Yarn Pirate Shop →

So my blog was all messed up for a while there. I kept forgetting to ask my hubby to fix it. And when I say I forgot, I mean I passed out in bed after getting the kids to sleep. Anyway, I told him about it last week and he fixed it in two seconds. Then I wrote a post, hit publish and my entire post was eaten. SIGH.

Now I’m all behind on posting. Again.

We went to our city’s 4th of July parade. We’ve lived here for 7 years and I only found out about the parade last summer. We missed it last year and I was determined to make it this year. It was so much fun.

Look at this guy! Awesome.

I finished the bloomers! And I’ve finished another pair since then. Now I’m taking a break from bloomers. 4 pairs in 3 months is enough, don’t you think? There are dresses to be knit.

Warm weather is finally here. Well, sporadically anyway. We’ve been to the beach a few times.

We have a 3 1/2 month old already! A has been working hard at rolling over. She loves to get her brother’s attention by squealing at him. They get along so well. I’m a lucky mama.

I’m working on writing up A’s birth story. Ug. These things take so much longer when you have two kids.

I have found one thing that’s a lot harder with two kids. Blogging. I swear I try. I haven’t managed to get the kids to nap at the same time yet though, so I don’t have a lot of “me” time right now. What little time I do have is spent knitting. There are so many frilly little things I need to knit!

Let’s start with the practical stuff first. A needed some girly woolies. I had some girly yarn left over from my last etsy update that I was hoarding just in case I had a girl.

Behold: Butt Ruffles! (Next time I’m knitting 3 rows of ruffles. Can a girl have too many ruffles? I don’t think so.)

I’m not quite done with these yet but they’re my favorite out of the group. Want the details?

Bloomers

Pattern: Picky Pants
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Aran BFL in (top to bottom) Alice, Cupcake, and Culture Club
Needles: size 7
Mods: What I’ve done here is knit the meduim size (they’re still pretty loose through the waist), making the legs only 4 inches long. Then I add a ruffle using this recipe. Then I pick up stitches across the back for more ruffles. For the medium size I picked up 38 stitches across the back, picking them up in between the first set of short rows. I spaced the ruffles about 2 inches apart.
Ravelry Link.

A also needs a lot of cropped cardigans. Have I ever mentioned the STACK of dresses her grandmothers have bought for her? It’s at least 2 feet high. They’re all short sleeved and we’re having a cool, rainy summer so far. Want to hearthe forecast for 4th of July weekend? Partially cloudy, chance of showers and temps in the LOW SIXTIES. Bleh. Hence the need for cropped cardigans.

Cropped Cardigan

Pattern: Super Natural Stripes
Yarn: Cotton Ease. My first time using it and I loved it!
Needles: US 7, I think.
Mods: I used this pattern for the basic construction but added the following mods:
- knit the body until it measured 4 inches from arm holes (i wanted it to be cropped).
- instead of garter stitch cuffs & hem I went with ruffles. I used this recipe for the ruffles
- instead of finishing it off with a garter stitch band I did a picot bind off. I picked up the stitches, knit 1 row in stockinette stitch, then did the bind off. so cute and so easy!

I think the next one I make will have eyelet rows before the ruffles, and I might do yarn overs for the raglan increases. Or maybe that would be too frilly. I’m still experimenting with the limits of frills.

Ravelry Link.

Here’s a quick A update. She’s 12 weeks old already! She weighed 13.2 pounds at her 2 month check up and was 26 inches long. The pediatrician told me she was exceptionally beautiful and he knows what he’s talking about cause he’s a doctor. She’s a lot like H was at this age with two distinct differences. She’s a thumb sucker and when she gets mad she SCREAMS. Man, is she loud. Luckily I’m a baby expert now and she doesn’t have much to be mad about.

She is really talkative and makes all of the stereotypical goos and gurgles. H was always very vocal but I don’t remember him being this social. She loves to chat with people. And she has a crazy smile she likes to do where she sticks out her tongue:

We’re all pretty crazy about her.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to assemble my feelings about tandem nursing into some kind of coherent post. Most days I felt like writing a huge list of all of the reasons why I hate it. But then I read this beautiful essay about tandem nursing and realized that I needed to adjust my attitude, big time.

I’ve always had an easy time nursing. H was a little reluctant to latch on for the first day or two, and I was confused and had zero confidence when it came to breastfeeding, but once we got over that things went smoothly. No latch issues, no pain, nothing but happy nursing. The happy nursing continued throughout my pregnancy and even during labor. And then my baby was here and the hormones took over.

Once I had my sweet, new baby in my arms nursing my toddler felt at best annoying and at worst disgusting. And I felt guilty and miserable.

It’s pretty common for this to happen. It’s the new baby hormones coursing through my veins. My body is trying to protect the new baby and make sure she gets enough to eat. My nursing toddler doesn’t understand this though, and even if he did I doubt he’d care. His little world has been turned upside down and nursing is the only thing that truly reassures him. He nurses more than ever. He nurses like a newborn again.

After a few weeks of us constantly fighting and crying about it I decided, just like the mom in the essay, to allow myself to give in fully to H’s new, intense need to nurse. I mean, it’s not like I’d deny him anything else he so desperately needed. Once I did that things got a little better. It still drives me nuts most of the time, but I know we’ll get through it ok. Someday all too soon he’ll be all grown up. Someday he won’t climb into my lap and say “mommy, hug you!”. Someday he won’t need to nurse anymore.

As far as nursing H and A at the same time goes it’s physically easier than it sounds. We have a comfy chair we all pile into that works great. I can tandem nurse them in bed pretty easily too. Here’s a picture of us tandem nursing, if you are curious. I am not at the point where I enjoy it yet. I do it because I have to, because it’s practical. It definitely has it’s sweet moments though, like when they hold hands or drift off to sleep gazing into each others eyes. Lately they’ve started grinning and giggling at each other while they nurse. It’s heart meltingly sweet.

Someday I hope I’ll be in a place where I love it as much as they do.