Just a short short post for my 0 readers (gotta feed those 0 readers!)...

Well blow me down I've discovered a 'new' way to knit seams. The Three Needle Bind Off (cast off - whatever). I decided to try it to attach the collar to this sweater my MIL knit Maddie before her hand surgery, and it worked sooooo beautifully. I knit the sleeve in the same way and it's almost what I'd call professional! The trick, it seems (ha) is to use needles slightly smaller than you knit the garment with so that they're not too bulky. I'm currently working on the side/sleeve seam. You know, the one that goes all the way from the cuff on the sleeve down the side of the sweater. The Long one. I'm at least proud that I've figured this out. You know, 10yrs on from my first cast on...

Oh and am also repairing (and reseaming) the Big Bird cardi Maddie loves so much. I had to re-knit the cuff which had disintigrated. My daughter clearly is not exactly a Dainty two year old. So the cuff had developed a hole in the middle, one seam was undoing itself, and in general the sweater was looking much worse for the wear. I'll fix that!!!

Honest, honest, I'll eventually post pictures....

Am going to force myself to get in the habit of posting. Sitting here with mister snuffles just before I am off to beddy bye. I've finished the back of Maddie's ballet wrap - wa heeey! Have finished casting on for the front. I Hate casting on. Am the world's slowest caster-oner. I use the knit casting on method or long tail... not really sure what they call it, actually. It's the one where you knit then put the stitch back on, etc.

Have I mentioned yet that it is Despite my poor knitting skills that I knit? Oh yes, dear readers, I taught myself in college. No one ever showed me and I wanted to know. So I got meself a book and it took me over a week to decipher how to do it. Fast forwards nearly 10 years and I'm much, much faster, but I still knit wrong. People always laugh when I say that but I don't control my tension with the other hand wound all funny round the yarn - the yarn flows freely and I pick up and put the yarn round. This results in the yarn getting relatively twisty. In my early days I used to unwind the yarn when it goe really bad. Someday when I have loads of free time I must (must!) learn to knit the right way. It seems like it'd be millllles easier than my way.

God I'm tired. am up trying to drain the nose before bedtime. Oh and if everything were not enough, have developed a blocked milk duct in the left boob. It HURTS. Nice, huh? I should say more about lots of things but I'm going to pass out now... nose clear and tooo tired...

nuf' said.

opps...

for the 0 people out there reading this I thought in all fairness I had to say something about my mum's visit since I was so mean about her earlier...

It Was Great.

She was relaxed and Helpful and not too Pushy! I was actually sorry when she left and wish I could see her sooner than August. She was really great with Maddie and even changed a poopy diaper on her last morning.

Why is it we always want to complain rather than brag (brag being happy complaining)? I promise more 'bragging' later. You know, when the brain cells magically regrow themselves.

As proof of above comments on Helpful Mom, here's a piccie of my 2yr old on her birthday - note my mum in the background feeding Jamie!

And if any of my 0 readers are wondering where the pictures are of Jamie, well lets just say he's NOT photogenic at this age. But will keep trying...

And the cake was made by yours truly and Supposed to be Maddie's Favorite character - Sesame Street's own Big Bird. My mom brought a cake tin and Wilton's cake decorating set all the way from the US of A and it still turned out bad. Oh well. I've got Years to practice! And she loved it and Apparently the cake was VERY good. Thanks to Nigella Lawson for her buttermilk cake recipe - domestic goddess strikes again! (not the name of the book, btw)

really, I'm going.

So this blog thing takes time and energy... I sort of can find the time however my brain cells seem to be rapidly decreasing along with my energy... But here's the other big news... Kids make you stupid. I hesitate to have more than just my two for Exactly that reason. Before Kids (BK), I was a pretty smart person. I was a pretty good writer and could organise a sentence. Now? Well let's just say I won't even drive a car most days. Nuf' said.

So I'm up at 4:48am with a cold. And of course when you're b/f you're not supposed to take anything that can help you. Well that's not totally true - you're allowed liquid nasal decongestants and sudafed but sudafed is supposed to decrease your milk supply. so at 430am on the third day of a cold that's got me so stopped up I can't think straight much less sleep, I've taken the drastic measure of sudafed. We'll see how it works. (fingers crossed, I could REALLY use a break).

Jamie's beside me snoring away. He's just decided that he wants to sleep on his stomach. This is a milestone because he can roll over onto his stomach when he wants to! Not too many kudos, though, he's on a small hill - a bed. But he's done it in his crib too... Ahhh to be a baby with no cares except change my diaper and feed me. He's got a cold too but not quite so bad as his momma. Soooo not fair.

On the knitting front have used some of my sick time to finish the back of Maddie's polly ballerina wrap and part of a sock. Boy using those dpns are sllllllow going. Or maybe it's just everything being slooooowww going.

On the house front we had the survey done today. Gave me a chance to walk around a bit with a decorating eye - I've decided to do a fair amount of the work instead of hiring decorators then despairing when they botch the job. Only one bedroom of the 5 is not a complete disaster. It's the room with (are you ready for it?) a dead fish tank in it. Yup you heard right. These idiots are showing a million plus pound house with a nasty decrepit fish tank in it. They're taking that when they leave, right?

The Survey turned up that the roof isn't properly (at all) joined to the house, causing 'thrusting' and cracking walls and 'movement'. And the roof needs to be redone. Hmmm. This is turning out to be more work than we thoguht. Definetly going to need a nanny/some help for mommy. We're hoping that we still get the house - at a reduced price. I DO love a project! And for anyone who just happens to know me out there thinking Oh My God - another project Kate's not going to finish well you can just stuff it because this is Our House we're talking about! and IF I do the work then it's ONLY because I've got someone around to help with housework and looking after the kiddies. Otherwise well I"ll just have to cry and pay someone else to botch the job.

5am.

I'm going to attempt sleep now...

Maddie at 1 yr 1 month








Maddie 2 yrs









Still haven't managed much posting. I can't believe that my baby's almost 2... This time 2 yrs ago I was struggling not to throttle my mother who had come over to support me through Maddie's birth. She stepped off the plane one week before Maddie was even due... and said, "well this baby can come out now, I'm here!" Not hello, not how are you feeling. The following week-plus-5-days until Maddie was born was, ahem, difficult to say the least. 'Nuf said.

As for knitting well I'm vowing to post pictures. Of Maddie's favorite pink-and-orange-striped hooded cardi (finished!), the 'Bobby' stripped and hooded cardi for Jamie - one back and one piece of the front, and the Polly short sleeved ballet wrap for Maddie - two sleeves. Bobby is Debbie Bliss Cathay, and Polly is in RYC Cashcotton DK, same color as in the photo in the book. And since I'm promising myself that I'm going to work on this post and publish it later, then this is the place for the pictures:


This should be another interesting week in the run up to Maddie's birthday. The Man is going to be gone on a bunch of business trips, one overnight on Tuesday. I hate it when he has late nights or trips on Tuesday/Thursdays. With Maddie and Jamie on my own all day, by the time 6-7pm rolls around, I'm desperate for a break. Then there's the evening meal and bath and bedtime routine while Jamie's going through his desperate hunger stage. Ugh. Altho I must say that FINALLY this week it seems he's ready to be more independant. Witness me actually TYPING - it's only because he's not in my arms! The past week has been a complete nightmare. He's been teething and growth-spurting and generally as cranky as a baby gets. Wednesday I actually lost it and put him in Maddie's crib and shut the door and let him scream whilst I expressed from the boobs he was refusing. Took me another half hour to calm him after that. He has Such a temper...

And then Friday Duh duh DUHHHHHHHH - my mother arrives. After the big fiasco with Maddie's birth, she asked if I wanted her this time. To which I said Heeeellllll no. F*ck no. Not on your life, no. The Man ended up saying he wasn't going to allow her to come even if I wanted her there, she just made me so miserable the last time that he didn't want things any more stressed. And so she wasn't there. The Man's parents were, though, to take care of Maddie. Boy were they wonderful. My MIL actually cleaned the whole flat and did ALL the laundry while I was in the hossie!!!

What a dream come true... Anyhow I digress. So no mommy. And then to make matters more weird, she sent my dad for a visit when Jamie was about a month old. And complained about not getting to see Jamie. uh huh. Because her job which she's retiring from in June is Tooooo important. She's decided to come at Easter because she has off anyhow. Uh huh. She's flying the 3672 miles from DC to London and unlike any other sane person who would allow a week or More, she's allowed herself 3 1/2 days outside of travel time. So she gets in this Friday and leaves Tuesday.

Now when I married the Man and 2yrs later we started thinking about having babies, I naively assummed my parents would be the wonderful amazing grandparents and his parents would be the difficult ones. And in a lovely twist of irony it's proven the opposite. Well I'm not unhappy about this... the Man's parents are only about an hour and a bit away And retired And Willing To Help (as their social calendar allows). Plus my MIL has been a knitter since the age of 11, and she's a wealth of information. Whenever something gets so hard I can't figure it out, she helps me. My own mother knit some when I was little - garter stitch slippers, but has always done counted cross stitch instead. She'd prolly make a great knitter with all that counting!

And so I realise now that in fact I have gone off on a complete tangent. Meant to blog about happy things like my lovely kiddies and how much faster my knitting has become in the last year. But no. Got distracted about family.

News on our home situation! We GOT the house we were looking at, after a Painful week and a bit - call it an even two weeks really. Now the fun begins. So far we've only agreed that we want to buy and the seller is going to sell it to us. In Theory. Now is the actual exchanging contracts and surveying and Paying and then finally Getting The Keys. That's all I'll allow myself to say about the house. I don't want to jinx it...

As for the teeny tiny flat, well, 4 more viewings the past week, no other offers than the one that's 20k below our asking price. Incidentally the house was 20k than we wanted to spend. So we don't want to be 40k out of pocket in total. But we prolly will be. Grr. This house buying and selling thing is hard work. At least now (we hope) the end is nigh... Did I mention I HATE getting the flat ready for a viewing? It's The Most Painful thing Ever with a toddler. Which is why I asked for them not to show it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nuf said on that.

What else in the world is there for me to blog about? Loads I'm sure but I'm tired. On my night off from Jamie I didn't get to sleep til 11pm. What an idiot.

Ok really. I'm off to bed.