So close...

I am almost done with Rhys' sweater.  Like always, I am antsy to move on to something else.  I usually find my next project well before I am finished with the current.  It helps keep me motivated.  I won't let myself start the new one until the old is finished, so it gives me that final push to keep going.  I have to finish one sleeve and put everything together and sew on the buttons.  Today Rhys asked if he could wear it, so that is another motivating factor.

Last Friday, my new knitting group met for the first time.  I think we had a pretty good turn out.  Some people were working on the squares for charity, some on their own projects and a couple were just learning.  I finished my first square.  They go pretty fast and are very portable, so they are good little busy work projects or mindless knitting when I want to work on something but don't have the focus to follow a pattern.  A couple other plan to come in the next few meetings to contribute.  I wonder how many squares we will really will get done. 

I ordered yarn for my next project, a large felted handbag.  A friend has asked me to make one for her.  She says she will pay me but I don't think I want to take any money for it.  Who knows if I will mess it up or not.  I have made a smaller version of this pattern before so I am pretty confident that it will turn out well. I am finally getting to Noro yarn.  It is a handpainted wool from Japan.  It just looks really cool and I have been wanting to use it for a while.

I haven't been keeping up with posting what I have been reading.  I have been on a reading spree lately. 

I have recently finished:
Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers.  This was a second book of a two part series.  I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson.  Loved it.  It is actually the first of three books that were unpublished at the time of the author's death.  It was pretty dark, but I am definitely going to be moving on to book #2 shortly.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks.  It was ok.  I have really loved some of Nicholas Sparks books, but this wasn't one of them.  It was just so so. 

Currently reading: The Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella.  Nothing like a funny British-pop fiction to make me happy. 

squares

So I have been intrigued by the idea of a sampler afghan.  I wanted to work with my friends who do knitting or crocheting and come up with awesome random blankets.  The problem with that is there aren't that many friends who do those things or that want to.  Plus then the debate comes up, what to do with the blankets?  My friend Andrea and I have been trying to get a group of people together on a somewhat regular basis to work on projects.  It has been pretty hard to arrange.  So we have a new plan.  We now have a host house, a few committed people and a set start date.  We also have a project.  We are going to knit squares for charity.  Check out www.knit-a-square.com and you will see what we are up to.  We can knit or crochet squares, hats, sweaters, and mail them off, and someone puts them together into blankets for orphans and needy kids in Africa. 

A while ago I got a bunch of wool.  It was super cheap so I bought it figuring I would figure out something to do with it later.  This is it.  The squares are better when made out of wool because they won't burn the little children up!  No seriously, wool is flame resistant versus the acrylic that will melt and catch on fire if it is too close to the open flame.  Anyway.  It is my preschool knit time, so I better get going on the square.

Rhys' sweater is still in progress.  Almost totally done with the body and I will just have to do the sleeves.  Hopefully in the next week or two I will have that done.  Ava can't wear her sweater I made her to school because she needs to have her name in it!  I need little made by Emily tags to sew into my stuff.  I am clearly at that professional of a level.  I think I will then be making some mittens.  I am completely in love with the sweater yarn from Spud and Chloe and they have some good colors for mittens.

poor bubba

Poor Rhys. He never gets any blog posts. His 18 months milestone post came and went and I never posted anything! Now I can't even remember his specific measurement to catch up. He doesn't have any activities for me to post pictures of or anything like that. He is just the little cool dude who hangs out with me.

Let's talk about Rhys for a bit. He is a funny, funny little guy. He has adopted Ava's knock knock joke. Rhys: Knock, knock. You: Who's there? Rhys: Poopie. You: Poopie who? Rhys: (blank stare). Then he will laugh.

He does this thing where he will frown at you to get you to frown and then he pulls his face into this crazy grin, similar to what you would picture if you were trying to smile while on a roller coaster. As soon as you do that face, he will frown again. This will continue on and on.

Rhys and Ava play pretty well together most of the time. He has started to think it is funny to take what she is playing with and run away with it. I hear "Mine!!!!!!!!!!" followed by shreiking about 20 times a day. I don't know who is doing it because they pretty much sound exactly alike when crying or screaming.

He loves to sing and dance. Ever since he was a baby, I would generally chant while rocking him. "Rhys-y, piecey" I don't know why. It wasn't very creative. Ava had a whole song. I guess I could only rock and get slightly above a hum. I was able to keep going even if I was falling asleep. He still likes it when I do it, and now will sing with me.

(he has a thing for hats)

He and Ava are definitely a lot alike. Both are generally very gentle and affectionate and like to cuddle. Rhys is a lot more forthcoming with new people than Ava ever was or still is. He rarely is shy. I don't know if he really knows what that word means. He talks a lot. I can pretty much discuss most things with him and at least find out what he wants or things about it. I think a few of his meltdowns are related to him being frustrated that we don't know what he is saying, but we get most things. His favorite phrases are "I like it." "I no like it." "Open it." "Close it." "Cute" "Don't touch Pepe." "Get down!"

This is what happens when you use a candle snuffer as a microphone.  It is hard to be a performer.

I love where he is at right now. I can't believe he is racing closer to 2 and farther away from baby. I love that he still wants to cuddle first thing in the morning, says "I waf you!" at least 30 times away. He still calls Ava "Aya" or "Awa" and is light enough to carry around. Ava has suddenly gotten long and all leggy and is definitely not a baby anymore. Just thinking that soon the Awa will become Ava makes me want to go home and video tape his crazy dance. "Watch this!!!"

picture heavy

I got this fancy new phone...not really fancy exactly but it is new. I have regular internet access on it, so I can look at a normal webpage. Which means I rarely got onto a normal computer anymore, which means...all my posts sit festering in my head instead of getting typed out.

We have started a new phase! Preschool. So far Ava loves it. She says sometimes people don't share the play kitchen even though she does. I am not quite sure she has the entire concept of sharing down. She says she has made friends but so far doesn't remember any of their names. I think she got tired of me counting down the days with her until the day she started so when it came time to leave for school and I wanted to take a picture, she wasn't having it.

On day number 2 of school, she started making excited little giggle noises when we pulled into the parking lot. I think that means she liked it.

Ava also started dance class.

She has been asking for a while to take dance, even though I had her in swimming lessons. I knew it was the beginning of the classes and even though I only wanted her in one activity at a time (she is currently still playing soccer once a week) I would have to start in dance classes now if she wanted to take them at all this year. I decided not to fight about swimming lesson for the time being, maybe we will take them in the summer when the pool is more enticing. She will learn to swim eventually. So we started ballet and tap. It is a combined class. They do about 10 minutes of stretching and warming up, 25 minutes of ballet, and then 10 minutes of tap. The teacher opens the blinds for the last few minutes of class so we can see what they are doing. Ava is in the very beginner class with two other little girls. She is the the oldest one by about 6 months. So far all I have seen them do is practice walking across the room on the front taps and then jumping with both feet. Ava can manage both of those.