Handknit stocking

It's done, and will serve the purpose :) I'm pretty happy with it as a decorative thing. If I was to make a real sock out of this worsted yarn I'd have to be much more careful about the holes and loose places!

calendar: Polar bears and penguins have invaded the calendar from the Christmas stickers I bought. Morningtime kitty was taken away and eaten by real cats (how awful)... but a new sticker each day is still exciting. Esme has already started asking me if we are going to the library tomorrow. We went to the library last week on Saturday - and there is a butterfly icon on it to show that. She wants me to pick up and move the butterfly icon down a week and go to the library tomorrow! But I work every day up until Christmas Eve... and a few days off the next week. So, sadly, we will not be going to the library again soon!

early riser

Every morning when I am awakened (even sometimes quite too early) I am amused and amazed at what this little girl has to tell me, show me, and has often already decided upon for today's routine. It's hard for me to believe sometimes that she is three years old - she has all these ideas and isn't afraid to express them. She thinks she knows exactly how things are going to go, rattles off the list of things she wants to do, and crosses between sage nodding and teenager 'do I have to?' attitudes when I tell her something she has missed/skipped/avoided.

I told her she had to wait ten minutes for the alarm clock this morning because she was already telling me she needed apple jacks and drink cup and to go tell the kitty she was a bad kitty and put her outside etc etc... I said I wasn't getting up until the beep beep went off. She threw a very small fit and then she asked me if my ears were alright and if my hair was alright and why I didn't get up if I was sick etc... So, she had me grinning by then. And she knew it. So she went and found her 'Hop on Pop' book and read me the words she has memorized and described all the pictures in the pages she hadn't memorized. I reset the alarm clock for three minutes out just to have the reinforcement that Mumum didn't want to get out of her bed until the alarm (beep beep) went off.

So, I'm up. There is no snow... but it is raining and cold, and I need to be to work by ten a.m.


examining her Christmas stocking
and the green scarf as well.

I told her I was taking a picture of her Christmas stocking for Grandma, and she had to be in on it. She actually tried to take the loose (non-working) needle back out of the sock and use it... so she 'knows how it works' but I stopped her there and told her she has to wait for a few years to learn the rest ;)

little words

Esme's latest words are 'this is so hard' (instead of 'too heavy' which she used to say for anything difficult), 'I can't pull', which she says for anything she is having difficulty but is trying to do, and 'this is very good' for food and drink she likes.

She will say 'I can't pull' for trying to get her other foot into the laundry basket and failing - for trying to open a container and failing, for trying to move something and failing. She wants help right then because she is trying but not getting the job done. If she has given up or is about to she will say 'this is so hard' and want someone else to do something for her.

Yesterday on Daddy's lap she was sitting 'reading' the computer with him and started counting things on the screen. She discovered a new number, he said. 'One, two, three, twelve, chicken!' There was no chicken. But, she was proud of herself - because Daddy laughed.

She is also singing along with the words to her Muppet Show more - and getting words right I didn't know she was paying attention to. She can sometimes be across the room playing with something else, not watching, and be singing along or narrating what is happening on the screen (not just muppets, tom and jerry, shaun whatever). Apparently she has seen her shows too much! She just has an excellent memory. When we were watching Fantasia for the second time EVER (for her) she was telling us what would come next seconds before it appeared.

I have to go into work today. It is supposed to snow and/or freezing rain this afternoon. :( I'm not looking forward to driving home in it and then back out tomorrow morning. At least our tub faucet is freed up again! We can have warm baths in less than an hour of wait time again ;) We were really lucky - I saw so many people with frozen and BROKEN pipes yesterday at work (knock on wood). A lot of people could not come to work because they were fixing things at their own houses. I am still working on the scarf and thinking about all things warm - hats, gloves etc... but I know they take so long for me to knit them! The scarf is three or four days on now and just about half or more done.

Later: Came home early from work as the roads were getting slippery - good thing I did. The main road was fine, but the road our house is on (about three miles down) was a skating rink. The truck pulled to the side at about five or six different places even going 15 mph... There is one place there I've been stuck before that would have been quite difficult to get up (more so than it was) if the weather had been worse. Mark made pizza. Esme woke up in the middle of our eating from her nap - but instead of wanting to join in for pizza she wanted to go downstairs and take a bath. Her nose was stuffed up - so I saw her logic and put my pizza in the fridge. I took the opportunity to wash and condition her hair -- which she did not like, but purple bubbles made that all better. Now she is happily eating pizza and saying it is 'mmmm mmmmm yummy'. It sounds much stranger in person - I had to hear her say it twice before I realized what she meant ;)

I'm not quite done with the scarf but I've started her Christmas stocking... making good progress.

small goals during the cold weather

a few little goals this week:

knit a second scarf (about half done) so Esme can wear mine when we go outside and I will be warm, too. After the scarf I will think about her Christmas stocking some more - I don't think it would be too tough to knit if I wasn't worrying about it FITTING anyone. haha.... I've knitted many pairs of socks but the fitting around the ankle always takes me the longest. Her picture book has yellow and red striped stockings and so did the video she saw the other day... odd coincidences so I think I'll use that theme, as well. We already have bought candy canes and a few little chocolates and a fuzzy mouse toy to put in it. And she will get an orange from Aunt Dot in there, too.

Hope with me Esme doesn't get a cold - I'd rather prevent one! I'm trying to keep her warm and eating good foods/drinking juice so she doesn't. Also need to be vigilant about her covers at night because she keeps throwing them off, then curling into a tiny ball in the middle of her bed when she gets cold again. I got some cranberry/pomegranate juice and am mixing it half and half with orange juice and she REALLY likes it. She sucked down three glasses of it yesterday mixed half again with some water. It was pretty amazing to watch. Trying to keep socks on her (not easy) and a sweatshirt over her dress when it is very cold. Also trying to keep her hair up in the front and down over her neck in the back. I know those are odd little 'goals' - but my instincts tell me that is how to keep her warm, and mommy instincts usually at least have something to them. Her hands stay warmer when she has socks and her hair down around her neck.

Also need to run the bath full tub before we go down there so she doesn't freeze waiting for it to fill up etc etc... She sneezed three or more times waiting for the the water to fill up last night and then I turned the heater on in the bathroom for us. The roman tub faucet was frozen so we were having to use the shower side of the tub to fill it up, which took forever. The heater made it tolerable.

Can I have some snow?

Please mumum, have another snow in hand?


It's cold! (and wet, and runny)
Bunny dog is doing her 'laugh'

Esme asked me for snow several times again today - she wants to have it melt in her hand. Silly, silly child! But, curious - and I let her do it again today. All the dogs think it is very silly, too.


Grandma's dogs came for a visit
Iggy, on left. Tansy, on right.


Our calendar
She's putting the kitty on the right square.

She picked the heart stickers out at the store and gets one to put on the calendar each morning. Then we move the 'morningtime kitty' to the next day. I tell Esme what day of the week it is and what we are doing today. She thinks days of the week are like counting.. I think... she names them off while looking at her fingers. Then if she asks about Christmas I tell her how many 'morningtimes' the kitty has to go before we get to 'Christmas morningtime.' I see deep thought, then... and not always happy about it but *sigh* okay - now what?

The only thing she's not quite sure about is how the kitty gets back to the start of the line.... she understands sequence really well, but not when things 'start over' or are in sets. I've seen that in her counting as well - she will count three rows of three as 1,2,3 AND 1,2,3 AND 1,2,3 instead of counting them as nine... until I introduce the idea of continuing 4,5,6 and she gets it then. But - she doesn't know WHY we would stop or start or continue yet. NOTE: All of what I just described is entirely normal for kids who are learning to count!... but I find it fascinating!

Finished Osaka dress

front

back

Butterick 2194, pattern size 2 circa 1960.
The pattern envelope calls it a 'semi-princess dress', which shows here. It already has a place among my 'most used' at 3 dresses! It is quite easy to work with but still enough of a challenge to keep me coming back. A very good combination.

Alterations : lowering neckline 1/2 inch, back zipper (instead of buttons), long sleeves from a modern pattern and separate color for skirt (includes splitting front center piece which was one whole section). I'm not sure why there ended up being a small place in the stomach area I needed to make up a band of fabric -- but it worked out quite well. Everything laid flat!

3/4 yard of the floral fabric, 3/4 yard of the chestnut fabric
scrap of something in the stash for neckline facing.


repeat of the 'in-progress picture'


dress front laid out with extra 'band' at stomach

She was wearing it and I noted again the things I'd like to change about the pattern -- drop the waist a few inches and make the neckline much lower, much more than a half inch! As it goes the dress does fit her and look nice - but it looks very formal with the high neckline and 'empire' high waist. The 'formal' look is much more prominent on this one because of the fabric choice. She stopped downstairs in front of the mirror when she brought me her drink cup - it was awesome.. she did a little half turn and looked at the entire dress and pulled the skirt out some... 'who are you there - oh you're me - what a pretty dress that is!' I didn't get a picture - as she has now fallen asleep in her bed after much fussing over reading books and wanting cheetos and no fish stick etc etc...