Month: September 2007

Thirty-Five Months Old!

Sarah Monthly Updates

Dear Carolyn,

Today you are one month away from being three. Soon I’m going to have to convince you that the answer to how old you are is “three!” instead of “two-and-a-half!” (I never could get you to say “two-and-three-quarters”.) You are already excited about your upcoming birthday, and the answer to any question about it is “a ladybug cake!” Someone could ask you “when’s your birthday”, and you answer “a ladybug cake!” “How old will you be?” “A ladybug cake!” It’s actually pretty funny, especially with complete strangers who have no idea what you’re saying and think you can’t talk clearly. Not that the confusion is cleared up much when I translate for them.

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I’m finding that I’m still translating for you, even though I don’t really think I need to anymore. I guess I’m just most fluent in Carrie-speak. Complete and clear sentences – maybe because they’re unexpected? – still seem to confuse people. And you do still have a few made-up words. I’m dreading the parent-teacher conference where they ask why I feed you “opium” for breakfast. I’m absolutely, 100% certain that you can say the word “oatmeal”, you just won’t. Why can’t you just say “pasketti” like a normal child?

Speaking of teachers, it’s only been a couple of weeks but you seem to be enjoying preschool. Well, once you’re in the room and I’m out of sight, that is. Parting is such sweet sorrow, or something like that. But when I pick you up you’re all full of happy stories about what you did all morning, so I guess it’s just a matter of you getting comfortable with me leaving and then always coming back for you.

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I realized today how close you are to reading – you know several words by sight, including “mom”, “dad”, “dog”, “cat”, “stop”, “go”, and “Carolyn”, and can sound out many words…as long as they have short vowel sounds, anyway. I’m not sure where to go from here. You honestly can’t get enough of letters and words, but I have no idea how to teach you the rest of what you need to know to actually be able to read. Phonics are a great start, but how to I explain that sometimes “y” sounds like “ee”, or that “oo” in “moon” is different than “oo” in book?!?

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We’re settling into something resembling a routine now, which I think (I hope) will help some of the stress we’ve both been feeling over all of these transitions. I think that by this time next month we’ll still feel busy but we’ll be comfortable with it. Which is good…I have a ladybug cake to make!

Love, Mommy

Fiber Festival ’07 Loot!

Sarah Spinning

Here’s what I got at the festival:

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At the top of the basket, two bean soup mixes from Healthy Sisters’ Soup & Bean Works and one of two 4 oz. hanks of hand-painted merino from High Bid Farms (the other is already half spun on my wheel – which is at the shop or I would have included the bobbin in the picture.)

The big plastic bag on the right is a sampler fiber pack from Spinning Bunny, in the “Roses for You” colorway. I thought it might be a good idea to try spinning a small amount of a variety of fibers before committing to, say, a merino/tencel spin-your-own socks kit. (Was very, very, very tempted by that sock kit.)

The bottom center of the basket has a 4 oz. ball of gray Jacob wool from High Bid Farms and a hand-made sheep ornament. I wanted something less colorful to spin on my drop spindle for practice.

The left side of the basket has two 4 oz. balls of alpaca/merino/silk from Spinning Bunny. Couldn’t pass on these, the colorway (Autumn Sunset) and that particular blend of fibers was too much to resist.

The center of the basket contains a hand-hooked sheep pin, gray (how exciting) cotton/bamboo sock yarn (so that I can finally make Denis a pair of socks that fit and don’t contain wool), and my Bosworth drop spindle with some of the Jacob wool. Also, there are two wood tools: first, a diz from Millpoint Emporium. I’ve never used a diz, nor am I entirely sure why I’d want one, except that I have a weak spot for exquisitely crafted wood tools. Which leads me to the last item: a nostepinne my dad made from Cocobolo wood…and that I may have gushed over so much that he had no choice to give it to me. He made others to sell in our booth, but mine’s the nicest. ;) Here are the others he’s made so far:

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All in all, a bit more than I’d usually buy at a festival, but since I’m actively spinning some of my new fiber already I’m not feeling particularly guilty. Oh, and not shown: a black & white sheepdog stuffed animal to go with Carrie’s sheep and llama from previous years.

There’s a small chance that I’ll actually make it to Rhinebeck next month, and if I’ve spun that merino/tencel sample successfully and Spinning Bunny is there…I’m so getting myself a spin-your-own socks kit!

Ladybugs and Language

Sarah Carolyn

Carolyn wants a ladybug cake for her birthday. This morning I was doing a bit of cleaning up after breakfast, and she dug out one of my Wilton books and declared that she was going to find her ladybug cake. She looked through all three that were on the shelf, and then said, “Mommy, do you know where the ladybug cake is? Because I looked and I can’t find one anywhere!”

I’m amazed by the changes in her grammar recently. Just in the last few weeks she’s been using much more sophisticated syntax and more complete (and correct) sentences. It’s fascinating to me how the human brain acquires language – in less than three years Carolyn has learned an unbelievable amount of vocabulary and grammar, just from absorbing the world around her. She can recognize upper and lowercase letters, understands that those letters can be put into certain sequences to form words, knows how each letter sounds, and is starting to sound out words. She’s even starting to write somewhat recognizable letters. It’s pretty cool.

And the ladybug cake? She’s right, there are no pictures of ladybug cakes in my Wilton books, but really…how hard can it be?

I wish I could have caught on video all of her commentary as she flipped through the books. “Look, there are lots of ghosts and they have a gingerbread house!” as she was looking at a picture of a haunted house cake. “Oh, there’s the Cheese Man, and he has a cake with cheese on it and is eating it all up!” for a picture of a SpongeBob SquarePants cake. “Oooh, look, a Cinder-grella cake!” At least I have a few backup possibilities if the ladybug cake doesn’t work out!

Fiber Festival ’07

Sarah Knitting

This year for the fiber festival, I didn’t just buy stuff – although I did do plenty of that! – I also sold stuff. That was a really wild experience! On Saturday our booth was packed full of knitters. The line was never less than six people deep, even with three of us writing up receipts and making change. The weather was cold and rainy, but it didn’t seem to stop people from coming to the festival. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth before the fairgrounds opened:

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Sunday was much less busy, so I actually got to walk around for a bit and enjoy the sights myself. Sunday was much worse for my wallet! But the weather was beautiful, so Denis and Carrie drove down and met me there for a couple of hours and we had a really good time.

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Carrie especially loved the maple flavored cotton candy – her first cotton candy ever – and wouldn’t let go of the bag even for a picture.

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I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of my loot before it got dark today, so I’ll have to post about that another time.

First Day of Preschool

Sarah Firsts

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My baby started school today. No longer a toddler, she’s officially a preschooler.

I was not prepared. I had her clothes all laid out, my clothes all laid out, we left the house on time…but she’s been so excited about the idea of school that I expected her to run happily into the classroom and never look back. I would be free to go run errands without dealing with the carseat and have a couple of hours to relax, clean the house, knit…whatever. Instead, I had to peel her arms from around my legs and give her a firm push towards the blocks the teachers had put out for the kids to play with. And then I nearly lost it when I saw her bottom lip quivering and her eyes filling up with tears. I don’t think it helped that nearly half the kids in her class were already sobbing.

I barely made it out to the car before I completely lost it. They gave each parent a “first day survival kit” with a poem about how hard leaving is, and it contained a tissue, a Hershey’s kiss, and a tea bag.

You know what, though? She loved it! According to Carolyn (who apparently can recognize her name spelled out – who knew?) preschool was “really, really, really fun!” and she can’t wait to go back next week. I, on the other hand, haven’t quite recovered!

UFO’s? What UFO’s?

Sarah Knitting

So, with a shop full of yarn at my disposal, how long did you think it would take me to start something new? Or, maybe, several somethings?

Let’s see. First I started the Omega Wrap, a möbius style wrap made with several different weights and textures of yarn. A good way to sample several different yarns I hadn’t worked with before!

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And then…well…Carrie has pretty much outgrown the orange cabled hoodie from last fall. So I started her a green cabled jacket which may or may not have a hood – I haven’t decided yet. It’s the Duffle Coat from Zoe Mellor’s Double Knits book.

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Finally, we had a couple of balls of this clearance yarn left, and I whipped up a scarf in a couple of hours and will turn the second ball into a hat. For Carrie of course!

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Hopefully I’ll manage to finish these before something else tempts me! (Please let’s not discuss the other projects sitting around unfinished in my craft room…)

Did You Know…?

Sarah General

Did you know that your morning newspaper is delivered at 3:00 AM? I found that out this morning, when I got home just as the truck was pulling away from my mailbox. On the upside, we’re a lot closer to being done with inventorying all the yarn.

On the downside, I slept in until 9:15 because Carrie didn’t wake up as early as usual, and playgroup was at my house. At 10:00. My house which hasn’t been cleaned regularly in months.

After a frantic 42 second shower and lots of pleading, cajoling, threatening and bribery to get Carrie into clothes and downstairs, I did a mad dash around the house to put away the very non-toddler friendly crap that has accumulated in every corner and on every flat surface in all the “public” rooms. At 9:59 AM the coffee was brewing and I managed to eat a bowl of cereal…

And nobody showed up until almost 10:30. At least the house was clean. Ish.