Author: Sarah

Another Sunday Night

Sarah General

I think I’ve literally spent the entire weekend doing laundry. No joke, we did 6 loads in the past two days. And it’s not as though I hadn’t done laundry for weeks or anything – in fact, we were caught up as of this past Wednesday. And somehow, despite having done 6 loads of laundry in 48 hours, I have more to do tomorrow. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

And now it’s Sunday night, and although the laundry is sort of caught up, I don’t feel like I really accomplished much at all this weekend. I suppose I don’t know why I think weekends should be this super-productive period of time. It’s not like when I was working, where weekends meant a break from doing all the things I had to do all week – now I still need to feed, dress, cuddle and play with Carrie, no matter what day of the week it is. And yet I still expect that I’m somehow magically going to find time on a Saturday that I can’t find on a Tuesday to do things like clean out my closet or reorganize my kitchen cabinets. Or vacuum.

I don’t know if I need to become more organized or what, but it’s all I can do to just keep the house relatively dog-hair free (and relatively is a very relative term), stock the fridge with healthy-ish foods, and try to make sure everyone has a clean pair of underwear (or onesie) to wear on a daily basis. That doesn’t really sound like much, does it? Are my expectations too high for myself, as a stay-at-home mom? I’m really committed to making sure that Carrie is my top priority, where most of my energy for the day goes, but I wish I could just get an extra thing or two done around the house occasionally!

Project Monogamy

Sarah Crafts

I’m trying to work on one project only, forsaking all others, until completion do us part. So far it’s been working: in the past week I’ve completed my sockapaloooza socks, Carrie’s bunny, the November cross-stitch (I finally found the chart), and a little repair to a hole in one of Carrie’s sweaters. I’m working on another square for my Aran afghan, then I’ll finish up Carrie’s doll bassinet, and then I’d better do the June cross-stitch. After that, who knows? But definitely something that’s already been started. It’s a little tedious at times, but I was starting to worry about my lack of attention span on any one thing, and I have so many projects in various stages of being almost-done it’s starting to get ridiculous. Plus, I started all of those projects with the intention of having a finished object at the end, and some of them have been dragging on (or have been completely ignored) for years.

That’s one way to clean my craft room, right? Just finish everything in there? Actually, there are at least four finished things in there that either haven’t gone to their new homes or should get moved to Carrie’s closet. No wonder the place is a disaster.

Shadow

Sarah Dogs

January 12, 1994 – April 18, 2006
My parents had their dog Shadow put to sleep last night. He had cancer and had been rapidly declining over the past few weeks. It took a long time to get used to visiting their house and not seeing Sylvan…and now, just 14 months later, we have to get used to living without another wonderful dog in our lives. I unintentionally named Shadow when my family brought him home. Sylvan was a month younger and considerably smaller, and when Shadow started getting a little rough while they were playing I asked Sylvan if that big black Shadow was bothering him. The name just sort of stuck. I’m sure Shadow and Sylvan are running around playing at the rainbow bridge, waiting for their people to join them. It does help to think of them there, together again.

Have Mercy

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie’s spoken vocabulary has taken off at an amazing rate. At last count she had over 70 words, but that was over a week ago and I’d guess she’s up to more than 100 now. Some of her more recent additions are “no!”, accompanied by furious head-shaking and – and I can hardly believe this myself but it’s been repeated and witnessed several times – she counts to ten. Well, mostly. She refuses to believe in the existence of the number 7. This is extra amusing because this evening at the bookstore I was looking through board books about numbers so I could encourage this new-found interest and the first one I picked up was misprinted and went 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10. I was tempted to buy it anyway.

But the cutest, most adorable thing in her entire vocabulary is how Carrie says the dogs’ names. Specifically, how she says Murphy’s name. If you click on the picture below it should take you to a quicktime clip (638 KB) of Carrie saying the dogs’ names.

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The other morning after Carrie woke up but before I went in to get her, Murphy barked at something. The next thing I heard over the monitor was “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Uh-oh! Mercy!” I hope I never forget that, that when I’m old and senile I can still remember that sweet little voice calling out for Murphy.

A Very Colorful Bunny

Sarah Crafts

For Easter this year I had decided to get Carrie a set of playsilks and a few shaker eggs – the rhythm instrument kind, not made by Shakers! The site where I ordered the playsilks has a number of other really nice toys, including Stripes the Bunny. (Actually, Stripes must have sold out, because I can’t find the link anymore. Luckily, I saved his picture to my computer!) I couldn’t justify buying something else for Carrie, but I do have lots and lots of scrap yarn bursting out of my craft room…

So I picked up a crochet hook and extra yarn from her cousins’ sweaters, and look! A giant bunny!

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This colorful bunny contains yarn from the fun flower sweaters, the patchwork sweaters, the just ducky sweater, the little star sweater, and Carrie’s poncho. I think there are a couple of other projects represented there, but they escape me at the moment. The bunny is an inch shy of two feet tall and he’s super floppy, and Carrie seems to like to drag him around by one ear. (Poor bunny!) I think if I made another I’d make a few changes, but I’m pretty happy with how it came out – I even figured out how to make his hips and shoulders jointed so he can sit and give hugs!

Happy Easter!

Sarah General

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It was such a pretty day today! Even though it was a touch chilly we did an egg hunt outdoors for Carrie and her cousin Benjamin. They were so cute, picking up eggs and shaking them, and then putting them in their baskets. Looking at some of the pictures I took I remembered pictures I’ve seen from when my cousins and I were really little, of Easter egg hunts and Christmas trees, and I realized that all but a couple dozen of the pictures I’ve taken of Carrie so far have never even been printed out. I need to make some albums so that Carrie can see these pictures, so that when she’s taking pictures of her baby’s first easter egg hunt she can remember seeing them, and feel as happy and nostalgic as I do today. Although, now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure those pictures I saw were still in their envelopes, not in albums!
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The Triplets

Sarah Carolyn

Somewhere in her first couple of months of life, Carrie acquired three pink rag dolls as gifts from various people. We call them the triplets – despite the fact that they are all different – and Carrie needs to be tucked in with the three of them and two binkies every night.

This is an all-too-common sight that greets me when I go in to get her in the morning:

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I find it oddly creepy. Usually they’re actually sticking up so their heads are over the top rail of the crib, and sometimes one or more of them are facing the wall. It just looks like they’re being punished for something. I’m sure from a toddler point of view it’s nothing more than a larger version of a put-it-in/take-it-out game!

My SockapalOOOza Socks Are Done!

Sarah SockapalOOOza

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Look! I’m so excited! These are quite the prettiest socks I’ve ever knit, and I really hope my sock pal loves them as much as I do. It’s just a couple of weeks before we mail them out, so I’m glad I finished them up early. Even though I started at the same point in the color sequence, something must have been off a little because the toe on the second sock ended with burgundy instead of orange, but I think they’re as close to matching as you can get otherwise. And there aren’t too many yards left in the skein, I would have been worried if I didn’t have a second skein of this sitting in my stash!

The pattern and yarn information is here, since I never got around to making a separate page for these socks.

Things I’ve Forgotten To Blog About

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie started doing a few new things during our trip. Friday night she managed to completely take her shirt off with no assistance whatsoever. During dinner, no less.

I also noticed that she started saying/signing two word sentences that didn’t involve “more”. She said/signed things like “doll sleep.” or “daddy car. mommy car. me car.”

Oh, and she has a new word for binky: “beeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

We’re Back.

Sarah General

We drove nearly 900 miles in less than 60 hours, got lost on Long Island (or were we still in Queens?), got lost in New Jersey, picked up a dog who was so anxious at the vets that she hasn’t eaten anything in those same 60 hours and is having severe and messy digestive issues, and came home with an over-excited and over-tired toddler who fell and hit her head at least three times before bedtime.

I’m utterly, completely, mind-numblingly exhausted, and if I ever see the inside of my car again it will be too soon. Oh, and quite frankly, if I ever have to stay in New Jersey again (as nice as the hotel was when we finally found it) I will simply have to shoot myself. Seriously, people, what’s up with actually having driveways off of expressways?!? Aren’t they supposed to be limited access roads because people are driving along them at, oh, approximately 9,362 miles per hour?

(But the wedding was beautiful and it was good to see the family!)