Baby W has discovered his hands. They spend most of their time in his mouth, but he takes occasional breaks from chewing on them to grab things. Previously ignored rattles are now incredibly interesting. A particular favorite is the fish rattle made by Verbafacio:
In action:
A baby mystery: why is yawning not contagious for babies? When Baby W yawns, it makes me yawn. When I yawn, Baby W just stares. No yawning. I wonder when yawning becomes contagious?
So, a few weeks ago, I came across this series of albums called Rockabye Baby. Someone out there got the bright idea to turn perfectly good rock music into lullabies. As in, music from AC/DC, Metallica, Queen, and the like. Listen to samples here or at Amazon.
This is clearly just another (yet ingenious and rather funny) addition to the baby-industrial complex designed only to pull more money out of parents’ wallets. And it’s aimed pretty squarely at people like us who (a) are roughly our age, (b) like this music, and (c) have the disposable income to baby random baby stuff like this. (We did, after all, actually have a serious conversation about what the first song we’d play for Baby W would be. But that’s another story.) At least they’re not claiming any sort of developmental benefits from the music. This can only, however, be yet another sign of the impending downfall of western civilization. I mean, really, how could making a muzak lullaby version of Led Zeppelin songs not be?
Naturally, we bought two.
Miraculously, I managed to finish a whole sock. And then tried it on (or, rather, tried to; more on that below) and promptly ripped it apart. Looking for something fast and fun, I’ve decided to embark on another dodecahedron. Progress so far: a whole whopping 2 rows.
As for the socks…I managed to do something that has never, ever been a problem with top-down socks–I made the cast on so tight that I couldn’t even get them on. Now, you might be thinking that a top-down sock is, by definition, able to be tried on at any point since you’re starting with the cuff. Yes, but that requires that you actually do try them on, which I neglected to attempt. And I was so enamored with the novel (to me, at least) cast on that took me forever to get right. So much for that.
In other news, baby W is now three months old! Here he is in mid-roll. Yes, I am the kind of dork who puts her three-month old in baby jeans. And look, now there’s a record online to prove it once he gets old enough to care!
Sheep make wool, which becomes yarn…thus, sheep are knitting-related. Even if they’re on a towel. As these sheep are, on a kitchen towel we bought somewhere in Scotland and which now hang above Baby W’s changing table. He loves the sheep. He twists around to look at them. He smiles at them. He talks to them. They can entertain him endlessly. So I, too, love them.
Something else that makes me happy: Baby W has started sleeping through the night on a regular basis.
Let’s hope this lasts. If so, there may even be significant knitting in my future!
Hello everyone, I’m a yarn snob. I fully admit it. Thus, Lion Brand is not one of my favorite yarn producers. Sure, they have some new natural fiber yarns, but they aren’t easy to find. They occasionally have cute patterns on their website, but I’m not sure I’ve ever really been moved to make one of them.
Somehow, I ended up on their mailing list, and I was surprised–very surprised–to find myself wanting to run out and buy some of their craft store-staple (read: non-yarn snob inducing) yarn to make several of the patterns in their recent catalog. Alas, I’d have to learn to crochet for them, but that seems a small price to pay for such adorableness!
They have a whole herd of cute, cute amigurumi animals: the Super Fun Critters. Take the giraffe, for instance:
There are some really cute bibs, too, such as this robot one:
But this is my favorite: the Pond Friends Stacking Toy. Is this not the cutest thing ever? I must have it!
It may not look like much, but this half inch of knitting is a major accomplishment. It’s the first knitting I’ve done since June! Sadly, even after the pregnancy-induced hand pain went away, it’s taken me two months to do the following:
Eventually, this tiny bit of knitting will grow up to be the Embossed Leaves Socks from IK Winter 2005.
In the meantime, I leave you with yet another picture of wonder baby. If you hadn’t guessed yet, these will be making a regular appearance…
Okay, it’s just taken me two weeks to finish this post. Sadly, there still hasn’t been any knitting to report, though I did manage to successfully roll a huge skein into a ball. One day, they may become socks. Or maybe Zozo from the new knitty. Every baby needs a knitted alien doll.
There has been knitting put to use around here, though. We had an outing to Opera in the Outfield last night, and the cool weather meant Baby W got to try out his adorable hat from DeniseE [ravelry link]. He seems to like it, don’t you think?
He’s not yet old enough to actually play with any of them yet, but Baby W also has knitted toys waiting for him. The little elephant is keeping watch over his crib (which Baby W only recently began sleeping in).
A bigger elephant is keeping company an adorable fish made by verbafacio [ravelry link].
He’s not yet convinced that knitted rattles are for him either, but we’re working on that. He may be dubious about knitting, but we like him anyway.
Baby W’s (lack of a) sleep schedule means there’s still no knitting going on in chez twiceknit. So you get more pictures of the munchkin instead.
Don’t let the angelic look fool you…
he’s certainly keeping us on our toes.
Our newest addition decided to join us last Friday. It’s a boy! We think he’s adorable, and we’re not at all biased.
Baby W
born July 24 at 6:56 AM
7 pounds, 15 oz
20.75 inches
Want more pictures? Of course you do!
heading home from the hospital:
baby lojack at the hospital (it fell off at one point and sent everyone running):
my lungs work:
We are now the owners of a new range and thus have a working oven. So while I still can’t knit, I can bake again. Yay! At the same time, I was lucky enough to get a bunch of vegetables from a coworker’s garden, including the biggest zucchini I’ve ever seen.
Casting about for something besides zucchini bread to make, I discovered that there are all kinds of other sweet zucchini recipes: zucchini cookies, zucchini brownies, zucchini muffins. And…
chocolate zucchini cake. Guess which one I chose to make?
Though it looks rather weird during the mixing process,
It turns out to be very yummy, weird secret ingredient notwithstanding. And I’m going with the assumption that adding a vegetable to chocolate cake makes it slightly better for you. A win all around.
Among the avalanche of information we got in our childbirth class, something discussed things to do while in early labor. A suggestion: bake. Specifically, make a birth day cake for the baby. I think this is a fine idea. So after the contractions begin and while still hanging out at home, I am making a cake for alien baby’s arrival. I’m thinking I might make this one, which, while plain, is very good and has an interesting frosting. Don’t worry, though, we won’t be taking it to the hospital with us. Too much other stuff to carry. Maybe we’ll have someone bring it the next day. The nurses will think we’re nuts.
