Games We Play

Kids are really fascinating. I have found that I don't realize that they couldn't do something until suddenly they acquire the skill.

For example, Claire is starting to develop a sense of humour and an ability to play simple games. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this as she has also recently become more abstract and logical and less egocentric. We can talk hypothetically now where we couldn't do that before. We can also talk about cause and effect and not have her glaze over completely. For the most part, these things have made her easier to live with. She's going to be a proper Vulcan when she grows up. I do admit her thinking breaks down sometimes, even though I can usually still wrap my mind around her four-year-old logic. Like the night when she told her father she was crying because she lost her bear due to misbehaviour and how he had to give her bear back so she would stop crying so she could hear the story she was going to make him tell.

Back to games...I think that with addition of all of these cognitive skills come the ability to think about rules, turn taking, how other people might act and that people can't read your mind. When you realize your mind is not open to other folks, you can start to play games and crack jokes. It's that simple.

Now, don't forget that we also have a littler person in this house who does not, in any way, have any of these cool skills. No wonder they've been fighting so much lately. It's really exhausting. The two of them just don't speak the same language and we see it most when they try to play games:

- Hide and Seek: Claire will hide and be quiet and we will seek or she will hide her eyes properly and count and then seek patiently. Jillian will run off, sing to herself, announce where she is and pop out of her spot like a rabbit. If she is seeking, she will singsong "Wherrrrrrrre areeeeeeee youuuuuuuuu?" without really looking for anyone. This drives Claire bananas.

- I Spy: Claire will say "I spy with my little eye something that is yellow" and keep the answer to herself patiently while we guess at all the yellow things we can see. Jillian will say "I spy with my little eye something yellow and it is that picture of a duck over on the fridge" and then look at you as if waiting for you to guess. This drives Claire bananas.

- Jokes: Claire tries to tell Knock, Knock jokes all the time. She's pretty bad at it but will laugh at her own attempts or laugh at us even if she doesn't get the joke (speaking of which...if you know a good Knock, Knock joke, how about writing it out in the comments - we realized last night that we don't know many). Jillian doesn't even bother with the jokes but Claire tries, in vain, to get her to understand the idea. This drives Claire bananas.

- Which Hand?: This is a game that Carolyn at the yarn store started with Claire one day a while back with a piece of candy. She hid the candy in one hand and Claire had to pick a hand and when she found the candy she could have it. She was fascinated by it and made Carolyn hide the candy over and over and over again. Since then, she'll occasionally play with one of us. Often at inappropriate times. Last night was one of those times. The girls were eating sugar snap peas and naan bread and hummus and Claire kept hiding bits of her bread in her hand and making us guess. It was funny because we could see her trying to fool us and she would almost get upset if we picked the right hand. She even tried pulling 'do overs' on us if we picked the hand with the bread. We were getting a nice little chuckle out of her. Suddenly, we heard a little voice say "which hand?" and looked at Jillian to see this:


Ummmm...I dunno Jilla...in which hand are you hiding your sugar snap pea?

She did this over and over and over with DH picking the right hand every single time. By the end we were laughing so hard I'm amazed we managed to stay on the chairs. She never did wonder why he was so good at it and she would have done it till bedtime if we'd let it go on that long. It was cute. It was even cuter that she continued to do it for me while I took her picture even though I was almost paralyzed with laughter at the time.

In case that wasn't entertaining, here's last night's belly photo for your amusement:

Only 11ish days to go. I'm pretty sure this is bigger than I ever got with the girls. It scares me a little. Especially since a friend of mine who had a 6 pound baby girl two years ago gave birth to a 9 pound baby girl on Sunday. If this kid is 9+ pounds I might not survive the delivery. I think I'd better go eat a few Easter cookies to keep my mind off of it.

The NERVE!

Considering this breaks at least two house rules, why am I the one on the receiving end of the look of death?



The craziest part is that I left him lying there on the precious handknit on my formal dining table to finish his nap...

Out Of Energy...Full Of Cookies

It's official. This pregnant woman has run out of steam. With the girls I prided myself on being, well, myself right up to the day of their deliveries but this time I'm just done. The power is gone. This energizer bunny isn't gonna whack that bass drum anymore. Over. Kaput. Fini.

I seem to be able to manage to do one 'thing' per day. Any more than that and I end up crabby and sleepy and achy. If I can sneak a power nap into the day I can do two 'things' before my mood crashes. The number of activities that fall into the category of 'exhausting thing' gets broader and broader as the days go by too. A couple of weeks ago the sort of thing that would do me in would be an afternoon of shopping at the big mall 25 minutes drive away. Last week, a trip to the grocery store was enough for a day. This week, getting the kids assembled and off to school in the morning leaves me huddled on the end of the couch, moaning softly and eventually falling asleep with my mouth dangling open and drool falling onto the cat. I must have a sadistic streak because yesterday I did so much that I'm amazed that I'm upright today.

On Wednesday night I was sitting having dinner with the girls when my brain heard my mouth say "Hey kids! I have an idea". My brain, which admittedly has been failing me a lot lately, started muttering "Watch out. Nothing too major now. Zip it. Kids remember things. Be smart! Shuuuuuuut uppppp". And then my mouth did it. It went and said "Let's make Easter cookies tomorrow! Won't that be fun?". At that point my brain got huffy and shut off altoghter and let my mouth prattle on about cookie cutters and icing and dough and Easter and how much FUN we were gonna have. Dumb mouth.

So yesterday morning I got up and resigned myself to my fate. I was going to have to make sugar cookie cutouts with the girls and I was going to have to try to remain calm and patient throughout the whole extravaganza. I could do it...later...maybe after lunch.

Then the phone rang and my good friend asked if I wanted to join her on her kid's shoe shopping mission. Before my brain could even react, my mouth said "sounds good!" and within the hour I was crouched down in the kids section of Payless Shoes wrestling the kids' feet onto that measuring thingy so I could get them new shoes while repeating "No...those are not your size. Put 'em back". And when I was done there, I went to Walmart because I was up that way anyhow and I needed to get new sheets for the kids.

Now, by my reckoning, that's two 'things' I had subjected myself to before noon. I was at capacity and I knew it. I was tired, snappy and hungry and I just wanted to go home and lie down. I got in the car with the girls to come home Jillian squeaked "Hey! Now can we make cookies?". I was stuck.

I came home, made lunch and imposed a pre-cookie "quiet time" during which I managed to sleep for about 15 minutes while I made the kids read in their rooms. That gave me enough stamina to get up and start thinking about the cookie making and how I could help myself make the whole thing run smoothly. I think I had a half decent idea at that point - the Wok With Yan method of baking. When I was a kid watching Wok With Yan I noticed he never had to measure anything, he always had the portions measured out in little dishes on the counter (I'm know lots of shows do that sort of thing but I guess Yan made a big impression on me when I was a kid). I figured that lessen the amount of time I spent wrestling with kids and measuring cups. It would probably also decrease the amount of time I spent breaking up their fights or cleaning up their spills. I even labelled the things so our budding reader would have to do some work:



I got Claire to read the recipe too. For the most part she managed to muddle through the thing and learned a few new words along the way. I made her let Jillian add things to the bowl and the making of the batter went rather smoothly. Here are the bakers in their aprons:


Get a load of the ringlet Jillian has going on. For months I've been thinking her hair was starting to straighten but it apparently isn't. That ringlet bobbed about on her head all day.

After we cooled the dough in the fridge, I let them cut out the Easter shapes with cookie cutters. The perfectionist in me had a bit of trouble not micromanaging every moment of this part but I think I did fairly well considering how grouchy I was getting:


They're doing a good job though, eh?

Baking:


Claire and I did some of the icing because a) Jillian had lost interest b) I didn't really want Jillian into the icing anyway. Bedtime eventually arrived and I had to stand in the kitchen for an hour after the girls retired, icing Easter cookies and washing dishes. Sigh. I could not wait to go to bed last night (and was not pleased when Claire tucked herself into our bed at 5:01 AM complaining about "bad dreams").

Finished product:

I have to admit that they are really tasty and biting the heads off of baby chicks gives me a little thrill that makes me wonder about myself.

For all my grumbling, I'm glad I exhausted myself doing it. The kids have a lot of fun with this sort of activity and I think these are the things that make for happy childhood memories (especially since I managed not to rave like a madwoman at any point). Besides, if they learn a thing or two about baking along the way, that isn't a bad thing.

At the same time, it would be awfully nice if my brain could go back to full capacity so I don't get myself into any situations like this for a while. Fat chance of THAT happening. Maybe I should just duct tape my mouth closed when I feel it revving up with its bright ideas.

Do You Love Your Monkey Or Do You Love Me? A Tale Of A Knitter Possessed

(Bonus points if you know that song)

On Thursday, March 5th, I was sitting here catching up on my blog reading and happened across a post that mentioned the newest issue of "Twist Collective". I used to be on their mailing list but must have gotten delisted somehow because I didn't get their customary email notification. I immediately clicked over to the site to see what they were offering.

Being the impatient sort, I always click on 'shop' and see the thumbnails of the new patterns before I actually try to, you know, read the thing. I started casually scrolling down, making internal comments along the way about the designs and then I got hit in the face with a picture of the cutest little baby blanket in the world. My chin hit the desk, my finger clicked the picture to get more details and I was hooked. Utterly hooked. At 11:23 AM I bought the pattern. At 2:06 PM I paid for the yarn (it only took me that long because the girls and I sat at the shop and visited Carolyn). At 7:05 PM, I cast on. Since then, I have lived and breathed this blanket. People in this house must be feeling neglected.

The blanket is double-sided - monkeys on one side and 'rings' on the other. The two main panels are knit in the round and then steeked. Here they are before the big snip:



The pattern recommends two rows of machine stitching on either side of the cutting line and I diligently put those in. I was afraid that my sewing machine wouldn't want to cooperate with me but the knitting was very pliant and my machine behaved itself (for once) and it only took a couple of minutes to do the seams.

After that, I took a deep breath and cut the panels flat. Post snip:



I spent a few minutes steam blocking them to try to get them flat but honestly was so eager to just get on with it that I didn't try to hard to make them gorgeous. If you know me, you know I'm averse to blocking but I got a photo to prove I did it:



I have another shot with the belly and the knitting in it but I look absolutely maniacal and a great swath of my lily white flesh is showing so I'll spare you.

After that, the blanket panels were joined and a border had to be knit on either side. That was the longest, hardest part of making the thing. Especially the second one. By the time the second border was ready to go on, the whole blanket was heavy and unweildy and difficult to hold onto. The sheer mechanics of knitting on it hurt my hands so that I only could do a row or two a night (else you'd have seen this post loooooooooong ago). If you decide to make this, I recommend 4 circular needles for the border, one on each edge. Two really long ones are ok but more are better. While we're at it, I recommend Addi Lace needles for all your non-lace needs (they even make a great sound when they clack together). After the borders are complete they have to be joined and then a common, garter stitch border is knitted on. If I had my time back, I think I'd go down a needle size for the outer border because it really wants to ripple but a more aggressive blocking might take care of that.

Here are a series of photos of the finished product:

The monkey side. It really is much more square than this but an 37-week pregant woman on a chair with a camera doesn't like to lean too far over the knitting so the angle makes it look skewed:

See how three of them have different faces?

Close monkeys:


The ring side. My knitting friends thought I'd never get through this side after the fun of making monkeys but they were wrong...I made that side in less than two days (and one of those days was filled with making a Garfield cake for my brother's birthday celebration):


Close rings:

The colours are pretty accurate in this shot. I used Cascade 220: one ball of 9487 (Puget Sound), 1 of 8895 (Christmas Red), 1 of 9465B (Burnt Orange), 2 of 7815 (Summer Sky) but I only used about 10 yards of the second ball and two balls of 8418 (Eggplant). They were the closest colours I could find to what was used in the original but it would probably be easy to change it up with a little thought. I was too eager to knit to actually THINK.

The borders:


Other shots with some cute props:






I washed it yesterday in cool water with some Soak and I was amazed at how much dye came out of it. Wowzers. It didn't run though so I'm still happy. It also, unsurprisingly, sucked up gallons of water. Claire and I rolled it in bath towels and pounded on it three times to get it to a point where I could lay it out. It's still a bit damp today but will probably be perfectly dry by tomorrow. Next time I wash it, I will probably try to block it out with pins to get it to be really square but this time I was just too eager for all of that fuss.

Now that it is done, I feel sort of lost. I'm a strange knitter that way. Instead of basking in the glory of a finished project and gazing lovingly at the thing, I find myself mourning its loss from my needles. Yes, it's going to make a nice thick, warm blanket to put on the baby in the stroller or for his playtime but I miss KNITTING it. Silly, eh? I'm such a process knitter.

Tadpole Tales - Children's Book Reviews 1

I have decided to start a new feature on the blog called "Tadpole Tales" to review children's books. For an adult, I have always had an unnatural love of kiddie lit and I often find myself thinking about the books I buy for the girls more than the ones I buy for myself.

In fact, since I started having children, my main source of for-pleasure reading has been the "young adult" section of the bookstore. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. After a long day of mental and physical calisthenics with the children, I find I don't have the intellect for a really deep, literary read. The sort of books I used to seek out are now capable of putting me right to sleep (often in the bathtub...dangerous sport, that). Also, I think that "young adult" books typically deal with more fanciful topics that are easier to lose myself in than murder mysteries or chick lit. I get enough real life from sunrise to sundown, thanks.

Picture/story books for the kids are a real source of joy for me. I almost hate to admit it but when Claire brings a Scholastic book order form home, my heart gives a little pitter-pat. I have learned a few things about kiddie lit in the last year or two that make me want to start this little feature on the blog.

I do not find it as easy to find a review of a children's book as it is to find one for an adult book and when I do find reviews, they often don't have the sort of information I'm looking for. I think I'm frequently looking for more parent-friendly information than a lot of reviews give. For example, I honestly like to know approximately how long it takes to read a book to the girls. Some days we are more up for a lengthy tale than others. Also, I like to think about the language and actions of the characters in the books I expose the kids to. I'm not a prude but I really object to having to expose my kids to characters who are disrespectful or use language I don't approve of (unless the story is about how rude those things are). I like to know how engaged the kids are in it, what they think of the illustrations, if they ask for it to be read again and again or if it is forgotten forever after the first read, things like that. My girls are quite vocal about their opinions of the books we read and they each have different things to say so I'm going to give it a go (once the boy gets big enough we'll really have all the bases covered).

I think a lot of our opinions are worth sharing and I hope the reviews are useful for anyone who has kids to read to. At the same time, I'm happy to just make logs of what we read for my own use to guide me in future purchases for our family and friends. You can let me know what you think.

My first review will be of two books retold and illustrated by James Marshall (1942-1992), Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears:




Red Riding Hood

Written by: James Marshall
Illustrated by: James Marshall
Published by: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0-590-44991-5
First Published : 1987
Approximate reading time*: 5 minutes

This is the classic Red Riding Hood story, just with more engaging language and cute illustrations. I'm really tired of what I call "Once upon a time" stories. Those are the ones that are told with a lot of factual language, no emotion, very proper words and, frankly, bored kids. For example, in a lot of fairy tales the big bad wolf, when asked to identify himself by Grandma usually says something like "It is me Granny, Red Riding Hood". James Marshall's version is much better. In this story he says "It is I, your delicious---er---darling granddaughter". Honestly, you can just feel the dastardly oozing out of that guy.

The story encourages readers not to speak to strangers and I think my kids really got the point. Between Red's mother's warning, the spooky atmosphere, her absolutely naive reaction to things, that sneaky wolf and the gobbling of Grandma and Red alike, the girls couldn't help but see the lesson. However, even after all of that, James Marshall included a final page of the story that is funny and brilliant and gives the lesson one last hit home. The final line on the next to last page reads "Red Riding Hood promised never, ever to speak to another stranger, charming manners or not". The final page has the text "and she never did" complete with an illustration of a demure looking crocodile holding a cane and a straw boater with Red walking away looking irritated, arms outstretched in a "talk to the hand" sort of way. Genius.

My only concern with this book was that the wolf does actually eat Grandma and Red Riding Hood. A hunter then comes and kills the wolf and slices him open to release his captives. I wondered how Claire would take the idea of the wolf being killed and then sliced open but she did not really seem bothered. The tale is fantastical enough that the idea of the wolf meeting a violent end does not seem to register. After all, they both emerge completely unscathed with the Grandmother complaining about how there was not enough light to read inside the wolf. All you see of the wolf after his demise is his feet, barely in the picture while Red looks on with a bewildered expression. Honestly, I prefer this more traditional version to ones I have read in which the wolf locks Granny in the closet. Seriously...how scary is a wolf who ties an old lady up in hopes of scoring a picnic basket full of goodies rather than a guy who is desperate to devour child and grandmother both? In my opinion, being scared for a character's life is much more meaningful than being scared for her chocolate cake.

The girls both really like this book and have asked for it a few times. They love the pictures and like to point out little details that they see. They love the final page and we have had a few stranger awareness chats since we added this title to our lineup. I like a book that can help segue to an important discussion topic like that.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Written by: James Marshall
Illustrated by: James Marshall
Published by: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 0-590-44992-3
First Published : 1988
Approximate reading time*: 5 minutes

I don't know about you, but I never really understood the point of the Goldilocks story. Girl wanders into strange house, debates with herself about the attributes of different objects, falls asleep, gets scared away, the end. Then, I read this version of the story and suddenly Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a magnificent, relevant tale that I feel I need to read to my children.

The difference, I learned, is in the development of the Goldilocks character. In another version of the tale that we have in the house, Goldilocks wanders into the woods by herself and happens upon the bears' cottage. Her personality isn't described and the closest thing to a lesson that I can glean from the story is that wandering off is not wise (a great lesson but better illustrated in other texts).

In this version, James Marshall took it one step further. He has made Golidlocks into a nasty, disobedient child who does exactly as she pleases. The very first page shows Goldilocks, wicked experession on her face, jumping from a swing with intentions of landing into a tub of water to soak a group of slumbering cats. All this happens while a person on the other side of the fence tells her friend that Goldilocks is not the sweet kid she appears to be. Throughout the story, as Goldilocks enters the bears house and disrespects everything they own she occasionally says "Don't mind if I do!" and leaves the place in quite a shambles. By the time the bears arrive home and scare Goldilocks we, as readers, are hoping those bears really teach her a lesson.

This book enabled me to begin a whole conversation with my kids about respecting other people's property, asking for permission before touching things that aren't ours, and how a little curiousity is a lovely thing but it can go too far. This is a very timely tale considering how my kids have been caught over the last few months doing things like scibbling on the cut edge of a novel, climbing on toys/furniture that have no business being climbed upon or riding an Ott light like a horse and breaking it.

I think the girls really like the detailed, cartoonish illustrations in these books quite a bit. James Marshall has a way of drawing facial expressions that enable us to infer the character's feelings from one page to the next. Characters who are drawn with more wooden expressions never seem to get the same reaction from the kids. Besides, some of the details are fun. For example, Red Riding Hood's house is full of cats. It's funny and it's cute and we have some fun sizing them up from time to time. Unlike some other books we have, I do not mind reading these. They are engaging, fun and a good length for bedtime when, honestly, I am sometimes ready to curl up in a chair by the fire and think about nothing for a while.

* For the reading time I time how long it takes me to read the book aloud, at a child-friendly speed with any necessary inflections. I also include the time that creeps into the readings because of the inevitable questions the kids ask or comments they make. I won't enter into full discussions during the reading of the book but I will respond to little comments or queries "Look Mommy! She has pretty shoes on" or "What's custard?". Discussion topics like "Why did Red Riding Hood's mommy let her into the woods alone in the first place?" I tell them we'll discuss at the end of the story.

A Whole Lotta Woman...

...that'd be me:

I'm starting to assume epic proportions. I figure any day now NASA (or whoever is in charge of these things) is going to call me up and say "We've been looking for a new ninth planet to replace Pluto. We think, considering how you now have your own gravitational field, you might be the perfect candidate".

When I'm out and about in the world people tell me I don't have a very big belly for someone 8 months pregnant and sometimes, looking down at myself, I don't feel very big either. When I'm up and about though, I feel gigantic. I didn't gain weight all over when I was pregnant with the girls but I think this time I'm even more 'out front' than I was with them. My centre of gravity is all messed up and I have gotten pretty clumsy. The baby is really low and I can get a really sexy waddle going sometimes, especially if I'm in a hurry or I've been on my feet for a long time.

I feel really good though. I am starting to get tired and the little fella is super busy and likes to wake me up in the middle of the night (he's getting me geared up for those 2 AM feedings) but those are minor complaints. I can't say I'm ready to have a new baby in the house. I have picked up some boy clothes so the wee darling won't have to come home in a pink dress but otherwise I'm just enjoying the pregnancy since it is most likely going to be the last one (I'd say that with more certainty except I've never been that definite about anything in my life...decisions and I don't get along).

The girls, on the other hand, are eager to meet their little brother. Claire whines about having to wait and wait and wait for him to "come out of your belly". They've both named him. Claire insists we name him "Daniel" and Jillian wants to call him "Bacon" (seriously...she does!). Not surprisingly, we haven't made a decision about his name yet. I probably won't be sure till I see him up close and personal.

I have been keeping busy with a lot of other things and that is cutting into my computer/blogging time. It should get better soon as I recently stopped working (woo hoo) and my husband's crazy out of town travel stint has all but ended. I have been knitting like a woman possessed and will have to trot out the knits on the blog soon.

Till then - try not to get sucked into my orbit ;)