Surviving a Toddler for 24 Hours

The Girls had a date in Wisconsin - something that was planned before the arrival of The Babies.  I was chosen to care for Baby Girl from Saturday noon 'till Sunday noon.  

She seemed a little suspicious when she was dropped off:

But we got settled in the condo with Duplos and other assorted things, and we fell into a rhythm pretty quickly.

Who says bar chairs don't come in handy with children?  The low setting worked perfectly as a high chair - and it's made of easy-to-clean plastic.  Hooray!

We went shopping and got new tennis shoes.  Who knew but that there are baby Toms and chucks and all manner of fun stuff for toddler feet.

The Girls thought I would have tons of photos, but really I was too busy chasing after Lulu to be snapping many shots.  First thing I did after they picked her up was take a nap ;)

A Mixed Bag

I had a very special little visitor last Friday morning. His mom calls him the "baby burrito" when he's swaddled like this:

In the meantime, I have been entrusted with care of tomatoes and other such. They are rotting on the vine and I can't figure out what I can do to save them. I've had wilt before, but nothing like this (from what I can tell, it's blossom end rot, but I can't find a non-chemical remedy that doesn't involve more work than I can handle).  Anyone have any suggestions?  I feel terrible; The Girls will get back from camp and find out I killed their tomatoes:

And finally, being a masochist at heart, I started a sweater for Girl-child.  She wants a red sweater for her birthday/Christmas.  Don't know what makes her think I can make something that may fit her after my most recent fail.

On a brighter note, I went to the theater to see Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story last weekend, which was fascinating.  I also watched Dazed and Confused (Criterion Collection from the library) which was quite remarkable.  I remember nights just like that around the same time period (1976). 

I'm also thinking that I will take the Nautical Knitting Cruise whether I can afford it or not because tonight I'm feeling like I should throw caution to the wind...

Spring?

The days are longer now that we've switched to Daylight Saving but it's given the afternoons a surreal feel; we got a ton of snow and cold weather right when the time changed, so at 5:00 it looks like it's 3:00 on a winter's day. At 7:00 it's still light out, but feels like it shouldn't be. I guess this is the "jet lag" of changing time that I've heard people talk about, I've just never experienced it until this past week. Does this mean I'm getting old or can I blame it on the weather?

The discovery of the day was through Facebook (who knew I'd ever find a use for Facebook?) I found out that International Yarn Bombing day is June 11, 2011. Now I have a target date for some special tagging project yet to be determined.

Speaking of knitting, I went to Needlework, Unlimited's 40th birthday bash before going to Mexico and won pattern and yarn for a leafy shawl. Seemed like a good idea to start it on the trip; the yarn is a cotton/linen blend, so perfect for the season, right?

And some limeade Reversi socks for a friend's (September) birthday (sorry, I wasn't going to show you but I rather like the way they're turning out. Hope you do too).

And a pair of red socks for a Christmas present (not pictured). Oh, and I made a sweater:
I'm on top of it this year ... maybe.

Turns out I have to be on top of it since I picked up another 20 hour/week job. It's working as a "Bilingual Associate Educator" in Minneapolis at an elementary school that has a large Hispanic population. It is, in fact, a very, very poor student population with over 60% ESL and 97% of the kids are on free or reduced rate lunch. I only worked a few days before spring break, but tomorrow I'll be at it full force. It seems funny to me that I've returned to my bleeding-heart roots; I'm working with disadvantaged kids in the morning and then with non-traditional adult students in the afternoons/evenings. I like it all (I may have to work 'till the day I die but by god I'm at least going to do what I like).

The weekend included a visit with Kate and Wyatt. It's so fun to get a baby fix. I love fuzzy baby heads:There's baby bling now - didn't exist back when I had babies - so you have a teething ring handy alwaysIt's still fun to watch them sleep:I've started The Book Thief, which I found at Value Village for $1. Can't say I know what to think of it yet. For travel reading I took Kindred to Mexico, which was recommended to me by one of the peer tutors at work. It was a fantastic book for the plane. Susan is trying to get book club going again; I'm interested to see what is chosen and who shows up.

In the movie department I recently watched Facebook (interesting but what a bunch of jerks), Coraline (creepy) and Inception (a little too weird but entertaining enough).

All Decked Out

Turns out you can make a hat and booties for a July baby and there's a chance he can wear them in September before he's outgrown them:
How about this for a caption: "Does this hat and booties set make my butt look big?"