we could relax a little on Sunday and unpack, etc before the reality of Monday slapped us in the face.  However, as we neared the 300-mile mark, we were having trouble finding a hotel with a room for us for the night.  The first hotel had no vacancy, so after a brief disagreement on which direction to go to find another, we got back on Rt. 86 east in NY to find one.  That's when we realized....there was no more Rt. 86 east.  We were on some country bumpkin road.  No wait......we were driving into the future!  That is, we were driving on "Future Rt. 86."  No seriously, that's what the signs said.  No wonder why we couldn't find anywhere to stay, we were time travelers! Then we really started seeing some remote areas, and to keep going in the right direction we just listened for the banjos playing.  :)  No hotels in this area, more like if you stopped at the gas station for directions to the hotel the attendant would say "Well, you can stay on the couch in my mom's house.  She's makin' pot roast and taters for dinner!"  (no this did not really happen.)  BTW, as an aside, the "Future Rt. 86" signs were the second-funniest sign that we saw on the trip.  The first was a huge billboard as you enter Wisconsin that said "Bong Recreation Area Ahead, Next Exit."  I would've taken a picture but we were moving too quickly.

At our third hotel, I was feeling pretty discouraged, and not at all looking forward to sleeping in our car.  I had been eating M&M's, and I had dropped a couple in the passenger seat.  As we were pulling onto the hotel parking lot, I realized with horror that I had dropped two M&M's down my shorts!!!  I tried to shake and shimmy, but only one came out.  Let's add insult to injury and get melted M&M on my only pair of shorts, YES!!!!  I got out of the car and it immediately plunked onto the driveway, and I was so relieved.  I started to walk towards the hotel, when Brian called me back to the car to tell me something.  And what he told me made me laugh so hard I could barely walk.  So hard, that it just kept running through my head and making me laugh inappropriately as I booked our room for the night at the front desk:

"Hey honey?  M&M's melt in your mouth, not on your ass!"  :)

6 months old!

Happy half-birthday, Sean! can't believe it's been six months already! We love you, Little Man. :)

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I'm on vacation with two other Droid owners and we're amazing ourselves! man....what can't this thing do??? if I find out that it can do laundry or remember to defrost hamburger, I might just marry it!

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Trip to Cheese Country

Hello from Wisconsin!!

We're vacationing with some friends, the fabulous R. family!  It's gorgeous up here....nice weather, a very pretty town, and lots of things to see and do.  The drive...welll...........not terrible but it wasn't the easiest thing in the world.  First I should start with the week before.....

It was a very stressful couple of weeks in our house.  First, Daddy was in Cleveland.  And while in Cleveland, we got the call that Brian's grandmother had had a stroke.  A day after Brian came home from Cleveland, she passed away.  Grandmom was very  special and will be missed.  She was a sweet, incredible woman who raised eight kids, nurtured 16 grandkids and then went on to have six great-grandkids. (and two more on the way) 

We left Wednesday morning for the services, and after they were over on Thursday we continued on our adventure Midwest.  Then we hit a snag in the road--the DVD player in the car broke!  No way were we going to make it all the way to Wisconsin without one, so we bought a replacement.  I honestly thought we'd be sleeping somewhere in western PA that night.....and getting the kids in pajamas in a Dairy Queen bathroom was certainly an adventure.  However, we rolled into Youngstown, OH close to midnight and checked into a hotel.  Will fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, but Sean had other ideas.  Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep before heading out onto the open road the next morning. 

We crossed the rest of Ohio and into Indiana next, and then into Illinois.  Then.....traffic!  Sean cried the rest of the way, from outside Chicago and into Wisconsin.  Poor buddy.  Both kids were very much ready for bed upon arrival in our condo rental.  The next day Will was very lethargic and not at all hungry.  We went out to breakfast before Jen and family got here, and on the way back Will threw up on the hallway.  BTW, if you're looking to make friends (even as a toddler) "Hi, I just threw up!" is not a great opening line!! 

We're having a wonderful time on our well-deserved vacay, eating, chilling, swimming, and later, going to the movies to see Eclipse!  The ride home will certainly be another adventure, but I don't want to think about that right now.....:)