Two months in bullets

It's been a while since I posted anything of anything, so I think I'll just hit the highlights. Thanks to AmpuTeeHee for the idea!

Here it goes...ready?

* GI consults resulting in crash course in remedial toilet training for one boy with negligible success, leading to CHOP consult next week (hoping for the best and trying to avoid a breakdown (mine));

* a fabu 38th birthday celebration (mine) with great knitting swag and awesome party favors!;

* a disputed case of head lice based on purported evidence in one child 5 days before vacation resulting in all children being sent home from school and generalized but contained hysteria and chaos in the house, with the attendant shampooing of children, and washing and vacuuming of every toy and surface and bedding in the house. End result: no head lice in any child including the alleged patient by evening, and three boys with buzz cuts;

* a low blood sugar episode rolling into panic episode while traveling at highway speeds on the New Jersey Turnpike three days later. (Every time I get that damn anxiety under control it leaks out another way);

* a call from the police the day before vacation regarding what turned out to be a non-incident but raised anxiety levels of entire family;

* the discovery 22 hours before takeoff that previously packed suitcases are too heavy and damaged to take on trip resulting in crazed trip to purchase new luggage and repack same;

* a successful 10-day family vacation (husband around weekends only). Yes, I can wear high heels and take a fish off a hook. Three loads of laundry per day. Wake up 2-3 times per night for disoriented children/children who have fallen out of bed/children who are annoyed by the sibling who is sharing his/her room. Put in request for second vacation...alone;

* return from vacation one week before day camp begins and immediately call nursery school director to see if triplets can attend nursery school camp for one week (starting next day) until day camp starts;

* raging case of pinkeye (mine) following our association pool's season-opening pool party last Friday. Run halls of house screaming "Noooooooo!" and examining children's eyes (without touching them) to see who else is infected and would be unable to start camp;

* three head lice-free and pinkeye-free boys successfully start day camp on the bus;

* day 2 of camp = day 1 of toilet training for smart and completely uninterested two-year-old daughter;

* battle with insurance company and collection agency over unpaid bills medical bills from three years ago. Yes, I am the only one who has a clue about what's gone on for the past three years and the only party involved who is not in violation of the Fair Claims Processing Act (a specialty of mine prior to triplets) and the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (as per husband) is me. Apparently, doctors do not know how to bill appropriately and insurance company does not know how to process claims properly and collection agency does not care. You will find my head exploded and my eyeballs stuck to the ceiling by tomorrow morning;

* repeat mantra of "take two steps away from your brother," "keep your hands to yourself," "we don't call names in this family" every five minutes until children are turned over to school/resort camp program/pre-school camp program/day camp bus counselors, and resume no later than five minutes after children are returned;

* Oh, some knitting and crochet:

The Topsy Turvy Doll (details can also be found here on Ravelry):




The picture of the purple dress shows the doll before I made the bonnet tie and hair--I'll post those when I can do another shoot.

I also finished the Loop garter stitch koigu scarf:




Who knew taking self photos in the bathroom mirror would be so hard? It doesn't help that I'm breaking out like a teenager for some unknown reason (what did I say about stress earlier?), so the position of the camera relative to my face is equal in importance to capturing the scarf.

In casting-on news, last month, Mom and I started our own Funky Monkey knitalong. In the race to the finish (because we're competitive in a non-competitive way), I made a crucial error:



Yes, in my race to get ahead of Mom while she was at work, I put the tail on the front of the body instead of the back. Apparently, my competitiveness overwhelmed my common sense, resulting in lost time ripping out. Here is the monkey now:



Now that I finished the Topsy Turvy Doll, I think this is the next on the list to finish. Oh, and I used the monkey as an excuse to learn Magic Loop (from the pamphlet, of course).

And, I joined Summer of Socks again. I received some great sock club yarns, just haven't been able to cast on yet (it takes more time than I thought to pack three camp bags and make three camp lunches every night). It's almost 9 p.m., so time to pack, then shower, then maybe wind yarn for first pair of SOS socks.

How to feel old, Part II

So, I think I'm finally over the trauma of nearly passing out at the gym in March (or was it February?). No, I haven't back. But after catching sight of The Couch-to-5K Running Plan on someone's blog, I decided to get back on the horse. Not yet fully recovered from the humiliation of nearly passing out at the gym, I hit my mom's treadmill. Whereupon, for the first time ever in my not-as-short-as-it-used-to-be life, I felt my ass bounce violently, the vertical manifestation of the tricep wobble. How did that happen?!

Has it been a whole month? I hardly remember the projects I mentioned in the last post. Well, I remember the amigurumi goldfish. I've now finished three of them, but can only show you the second one, knit in Lamb's Pride (I think), with sewn eyes because I couldn't find safety eyes:






Feeling slightly guilty, and much taken with the fun of crochet, I made a cupcake purse for Baby Girl from another Amy Gaines kit:



The only modification I made was to tie the drawstring ends together without the beads. Baby Girl is only 2-1/2 (although she thinks she's 4), and has a definite tendency to put things in her mouth. She's enjoyed the purse and has used it to carry her toy animal figures around (she likes them in pairs: "I need two for a family," she tells me). Boy M tried to poach it, so now Mom is knitting him a Buddy Bag.

The only downside to all this crochet: I've hurt my left shoulder. I think it's from having to manipulate the stuffed fish body while trying to crochet the last few rounds of decreases. But I'm done with fish for a while. I've actually cast on a new project, Blue Sky Alpacas' Eyelet Cardigan. I was on gauge right out of the box--shocker!--and made it too far into the pattern before I checked ravelry and found alltangledup's modifications which make a lot of sense. I'm just going with the pattern and trying not to think about it. I also can't make the sweater longer, since I raided Mom's stash for the yarn, and only have 4 skeins. I'm just hoping for the best!

I brought my unfinished Summer Solstice sock with me for the big friends' 40th birthday trip to Las Vegas. Tons o' fun, Vegas is! Good food, great company. A little Cirque du Soleil--Ka is amazing!--and my first try at gambling! I should just light the money on fire, though I was only $11 down. I didn't get to knit much, maybe a little on the return flight--my favorite airport experience was when the TSA guy, while contemplating whether I was going to be allowed to keep my metal KnitPicks dpns, asked me, "are you going to take them out during the flight?" To which I replied, "Well, yes, if I'm going to knit." He let me pass. I guess I didn't look that dangerous.

The boys' 4th birthday party was fabulous fun and went off without a hitch. Now we're on a school break, and we're trying to keep busy all day long. Fortunately, we have excellent, almost-summer weather, which keeps us outside all day long. The plus side is that the kids are totally knocked out at bedtime; the downside is that I'm also knocked out, which is not good for project progress. Did I mention that in the past two weeks, Baby Girl has come into her two-ness?

March Madness

Ever since college, March Madness always hit hard. I went to Duke, and Duke won its first Men's Basketball National Championship my senior year. Need I say more?

Although I never imagined that my March Madness would turn into what it is today. The triplets turned 4 (!) last week, so we spent the week celebrating--loads of fun but exhausting! And the first official birthday party with friends is happening next week...I have to wrap up those last details.

Also, last March nearly killed me with everyone, not just the kids, but everyone, being so sick. We're holding our own on that front. In comparison to last March, the stomach virus was a blip on the radar. And for more excellent news, we were at the pulmonologist today, and he reported that the boys seem to be outgrowing their asthma. Hooray! Though I'm not sure how long it will take me to outgrow the fear and dread that strikes each time someone starts coughing.

My knitting has been...neglected? I'm not sure that's the right word. I've been describing my situation as "Knitting Malaise." I'm dissatisfied with pretty much everything I've got on the needles. That's no mean feat: I have 3-4 pairs of socks in progress; a knitted doll that I picked up at Stitches East intending to make it for Baby Girl for the holidays, and am shooting to finish it for her birthday at the end of the summer; a Clapotis; a Tulip baby sweater; the Blue Sky Alpaca Cropped Sweater that I frogged and need to re-swatch (not that gauge was the problem); the Decadent Fibers baby blanket that I bought at Stitches two years ago and had to basically re-write the pattern; and, I'm sure there are others that are just not coming to mind. I was doing well with the Rockin' Sock Club Serendipity sock, but I'm not sure if the sock is too tight, I'm turning the heel and have messed up the short row wraps a few times, plus I think something in the stitch pattern may have hurt my arm, or maybe that was just the chair I was sitting in. I find myself toting around 6 or 7 projects but not even working on them, instead, I'm reading knitting blogs and cruising Ravelry. Or I find myself at the end of the day being just too tired to do anything without totally messing up the project, such as wraps on a short row heel.

But on Sunday, when I found myself at my mom's for several hours without a project, I raided her stash for something to cast on--thereby breaking my unvoiced intention for the year to not cast on a new project until I finished something on the needles. Instead of palming some cashmere, or one-of-a-kind handpainted fabulousness from her mini-yarn store, oops, I mean stash, I went for...crochet. Amigurumi, to be exact. This Amy Gaines goldfish, but a kit.

The goldfish is, obviously, adorable. The kit is so cute--it comes in a Chinese food takeout carton with yarn, safety eyes, fiberfill, sewing needle and a crochet hook. The pattern is clearly written and gauge seems to be irrelevant--great for a "jump in blindly" project. It's load of fun, except for the incredible splittiness of the yarn, which means I crochet really slowly. But there's plenty of room for forgivable mistakes. Like not weaving in the yarn tail from the beginning ring of the body. And mildly understuffing the body. And putting the safety eyes in asymmetrically. And sewing the tail on horizontally instead of vertically (mental note: check placement of eyes before sewing tail to body in order to determine proper alignment). And the best part...Boy E keeps asking if he can have it, and the other boys want one too. I guess I'm not doing that badly.

So, because I need to look at the fish to crochet it, I decided to rustle up a project I could work on while watching Dancing With the Stars, the last element of my March Madness. It's my number one guilty pleasure! So while the children were watching the Curious George movie, I re-swatched and cast on the Decadent Fibers Creme Puff jacket--I purchased the pattern from the Decadents at Stitches this past year, and the yarn from Karida at Neighborhood Fiber Co. It's superbulky--2 sts/inch on US 17. Maybe I can finish it relatively quickly and still wear it before it's seriously warm out. But I found a typo in the gauge: it said 2 sts/inch, 9 sts/4 inches. I did the math based on the finished dimensions and found that it is definitely 2 sts/inch. The directions for the back are a little confusing so I'm kind of revising them and hoping for the best. I'm knitting in the waist shaping and am hoping it works out. If not, and I have to rip it out, at least I'll feel that I only spent a few days knitting it instead of months. Oh, and in finding the link, I'm noticing that the Decadent's yarn does not seem to be thick and thin like the yarn I'm using. But my sister the style maven and Karida both thought it would work, so we'll see. Otherwise, I'll have to do some sort of pullover, but I'm not there yet. And as an extra treat, I'm using the perfect tote that I received in a swap from KaKi.

Hopefully, I'll get the knitting back on track. If not, it may be time to finish a sock monkey blanket from the Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet that I made about two years ago. I just have to seam the squares, which is ridiculously easy and fast, and crochet a few sock monkey faces. Mom needs to help me with that part, though. I've also been thinking of getting Babette out of storage, which, now that I see it's from the Spring 2006 Interweave Crochet, means that it's been in progress since Spring 2006. Oh boy. Did I mention that I have a Mountain Colors sweater in progress upstairs in storage in the attic? And that I bought it at the first Stitches show I attended in, oh, 1996 or so? Let's not go there.

Vacation? Did anyone say vacation?

Yeah, that was me. I got a stomach virus instead...for the whole family (except my husband--the one time working all the time actually works out). My parents won't even come over--and I agree with that. Yesterday, Mom was at Barnes & Noble and picked up some things for the kids and said she was going to drop them off at the front door. I asked, "What? Are you going to ring the bell and run?" And sure enough, the bell rings, my husband opens the door (I'm snoozing in bed) and I hear Mom shouting to him from the car in the road. We're set back at least 50 feet from the road! Seriously!

It started with Baby Girl in the middle of the night on Monday. The most plaintive and unusual cry of "Mommy" at 2:30 a.m., so perplexing to me that I went running in without my glasses. I can't see without my glasses. Pretty much blind. Really. So in my half-asleep and blind state, I made the mistake of reaching into the crib without looking. Enough said. Five minutes later, I had her in the bath. She was better by Tuesday night, and we were all in the clear until Thursday night, when I was felled by the bug. I spent the night on my cold, cold, tiled bathroom floor. I came to in the morning with blocks of ice for feet (mental note: when feet become ice, try sportweight instead of fingering weight hand-knit wool socks) and back and knee pain. I croaked to my husband, "You must stay home today." He took care of school drop-off and pick-up. Fortunately, I had an extra babysitter Friday afternoon, and my nanny was pre-scheduled to stay through Saturday morning because my husband had a meeting and I was supposed to make up my last sewing class. (Oh well, looks like I'm teaching myself how to sew a tote bag.) The bug hit Boy E at 4 a.m. on Saturday, Boy J at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and Boy M at 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. I am an expert at late-night bath. And the saddest part: Boy M had missed me so, he was happy to be sick and getting a bath alone with me at 10:30 at night. That is, he was happy until he got sick again. And again. And again.

The good news is everyone is on the mend and is bouncing back better than me. Unfortunately, I have to be off my GI meds until Friday, and I have to call my primary care doctor to see when to restart my antibiotics for the burgeoning sinus infection I was so proud about nipping in the bud last Monday.

Suffice it to say, I don't have any knitting content to report. I just have not been up to knitting, for obvious reasons. I did catch up on my blogging today, though, and just bought this awesome sock kit at Unwind thanks to Lime & Violet's Daily Chum:

“The Red Thread” refers to this Chinese proverb:

“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle,
but it will never break.”

Those simple lines have come to be the heartstone of many families adopting children from China.

The owners of Unwind apparently adopted their daughter from China, and 20% of the retail price will be donated to an organization that provides training for orphanage workers in China. How could I resist?

And for Lici: Yo Gabba Gabba is on Nick Jr. at 11:30 a.m. (I think) and this weekend was starting on Noggin (I didn't catch the time for obvious reasons). We TiVo it on Nick Jr., and my only issue is that the TiVo captures commercials, real commercials, which I don't like the kids to watch; there's no real commercials on Noggin (I don't count sponsorship messages or commercials for other Nick Jr./Noggin shows). Also, I may be taking liberties, but check my comments and email the Minister of Sparks and Lightning if you want to be on the blogger email list.

And for the rest of my day...

So, by about 2:30 p.m. yesterday, I was mostly recovered from my gym experience--still freaked out by it, but pretty comfortable I wouldn't pass out on the three-minute trip to pick up the triplets at nursery school at 3 p.m. I left the house at 2:50 so I wouldn't be rushed and to account for high-school traffic (it's about halfway between my house and nursery school), and as I drive down my street, I'm muttering to myself about all those reckless high-schoolers speeding down our side street and swerving out of the middle of the road (again, feeling old, but this time, not in a bad way). As I'm sitting at the stop sign opposite the high school driveway, looking right and waiting to make my right turn, I hear the punch of a collision and look up to see a white car hurtling toward me. I was speaking to my mother on speakerphone and shouted, "There's an accident, I have to go" and braced myself for the collision with my car which, fortunately, did not happen. What did happen is that the teenager in the white car shot out across the main road and did not see oncoming traffic and was broadsided.

I called 911 and then debated whether to hop out of the car or try to get to nursery school on time. I checked on the teenager, she was crying, on the phone with her mother, and the driver in the car behind her was sitting with her. I told her I called the police already and head back to my car, only to see a very elderly lady, limping, get out of the other car. Fortunately, she wasn't injured (apparently the limping was unrelated to the accident), but she wanted to see the other driver--oh, and she said her heart was racing. Great. No way I could leave before the police arrived. I kept trying to get her to wait in the car but she insisted, and when I crossed the street with her, another driver almost hit us--I had to pull her jacket to get her out of the way. Are you kidding me?!

Anyway, everyone was fine. The police were there in about two minutes, and the officer let me go once I told him I had to pick up 3-year-olds. And of course, I was freaked out all over again. As was my mother, who thought I was in an accident, although I did call her once I got clear of the scene.

Fortunately, I had my knitting to rely on. I'm really enjoying my Woolgirl Valentine's sock kit. It's more White Oak tv yarn in sport weight--great colors and a fun pattern. But I've noticed that despite knitting the cuff shorter than called for in the pattern, I seem to be running out of yarn. Check this out (and please excuse the poorer-than-usual picture quality--I had to use my iPhone because my camera memory card is full).

Sock 1:



and Sock 2:


And not really related to the topic, but irresistable to include: the socks in my super-cool Piddly bag from Piddleloop:


Back to the socks. I clearly do not have enough yarn to knit the remaining 5-6" of the sock and have been lying to myself for days. I didn't want to contact Jen at Woolgirl because the same thing happened to me with the Halloween kit, except that time I used a pattern other than the one in the kit, and I finished the socks with about three yards left in the skein. But Jen is the coolest! She said that someone else had the same problem and she was having the dyer dye more yarn, but it would take a few weeks. Hooray! Now I'm freed up to start my Rockin' Sock Club socks (already swatched), unless I go for the Woolgirl Sock Club February sock--Zen Yarn Garden and a cabled heart pattern!

And then, tonight, I had my latest freaky experience. I ran out to Target after putting the kids to bed, anticipating that the predicted snow tomorrow will make getting out nearly impossible, and of course, our need for a new iron and ironing board is so desperate we cannot wait until the weather clears (that's what an afternoon playdate spent printing Yo Gabba Gabba iron-on transfers and trying to transfer them to t-shirts with a lukewarm iron while six Yo Gabba Gabba devotees aged three and under are waiting teaches you). I had additional items on my shopping list, so while cruising the toy aisle for birthday gifts, I reached for a toy and grazed my hand on the underside of the shelf above it, and felt something wet. I snatched back my hand and saw blood, and immediately started to freak yet again--now I had someone else's blood and blood-born illnesses seeping into the very dry skin on my hand. I went racing to the opposite site of Target looking for anti-bacterial hand wipes, trying not to bean anyone, especially myself, with the large ironing board in my cart. In no time at all, I was vigorously wiping my hand, trying to remove all traces of the contaminated blood, only to discover...it was my own blood. I can't even explain how relieved I was (except when I began to worry that there wasn't enough alcohol in the wipes to kill any germs because the cut, actually, a skin split, didn't sting when I wiped it). I then went across the street to Nordstrom's and bought Kiehl's hard-core moisturizing lotion...in the 8-oz jar.

I think I need a vacation.

How to feel old

So, a group of my college friends are turning 40, and we are taking a celebratory trip in April...to Las Vegas (I'm slightly younger, but they thought I should be included anyway). For the past six months, I've been meaning to get myself to the gym on a regular basis, and thought, hey, we haven't seen each other in years (holiday cards don't count), why don't I get a jump start and work with a trainer. I've had to cancel twice (you know, kids), and today was my first day...and I almost passed out about 10 minutes in. I mean, for real pass out--sweating, slightly nauseous, laying down on a weight bench, drinking Vitamin (sugar) Water--and enough so that the trainer didn't charge me for the session. Crap.