Tiny Purls

3 Months

On Monday, my little Ellie Jelly Bean turned 3 months old.  

The hardest, sleep-deprived part is behind us, well at least until we hit the pre-teen years when she decides I'm completely uncool and wants nothing to do with me or her highschool years when she starts dating boys and driving.

She has this crazy mohawk hair that I'm hoping isn't a permanent cowlick that she'll have to deal with her whole life.  Her coloring is definitely more pink than Alex (he's got my olive complexion all the way) and her eyes are still deep blue with eyebrows that are redish-blond!  

She's definitely more of Ben's child in the looks department.

So far, she's a pretty good sleeper.  Thankfully Ellie is only waking up once a night, typically between 3-4 a.m. but she's slept from 7 p.m. until 6 a.m. a few, shocking, times.

She loves Alex.  I can tell because she usually calms down when he's around. 

And he clearly cares about her and makes sure that I know she needs to come with us when we are getting ready to leave the house.  He doesn't seem to mind when she cries, but at the same time he knows that she's upset about something when she does.  

I think it blew his little 2 1/2-year-old mind when I first showed him Ellie sleeping on the baby monitor.

We've definitely settled in as a family of four, but it took a good 8 weeks for me to feel truly comfortable with two kids by myself. And the kids and I finally have a routine - a flexible one - but still a routine that we've fallen into during the week.  

However, Friday nights, when Ben first walks in the door, are definitely my favorite time of the week.  It makes me want to do a happy dance around the kitchen.

I'm looking forward to her next three months!

Monday Menu - March 12

First of all, happy three months to my little Ellie!

I ate plenty of cupcakes over the weekend to celebrate my sister's wedding shower, so it's back to the diet this week.

Monday: Breakfast Bread 
I'm always a fan of breakfast for dinner and this looks scrumptious.  This recipe uses a bunch of food that I have in my fridge that needs to be used up soon. 

Tuesday: Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans
This recipe didn't happen last week as planned, so into the crockpot it will go Tuesday morning before I leave to visit some family in Washington DC. 

Wednesday: Leftovers/"Clean Out the Fridge" night

Thursday: Spring-Vegetable Couscous with Chicken

Friday: I'm thinking dinner out (or at least take-out, let's not get crazy here).  Will most likely be sushi, if Ben has his way.

Saturday: Irish Lamb Stew
I'm not Irish, but I like Irish food.  Maybe I'll treat myself to a Guinness too?!  And some green milk for Alex!

Sunday: Shrimp Scallop Parchment Packets with Lemon, Chive & Potatoes 
New recipe. Mmmmm, Ben will love this.

Not on the diet, but I'm going to make Sugar Cookie Bars at some point.  They look heavenly and will do nicely with some light green frosting and St. Patty's day sprinkles. 

New recipe review: 
Potato-Leek Soup

This was a good, simple, filling soup, but a little, well, blah.  Let's just say that it tasted "healthy."

Monday Menu - March 5

Now that Ellie is 12 weeks old, I'm getting some of my mojo back in the kitchen.   So far I've managed to avoid taking both kids with me to the grocery store, but I totally have to plan out my meals each week to keep trips to the store at a minimum.

So the Monday Menu is back.  

Disclaimer: I'm in love with my two crock-pots AND I'm doing Weight Watchers, so I'm not promising anything that exciting.

Monday: Crockpot Beer BBQ Chicken
This has become my go-to recipe when I need to take a dinner to a family because it makes a ton and freezes well, so there is enough for us and them. I like to pair it with fresh coleslaw, whole wheat crusty rolls, fresh cut fruit and Rice Krispie Treats.  It's a yummy meal and makes the house smell good.

Tuesday: Potato-Leek Soup
This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that caught my eye in the latest issue of Country Living.  It uses chicken broth as a base instead of cream for a lighter, healthier version.

Wednesday: Leftovers/Salad/Sandwiches a.k.a "Fend for Yourself Night"

Thursday: Turkey Tacos

Friday: Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

Saturday: Leftovers
I'm hosting my sister's wedding shower luncheon on Saturday.  So we'll be eating whatever is leftover (I'm hoping for cupcakes.) 

Sunday: Salmon and Zucchini Baked in Parchment 
One of my all-time favorite Everyday Food recipes.  I like fish a lot but never cook it.  I'm going to try to use more fish or seafood recipes on the weekends.

New recipe review:
Ribolitta, Rustic Italian Vegetable & Bread Soup 

This past week I tried a new recipe from one of my favorite blogs.  It was warm and yummy, filling, easy and full of good veggies.  The only substitution I made was to use turkey bacon instead of pork.  

However, as much as I like cabbage, the smell takes forever to leave my system.  I woke up sweating in the middle of the night and I swear it smelled like cabbage.  

Yet, I'm eating a bowl of the leftovers as I type this post.

Springtime Petals

Poor Alex hasn't really had a chance to play in the snow this winter and spring seems to have come early to Baltimore.  I hope it lasts.  I'm ready for warm weather clothes, daffodils, and being outside.

Speaking of spring flowers and petals, I just finished my first knitting project of 2012.

Petal Bib by Leigh Radford
Pattern from One Skein 

Yarn:         Rowan Handknit Cotton
Colorways:    310 Shell, 334 Delphinium, 219 Gooseberry
Needles:      US 6           

I thought these cute little bibs, made from washable cotton, would be a good first knitting project to tackle after Ellie's arrival.  The pattern is simple, easy to memorize and the yarn was already in my stash. 

This year my knitting will be a bit different for a few reasons: 

a) I am only using yarn that is currently in my stash. No. Buying. New. Yarn.  It's actually my only New Year's resolution.  I can only buy yarn if it's for a specific project that I'm making per request, like the Christmas stocking set from 2010 that now needs an additional stocking!

b) I actually get to knit little girl items and KEEP THEM!  I have a long list of cute girl knits in my queue.  Hopefully they use yarn that I already have.

c) I'm not expecting to get that many projects finished.  I'm being realistic here.  Probably not knitting as much as I have in the past.

Gift for the Grands

A few years back I saw a blog post about creating a photo countdown to National Grandparents Day using this unique photo collage holder (similar to this item at Urban Outfitters.)  I went right ahead and bought two of the photo holders.   

I couldn't tell you what blog featured the idea or when exactly or what store I actually bought the photo holder from (if only Pinterest had been around then!)

This happened when Alex was about one month old.  I had only the best intentions to do something creative for Alex's Nana and Grammy. 

After languishing for two-plus years in my miscellaneous craft supplies bin, I finally used the photo holders this past December and created photo advent calendars for our loving grands.  

Starting December 1 and each day after until Christmas, they were to remove the decorative paper and "reveal" a new photo featuring Alex (and I threw one ultrasound photo of Ellie in there too.)  I selected photos from the whole year and tried to get a good mixture of silly photos and more serious ones from our family photoshoot.

So at the end of the month, each Grandmother had 25 new photos to keep and display and I instructed them to return the photo holder to me so that I could create their advent calendar again in 2012.

I used two different Martha Stewart designer paper pads for the paper, that way each photo advent calendar was slightly different for each grandmother, but they still each got the same photos.  After cutting the paper down to 4x6" rectangles, I ran them through my printer using my new favorite font.  

It was a bit challenging finding the right photos that were also oriented correctly to fit - typically, most of my photos are in a landscape orientation.  

And let's just say, with my typical OCD tendencies, I spent way too much time determining which paper design would go where. 

I think each grand enjoyed revealing a new photo each day - that is unless they cheated and revealed them all at one time.

Our Home

On Valentine's Day five years ago, we closed on our cozy, center hall colonial located on a great street in a great neighborhood with great neighbors.  We had just been married four months earlier and were ready to move out of downtown Baltimore.   

And sadly, today I'm prepping the house for our realtor to do a walk-through tomorrow so that we can put the house on the market later this spring.

We always envisioned this house as a five to seven year house for us.  So I'm not surprised that we have a move in our near future.  But what I didn't know five years ago was that we'd be bringing our two babies home to this house (three babies if you count our puppy Camden).  And so I'm extra nostalgic right now.

Although there are definitely things about this house that I would love to change, there are many more things that I love and will always remember: the front porch with the porch swing that kids love; how sunny the back side of the house is on winter mornings; the bay windows, french doors and dutch door off of the family room; and the fireplace in the living room.  Plus we know this house so well now, all the creaky floor spots and how to get the doors to open and shut without making too much noise.

A lot of time and money has gone into making this our home.  And being built in 1938, it's an old, solid house.  But with all old houses it came with many repair, maintenance and improvement projects.  

After five years, it finally feels like ours.  And now, ironically, we're getting ready to pass it on.  Hopefully the next inhabitants will be another young couple looking to start their family.

As to where we're going, that's another conversation.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

One Year Later

It's been one year since my last post.  Well, it's been exactly 368 days, but really, who's counting.  And a lot has happened in those 368 days.  Here is a photo journal of highlights from the past 12 months.

March: A fun and quick trip to Las Vegas with a side trip to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.

April: Big and somewhat unexpected news - Baby #2!  Bring on 8 months of morning sickness.

 

May:  The beginning of another triathlon season.  I got used to spending weekends alone while Ben swims and bikes and runs.  But we have fun cheering him on.

June:  Ben and I took a great trip to Northern California.  He finished the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and then we toured "the city by the bay" and wine country (alas, no wine tasting for me.)

July: Not my favorite month in 2011.  It was hot.  I was pregnant.  My closest friend moved off our street.  Boo.  However, my baby boy turned 2!

August:  Annual trip to Maine (one of the best places on earth.)  Enough said.

September:  Alex started preschool!  I'm still in denial that a) he's old enough to attend preschool and b) I'm old enough to have a child old enough to attend preschool.

October: A busy month.  Alex moved to his big boy room, the nursery redo was finished, the attic was cleaned out, the basement was somewhat cleaned out, Ben and I spent a relaxing 5-year anniversary weekend at Nemacolin and we had family photos at the end of the month on a chilly, but sunny day.

November:  Another busy month.  This month was spent preparing for the following month. 

 

December:  Our sweet, sweet baby girl is born.  We welcome Elinor "Ellie" Grace to our family and the world on December 12 at 10:39 a.m.  

January:  We all started to adjust to our new family and new routine.  Alex immediately falls in love with his baby sister.  I walked around in the haze of sleep deprivation and became a devout coffee drinker.

February:  And now we're all caught up!  Here's to a new beginning for my blog. 

 

 

Grape Jelly

One morning in January I woke up and wanted to knit some lace.  

It happens sometimes.

So I dug into my endless stash of yarn and came up with something that I purchased at a LYS in Belfast, ME over the Christmas holiday.  This is the final product.

It's mighty purple and super soft.  

I don't really wear purple nor do I wear shawls. Hmmmmm, maybe at some point someone will find it wrapped up with a bow.

Pattern: Damask by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn:  Malabrigo Yarn Sock (100% merino wool)
Colorway:  204 Velvet Grapes
Needles:  US #6 and #10
Size: medium (23" deep x 49" wide)

 Thank goodness the pattern had stitch counts at the end of each row because I lost my way a few times due to multitasking while knitting (i.e. conversations with the hubby, tv viewing, eating, etc.)

 

Final Knitting of 2010

I finished this sweet, little, tweedy sweater for Little A just before the end of 2010.  

I love it.  It's different and it's tweed and it's interesting and it's super soft and it was fun to knit.  

Of course it doesn't actually fit Alex yet.  It should fit him next fall or maybe later this spring if he keeps growing like a weed.

Pattern: Langstroth by Elizabeth Green Musselman
Yarn: Knit Picks City Tweed HW
Colorway: Marsh
Needles: US #5 & #7
Size: 26" Chest
Modifications: None 

The designer included this interesting note:

I am a historian of science, so I name some of my designs for scientific figures from the past. In 1853, Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth published The Hive and the Honey Bee, which for the first time described many of the beekeeping techniques that are still used today. Langstroth invented the concept of “bee space,” which means leaving about 1 cm (the size of a bee) between each frame in a hive box. This encourages bees to build honeycombs only on the removable frames, instead of on the hive box itself. This made it possible for beekeepers to handle the frames and extract honey as they had never been able to do before. 

 

Not so Santastic...

Last year, Little A thought that Santa was kinda fun.  A bit odd, but not so bad.  He was more interested in chewing on his hand.

This year, he was NOT a fan.

We'll see what happens in 2011!