Knitting projects 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11

So as you can tell, I've been a busy little bee knitting. There has been an onslaught of babys, and requests for things, so unfortunately the Professor and Gawain have been keeping eachother busy while I've been knitting as fast as I can. Here are the finished products:

A meathead hat for a precious baby boy, embellished with a cool wooden button



Another meathead hat for another precious baby, not embellished this time



Meathead hat #3 for a baby girl, embellished with a crocheted pink flower



A luxurious baby blanket for the above button baby boy



My attempt to make my 25 year old sister a skull and crossbones hat like the Professor's.....



Obviously size 6 needles were perfect for a new hat for the Professor, not so perfect for a hat for my sister....



There, size 8 needles worked much better.....

Merry Christmas to us

Yes I do realize this post is a bit late.

Busyness ensued at the end of this past year, what with trying to get us all ready to enjoy a sunny and warm Christmas in Florida with my family.

I thought I'd highlight some of the details from the trip.

• The Professor's amazing performance on both the flights there and back (dude 10 hours is a long time for a 9 month old to have to sit still and not scream)
• The unseasonably warm weather we enjoyed (yes it was 80 and sunny and we got to go to the beach or pool everyday....heaven!!!!)
• Seeing my family I never get to see
• Seeing my BIL before he goes to Afghanistan in March for a year (war sucks, please come home safe and sound!)
• Getting a wall mount for our TV to fix this problem

Do you see it? come closer...

Now do you see it? No? Come closer still....

Yes those would be the Professor's itty bitty hand and finger prints all over our TV. Like I said, Merry Christmas to us for getting a wall TV mount!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and Holiday seasons!
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ps: one of my new year's resolutions is to win a contest! (anyone will do...I just want to win one). Hopefully I can start out the new year right and win this one, because dude, those boots are ROCKIN! Wish me luck!

Who knew Nine Inch Nails could sound so good?

So when the Professor came home, since we love music so much we knew that we would have to instill this love for it in him as well. We also didn't own any lullaby type things to lull him to sleep with, so I just created a playlist on my ipod that had things like Dido, Coldplay, Jack Johnson, U2 and John Mayer on it. Gawain quickly got tired of listening to this playlist and decided to take the matter into his own hands. After searching the internet this is what he came up with:



That's right. He totally found hard rockin' songs in a lullaby format! They sound pretty neat, and what's more, Professor X loves them! We now have in our possession the lullaby formats of Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Bob Marley, and No Doubt. We found that you could have lullaby renditions of Slayer songs, but decided that NIN was as hard as we were going for our baby.

Green Day totally rocks!!!

Just because everyone else is doing it means I must do it too!

With all the "green"ness going on lately, Gawain and I have been trying to step it up a notch. We have been trying to be better about separating our trash better, recycling what can be recycled, composting what can be composted, and really only throwing away the Professor's diapers (which I know isn't that great, but we're working on that). We have seriously considered using gDiapers, and most likely will once the Professor isn't going through 5 billion diapers a day (we also have to make sure they will flush in our toilet that doesn't have a very good flushing capacity...Isabel please bring one of Baboo's over next time you are in the neighborhood). When purchasing a new car, we got one that claims good gas mileage and is a ULEV. Gawain takes the bus to work, and if its possible, I try and walk to the store and only run errands in the car when I have a long list so I don't use the car too excessively.

We are trying to do our part to minimize our "carbon butt print".

The latest thing that I have fallen in with is reusable grocery bags. I used to see people using them in the grocery store, at Target, at Babies-R-Us, and think "oh that's nice, but they're too small for my purposes! And more expensive than free." If I was only getting a couple of things, I would usually just say "oh I don't need a bag" and try and be good to the environment that way.

Enter having a baby.

The first couple of weeks after the Professor was born, people from our church were nice enough to bring us meals. One of those meals was brought to us in a fancy Trader Joe's reusable grocery bag.

Ok, first of all, this was a lot cooler than any of the other reusable bags I'd seen thus far. I mean seriously look at it:

By happy chance, this same family brought us dinner again, in another cool bag. I decided I would go pick up some bags, so I tried to return the former bag. She was nice enough to just let me have both!

Let me tell you. These new bags are super convenient! A lot fits in them, they are stronger than paper, bigger than plastic, and they have long enough straps that you can swing them over your shoulder if you need too. I ended up going to Trader Joe's, saw the awesome beach one, and asked how much it was.

$.99.

Really???? A buck to have a more awesome bag than plastic??? So I don't have this happening???

I have now been using the bags everytime I go anywhere. They are very awesome, and I feel good about helping the environment. Really, a couple bucks to not have a billion plastic bags running around is the least I could do!

You rock mommy!!!

***** I do know and realize that disposable diapers are awful for the environment. Like I said I'm working on that, and hopefully we will have a solution soon. Didn't want anyone to think I'm a hypocrite!*******

The Birth of the Professor

Top 10 moments (good or bad) from Vesper's Labor and Delivery:

10: Vesper waking up with intense back labor at midnight on Wednesday March 26(umm I suppose actually Thursday morning then?). Even though its painful she is thrilled because that was the day she was supposed to be induced and she didn't really want to be induced.

9: After waiting 6 hours to go to triage (because we didn't want any chance of being sent home) we go in and luckily they decide at 3cm dilation and 90% effacement they will keep her, and her doctor says she can have an epidural at any time.

8: The whirlpool tub in the bathroom. Sitting in there for a bit was nice, and helped ease the back pain a little. All I have to say is I want one!!!! Unfortunately since back labor sucks, Vesper throws up twice and continues on the rest of the day on ice chips (not in the tub, eww that's gross!).

7: After 12 hours of labor, getting an epidural. Seriously, it was heaven!!! I truly admire those who can go with out one, especially if they have back labor, because it was AWFUL!! Vesper's Dr breaks her water after the epidural is in place.

6: The Angel of Mercy Nurse is the most awesome night nurse. She sponge bathed me and made sure I was cozy and then left Gawain and I alone, something the other nurses had not done the entire day (By this time it was like 8pm on Thursday (if you're counting that's 20 hours of labor by now) and I was only at 7cm and 95% effaced). The Dr (who was not MY Dr) lets me know baby is fine, but if I don't progress, "this baby has to come out somehow......."

5: Being alone with Gawain for awhile. Again A.M. Nurse ROCKS! Gawain and I just napped for awhile while the Dr was performing a c-section or two. When she gets back (around midnight, now 24 hours into labor) she is thrilled that I am finally 9cm and 100% effaced.

4: The epidural wearing off twice. Once around 8pm (luckily I got a boost) and again right before it was time to push. Oh yeah, and having an internal monitor for measuring contractions, that was interesting as well.

3: The Dr. sticking her hand up there and turning the baby the right way. I'm just SO glad I had half an epidural working.

2: 1am: DR: "Oh my goodness you're +3 its time to push, see there is his head!!!" A.M. Nurse and Gawain start coaching me while Dr goes and does one more c-section. When she gets back to catch, both her and A.M. Nurse are impressed with Gawain's coaching skills.

Dr: You are a great doula!

Gawain: I'm not a doula, I'm a Dudela!

And the number one moment from Gawain and Vesper's birth experience:::::::::::

1: Professor X being born at 147am on March 28, 2008. After almost 26 hours of labor and only 40min of pushing (thank goodness!) He popped out weighing 8lbs 15.6oz and measuring 21 in long. (DR: "Vesper look at him!! This is a huge baby!! I"m going to have to come back and see how much he weighs!")