Fifi

Here is another sweater I have finished finally. The pattern is called Fifi by French Girl Knits, and the yarn is Rowan Calmer which was a joy to knit with.

Some knitting stuff

So I don't want to put a whole post in with no picture of the star of this blog. So here she is. This picture is to show you the really cool pattern row counter made for me by turtlegirl76. This is a neat little thing that allows you to keep track of which pattern row you are on when you are knitting something that has a repeating pattern. In this sweater (Fifi) there is an 8 row repeating pattern which I was previously keeping track of by means of sticky notes stuck to the pattern and which Alexa repeatedly removed to my frustration. If you want or need one of these turtlegirl has an etsy shop where you can buy one.
And this project is for Alexa. It is called Emma's Unmentionables, or in this case Alexa's unmentionables. I actually broke my yarn purchasing moratorium to make these because they were SO CUTE. I think she will get to wear them for her birthday.

Another photo session in the front yard.

This morning we made another attempt at photographing Alexa.

A fun Saturday

Saturday was a really nice day and we got up and went out to breakfast at the Sunnyside Up. Alexa had some yummy oatmeal with bananas and almonds. And Daddy had some fluffly blueberry pancakes. See the neat play area for kids. I really like that several places here in town have play areas.
We were too busy to take pictures the rest of the day. We went to the Farmer's Market and got lots of yummy things. Then we came home and I got some tomatos planted outside in pots, I want to plant some other stuff, but the soil has a lot of clay in it, so we are going to make some raised beds for the other stuff.

Adam and Lisa with Marissa and Brendan came over for hamburgers and homemade ice cream and birthday cake for Adam (Conrad came too). The ice cream didn't ever get completely frozen, but maybe it was because I used all half-n-half? Anyone know?

I finally take some more pictures

We have been in a major slump of bad weather around here lately which has made me and everyone else in town GRUMPY. Anyway....the sun emerged again yesterday and the temperatures crept up into the upper 50's for a while in the afternoon. So here is my daughter being cute and goofy. That's peppermint bear that she has there. And Elmo went outside yesterday too.
Alexa is so thin that her pants kept sliding down yesterday. These do have an adjustable waistband and it is adjusted as tight as seems reasonable, but gravity is strong.

This dear sweet child woke me up at 5:00 am this morning when she came to get in bed with me. I got up and put her back into her bed, but then I couldn't go back to sleep because I was starving. So it is now 7:00 Saturday morning and I have been up for 2 hours. This is why I tend to go to bed at 9:00 at night. I do get some good knitting done early in the morning.

Snow?

We woke up yesteday morning to this. Yes, that's snow, on April 19 in our backyard. Also yesterday and today we have had lots of rain, sun, and hail. Really wierd stuff.

Here is my newest knitting project, a short sleeved sweater I am making for mom. It is made out of Royal Bamboo yarn which is really pretty. It looks like silk but it not so expensive. There is an interesting little cable and lace pattern down the front of the sweater. I am enjoying knitting it, but the gauge is 6 spi so it is going to take some time to finish.

Alexa's new hat

Alexa found a hat (diaper cover) in the laundry room and loved it. She wore it until bedtime. She would look at herself in the mirror and laugh so hard.

We squint into the sun

As you see, we can't get a picture in the sun without squinting. But I wanted a picture of Alexa in her new dress, and I was required to hold her still. See the sun reflecting off of my white arms. It is astonishing how white my skin looks in the sun. Anyway-thank you Nana and Auntie Holly for the great package of cute clothes and toys for Alexa. She loves them. So do I. Another appointment today with the orthopedic surgeon. He says one of the screws in my ankle joint is showing a small crack, meaning there is some amount of movement in the joint. However, since I am not having any pain from it, and there is no danger of the bones moving out of alignment, we are going to wait a while longer and see if the joint won't fuse better. There has been a lot of swelling, and he says this may inhibit bone formation, so I got an elastic sock to wear. This basically looks like a knee-high nylon in a very un-natural beige color. Looks like I made a bad choice in pantyhose. Good thing I wasn't harboring any illusions about the beauty of my feet and ankles to start with. If you have relatively normal feet and ankles, give them an appreciative thought!

We bare arms.

We have enjoyed some nice warm sunny weather yesterday and today. We are wearing short sleeves and sandals, and going to play at the park. They have a neat little climbing thing that Alexa tried today with some help from daddy.

Some friends come to visit

We had a lovely visit today from some good friends. Here is Sally holding Reese.And Carleen and Reese who is grinning behind that fist.
And a picture of Alexa in action that is kind of wierd and neat at the same time.
Reese having fun on the big stuffed dog.
Tayler, being cute.
Putting on her best smile for the camera.
We had a nice lunch and lots of fun playing.

Other than that- well, I had a dentist appointment, Alexa went to school, and tonight is knit night at the local yarn shop, which I will go to. Tomorrow Alexa and I have appointments at the neurologist. Alexa to hopefully figure out some sort of diagnosis that will fit into the insurance companies requirements so that they will pay for her speech therapy. Me so they can poke up and down my feet and legs and "map" where my nerves are working and not working. I am never sure why they do this, but they seem to enjoy it.

Alexa all dressed up.

With all the potty training going on lately Alexa spends a lot of her time in a t-shirt and underwear, so it was fun to get her all dressed up and hair combed nicely for Sunday.I have been posting less recently because I can't seem to come up with anything to post or take pictures of. We did have a good physical therapy appointment today. Alexa is making some real progress in the last few months which I love to see. The potty training is still in effect but we aren't sure if there is much progress or not. Alexa is fascinated with light switches this week. She is driving me bananas turning on and off the lights and fans everywhere. She is also eating a lot of tomatoes and bell peppers and strawberries. What an interesting child we have. (As I know they all are). She is also developing personality and a sense of humor. When she was eating supper yesterday her teeth were squeeking. DH told her not to grind her teeth so she grinned at him and started doing it deliberately. Then she took a drink of water out of her cup and put it down with a sigh of appreciation and a knowing smile. We were laughing so hard and she was showing off.

My new teapot and yarn.

I may be turning into a really superficial person, but I went shopping today and bought myself a teapot that I did not need. But it is so cute and it is red and it has a filter that fits into it so you don't have to pour through a separate filter and did I mention it is red and cute? Also at the Tas Tea shop I got that brown rock sugar which probably doesn't taste all that different once it is dissolved into the tea, but it is really neat looking as well. And I loved my fingerless gloves so much that I bought another ball of yarn to make another pair with. I don't think of myself as a pink person, but this yarn was such a yummy color and it was the last ball of this color and I got yarn lust in a big way. I am working on my yarn photography also. It is kind of hard to take a picture of yarn that shows texture and color well.

Fetching pigtails.

Pippi pigtails.

Can you sleep like this? Alexa can.
My new gloves. The pattern is called Fetching and they were fun and fast to knit. I may have to make a bazillion more pairs.

We emerge into the sun.

Shockingly enough it was sunny and pretty warm yesterday, so we put on a pull-up and went to the park to play. Alexa was so happy to be out.
This morning we had a successful pee on the potty. She was dry all night too-so we are really happy and encouraged to continue.
For those of you who don't live here in Oregon, the forecast for the next five days is rain. I am so ready for spring and every year I think April is spring. It may be, but spring in Oregon is a far different thing than spring in Arizona. Spring in Oregon is a tease, offering one beautiful day here and there to get your hopes up, and then drowning them in a sea of spring showers. On the other hand, things are blooming and turning green again and that is always a beautiful thing.

Welcome to April.

I haven't posted so much in the past few days because I have been continuing to try to teach Alexa to use the potty. I won't go into all the details, but we are going to continue trying to potty train while at home and use diapers when we need to go out. I have been driving myself and Alexa and David crazy however, so I am going to just put her in a pull up and go out to the store or wherever when I need to instead of trying to stay at home, and I am going to try not to say NO! when Alexa starts peeing on the floor.
In other more cheery news, we have been much more successful in getting Alexa to sleep at a reasonable time (9:00) and in getting her to stay in her bed when we put her there until she can go to sleep. She is also learning using her sign language better and doing some new things physically, like standing on her knees, squatting down, standing on one foot for brief periods of time etc.
I am making a strong effort to trust myself a little more as a parent and to remember the really great things she has learned recently when I feel frustrated about the potty training difficulties.