Sunday 28 January 2007

I am a domestic goddess

My neighbour, Lynn, had offered to teach me how to knit. I honestly didn’t know if I’d find the time, or whether or not I’d like it. However, you can see the results in this cute hat I made for Sacha! Once I started, it took me 3 evenings worth of work and voilà! Cuteness to the extreme.

The result is a bit smaller than I was going for: the lady at Knitwit (the wool store) sold me the wrong size of needle (I asked for a US size 7, she gave me a 4.0 mm, which is actually a 6), and I was too dumb to know any better. On top of that, I bought the wrong type of wool for the pattern - both of these errors led to a hat that is more in the 0-6 month range as opposed to the 6-12 month size I was going for. Good thing Sacha has a little head! He can enjoy this hat for a little while.

Next up: a turtle hat for Sacha.

Interestingly, I learned from a friend that guys don’t knit - they Knot. And they don’t use needles, they use Jabbers. I think I may just take up knotting with jabbers. It sounds way more bad-ass.

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Friday 19 January 2007

Screwed

I changed Sacha’s diaper and found that the base of his penis was bleeding as if it had been cut by a paper - papercut style of bleed.  My initial reaction: HIS PENIS IS GOING TO FALL OFF!  I regained my composure and took him promptly to the night clinic, where a lovely doctor examined him and told me that he had eczema on his pubic area, and that it was nothing to worry about.

I then decided to ask her about the whole sleep thing.  For those who don’t know, Sacha has been sleeping for a maximum of 3 hours straight at night.  He wakes up to eat or suckle about 50 times a night.  Ok, so maybe that’s an exaggeration.  Last night he was up about 10 times by midnight.    Whatever the number, it’s bad.  The doctor asked all the doctor questions and determined that we seem to be doing everything right, but that he may be growing a lot and is hungry and ready enough to start solids.  Yea!  I can do that!  Then we had this convo:

Dr: “Is he always this active?” (noting his flailing limbs and his rolling about on the table while devouring his entire fist and laughing maniacally).
Me: “Yup, pretty much”
Dr: “Does he move around at night?”
Me: “Sometimes, when I go get him when he wakes up, he has rotated 180 degrees in his crib. In fact, now that I think about it, he was constantly moving when he was in the womb, too.  He didn’t go more than 20 minutes without kicking my ribs or jolly jumping on my bladder.”
Dr: “Well, he may just be an active kid who will not really need a lot of sleep, or will not sleep very soundly.  That may just be his personality.”
Me (in my head): Oh Fuck.

Oh great, my son is a wreck. His penis is falling off and he’s going to have ADHD.  Best I buy stocks in Ritalin now.

Thursday 4 January 2007

Random musings

Christmas has come and gone, and today is Tony and my 4th wedding anniversary.  He’s working late, and I just put Sacha to sleep so now I am left wondering if it is even worth catching the last 39 minutes of Ugly Betty, or if I should just ramble on my blog.

Rambling it is.

Teething sucks a big one.  Oh wait, I am not allowed to use that phrase, as it was invented by Paul the Great Orator, so I am supposed to give credit to him everytime I use it.  So there you go.

My Pepère is in a nursing home now.  When I saw him in November, I was thrilled that he remembered me. Today is Memère and Pepère’s wedding anniversary, too.  She told Tony that she wonders if he will remember.  Growing old is a bitch.

Other news:  Tony has been promoted to pharmacy manager.  This is ok by us - he is pretty much doing that anyway, but now it will be coupled with a pay increase.  This will most certainly all go to taxes, but hey.  It’s the principle of it.  Maybe now some of the techs at work will actually listen to him. I still won’t, but that’s another story :)

Global warming definitely hitting Timmins.  The temperature is ridiculously warm here, and everytime we get a dump of snow it melts within 2 or 3 days.  It's actually quite alarming, and I don't know how people can ignore it. Everyday is a record high temperature here (or within a degree of the record). I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and it's got me all thinking about what I can do to get the message across to people that our consuming and polluting ways are going to destroy our ability to live.  Makes me scared and depressed all at once, since I wonder what kind of mess Sacha is going to be living in when he is an adult.

Ah, the worries and fears of parenthood.

Now on to another worry - well, not so much worry as annoyance.  Sacha has reverted in his sleeping to waking up 4 or 5 times a night, wanting ONLY to be nursed back to sleep.  Needless to say, we are all very tired in our house.  We are trying some strategies, but everything takes time and I am not a very patient person in the middle of the night.  But it's not Sacha's fault, he's just a baby.  If he was aware of the tiredness he made me feel and able to change, he would sleep through the night. I take solace in that.

Sacha and Tony have a pact (or so I hear) that Sacha is only allowed to poop when Tony is at work or on the crapper, himself.  This has resulted in  Tony not having to deal with anyone else’s shit for the last week or so.  Again, I know that it’s not Sacha’s fault, and that if he knew how much it makes his Daddy gag to change a poopy diaper, I know he would pull a fast one on Tony just for shits and giggles.

My sisters are both going through early-life crises, or so it seems.  One is moving to Ottawa for a new job, the other is quitting her job and moving with hubby to Edmonton to go back to school.  I wonder if this is genetic - am I due for an early life crisis?  Oh wait,being a mom makes me old, so I guess I’ll have to wait for my mid-life crisis to dye my hair bright pink and pierce my nipple.  Just kidding - I wouldn’t dye my hair pink (lol).

Speaking of piercings, when did nose rings become the norm?  Everyone I see has one!  In fact, one could say that I am the hip and cool one for NOT having a nose ring. Or an eyebrow ring, or a navel ring, or a telephone ring, or whatever other ring you so desire.

Lastly, I visited the Shania Twain museum a couple of weeks ago.  I was surprised - it was not a cheesy as I thought it would be, and that’s probably the closest I’ll ever be to a real Versace dress, so I guess I got my $9 worth.  Oh wait, Baba paid.  I guess she got her $9 worth.

Have a happy 2007!  Please, use public transport and push your Hummers and pick-ups off a cliff.  They’re killing the planet.  As are your highly inefficient incandescent lightbulbs.  Buy compact fluorescents.  They are SO much better.