Sunday, November 16, 2008

Update on Christie, on my parents' visit, on knitting, on the boys...

Wow, life has been so busy in the last week that I feel I have so much to do and so much to update you on. So here goes.

First, thanks for all your prayers, kindness and words of encouragement you've sent in regards to my cousin Christie. She found out her cat scan results on Thursday and her cancer is Stage 3 and in her neck and stomach. We were hoping to hear Stage 1, but Stage 3 is better than 4 and we are still confident that Christie can beat this. She starts chemo (every other week for 6-8 months) on Thursday. Please continue to keep her and her husband and children in your prayers. Thanks!

I am almost done knitting Christie's Stolen Moments Wrap (more details to come when I complete it and photograph it). It has been a quick and enjoyable knit. I think I'll have some yarn left over and may make myself a scarf in it using the same stitch pattern as the wrap.

I also want to make Christie a hat, but haven't found a pattern/yarn combination yet that I love so that one is still on the brain and not yet on the needles.

My parents were here from Tuesday until Saturday. This was my dad's first trip to see our house and my mom hadn't been here since the week we moved in. It was really exciting for me to have them see and stay at my house. I had lots of fun getting the guest room ready for them--even if it is still a very garish bright blue (painting it is on B's to-d0 list...Someday).

The guest room

Little basket of goodies and toiletries for my parents to enjoy while staying at my house.

We didn't do anything major, but had lots of fun hanging out. I LOVE seeing my boys with their Mooma and Papa. It just makes me REALLY happy.
One day at naptime, my dad decided to go upstairs and read his book. J decided he wanted to read his books with Papa and Mooma. Of course, Zoe had to join them too.

At our neighborhood playground.

N, Mooma and Me

J loved playing trains with Papa.

J and I rode the carousel at the mall.

Papa and N (right before N met Santa Claus for the first time).

We did a little Christmas shopping while my parents were here and I am excited to say that come Christmas time I will be looking much nicer in a few new sweaters and a great pair of jeans. I also got to take my mom to the knit shop (The Woolie Ewe) in Plano (20 minutes away, but the closest one to my house). I love the fact that my mom is a knitter. It's so much fun to share patterns and show off our latest knit projects to each other.

I have so many things I want to knit right now. After I finish Christie's wrap, I'm going to finish L's Hello Kitty bag and J's Fuzzy Mitten Farm Animals. Then I'm going to knit J a Christmas vest (I'm going to adapt this free pattern from Lion Brand; on Ravelry here). I also want to knit a few Christmas presents (more details to come after they have been gifted). I also want to knit a hat and cardigan for my nephew O, a hat for Christie, another sweater (maybe a Wallaby) for J, a fun sweater (gray, cabled cardigan?) for myself. Not enough time in the day for it all because I really should clean my house occasionally, cook dinner, take care of my children and, oh yeah, sleep.

Talking of the boys, N turns 6 months tomorrow. 6 Months! I can't believe it! He is growing up SO quickly. He now has two bottom teeth poking through and he's not very happy about it. He plays with them with his tongue and sucks on his lower lip a lot these days. N is also getting up into the crawl position and rocking back and forth. He gets really frustrated because he can't figure out how to go forward yet. J never did this as he chose to commando crawl (and that wasn't until he was 10 or 11 months). I am so not ready for N to be crawling. Oh well. Must figure out a safe place for the Christmas tree.

I couldn't believe it when I saw N up in the crawl position.

Now what do I do?

J is totally bored now that my parents have left. He also has a cold so he's not the happiest of campers. He definitely getting ready for Christmas. When he asks for toys and things these days, I tell him that we'll tell Santa and maybe he'll get them for Christmas. He is getting quite a list for Santa. I hope he's not too disappointed when he doesn't get it all. Hmm... We will see. I still have very few ideas for N since we have so many toys already left over from J. I'm sure we will find something.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. I don't know how much I will blog this week as I have lots of appointments (N's therapy, N's 6 month doctor's appointment, cable/internet upgrade installation, Thanksgiving Feast at J's school, photo session for the boys at Portrait Innovations) and we'll be getting ready to head to Ohio for Thanksgiving next week. Have a great week!

1 comment:

Yarnhog said...

I love watching kids figure out how to move around. One of mine did the "wounded soldier crawl", as we called it, which is a commando crawl using only one leg and arm. The other rolled, fast, everywhere. Fortunately for me, they were both late walkers (17 months or so).

One thing I figured out about Santa was that you have to find a way to explain why some kids get more presents than others (since kids will jump to the conclusion that Santa brings more gifts to "better" kids). In our mixed-income neighborhood, this was a problem, until I decided to tell my kids that Santa only brings one gift, and parents give the rest. It's much easier to explain that some parents can afford to buy more than others than to explain why Santa gave one kid 50 presents and another kid only 2.