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.