Obsession du Jour

Drive by

Knitting news:  Um.  None, really.  The handspun scarf grows slowly, and that's aboout all I have to report.

Oh wait, I'm heading to Northampton Sunday.  Wheeee!  I am powerless to resist the chance to see so many of you in one place, especially since I don't really get out as much as I used to much.   The jury is still out on whether or not WB will come along.  His dad is more than happy to hang at home with him for the day, but I always hate missing any of our weekend time together.  He's still not the biggest fan of the car either, so there's that.  Maybe if we give him this for the trip:

Who else is going?

Splish Splash

Wheeeeeee!

Mmmmm. Pears.

Mad skeelz.

ETA: I recognize that this is not the most exciting video ever, and that the lighting sucks since this was last night after dark, but hey -- look!  I have mastered the (couldn't actually be any easier since they give you the code when you upload) video embedding!  Shut up.

Also? LOOK! He feeds himself!  It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows us that this kid loves.to.eat.

So...um....hi.

First, in order to silence the inevitable:

Note handknit sweater.  Also note drooly-mouth indicative of teething babies and his favorite chew-toy on the floor at his feet.  He's covering them as he hams it up for this pic, but there are two lower teeth and one upper, and we are now working on tooth #4.  He hit the 9-month mark this past weekend, and he's become a champion crawler, a speed-cruiser, and I swear, he'll be walking any day now - a fact which is both adorable and more than a little scary.  He's also getting into everything, loves taking stuff apart (did I mention his Dad's an engineer?) and is just generally being a blast.  There's still not a lot of sleep going on here (see above "Teething"), but as long as his Mr ODJ and I are smart about going to bed on time (um.  9pm. B goes to bed at 8pm. I'm trying not to dwell on how there's not a spare moment of time in my day most days b/c I have to go to bed so f*^king early.), our ongoing set up of splitting the night for wakeups works pretty well to keep us at least functional.  Most days.  And then there are the mornings, like this morning, when we all wake up feeling like this:

Yup.  He fell asleep in his jumper while Mr. ODJ showered.  I'm told that he stayed like this for about half an hour and then woke up and just went on back to jumping like nothing happened.  So damned cute. Little dude luuurves his jumper.  He would jump in it forever if we let him, but we save it as a special morning treat so that we can get ready with certain measure of peace.   Please, for the love of cashmere, do not write to me about the exposed power cords, nail heads and splinters you can see in this photo.  I know.  It's a disaster-in-waiting in the unrenovated portion of the house, hence the jumper instead of the free-wheeling crawl and cruise-fest that B would probably love to have for those 20 mins a day that we like to brush our teeth and make ourselves presentable for our coworkers.  We're working on it.  More specifically, the contractors are working on it.  Well, they WILL BE working on it starting Monday. Wheeeeeeee.

More later.  Really, really must work now, before anyone catches me at this.

You guys scare me.

Y'all mostly don't know this, but I haven't had to set an alarm to get up in the morning (we will ignore the period in which I was setting the alarm for crazy-assed hours to pump to increase my supply) since WB was born, not even when I went back to work.  Why is that, you ask - since there's obviously a story here because otherwise, why the hell am I blogging it?  The reason I have not needed an alrm clock is that WB has apparently had one hardwired into his brain.  One that goes off at 5:40 am SHARP Every.Single.Morning.  Not 5:42 or 5:37, or 5:53.....no.  5:40 am.  Every morning.   Well.  OK. It was 4:40 am for a bit after the time change, but he recovered and reset his alarm clock after about a week.  Mind you, it does not matter how many times he has awakened in the night, or how long he has been asleep since his last waking.  5:40 am.  Every.Morning.

Leaving aside the inevitable disappointment he's going to face when he realizes that his parents are, um...time-challenged, it has become quite the family joke to have a living alarm clock in our house.  On the one hand, it's a pain in my ass, for reasons that I feel no need to explain, except to say that the last time I voluntarily saw 5:40am, I was on my way TO bed.  Ahem.  On the other hand, it works out fairly well during the week because this is pretty much just about when I have to get up to start the nurse/shower/get ready/baby handoff routine that Mr ODJ and I have worked out. 

This morning, he did not wake up at 5:40 am.

I had to wake him - which I will admit that I did with no small measure of panic - when I realized that it was 7:00 am and I was going to be late for work.  We will also not discuss how I, of course, was convinced he was dead for the 30 seconds it took me to confirm that he was breathing.  But he was not.  He was, however RAVENOUS.  The surprise he obviously felt at being so.very.hungry would have been extra cute if not for the red haze of receeding panic.  Once that wore off though, I realized that I feel like a million bucks from all the sleep.  So, y'all?  Seriously?  Thanks.  Last night I asked you to send sleepy thoughts and you did.  And it worked.

Note to self: Be careful what you wish for 'out loud' on the blog.

I don't think I can actually add anything of value to this:

Except maybe this:

Let's make a deal, shall we?

You guys don't give me TOO much shit about up and disapearing like that, and I won't bore you ad nauseum with the minutia of our breastfeeding issues and the crazy schedule they induced. Deal?  Deal. 

It's kooky how things go, though. I never expected the term 'maternity leave' to extend to this here blog, or to the world of friends I've made here, but when the crazy-making ensued, this blog and the related social circle were the first thing that suffered.  In a sense it was good, b/c I needed the mental energy and whatnot, but it really taught me a lot about community and how much we need it as human beings.  What I'm saying is that I've missed y'all.  Heaps.  Bunches, even.   I didn't even know Cara was pregnant for pity's sake, and we're practically neighbors.  THAT'S how out of touch I am.   

In honor of National Ms ODJ Is A New Mom Drop Out day, everyone should pop into the comments and share any big news you feel like spouting.  You get to toot your own horn all over again, and it will ALL be new to me, so you can count on some renewed excitement (from me) just by saying hi.

What?  Yes, I did go to Rhinebeck, but only made it into about 4 barns the whole weekend and only bought 3 things. I know, it's like the twilight zone. Turns out that having a babe with me was a bit on the distracting side.  That and I can never seem to get away from Dave.  I swear, I think there's a time warp in that man's booth.

Now I'll move on to pictures of the babe (you can't fool me, I know what you're REALLY after), and then later we can finish catching up on the promised pictures of the pre-birth-nesting-baby-craft-extravaganza.  I'll probably stretch that out a bit because, honestly?  There's been no time for that sort shenanigans recently, and mama has a blog to feed.

So.  Baby pictures. LOTS of them.  If you're here for knitting, I'm really, really sorry, it'll be back soon. Promise.

Meanwhile - baby.:

Proud Papa:

One and a half men:

Wee and tired, this sleeping thing is HARD work:

Time to go home:

Milk drunk:

Daddy rocks:

Awwwwwwww:

Seriously - could he please still sleep like this?  Please?

Baby's got back:

Duuuuuude:

First night out drinking with the girls:

Football day at Chez Obsession:

Auntie Juno:

Arrrrrr-gyle:

Stylin':

Tummy time is fun:

Leisure suits are fun:

Toys are fun:

WHEW!  S'that enough baby for you for now?  Hmmmmm?

Free to be...you AND me.

Not so long ago (5 days to be exact) WB and I were one and the same, peacefully (mostly) inhabiting the same body.  He had no choice but to share my life, my plans, my days & nights, my music, and my food.  (OK, so actually that last one hasn't actually changed so much.)  Together, we looked like this. 

Now, he is his very own person.  A whole wee person with a life and destiny, while certainly intertwined with ours, now all his own.  Today he rules our little roost, someday he may even rule the world - but not today.........

.......today, we're napping.

Please note that, in yet another example of knitterly power, see those bee shoes up there?  The ones that I posted about last time?  One of the very first things I began knitting for him way, way back in February?  Apparently he was just waiting for them to be done, because within 24 hours of me getting them finished, he started trying to get out here and join us. 

Welcome to the world, young Beckett.  We're very, very excited to meet you.

Still here......

...and STILL pregnant.

I'd like to be able to say that I've taken the passing of my due date completely in stride, secure in the knowledge that a due date is just an estimate, that no one ever goes on their due date (OK 5%, whatEVER), and that it really, really, really doesn't matter.  Honestly, I didn't think it mattered at all to me.  He can come when he's ready.  However, I must admit that it didn't happen that way.  When our last pre-natal visit (last Wednesday) came and went with no signs of labor (mind you, three weeks ago I was having almost nightly sessions of pre-labor/practice labor, whatever you wish to call them, that were consistent enough that we were all pretty sure I wouldn't even MAKE it to my due date) and then Sunday, the big day, came and went with no baby.....well...OK, I'll admit it.  I was grumpy.  And then it got hotter than the sun, and that makes me even grumpier.

I think I'm over that now (the baby grumpy, not the heat grumpy), and back to a pretty good place, but I must admit that I'm not very happy about the knowledge that the clock is now 'ticking'.  That in just a matter of days, people will start bugging us about induction and so forth.  I'm not a big fan of deadlines when we're talking about natural processes, and it brings out my latent rebellious streak to have people telling me that there's some sort of arbitrary deadline for when this kid needs to show his face.  Don't get me wrong, I'm R.E.A.D.Y. for the bowling ball to get the hell out of my pelvis, and the last thing I want is to push out a baby that reached 11 lbs because  he baked too long, but still.  Back off on the stopwatch, people.  His dad and I?  we're used to being fashionably late.  It's sort of a cosmic creed with us.  So OF COURSE our kid is late.  That said, I think 3 days late is late enough and he should come on out now, so if anyone wants to give us a little knitterly mojo-ish shove, I'd be OK with that too.

Meanwhile, since I've been so absent from the blog-world over the last month or so because of all the gearing up and the wrapping up of the work stuff before maternity leave and so forth, why don't we take a little review of a few more of the nutty nesting adventures around here? 

First up - 39 1/2 weeks along:

This is Josie's favoritest place in the whole wide world, second only to stretching out across my head in the middle of the night.

Next up, we are finally approaching something close to 'Done' in the downstairs renovations, and it's nice to have clean living spaces and floors that can be mopped and...I kid you not, walking barefoot in my house has never felt so luxurious.

This set of transformations deserves a post all it's own, and soon, but for now we'll just go with a quickie shot.  Rick would also like you to please note the schmancy new TV.  More evidence of our boundless romanticism here at Chez Obsession....for our anniversary back in May, I got the dishwasher and he got the HDTV.  Ain't this the epitome of the American Dream?  ;)

And now the knitting:

Most of the stuff I've been knitting and/or sewing has to do with the cloth diapering that we'll be doing.  Mind you, NONE of this is actually necessary to cloth diaper, so if anyone out there reading this is considering cloth diapers, don't let this nonsense scare you off.  It's all just another excuse to knit/craft/sew stuff for the baby that isn't a sweater.

Wool soaker - Curly Purly pattern
Newborn size
Cascade 220 Quatro - aprox 1/2 skein

Wool soaker - Little Turtle Knits Ribby Wrap pattern
Newborn size
Arucania Nature Wool - aprox. 1/2 skein
Snaps (ahem, new snap press) instead of the pattern's called-for buttons.

Yet another wool soaker.  This one uses basically the same pattern as the cloth diapers that I've been sewing, cut out of a felted failed sweater project in some lovely mystery coned wool from the Webs warehouse sale a couple of years back, and edged in a very soft foldover elastic to keep the thing snug to the body.   This wool felted out SHOCKINGLY soft, considering that, while a lovely wool, it really was only usable for outwear in it's original state.  Um, and yes....more snaps.

KPS Hoodie - Baby Tunic #211, sized (I hope) for next fall/winter.
Cascade 220 Quatro

And finally.....though I finished knitting them AGES ago, I was resentful of the amount of finish work involved in these wee things, so I kept putting it off.  Now, finally, I have the mostest adorablest baby slippers ever.

Bee Shoes
50 Baby Bootees to Knit
Dale Baby Ull

There's lots more to show, but I think this has gone on long enough, how about we do the sewing and spinning tomorrow?

Newborn Essentials

Things learned in last night's 'newborn essentials' class:

1 - Papa Bear learned how to change a diaper.  Hooray!
2 - Apparently, that hair dryer I haven't touched in almost a decade (but for some reason have been unable to convince myself to dispose of) might actually be able to pull it's weight now in that it can be used, apparently, to calm a fussy baby.
3 - There ARE actually women out there who are MORE pregnant than me. I had begun to doubt that fact, but it's true.  Also?  That there really IS a huge difference between a 28-week belly and a 36-week belly.  Huge. Difference.
4 - Disappointingly, depite thousands of years of civilization and our ability to put men on the moon and rovers on mars, there is still only one reliable way to get a newborn baby's temperature.  And yes, it still involves vaseline, if you get my drift.  Sure, later there are other options, but not for the newborn.

For those that might someday like this to go back to being a knitting blog:

Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting in Cotton Ease (old skool) 'Popsicle' ** (see?  I do still knit.) and Buggy pants sewn by moi.  Baby pants, it turns out, are addictively easy, so expect to see more of this sort of sewing project on here. I have a fabric stash that - while nowhere near as aggressive as the fiber/yarn stash - has the potential to scare the uninitiated. Next we learn how to install snaps on these puppies for easy diapering access.

Oh, and just for the record:

This is 14 wks vs. 20 weeks vs. 32 weeks, that last being four weeks ago.  Maybe I can enlist some help this weekend to get some 36 week belly shots in slightly more interesting settings.  Like....say.....MA S&W out in Cummington?  Belly + sheep = giggles.

Who's going?  C'mon, fess up. Inquiring minds want to know.

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**OK, and can we just take a moment or two to contemplate all the reasons that this outfit in this yarn is impractical and inadvisable for most human beings?  Seriously.  Think about it.