Pirates, ARRG!!!

Just the girls dressing up like pirates:) I love them so cute they are. And again, please excuse pictures. I can't upload them directly so they take them from my computer which won't let me edit them, in other words, just turn your computer for this next picture. This is when it is handy to have a laptop. And umm, according to blogger, the fix is imminent...rolling my eyes over here...

Thinking of daddy

I asked the girls to close their eyes and think of their daddy. Isn't it sweet?

And poor sick Gwen, who, just like Layla, likes to suck in her lower lip. I am already trying to prepare myself for the cuts to the lip from running, falling and biting through it that is going to happen. Gwen so reminds me of a little munchkin. I think it is the ears that stick out:)

And please excuse missing pictures while blogger tries to figure out what iswrong:(

My jacket

There will be a picture eventually of the jacket on me, but this will have to do for now. This is it, finished, minus buttons, but I wanted to wash it. It is drying now, the cord is for the fan. I don't reccomend this, really totally unsafe, but the picture was taken standing on the toliet and Gwen was wrapped on me:) But the amazing thing was that I finished in all my ends yesterday. Thank you Stephanie, without you the sweater would have been thrown in a pile somewhere once I saw how the shoulder was. It didn't look pretty. Stephanie swears by blocking, lets hope I am doing it right.

Too young!!!

How many times do I have to say it? Gwen is too young to do doing these things. She is working on getting herself over the stair out of the living room. She can get up on hands and knees and then put her arms over it and then pull herself up. If she ever figures out how to move her arms just a little bit she will see how to scoot herself up there. Isn't it horrible when you see them doing something and you want to help them, and yet you don't want them to be doing that yet anyway?

See she wants up there to get to the girls medieval castle. All the fun stuff, aka choking hazards, are played with up there. Cute butt, eh?

And then she sat by herself for a good bit afterwards. Yes, she is holding on. She doesn't sit yet all by herself.

And then after, I shall try again! Please tell me that she won't actually master this for a good while.

My fault actually

Uhh, thank you to Joella who called and made my kids want to work and go to the park. Umm, you won't see pictures cuz I forgot the camera. My fault. I feel silly now.

dk weight yarn, size 4 needles

My new goal is to have the back done before he gets home. I hope to hell that he appreciates this and likes it. It is in a gorgeous moss color that I am positive that he is going to look amazing in. And it is this pattern, http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATTleo.html, which also I am sure he is going to look amazing in. I have 4 inches done and with the goal of finishing before his birthday means I have to go through a skein every 2 to 3 days. I am laughing at my insanity.
My sweater you ask? well, I had to frog the top of a sleeve, yes I also had to unsew the whole sleeve first. So while I am frustrated with that, I am madly working oh his sweater. I figure after about 10 inches of doing the same stitches over and over I will want to work on my sweater again. Not true, I do want it done soon, I will probably work on it today.
The kids? well, they currently don't want to go to the park since after me telling them that certain things have to be picked up before we go, not even like all of their toys, this would take them maybe 10 minutes, they are both looking at magazines. Yeah, I also promised I would stop asking them. So, blame them when you don't see cute pictures of us at the park in the next few days. I really wish they would listen to me, I was looking forward to going and maybe having company while I finish in ends on my sweater, company makes that part much easier. Why do they really not want to go???

Growing up, yelling and frogging

This is something that I have been meaning to do for a good long time. Layla amazes me. Really, when did she go into a cocoon and come out as a butterfly? I don't remember Natalie going through this drastic of a transformation. This picture was taken by Lisa, a friend, www.windwardskies.com, or at least that is where she was... Anyway, it is amazing that Lisa was able to get some shots of Layla without a scowl on her face. This was just ONE YEAR ago!!

About 6 months later on her birthday...

And just a couple of weeks ago.

I just can't believe my little Layla growing up. It is odd, I am not sure why but I can't think of her as 3, she seems so much older to me than 3. But then when I think of my Natalie going to be 6 in a couple months I want to cry. She can't be 6. I can't have been a mommy for 6 years.
But then, I have to get over it cuz I can't be crying on Natalie's birthday, right?
Anyway, so I have been doing lots of reading and thinking. So yesterday was a fun day. Can you hear the sarcastic note in my voice? I let the girls get in the tub after Gwen and I got out. Layla got into the bar of soap. She put half a bar of soap in her hair. Yeah, those of you who have washed little girls hair and now closing your eyes in terror. So I go up there, Gwen is wrapped on me and I see this mess. I tell Layla that we are going to have to rinse out all the soap. Already squeals of terror are happening. I try to calm her down. It doesn't work. I end up taking her out of the tub and holding her tightly, trying not to yell, but goodness how is she going to hear me? So yes, my voice did raise a bit. I carried her into my bathroom and held her over my sink, you know she is getting big. I told her that if she kept her head on my hand she wouldn't get anymore soap in her eyes. So finally she calmed down, we got all the soap out. But I swear if anyone heard yelling and screaming yesterday, it came from my house. And it got me thinking. The girls and I have had some days lately, bound to happen when I am the only parent, right? And a lot of nights we have ended up having talks about what we did, why we did it, and what we can do different tomorrow. In other words, I am trying to teach my girls to admit when they are wrong. To stop when there is tons of yelling and screaming and think about what is going on. Change the situation. I don't remember this going on when I was little. My parents were always right. And that was something that I really wanted to change for my girls. I AM NOT ALWAYS RIGHT! I do not want them to think that I am anywhere close to being always right. Why would I want them to question everything but me? So we have these talks, I want them to tell me when I do something that they didn't like. I hope that this will help us have a close relationship when they get older. I can already say that my girls probably feel more comfortable talking to me about what I do than most kids.
And that brings me to frogging. Yep, again, same thing. I think people need to grow up, stop yelling and admit when they are wrong. I think after you admit it so many times, I was wrong, I didn't do this right, whatever, it becomes easier. And then ripping out a whole sweater becomes easier. Yeah, don't tell Jack, I am ripping out his sweater. I don't like it. I know I can do better. I was wrong, the sweater sucks. I find that my knitting confidence has increased since doing my sweater, which I only have one more arm left to do. I think my sweater, so far at least, looks pretty darn good. Why should I give my husband a crappy sweater? But see, I still think I can frog it and get it made before he finds out that I frogged it. What do ya'll think?