Can I get your help, please?

I’m asking this question mostly to assuage my own curiosity, but it’s also a bit of market research… If you could answer the poll question, great. If you could also explain your answer by leaving a comment, even better! Thanks so much in advance!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

… so a new scarf-like object is in order! I’ve been wondering what to do with the leftover Lion Brand Homespun I got for a previous project (no, of course I didn’t buy extra on purpose! How dare you!!) and thought that maybe I could make something for me. Having started and hibernated a Karius scarf with this yarn in Tunisian as it was turning out too thick, this idea sprung fully formed from my head during lunch. Thank goodnss for notebooks, in which I could scribble notes until the babby went down for a nap… And the result is:

Yummy! The perfect thing for braving the weather in tomorrow – that is, as long as we don’t get too much more snow…

I will attempt to write up the pattern and make it available, but since I had to do some bodging to get the top bits right once I joined the ends of the triangle together, I’ll have to work that out first. Still, v pleased with result! (I don’t look TOO smug in this photo, do I??)

Baby 2.0’s Heartbeat!

Just got back from my 16 week midwife appointment – and I heard the heartbeat for the first time! Very exciting – and just in time for Christmas! You can hear it here.

It’s Snow Fun!

We never did get to play in the snow in Canada, so we made up for it today:

Snow suit courtesy of Nana Robin – it sure came in handy today! (And in case you haven’t noticed – she’s standing up by herself! She got quite good at it, too!)

Wordless Wednesday (I know, it’s Friday. I’ve been busy!!)

But maybe this will make up for it:

Blizzards, building and babies – a busy December so far!

First, Lucy and I are back safe from a visit home to see Nana and Papa Krause, during which we were both spoiled rotten… This is worth emphasising because once again we managed to hit the vagaries of Canadian winter and had to leave the ranch a day early to avoid being caught up in the first real blizzard of the winter in southern Alberta. However, thanks to a trusty 4×4 Chevy, some good driving by Papa Krause and an understanding aunt and uncle with whom we holed up on Friday night, Lucy and I made it back to Blighty yesterday afternoon.

Second, the weather here hasn’t been great either, and is doing its darndest to hold up our building project, although as we speak the guys are braving wind and rain to finish the brickwork on the conservatory so the frame for the glass can come tomorrow. I have to say they’ve been brilliant – I hope the rest of the installation crew is as good!

And finally, babies – yes, that’s plural, as another reason we had to get back from Canada is I had my first ultrasound scan this morning at (a not-so-bright, and definitely too early when you’ve just got off a plane!) 9.30am. Here he/she is:

As with Lucy, this one seems not to like getting their picture taken, and was very wiggly, hence the rather blurry image. But, since having gestational diabetes once means I’m likely to get it again, we’re also likely to have lots more scans before Baby 2.0’s arrival, in late May or early June.

I hope the rest of December isn’t as eventful!

New walls and stuff

So, our long-awaited and debated conservatory is finally underway. Tuesday was a lot of digging, …

… yesterday was a lot of concrete …

… and today we finally get some walls!

(Unfortunately we also have a lot of drilling into the house and sawing, which isn’t doing much for nap times, but hey – we can see the end of the road…)

We’ll also get some steps and a path down to the shed at the end, but that’ll be a bit later. Right now – just glad it’s started!!

Sleep, that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care…. *

According to Google Images, this is what a Sleeping Child should look like:

Isn’t it lovely? Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t almost like there should be fairy dust and twinkly stars around their beautiful little head??

Currently our wittow angel is snoring, (I can hear her through the baby monitor) but the whole point of this post is that She Has Not Been Sleeping Enough in the last week. Seriously, this is how our evenings are supposed to go:

1. Daddy gets home and takes the babby, and they play lovingly while Mummy makes dinner.
2. Fambly has dinner, and Daddy clears away while Mummy and Babby have a bath, get into our jim-jams and nurse ourselves to sleep. (OK, maybe that was an inappropriate use of the collective – that just sounded weird.)
3. Mummy and Daddy actually find their real names and spend the evening talking to one another like adults (read: watch lots of telly) until it’s time for bed.

Except since Sunday, there have been a few addenda:

• Babby wakes up after about an hour, and nurses back to sleep again.
• Babby wakes up again and wants to PLAY!
• Babby may or may not go back to sleep.
• Cat yowels loudly outside sleeping babby’s door for no discernible reason and WAKES HER UP!!
• Babby doesn’t want to go back to sleep again until at least 11.00. Last night IT WAS 12.30 PEOPLE (THAT”S AM!!) and Mummy gave up and called in Daddy for reinforcements. Then slept fitfully for an hour about being chased by a grizzly bear. (No, I am not kidding…)

Mummy is now shattered and is not quite sure of her name, address, or serial number. Or rank. Or whatever it is that you’re supposed to give to the enemy. Except, frankly, if the enemy would let me sleep, I’d probably sell out several governments and international corporations for a small kip at the moment…

* That’s Macbeth, BTW. Act 2, when M has just committed regicide and he and Lady M are planning more nefarious perfidies (like, really bad murders and stuff). (If you want me to use less high-falutin’ lingo, LET ME GET SOME SLEEP!!!)

 

UPDATE: OMG, she went to bed on time! And slept! And woke up for normal feeds, and then went back to sleep again!! And she had a nap again today!!! I may faint…

Garg.

How is it Thursday again, almost Friday because it’s perilously close to midnight, and I haven’t posted for a week? Where does the time go?? Yargs.

(I have decided that that is probably my new favourite word. It sums up nicely my sense of exhaustion, frustration, and complete lack of will to do the dishes. Again.)

Anyway, just a quick moan and then I’m off to wash cutlery so we can eat breakfast. Joy and rapture, in equal unparalleled measure.

Good night.

(After I’ve done the dishes, obviously.)

((Yargs.))

Time flies like an arrow…

I truly cannot believe that it has been a year since our beautiful daughter Lucy was born. All day, I’ve been wondering what I was doing last year at that time – and I have to say that once we got out of the operating theatre (I had an emergency caesarian at 9 am) the rest of the day is quite a blur – mostly involving sleep, I think… Anyway, here she is:

Happy First Birthday, sweet girl. We love you so much!

(Oh, and yes, I know – fruit flies like a banana. And the post-cake sugar high?? Well, she’s never sounded like a monkey before!! )