I have been displaced. I am writing to you on our ancient laptop in the living room. Henry has taken over the desktop and the mere mention of "Mommy's turn" illicits a digging in of the heels usually reserved for avoiding the potty. Since Kyle is at class and I have had a long day of packing for tomorrow's trip, I am letting him do whatever he wants today. I have been trying to get this place cleaned up a bit so we don't come home to a pig sty. Dishes are done, the last load of laundry is in, the living room is picked up and all of Henry and my stuff is sitting in a pile in the bedroom waiting to be stuffed into a bag. Snacks, toys and knitting is all packed up and ready to be put into the car. Phone and camera battery are charging. I'm in good shape. Kyle, on the other hand, spent all day frantically doing last minute preparations for a presentation he has tonight and has not even begun packing.

Henry is slowly but surely showing signs that he might potty train sometime soon. This morning he asked to put on train undies "like Noah's". Peer pressure, work your magic! What came next was not quite as promising. He started peeing in his undies, so I picked him up and brought him to the potty. he ended up peeing into the potty...through his undies. Not exactly what I meant by "we pee in the potty". He wanted more undies, and those lasted about 15 minutes before he peed in them. He ran around naked for another half hour or so without any accidents and then he asked for his diaper back so we finished our potty work for the day. It is justa s well. I'd hate for him to get all wrapped up in undies the day before a 10 hour trip.

I only have 2 more orders left before I can work on fun stuff. I am not taking any more orders until I get back from MI, so that should leave plenty of time for MEEEEE projects. I have been perusing my brand spanking new knitting book (Mason-Dixon Knitting which I adore) and I think I am going to start a pretty little window covering. Like a little drape, kind of, but with all sorts of yo, k2 action going on, so it has a lacy effect. Pretty. And I have some sport weight yarn that I bought by mistake that will be perfect for it. I have a couple of other projects up my sleeve as well, and I packed plenty of yarn so I can goof off knitting non-business stuff. How exciting! I want to start NOW! There is a web address in the book of a site that does knitted blankets based on mathematical theory. I think it is Woolly Thoughts. There are some CRAZY blankets on there. Oh, the things I could do if I didn't ahve to make an actual living knitting. The projects I could make! The surfaces I could beautify! Too bad I couldn't afford to buy yarn.

We should be playing outside right now but I don't waaaaannnnaaaa! I should be cleaning Henry's room while he is otherwise occupied but I don't waaannnaa! I should be cleaning out the fridge so that we don't come home to a class 4 biohazard, but that is even further down the list of things I want to do. You know what I'm doing the night before we leave for a 10 day trip with a toddler? Sittin here drinking a Diet Coke, updating my blog and watching a Hogan Knows Best marathon. I suck.

Okay, since that stupid picture inserting function never works for me, here is my new haircut. Note my ethereal glow. Either I am an angel stright from Heaven or I just really suck at taking pictures of myself. 

Ahhh, I have precious minutes between when Kyle left for class and when Henry wakes up from his nap. Yay!

I actually left Kyle to wrangle the bean down to sleep so I could pop out to Melissa's and get a summer cut. Seeing henry with a cool new 'do made me want to go short again. Usually I just get the same old thing, just a tad shorter, but I went for something a little different this time. I wanted it to have a little funk, like it used to, so I went for a short, asymmetrical number.

[IMG]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c125/crankymama/DSCN08431.jpg[/IMG]

We'll see if that picture insert works. If not, I'll post a picture later. The back is super short, like all the way up to the nape of my neck. It feels good to have a summer cut, even if it has been raining for the past 3 days with no hint of hot summer weather anywhere around. The heat and humidity will be back with a vengence soon enough. Ahhh, summer in a temperate rainforest...

We had playgroup this morning at poor Liz's poor house. I don't know what it is about this age, but they just seem like little manimals, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. We picked up on our way out, but I fear that Adella's room may never be the same again. I pretty much just dropped Henry off at home and headed back out for my haircut. As I was running out the door, Kyle was in there trying to get him to sleep and he was screaming for Mommy. Did I feel bad? Maybe just a tiny bit-as I hauled ass out of there. Now Kyle is gone and Henry and I ahve the evening to ourselves. What shall we do?

In spite of the rain (which has thankfully slowed to a light drizzle)we have to walk down to the co-op to pick up our veggies for the week. If it was still raining hard I think I'd make the call and torment Liz further by making her drive all the way across town to get them, but it isn't too bad out. And frankly, I need something to entertain the bean for part of the night or we'll both go mad. Cross your fingers that we don't get stuck halfway in a flash flood.

Another of Henry's little friends has left the world of diapers behind. Noah is officially in undies. He doesn't seem thrilled with it, but he's doing it. We are starting right when we get home from Ann Arbor. One pack of "feel and learn" dipes and then Henry is undies man. I am hoping to build up a bigger undies stash before then, as I am quite certain we will be going through them at breakneck speeds. I am still on the hunt for Diego or boys' Dora undies. I will be scouring the stores tomorrow when Henry is at co-op. What else do I have to do during that blissful 3 hours? I'm not sure. I feel like I should be preparing for out pilgrimage up North in some way, but I'm not quite sure how.

I need to scrounge up some dinner for tiny man before he wakes up. I don't want to grocery shop right before we go out of town, so the pickins are getting kind of slim. I think we have some pasta around here somewhere...

I'm thinking about doing a Crankypants blog. A blog that my customers can peek at if they feel like it to see what might be coming up or where I might be on their order. Is that the stupidest idea ever?

Kyle took henry to the store. he has suddenly become obsessed with organizing our desk area, so last night he went out and got this crazy metal shelf thing to put over the monitor (it is really a baking rack, I think) and is now on a mission to find little shoebox type storage boxes for all of our stuff-like in the picture on the shelving box. I know full well that these boxes are going to be very little help in organizing, because in order for them to aid in the tidiness of the area, one must actually actively use and maintain them. I don't want to burst his bubble, though, especially when he took Henry with him and I am left alone in blissful quiet, only the sound my NPR's Peter Segal chatting in my ear.

I finally finished that difficult order adn it went out in the mail this morning. Whhhheee!

Oh, they're back.

I can't believe I did it, but I left an important little tidbit out of Henry's haircutting story last night. After the cut Henry and McKai were playing together. Henry was playing Fletcher's South African hand drum and McKai was dancing around playing the fake guitar. Henry decided he wanted to relocate and managed to pick up the drum that is more than half his size. And he dropped it on his big toe. Ouch. This morning his little toenail is all black and he'll only walk on the heel of that foot. Poor little man. I think it is one of those injuries that we just have to wait out, which is no fun at all. I don't like not being able to help. He wasn't even interested in a Sesame Street bandaid.

In other news, boys' underwear sucks! Why do they only make Dora undies for girls? Boots the monkey is clearly a boy, though I guess he doesn't wear undies. If Dora being a girl makes it a cultural impossiblity for it to be appropriate for any little boy to want Dora undies, can't they at LEAST make Go, Diego, Go undies for boys? Henry loves those shows. He doesn't need Spiderman or Batman undies, he's 3 and doesn't watch that crap. He doesn't need Nascar or H2 undies. Frankly, the idea of putting either of those things on him makes me want to shoot myself in the face. What are we left with? Thomas, which we already have, and Elmo. SO I got some Elmo undies, but henry hasn't been that into Elmo in a while, so I don't think he is going to be that big of an incentive for him to wear them. Someone find me some Diego undies, dammit.

Henry slept very poorly last night. He called me in and asked me to lay down with him for a while. I thought I could sneak off, but he kept waking up crying every 5-10 minutes and being upset about very random things. He woke up and started crying about leaves. He woke up and started crying about cars. Etc., etc., ad nauseum. A few hours later I finally made it back to my bed. Henry was still sleeping when it was time for Kyle to leave this morning so he took the car. So I am now looking at the next 5 hours wondering what the heck we are going to do all morning. I just don't feel up to strapping Henry into the stroller and walking to the park or library. I am tiiiiiiiiired. I don't even feel like walking down to water the garden, which needs to be done.

Oh, I hear Henry rummaging around in something in the other room. Best to go see what he is up to...

Before the haircut eating pretzels and looking kind of stoned. 

After.. "But I don't waaaaaaanna have my picture taken!". 

Day. From. Hell.

It started out normal enough. We woke up, hit the bakery, stopped at Target for some much needed garbage bags and headed off to Liz's house for another blissful week watching the kids at co-op. I had two in a row this time around because I waited until the last possible minute to sign up. Henry was kind of crabby, but I chalked it up to me hustling him out of the house at 7:40am. The kids at co-op were little manics all morning. They couldn't manage to share the toys, they pushed and threw stuff-they just couldn't get it together, my little monster included. It was a long 3 hours. The highlight was the arts and crafts project that I planned. I brought over white coffee filters, we let the kids color them with markers and then we pinned them to their backs like fairy wings. I wasn't sure how it was going to go over but the kids loved it. And it was too cute watching them flit around like little fairies. Until they started the snatchy grabby again anyway. Needless to say, I was happy when all the mamas came to collect the little darlings. It was so nice sitting on the porch chatting with Liz and Beth after all of the other kids were gone that I didn't get Henry into the car until after 1:30. I figured that he'd fall right to sleep. Which he did...right up until I put him in his bed. The next 2 hours were spent trying to force, cajole and/or bribe Henry to take a nap. Ummm...no. I wouldn't ahve pushed the issue too much, but we had a haircut appointment at 6 and I knew that I was going to have to tackle that mess of dreaded up hair in the back of his head. That is a bad enough job with a well fed, well rested Henry never mind a cranky tired one. But I snuch up behind him while he was snacking on a fruit leather and watching Chicken Little and I did it. It wasn't pretty, but it got done. We went to Melisa and McKai's house and they plyed for a while while Melissa and I caught up and I checked out her kick ass garden she has going back there. Then Melissa took what seemed like 12 pounds of hair off of the little man's head. He is going to be SO much happier and cooler in the heat with the shorter hair, but he still has enough length for the curls to boing back. I am loving it. I took pictures (scroll down) but he was not into posing for a nice "after" shot.

Now I have just spent another hour wrestling Henry down to sleep. I tried every trick in the book to no avail. Finally he just couldn't fight it anymore and conked out. *phew* Here's hoping he sleeps late. Yeah right.

Kyle is on the phone with our old friend Patrick from MI. I guess 'tis the season for tracking down old friends or something. It looks like we are adding one more stop on our Midwest World Tour and stopping at his place in Ludington for the night. Yeah, it's about 3 hours out of the way, but it will be worth it. Little Isiah, who got little 4 year old Dorito handprints all over my wedding dress, is almost 10!!!! It will be so nice to see them.

Nope, we still haven't heard anything about the loan. I have pretty much convinced myself it's a no, so every day that we don't get a call is one more day of just putting off the inevitable. Last night I had a dream that they turned us down because we only had $700 in the bank. In the middle of the night, I somehow couldn't make myself believe that the dream was wrong and that our balance was actually higher than that in real life. It was silly, but it kept me up for a while.

Okay. It's time for me to get my butt back to work on the 3rd pair of monkey pants in the past 7 days. And after this I still have 2 more to go. Damn monkey.

 

Here are this weeks CSA veggies:
1 bunch beets
1 bunch baby carrots (yum!)
1 bunch turnips
1 bunch kale (going stright into the freezer)
1/2 lb. yummy lettuce mix
1/2 lb spinach (also destined for the freezer)
1/2 lb broccoli florets
3 broccoli crowns

I predict that the carrots will be gone in the next 15 minutes. I am going to try to find a good simple pickling recipe for the beets and turnips. Wish me luck! 

I just posted a bunch of pictures but, as usual, I forgot that they go in order from bottom to top so they are all backwards. Go to the bottom of the bunch and scroll up instead of vice versa.

We are having knitting playgroup over here today so I spent all morning thus far running around and trying to make it look like we aren't totally gross and living in squalor. I am so over not having any storage space. Even right after I clean up it looks like a disaster just because we have so much stuff crammed into every nook and cranny. Ah well. I only heard back from one mama anyway, so maybe it'll just be Liz and I today. That would be fine with me. I am having a pretty low energy morning. I thought about running down to the bakery and getting a big ole cup of coffee, but Kyle took the car. And the bakery is closed on Monday. Little details, really. Yes I could make coffee here but...nah.

Ah, the little maniac calls...

More pretty views with the river down to the right. 

Lots of wild mountain laurel. 

Pretty pretty. You can see the stream we played in down in the distance. 

Walkin' in the water. 

Approximately 150 hours later....still throwing rocks. 

Throwing rocks with Daddy At Graveyard Fields. 

Henry's favorite new footwear. Perfect for the summer months. 

I have a customer who is slowly killing my soul. It would take too long to list why she makes me want to commit hare kare, so I'll just have to whine to those of you I actually speak to in person. Be prepared.

We went to the post baby shower this morning and I got to hold little Luke. He is way to adorable. I didn't remember just how tiiiiiiny the little ones are. SO tiny. I picked him up and it was like nothing at all. He slept almost the entire time, so it was easy to be delusional about how nice it would be to have another baby. I asked Amy to call me at 3am when he had been crying for 2 hours and remind me why we decided against having baby numero dos. I gave Big Sister Avathe little knot rainbow bag and I put a little pink acorn fairy in there because she loves all things pink and girly. It was a huge hit. They loved the little cardigan I made for Luke, too. I was suprized that I was the only person that brought something for Ava. I would want someone to bring something for Henry if I was in that situation, it would be hard to sit there as a toddler and watch mama open all of these presents for the newborn. We had a lot of fun, all of those people are so nice.

I laid down when Henry went down for his nap today and ended up sleeping about 2 hours. Yikes! Henry was up at 6 this morning, but that isn't THAT early. I woke up and Henry was wearing shorts, a polo shirt and the giant navy winter boots Memere and Pepere bought him last winter. He just went to the store with Kyle dressed like that. Priceless. I need to get a picture when they get back. Henry ate a whole pint of blueberries for breakfast this morning. Since then, there has been some very interesting diaper activity. His entire bottom is stained blue, I kid you not.

I guess I should get out of my pajamas.

Another day in the mountains...

Things have been pretty uneventful around these here parts. Yesterday Liz and Adella came over and the kids bounced in the house for a while. Kyle had class, so Henry and I walked to the co-op and to the bakery. Okay, WE didn't walk, I walked and pushed him in the stroller in what felt like 100 degrees. It felt good to get out and move around, though. We came home and took a bath together, which we haven't done in ages but Henry refused to get in unless I got in, too. It was actually fun. We splashed around and played with bubbles and dinosaurs. I then managed to complete what should be considered the Iron Man Triathalon of montherhood. I combed out the little dreads in the back of Henry's hair. I trimmed fingernails. I trimmed toenails. And for extra style points, I did it all without dispensing massive quantities of sugar. And the crowd goes wild!

We saw an amazing movie yesterday. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang with Robert Downey, Jr. (who I unabashedly adore) and Val Kilmer. It was hyesterical. It isn't a movie for everyone, the humor can get a little odd, but I think it is up in my Top 10 Most Favoritest Movies of All Time at the moment.

Tonight I get to go out! And someone is driving me, so I can even have a few drinks! Since Kyle's class eclipses my usual Monday night outing, I haven't gotten a chance to go anywhere in a while. I am excited. I am going to have to take my knitting, though, because I stocked my Hyena Cart Tuesday and I'm swamped now. Swamped with one notably difficult customer. I think she wants me to email her every night with a progress report. Pth.

We also have a postpartum party to go to this weekend. Our friends Amy and Brian just had a little wee boy, Luke. They didn't find out the gender ahead of time so they decided to have a shower-like-get-together after the baby was born so that people could shop accordingly. It sounded like a great idea when I got the invite, but now I am picturing her having all that company a week after the baby was born and I think she might be crazy. I broke into my new Malabrigo stash to knit Luke a teensy little sweater for the Fall. I am trying to figure out what to get for big sis Ava. She is super girly princess girl. I think I might give her that little knit rainbow bag with a couple of bendy fairies in it or something. We'll see.

Okay. I have to go get us dressed and pack a little bag. Kyle took the car today so we are going to walk down and meet some folks at the park nearby.

Today was a good day. Kyle had to run into work for a couple of hours but he was back in time for Henry and I to go to Liz and Adella's house for our Monday morning knitting playgroup. We had a good time and I got a lot of work done. The one dark spot of the morning was when Henry and Rachel got into a little tussle over the swing and Rachel gave Henry's little hand a big ole chomp with her pearly whites. He had huge teeth marks on both sides of his hand and there was still a little bit of redness when I put him to bed. We talked about it and our conversation went something like this:
Me: Does your hand still hurt?
H: Uh Huh, I have a boo boo.
Me: Do you remember what happened?
H: Uh Huh, Rachel bite me.
Me: And that wasn't nice was it? So what happened to Rachel?
H: Rachel not in the swing and sit in time out and she try eat Henry!
Me: She tried to eat you so her mama put her in time out?
H: Uh HUH! Not nice!
Me: (trying not to laugh hysterically) That's right, it's not nice to try to eat our friends.

After I dropped Henry off for his nap, I left Kyle doing homework and went grocery shopping, which is always a joy. As I was unloading groceries, Henry got out of bed and opened his bedroom door all by himself and jumped out into the hallway and yelled "BOO!". Pretty cute. On his way out to class, Kyle dropped us off at the CSA pickup. We picked up all of our veggies and then went to the co-op for a treat and stopped by the park on our way home. I would have liked to let Henry stay at the park longer but it was approximately 750 degrees out so I cut the playtime short so I could get back inside. We've been good and not turned the air on yet, but I fear it won't be long. We had a good afternoon, too. Henry even sat on the potty for a minute to prolong his bedtime routine. Nothing happened, but still.

Oh boy, is Liz going to love me tomorrow. She gets to drop Adella off with Beth and I for 3 hours in the morning and I will bebearing gifts of yarn and veggies! We got a pretty nice CSA pickup today. The customary turnips and spinach, the last of the radishes, some broccoli and spring onions and then some really nice baby lettuce mix and some beets. I think we each got like 2 beets, but still. I think I am going to try to pickle the beets, radishes and turnips. And the whiteboard said that soon we'll have carrots and squash. Yay!

Liz took this picture of the kids eating yogurt popsicles today at playgroup. Henry is sitting next to Adella and Rachel is on the top step. 

 

My yarn came! My yarn came! Sooooooooooo pretty! The picture is a smooch blurry because I was too impatient for the tripod, but you get the general idea. I can't wait to start knitting it up. Woo Hoo!!! 

It has been a busy, busy weekend! Yesterday we went to West Fest, a festival in downtown West Asheville. We rode our bikes, which was a sad reminder of just how out of shape I am these days. It was super hot so we didn't stay very long.

Today I slept in until 9:30! Kyle's old TA is working as a manager at Salsa's so he invited us down for lunch. So. Yummy. After that I pretty much had to drop the boys off and head over to the Botanical garden's for our friend Beth's baby shower. It was 92 degrees on the drive over, but almost as soon as I got there it started thundering. And then the rains came. There were about 8 of us huddled under a leaky gazebo eating cake and talking babies. The mist from the rain felt good at first, but then it started raining super hard. She loved the blanket we made her, so it made all of that less than fun knitting worth it. Kyle is now downtown with Anthony taking pictures, leaving me to watch bad Mandy Moore movies and update my blog. Henry has been so hard to get to bed these days, but tonight actually wasn't that bad. Thankfully.

I finally got around to stocking my Hyena Cart today and I updated my gallery with some new pictures. I wanted to make some simple site changes, but I couldn't manage to get into my raw ftp files. Whatever than means. I am going to need help from someone who knows what they're doing at first. Pth.

In awesomely awesome news-my yarn should be coming tomorrow. I am way too excited. Kyle is going to pee his pants when he sees it. I have no idea where I am going to put it. I'll have to clear off the top of the armoire and put it up there. I can't wait!

More pictures below...

Elmo longies. Cute? Scary? I can't tell... 

He is so proud of his blue tongue from eating a blue lollipop at West Fest. 

Such a little boy! There's barely any baby left in there. 

My little monkey boy climbing in the trees. 

Hangin' around 

The first part of our busy day went smashingly. We went to Bent Creek for a morning walk. After a litte inital hesitation, Henry did great. We talked about trees and root systems and we examined a crazy bug. Henry liked holding a stick for it to crawl on but was nonplussed when it made its way from the stick to his hand and onto his shirt. The mountain laurels have just finished their bloom so the ground is all covered with the flowers. It reminded me of home and the sticky laurel buds in the front yard. Henry is napping now and then we are going to an amazing lunch and Cars. There is this rib place called 12 Bones down in the River Arts District that has the best ribs I ahve ever had in my life. The problem is, they are only open Monday to Friday until 4pm. Weird hours, but they make it work. So we are taking advantage of Kyle's day off to go and get us some yummy ole ribs.

I'm tired. Henry woke up in a tizzy at about midnight and spent the rest of the night in our bed with me while Kyle slept under the big green leaf canopy in Henry's bed. I haven't slept with the bean in quite a while so at first I thought it might be nice to cuddle. Wel, he didn't want to cuddle as much as sleep completely horizontally across the bed leaving me about a foot to sleep in. He also woke up every half hour or so to give me a kick and make sure I was still there. Pth.

Wow, I just posted a lot of pictures down there.

It seems like a lot has been going on, but last time I posted the damn thing got eaten so I'll be brief and shallow.

We have seen a few movies lately.

1. Transamerica . Go see it right now. It was awesome. It also made me realize that I have a soft spot for teenaged male prostitutes (Toby from this movie, River Phoenix in My Own Private Idaho, Joseph Gordon Levitt's character in Mysterious Skin) which was a little disturbing, but still a great movie. I actually put down my knitting to give it my full attention and that does not happen very often.

2. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen . Yes, believe it or not, we rented and watched a documentary about professional bowling. And it was pretty good. It was no Spellbound but it was interesting to see a documentary about something I am so unfamiliar with.

3. Shopgirl. This is quite possibly the worst movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It is Steve Martin's horrfying leap at getting a piece of what Bill Murray has found at this point in his career and failing mis.er.ab.ly. It was so bad. Steve Martin plays a main character AND does awful omnipotent voiceovers that aren't even from his charater's point of view. It is like we aren't supposed to recognize his voice or something. Gah. It was so bad. I can't even put it into words. Jason Shwartzman was a shiny bright spot, but you could tell he was just in it to make out with Claire Danes. Or that is what I told myself to keep from feeling betrayed by him. What was he thinking?

And now it is time for me to go to bed. We have a big day planned tomorrow. Kyle has the day off, so...hiking at bent Creek in the AM, then nap, lunch/dinner with the Comer's at our favorite bbq place, a matinee of Cars and then the drum circle downtown before bed. Phew!

A pair of longies I made for a customer that wanted me to match a face that her son makes. Is he winking or did a big caterpillar just devour his right eye? You be the judge. 

A little felted "man purse". Yup, its for a boy. Yup, it is rainbows. Get over it. 

My little bath elf.  

While I ran to get the camera, Henry found the shampoo bottle and continued to lather. 

 

Have you ever seen Blue's Clues? Well, if not, the premise is that Blue, a dog, leaves pawprints on "clues" to solve a puzzle througout the show. This is Henry's new favorite show. This is a pawprint that HE DREW and hid as a clue for us to find. The child is CLEARLY an artistic genius. I couldn't believe it when I saw how good he did. 

Pumpkins! 

Squash and zucchini row.