Little Miss Chatterbox

I have just finished reading the most excellent book, "Toxic Childhood" by Sue Palmer - a superb read which I recommend wholeheartedly to all parents to be, parents, grandparents etc. It talks about the importance of outdoor play, imaginative indoor play, restriction of TV and screen time etc etc.

One of her throwaway remarks (or it may, in fact, have been in her subsequent book, "Detoxing Childhood" which is basically a precis of "Toxic Childhood") was by 18 months a child should have up to 50 words and, by 2, up to 200 (one of her points was that children are increasingly coming to school with less and less language than they used to which is part of the reason for the difficulty teachers are having in getting them to read and write). Now, I promise you, I try my utmost not to be a competitive parent. I know that that is not good for me or Immy (there is no way I want to be like either of the mothers in the "Goodness Gracious Me!" sketch!).

However, it set me wondering - how many words does Immy know now, at 19 months and a week? So, I started making a list. It is now quite a long list. About 150 words, in fact. And those are just the ones I've remembered. (I'll spare you the actual list. Partly not to bore you and partly because I don't want to sit here copying it out!!) If ever I wanted proof that there was any of me in her (she's the spit of Marc and I struggle to spot my contribution), then I think this is it. Hopefully this is a small sign that I'm doing at least SOMETHING right.

It's about time

I got back into the habit of blogging.  Over a year since the last post - disgraceful!  Marc is away on some boring training course in Watford and has been since Wednesday.  He won't be back until late tonight.  Weirdly, during the time he's been away, Immy has actually managed to go to bed at a sensible time.  I don't know what to make of this, but perhaps she's just going to have to have her tea at a sensible time as that appears to be the only thing that's being done differently.

I have made a start on Sarah's Urchin hat (Ysolda Teague).  It's my first time using a provisional cast on and, frankly, I'm terrified.  Oh well, worse things happen at sea and all that.  Hopefully I'll get it finished by the end of the weekend (Tilly's party on Sunday notwithstanding) and then I can get on with Anna's beret and 101 other things.  Plus, there is the small matter of tidying the flat and trying to get it vaguely reasonable.  Although we don't actually have anything other than a vague timeframe for the move to Huddersfield (some point next year, provided Marc can get the transfer), I would still like things to be vaguely reasonable before then so that it's not all a mad panic.

Greenbelt, weaning and everything

Goodness, it's a while since I last blogged.  Immy, Marc & I all absolutely loved Greenbelt.  It was brilliant seeing so many of my friends again and fun camping for the first time in ages.  Especially since it appears that all you have to do to pitch a modern tent is say 'Piff Paff Poof', pretty much.  I was very impressed as I have many memories of having to hold precariously arranged poles while my parents tried anxiously to drape the tent over it and prayed that it wouldn't rain during the whole tortuous process.  The speakers I saw were excellent and the music was wonderful.  Immy particularly enjoyed Julie McKee and the folk club. We were sorry to have to go when it all finally came to an end.

Since we've been back, weaning has obviously continued.  So far, Immy has tried: rice cakes, dried apricots, apple puree, sweet potato puree, greengages, mashed banana, butternut squash puree, carrot puree and a bit of apple & strawberry fruit leather (a lot nicer than it sounds!).  She appears to have taken a dislike to the greengages and the butternut squash.  Oddly, despite now having three lots of solids a day, the breastfeeds have increased.  Particularly at night.  Whereas previously she had just started on giving me 6-7 hours sleep at night, she is now back to her newborn habits of 2 hourly feeding.  I'm finding the whole process very draining and stressful. Marc keeps reassuring me that all babies are weaned in the end and I won't be having to send expressed milk with her to university, but nonetheless I worry and find things frustrating.  You have this image in your head of babies taking to solids like the proverbial waterfowl to their water and I have found that that is thoroughly incorrect.  I really hope things calm down soon! 

Millet porridge gets the thumbs up!

So, after a two day break to allow Immy's illness to go completely, we restarted her on solids today.   She had millet porridge for breakfast (1 tbsp millet flakes to 150 ml water for those who are interested).  It was to have had am ice cube of apple puree added to cool it down quickly, but I was too late adding it, so it stubbornly refused to melt.  However, as it turned out, Immy loves plain millet porridge.  Rather a lot.  Especially with her new 'Reggae for Kids' CD playing in the background (it's surprisingly good, actually.  The CD, that is.)

I therefore learned two things today.  Plain is often good.  And millet porridge gets absolutely everywhere and is a total swine to clean up.

It's about time....

... that I started blogging again.  Remarkably, despite the fact that this is basically a personal thing, I've been feeling guilty about not doing so.  Amazing the things that one can feel guilty about, frankly, but there you go.  Part of the reason for the guilt, however, is that I intended this blog to contain some record of Immy's progress and I have been very remiss in not noting this.

So, then, some basic Immy facts.  She started babbling on the Thursday of the final week of her 5th month (if that makes sense).  She managed 'baba' and 'dada'.  Rather irksomely, given that I'm the person she spends most time with, 'mama' was not amongst the list.  I appreciate that these were not real words and that she was just playing with making new noises and that 'm' is a far harder sound than 'b' or 'd', but I was, nonetheless, slightly piqued.  

We started weaning her when she hit 6 months.  It might have been sensible to wait a little longer, since she still has the tongue-thrust reflex, but never mind.  So far she has tried banana puree, apple puree, rice cakes, carrot puree and sweet potato puree.  Unfortunately all that has gone into abeyence (sp?) for a few days since she got a sick bug last week and we realised too late that the solids were prolonging it.  She seems a lot better today, though, thank goodness and seems to have acquired a fondness for 'The Proclaimers'.  (Her eccentric musical taste also includes John Philip Sousa and other military music such as 'Colonel Bogey' by Kenneth Alford, trad jazz - especially Kenny Ball and Chris Barber; Lonnie Donegan, La Bottine Souriante, reggae, calypso and some god-awful rock stuff that Marc likes.)

This weekend should be fun.  We are all going to Greenbelt.  Marc being a clever bod is writing some comedy for it and therefore counts as a Contributor.  Thus we are going to Greenbelt for cheapness, which is even more of a Good Thing (TM).  'T'will be interesting seeing how she fares camping, but since she's a very cheerful and resilient little soul, my prediction is that she'll have a whale of a time.  Quite how I'll cope with the night feeds on a tiny little supposedly self inflating mattress with no back support should I need to sit up, heaven only knows.  I intend to sink to the challenge (IYSWIM), however, and thoroughly enjoy myself.  Particularly since I shall be surrounded by lots of lovely friends.  Hopefully I'll get some nice piccies, too.

Momentous Occurrences

So, yesterday was the first time I left Immy alone with her Dad for more than just a few minutes.  It was the first time, in fact, that I went out alone in a very long while.  And it necessitated the purchase and use of a breast pump.

Goodness me, they're weird contraptions!  It took me quite a while to get the hang of it.  And when I did, it was very bizarre indeed.  The noise it makes, and heaven knows why this surprised me, is EXACTLY like the sound of goat's or cow's milk hitting the pail.  And I mean, exactly.  I managed to get 6 1/2 fl. oz, which I'm told is not bad for a first attempt.  I must have been mangling it to start with, however, since I managed to make myself sore in the process!  But it does at least mean that I have the option of going out again at some point in the future.

And what was the occasion that set this all off, you ask?  My first cinema trip of the year to go and see Sex in the City with a friend and friend to be (I hope, anyway, since she seemed very nice).  I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the series.  Parts of it were very emotional, as per the series, really, I suppose.  But mostly it was funny and sweet and felt like just a long episode of the series.  Well worth going to see!

The only downside was that when I got home I found out that Immy had apparently been missing me so much that she cried non-stop from 9.15pm to 10.30pm and nothing would placate her.  I'm not sure whether it was helpful for Marc to tell me this or not because it was quite upsetting.  Although, I have to admit that a tiny part of me was a bit gratified since it's a bit difficult to tell if someone loves you if all they do is eat and sleep.  I mean, she does giggle and smile, but you don't know if that is because something is inherently amusing or if she genuinely enjoys your company.  Last night I realised that it was the latter.  Hopefully she will be less upset the next time I go out since she will now know that I am coming back!  Poor little mite.  Needless to say (so I'm going to say it!) she got lots and lots of hugs and seems contented enough now.  She is gurgling and examining her fingers as per usual!

May the Saints in heaven preserve us

Big Brother 2008 has just started and Marc, in his infinite wisdom and equal stupidity, has decided that he simply HAS to watch it.  It's enough to drive me completely demented (which state I'm not too far from as it is, frankly).  I've warned him that he can't watch the whole series, but I'm not convinced that he was listening.  Knitting was slightly distracting me, but not altogether and I'm worried that the stress of putting up with Davina MacCall (sp?) squawking in the background has thrown my tension off.  So I've come out of the lounge to use the computer instead, in the hope that something online will soothe me.

Progress on the scarf is coming along.  It's been slightly slower going than I'd hoped for because Immy has been teething over the past few days and she's not been best happy about it - poor thing.   I've calculated that it will take about 300 - 325 rows to reach 54" and I've now completed 240 rows.  Anna's birthday is on the 12th, apparently, so I'm hoping to have completed it by the end of the weekend (including blocking) so that I can post it on either Monday or Tuesday.   The yarn really is very lovely and there will easily be the best part of a skein left so I'll be able to make me a hat, which I'm very pleased about.  

People and projects

Well, Tilly's lunch was lovely.  Both the trifle and the poncho were a great success.  Claire preferred the loose fit, so I didn't need to worry about fitting the snap closures.  Which was, to be frank, a relief, as I was a bit worried about them pulling on the fabric.  Not sure I really trust anything other than buttons or ties with knitted items.  Owing to the weather, it wasn't really practical to get a photo of Tilly wearing it, but I'm hoping that one comes my way once the weather turns.

I'm now about half way through Anna's scarf, but I've not worked on it for the past couple of days since I feel that I need to concentrate on every third row.  So I've also started a baby hat, which will be my first foray into colour work.  I'm hoping it works as I'm interpreting a pattern rather than following precise instructions.  I do seem to have a case of starteritis, though, since I've also got a hat for me on the go as well (in Wendy Fusion - should be pretty!).  Let's just hope that I get them all done soon as there are loads of other patterns I'm hankering after and I don't think having more than three projects on the go is a sensible idea!

Cooking again!

I appear to have managed to make three things in the kitchen (which aren't dead simple - like boiled egg) in the past 24 hours.  This is an achievement, since I haven't been cooking properly since I was pregnant.  It's entirely possible that this might not last (especially if Immy has another growth spurt), but I just wanted to record the occasion for posterity (lucky posterity).  

Yesterday, it was the rather unappetizingly entitled 'Brown Stew' from my Mum's old Stork cookbook.  I varied it a bit by seasoning the flour with paprika and adding tinned tomatoes and porcini mushrooms.  And apart from a mini mini disaster in the shape of some of it sticking to the bottom of the pan (I managed to ignore the injunction to stir it occasionally), it was actually rather yum.  I think it might have to go onto the list of keepers (dishes Marc would like me to make again).

And today I managed to make the passionfruit trifle from the BBC Good Food Desserts cookbook.  I have no clue what it tastes like yet since it's to be taken to Claire and Kev's for lunch tomorrow.  However, it smells divine and it's taking me all my self-control not to wolf the lot and make up some poor excuse for its absence.  Cross your fingers for me!

I also made the pork chops in mustard sauce from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries.  People, you have to try this recipe!  It's so gorgeous I could probably eat it all week.  Well, not quite, but it was seriously delicious.  We had it with mashed potatoes (Nigella style made with warm cream and freshly grated nutmeg) and peas.  This too is a keeper.

No knitting,  but half the day was spent shopping and then it was Too Darn Hot and humid to even contemplate it.  Plus I was shattered.  I'm going to try and manage something this weekend.

It's infected my dreams

That's it, I think I've finally gone completely mad (something my friends have been predicting for years).  I've started dreaming about knitting.  Now, those who are Knitters may say that this is perfectly reasonable.  They may start talking about beautiful lace, gorgeous colours and the like.  And if it were that of which I had been dreaming, I would suggest they had a point.  Unfortunately, I woke up this morning realising that I had been dreaming about how to do mattress stitch.  Now, I realise that you might claim that this is at least an appropriate stitch to be dreaming about in bed.  And, in my defence, I had been reading Maggie Righetti's excellent, Knitting in Plain English the night before.  But, really.  I'm sure there's something wrong with me.  And I still can't seam neatly.

Hurrah!

Tilly's poncho is finally finished.  Here it is:



I'm reasonably pleased with how it's turned out. I had to disguise a couple of miscreant holes. And I'm not sure that the blocking worked entirely (I perhaps should have got the towels hotter and steamier). But hopefully Claire will be able to reshape it after handwashing and it will be better. Otherwise I'll email her the instructions I had for steam blocking and that should remedy it.

Now, onto my next project!

Progress on Tilly's Poncho!

I have now managed to do all of Tilly's poncho bar the hood, which I'm going to tackle this evening.  The quality of this photo isn't great (oh how I'd love to live in a house with better light), but it does show you that it's looking vaguely garment-like:



Just hoping I don't foul it all up with the hood. The pattern said to work the back until it was 14 1/2 inches, but this didn't seem quite right, so I just made it match the back (fortunately I'd been counting rows, so could work that out). The instructions for the hood say to sew it up, but I'm going to pinch Elizabeth Zimmermann's method and graft the top together (hopefully). That way it ought to look a bit neater.

Fingers crossed!

Friends, food and fun

Had a lovely day yesterday with Kev, Claire & Tilly.  We ate a very late (3pm!) lunch at Nandos followed by going back to theirs just to chill and chat.  It is nice to spend time in such relaxed company.

Speaking of Tilly, I'm now nearly half way through her poncho.  I shall be taking it over to Claire's tomorrow so that she can see the colourway.  I'm hoping that she'll like it, given that it's a mixture of sea greens and blues which, to my mind, ought to suit Tilly very well.  I decided that the pattern (the Lion Brand Hooded Baby Poncho) had too small a neck.  This may well have been because my row tension was off, but I worked in a few extra rows to compensate.  I will just have to adjust the back accordingly.  Mercifully I have a lot of that yarn, so I'm hoping that it will last.  Once I've worked the hood I will then try and decide whether I want the pocket or not.  I'm not entirely sold on the idea that two year olds particularly need pockets.  Apart from for the odd tissue, I suppose. Anyhow, I'm hoping that I'll have it completed by the end of the week.  That would mean I was a week early and could get on with some other projects.  Which will be useful given that since I've joined Ravelry I've seen project after project that I fancy doing.  And I kind of have a yearning to make yet another hat.  So that will be my reward if I manage to finish this poncho to any degree of competence.  Fingers crossed!

Waves of grief

Funny how grief works.  Similar to buses, but twice as crushing.  I just keep getting hit by waves and waves of it.  You never realise how much you love someone until they're gone.  And now I just miss Uncle more than ever.  He was like a father to me - hence why he gave me away on my wedding day.  And I'm so grateful he managed both that and to attend my graduation.  I miss him horribly - I haven't felt this much pain and sorrow since my Mum died.  And this bereavement is making me miss her, too, since she is the one who would normally have comforted me when I'm feeling this bad.  Poor Immy doesn't know what to make of me because I keep bursting into tears.  Overwhelmingly, he's also left us all a great deal of money.  It will help with the mortgage and whathaveyou, but every penny of it seems hollow because he's no longer here to see the benefits it's giving us and especially Immy.  I would rather not have the money and have him instead.  It's just such a shame that I wasn't able to visit him owing to late pregnancy and then feeding issues.  While perhaps I could have asked Marc to take a day off or tried to go at a weekend, I know he wouldn't have registered who we were and that might have been even more painful.  This is all so hard to process.  And, like a child, I keep wishing him back here because he was so dear to me.  I hope this all eases soon, I'm finding it very hard to deal with.  Particularly since I'm on my own for such long periods of time at the moment.

Boo hiss!

I appear to have caught my Uncle Alec's cold.  My nose is all bunged up, such that I can't breathe properly at all and my throat hurts.  Unfortunately, I think Immy has it as well.  The only mercy is that, since I'm breastfeeding her, she ought to be able to fight it off as swiftly as me.  

I didn't feel much like knitting, therefore, although I kept wanting to.  Then some patterns on Ravelry caught my eye and gave me a case of startitis.  So I cast on for these.  Unfortunately the pattern gives no tension, yarn quantity or finished size, so I'm just going to see how big they turn out.  I can only presume that when it says to rib for 6 inches, it means from that point rather than from the beginning, since it doesn't specify.  I'm hoping it works, anyway, since it will make a nice present for a couple of somebodies. (I'm not going to mention which particular pair since, if by some miracle they happen to be reading this, it will give the game away).

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get on with that poncho.  Particularly since rain is again forecast which will keep it cool enough to do so comfortably.  My third skein of yarn needs winding into a ball, so I will probably do that first.  But hopefully there will be enough time to get onto the front of it.  I'm really hoping I can get it done in time and up to standard.  Unlike most people, I'm praying for a cool summer, so that I can keep going with my knitting and try and improve.

Uncle Henry

Yesterday was my Uncle's funeral.  The day dawned clear and bright and we had a swift and pleasant journey to Margate.  The service was held at Thanet crematorium at 2.40 pm.  I had wondered why I was in such fine spirits for most of the morning, but it turned out that the grief hit us all when we were actually in the service.  I could scarcely sing for sobbing.  There were very few of us there - just family and a couple of staff from the care home.  It was a lovely service and the vicar was lovely.  She stopped to talk to us afterwards and enquired about our respective babies.  Poor Keziah found it all a little overwhelming.  I don't think she fully understands, poor thing.  She just knows that she misses him.  As we all do - terribly.  RIP Uncle, we love you with all of our hearts.  

Finally!

Lexie's jacket is now completed.  Thank goodness for that!  And I do think, now I've had a proper look at it, that it will fit her.  At least, I hope so.  It's the Modular Tomten Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's 'Knitting Without Tears'.  The pattern calls for a zip but I gave up on that idea and turned it into a hoodie instead.  If Nat decides she wants them, I may also make a couple of ties at the hood, but I quite like the open neck effect.  Anyhow, here it is:



Not too terrible, even if I do say so myself!

Whew!

It ain't half hot, Mum.  Imogen and I are both very warm indeed.  Which is making feeding a little bit of a challenge.  I'm hoping the current heatwave calms down a little soon.  The only bright side about Uncle Henry's funeral on Tuesday is that at least it's happening in Margate, where temperatures are a full 6 degrees Celsius cooler than here.  Which should make us both a lot more comfortable and ensure that she's less likely to grouse during the service.

Naturally, given the clement weather, I'm still knitting woolly hats.  Because this is the sane thing to do when you just want to lie in a bathtub full of ice, drinking homemade lemonade.  Clearly.  Anyhow, the Noro hat from this pattern (knit on straights instead of in the round) is now finished as you can see:



And I've finally got round to finishing off Alexia's jacket, which I'm currently sewing up. I've decided that, instead of putting in a zip (which looks tricky and, besides, the ones which have arrived from eBay look to be slightly too long), I'm just going to mattress stitch the two sides together. Then she can just pull it over her head and have a hoodie instead. That way it should be finished by the time that Nat and everybody arrive on Sunday and I can cast on something else guilt free. Plan and a half, I feel.

Ta da!

The Baby Yoda Sweater is finally finished!  Hurrah!  I haven't yet tried it on Imogen on the basis that she's been far too hot today.  However, this is what it looks like:



Again, Marc's camera hasn't shown the true shade of green, but it's not too bad. I need to improve my sewing skills, though!

On another note, it appears that Imogen might be teething already - which is just ludicrously early!  She's drooling a lot and biting hard on things, plus stroking her cheek.  I'm really hoping that this doesn't affect feeding too badly.

Grand tidy up

Well, semi-grand, anyway.  I managed to get most of what I wanted up in the loft.  Marc still hasn't put his LARP stuff up there, but at least the spare room looks slightly less like a bomb's hit it.  Plus Marc put up the cot because Immy was beginning to outgrow the Moses basket.  We now have to negotiate the cot each time we want to change her, though.  It's unfortunate that our room is such an awkward shape, really.  Great size but difficult to maximise the use of that space owing to the fact that a chunk of the room is taken up accommodating the stairs, if you see what I mean.

Other than that, I didn't really manage to get much in the way of knitting done.  I had fully intended to finish the Baby Yoda sweater, but I was quite tired and didn't feel that I would do it justice.  So I just carried on working on the Noro hat.  Excuse the rubbish photo, Marc's camera's annoying me at the moment, but this is what I've done so far:



Hopefully I'll get it done, along with my other projects, by next weekend.