Permanent

The baby has been exploring color lately....here's an older photo of playing with washable markers.

I was getting packages ready to be mailed today and I ran downstairs to grab the packing tape. I figure the kids would be fine, but I should have worried about the furniture! I was gone about 10 seconds, the time to sprint down the stairs, grab tape and run back up. I found this when I got back:













That's permanent marker! She even had a spot under her nose! She kept repeating, "Nooooooo," as I was scrubbing it off, most of it scrubbed away, but now I need to put a new layer of finish on the table.

There is an age where the 'bad' things kids do-like unrolling the toilet paper go from being cute to getting them in trouble. Writing on the furniture with permanent marker will never be cute and I admit I held a grudge for about thirty minutes, but that sweet little face made me forget all about it, until I look at my table and chairs!

Knitting Everywhere

I've got knitting all over the house now, that way, when the kids are entertaining themselves (you can never predict these things) and the dishes are away and the laundry is in, I just pick up the knitting closest too me and work. At night, it's more a complicated piece or I sneak in the basement and sew, in the day, it's all knit stitch. Upstairs: a blanket beyond the portability stage. Next to the couch: lace scarf. In the bathroom: crazy zimmermann socks (for bathtime not my bathroom time-I'm never alone in the bathroom). I have way too many projects on the needles but at least they are all slowly getting done.

So, here are a few I've finished, unless you want to see photos of works in progress!

An Unoriginal Hat by Yarn Harlot in out of stash yarn from 10 years ago, a silk wool blend by Noro. Hat was received by TiffTiff and hopefully it kept her warm at the Mall for the big day (so jealous!)

A pencil/crayon/marker roll filled with short 'pip squeak' markers. I ended up folding down the top, the quilting is better than a year ago and I finally figured out the tie but avoid looking at the corner, I ran out of bobbin thread. It's made to hold markers for a kid, it doesn't have to be perfect, right!

Mittens for a friend, unhappily modeled again by E! There are two, I knitted two at the same time, these are a gift for Friend, once I get to the post office!

Out of the Woods

We took a hike last week, Baby E (no longer a baby) runs and laughs, she loves hiking. It was going great the first 10 minutes, everyone stayed in view. Then, I started to have an anxiety attack as all grew more comfortable, stepping off the path, going in opposite directions, what if I loose one of them? I started to become Grouchy Mom. We hiked for about an hour, it was cool out, we had bundled up.

I am inspired by the new President and I hope other are, too. He is filling his cabinet with former rivals, reaching across the aisle-he is doing things differently. I was so proud to see Pelosi and Fienstein flanking him, how great is that picture! Goodbye old white guys, your way of doing things is over, time to give someone else a chance! Michelle is a truly classy first lady, it just feels so good to finally win. If McCain was in there, I'm feel strongly we'd spiral into a bad depression, and I'd be living off the plums in my back yard.

Instead, I'm inspired to be nicer to people, to waste less, to consume less and to do more. My first task is to work with the Parks Department to no longer use pesticides at our local park. I've applied for a mini grant through my city to pay for a volunteer park clean up day to provide the workers instead of spraying to kill weeds. I'm anticipating resistance, so I look forward to working with the local government and forming a concerned group to make the entire city pesticide free. After that, I'll ask Obama to make our national parks pesticide free. It doesn't make sense to me that woman and children (the most susceptible to chemicals, the ones who use the parks most) are exposed to chemicals to keep a few weeds under control and make the grass pretty. There is a lot of work to do, so get busy!

Zoo Story

We had some unusual weather (again) 56 degrees and sunny in January. I had to get the kids out, so we went to the Zoo with our friend. Butters tells great stories, jokes and plays a mean game of 'I Spy' in the car. They were both asleep on the way home, which is why it took forever for my husband to get the boy asleep. Here are his favorite jokes and some sayings.

"My favorite flower is dandy lions."

"Why did the pig go in the kitchen, because he felt like bacon." (The delivery is too fast on that one, no pause)

"That tapir looks like a cow."

"Mom, my favorite part of the day was riding horses, just kidding!"

"What kind of pants does a thunderstorm wear? Thunderware." (He usually says Thunderpants).

This is his first game of 'pin the tail on something.' it was put the spider on the web at a bday party this weekend. His is the big long red balloon at the top (his fav color).

Flooding

We are fine, we were cut off from the rest of the state/country for a few days, but there were no riots over the last loaf of bread or the last rolls of toilet paper! Butters and I walked down to the river to carefully snap these photos, I answered all types of questions-why did the river flood? where are the cows? Why was there too much water? Can I have a sucker?

Don't worry, no one lives in that little yellow house. It's part of an organic dairy farm, but about 100 years ago a son killed his parents in that house, with an ax!

Shaving

His dad will be okay to show him how to shave some day.

Onward

We are all happy to call 2008 over. There were good things to happen, of course. The kids grew about 4 inches between the two of them, we had a nice winter holiday (picture above is old but it is snowing right now), we met new friends, we played a lot this summer, I learned how to knit two socks on one needle and we learned how strong our family and friends are-because we leaned on every one of them! So, thanks for helping us make it through the year, we know next year will be great because it can't get much worse! We'll look back just long enough to make sure no one falls off the sled and to reflect, but otherwise-"onwards and upwards" (as my geology professor used to say!)