Dillierama

Happy Thanksgiving!

Barely noon on Thanksgiving day and I've just finished off my first Hickory Farms cheeseball of the year.  I tell you there is nothing I look forward to more each year than the opening of the Hickory Farms kiosk at the mall.  Nothing says holidays to me more than a round nutty ball of cheesy goodness.

This year worked out such that John, Alex and I are on our own for Thanksgiving dinner.  That means Turkey-Day dinner a la Jamie:

• Small turkey breast (freezer to oven!)
• Stove top stuffing
• Rolls from a tube
• Instant mashed potatoes
• Turkey gravey from a jar
• Canned sweet corn
• Peach cobbler from a box with a big dolop of whipped cream, from a tub.
• And of course, four bottles of wine

Painting

All of this:

(Don't worry, the paint is non-toxic)

For this:

Yea, it was totally worth it!

The babykeeper

Maybe a year ago I would have thought this was ridiculous. Now I'm thinking, not such a bad idea.  Maybe hanging Alex on the back of the bathroom door is a better alternative to him climbing under the partition into the next stall to say hi to the other ladies (it's happened!), or sticking his face in my underwear (ugh, yep, it's happened).

Daddy's home!

Well, John's home,  and none too soon, because all of this quality time I'm spending with The Boy is great and all, but 72 hours of nothing but me and the kid just about did me in.  It seems Alex had had enough of me as well because as soon as John walked in the door Sunday night, he was all about Daddy.  He ended up sleeping with us last night because he just wanted to cuddle in his daddy's arms all night long.  We tried several times to put him to bed, but he just ended up hysterical in his crib.  It really wasn't fair, because I wanted some cuddle time with John myself.  But with those big blue eyes, huge smile and saying nothing but "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"  I didn't stand a chance.

Tupperware thief

Caught red handed!

Obsess much?

Ok, in the last week I have made:

• Three scarves (2 child size and 1 adult)
• Two baby hats
• Three child size hats (four if you count my first attempt dud)
• Two adult size hats (and one in the works, half way done)

I

Can't

Stop!!!!

I don't know why, but I've become positively addicted to knitting!  It's become like a drug, Alex has become a knitting orphan, he comes up to me, begging for me to read him a book and I say "Just one more row Sweetie, I promise".  The next thing I know, he's passed out on the floor and I'm tying off the top of yet another hat.  It seems I only leave the house these days to go to the craft store for more yarn.  It's gotten so bad that I'm DREAMING about knitting.

To my credit, three of the hat/scarf sets and the set I'm currently working on are going to be holiday gifts.  So it's not like I'm just making my own personal hat army.  It's so fun to me, that I can start with just a big ball of yarn and just by making a series of loops and knots, I've created from nothing, something.  A hat!

Here are a couple of my favorites:

I made this one for Alex, but he hates it.  Won't even get near it.  I did manage to get it on his head once and it was really cute, but I doubt if he'll ever wear it.

This is the cutest thing ever. It's itty bitty and soft as can be.  Alex LOVES this one, but it doesn't come any where near fitting his head (which I'm sure John is happy about, it being all "sugar and spice and everything nice" and all).  He just likes holding it and rubbing it on his cheek. 

This is a set I'm planning to give our friends' three year old daughter for the holidays.  I'm in the process of making her mother a matching set( without the colorful fluffy parts).

Project

John's sister made a really cute hat and scarf set for their sister's birthday, and since then, I've been determined to make one myself.  I had started a knitting project about a month ago, but after a month of knitting, I had a scarf about two and a half inches long and six inches wide.  But, this newfound determination to make a hat has made me quite prolific. 

Hat attempt #1.

This hat is so thick, it won't even stretch over Alex's head.

Hat attempt #2:

To quote John "It would be a great hat, if Alex was a girl"

Hat attempt #3:  Screw making a hat for Alex, I'm making one for me!

Yeah baby!

Raspberries

Alex and I were playing on my bed when he yanked my shirt up and gave me a surprisingly loud raspberry on my tummy.  That was weird, Mommy getting raspberried by her 1 year old.

We really did know better

We let Alex eat a sucker at 9:30 pm last night.  That particular decision led to a very fussy and very AWAKE child at midnight who would not, under no circumstances, lay down in his own bed.  Consequently we had a squirmy child in bed with us most of the night and I did not get any sleep.

It all started because we let Alex eat suckers on Halloween.  He very quickly came to realize that suckers are manna from heaven.  Not only are they sweet and yummy, but also provide an unmeasurable amount of fun when you rub a sucker soaked in spit in your hands producing a sweet and sticky slime perfect for smearing on everything. 

So last night, when I came downstairs after changing Alex's diaper, Alex was overjoyed to find that his daddy had opened up a sucker to eat.  He immediately began grabbing at John's sucker, determined to have it for himself.  John, disgusted at the fact that Alex's hand was now touching his opened sucker, the very hand that had only a few minutes before been grabbing at his balls while having his diaper changed, let Alex take the sucker away.  There was no way John was going to eat the sucker now that it had "ball germs" on it. 

Now, at this point, as a responsible parent, I should have confiscated the sucker.  Had I done that, we all would have had a nice restful sleep.  But I didn't.  The smile on Alex's face while he was running away with his stolen sucker was so precious, so sweet, so amazingly cute, I let him have it.  So, apparently, I am the sucker.

Proud of his genetics

"Did the baby poop?"

"No, that was me"

"Really, that was a fart? Because it smells like a dirty diaper"

"I've noticed that sometimes, and I have to say, I like that I've passed some of my genetics on to him"

"Genetics?  You're happy that your fart smells like baby poo?"

"No, Alex's poop smells like my fart"

"Like father, like son then huh?"

"Yep"