As if...

As if I don't have enough going on in my life, I really, really want to make this sweater. I think it's so pretty! I love the look of cables, but I haven't learned how to do them yet. But there is a class coming up at the yarn store...

Exploration

When I was little, I was fascinated by spider webs. Especially the ones that were really big. I remember some that were as big as two sheets of construction paper put together. Yeah, that is how I thought of them. They were only cool if they were bigger than one sheet. There was an especially good place to find them in those trees by the front of our house, what we kids lovingly called "the forest."

Back before I had a kid, I used to babysit this little boy who was about four while his mom went to the public school to eat lunch with his older brother. I was working at Wal-Mart at the time, and found one of those silly play rugs for $5. I thought it might be good because it had Spiderman and some roads on it- you know, stereotypical boy stuff. Nich has a Matchbox car collection that I was going to have the kid play with, so the roads were perfect.

Sunday night, some friends from church came over after the evening service to wait for the "short" men's meeting to get over. This one lasted only about an hour, but since somebody took all the toys from the church building, her poor kids are left with nothing to do but cause trouble. So I asked her over. One of the boys found the play rug and asked if they could play with it. I still think it's a dumb toy, but the kids really seem to like it, and I told them they could.

When they left, the rug stayed out because I'm not too good at making guests clean up after themselves. This morning when Isabel got up, she went right over to that rug, as she has each day it's been out, and started "following" the major road.

Let me describe this rug a little better. It came out at the same time as Spider-Man 2, and that is it's theme. There's a big Spiderman in the middle, and the roads are made to look like a spider web behind him. This particular spider web is as big as maybe ten sheets of paper. The outside edge of the big road is just big enough for Isabel to crawl into and stay on all fours.

So when I say she was following the major road, I don't mean she was pulling a Dorothy. She still follows things visually more than physically. So she points her eyes at some starting point on the road and follows it to see where it goes. She can't ever seem to find the end... so she starts shouting "Ah ah ah ah ah ah uh ah" about the road. If she were a puppy, she'd be chasing her tail. I don't know if she gets dizzy or not, but she can go for several minutes, shouting and following the road.

I wonder if she'll ever stop and take one of the branches to another road?

Teeth

When I was a little kid, my brothers and sister and I were talking about teeth at the dinner table. Dad got really mad at us and made us stop. I don' t know why that made such an impression on me, but it did.
So, Dad, I apologize in advance if this post bothers you.

Isabel won't let me see inside her mouth. Not on purpose, anyway. When she got her first teeth and we tried to show them off, she would attach her tongue to her lip so when we pulled the lip down to show off the teeth, we inadvertently got her to stick her tongue out. It was actually pretty funny. Well, she hadn't gotten any new teeth for a while, even though they've been hovering below the surface. They have to be painful, just hanging out right below the gumline, but she doesn't complain much. She's a tough kid.

Tonight, my little girl got to laughing about something and I thought I saw a wider white section on her bottom gum. Of course, as soon as I reached to look, she gave me a dirty look and stuck her tongue out with her lip. Only now I'm not so amused. I just want to see, and she'd suffer less if she let me see the first time.

There they are. There's a new one on either side of her two little bottom teeth. One is taller than the other, but those little grains of rice are sticking there just fine. It's a little embarrassing how excited I get about this stuff, but there you have it.

And, Dad, if you're still reading... I'm done now.

Peter Pan

Isabel met Peter Pan today.

Since it's already November, I'm making fudge. My favorite time of year. :) My first batch of Old-Time Fudge came out gross, so I thought I'd try some peanut butter fudge I found on the internet.

I had an open container of Peter Pan peanut butter that has been open a while because Nich's the only one in the house who eats the stuff, and he's gone. So I decided to use that. There were about four tablespoons too much for the recipe in the container- too much to throw away, too much to add, and not enough for another batch. Of course.

Isabel decided she wanted to have me hold her while I cook. She's been wanting a front-row seat to eveything I do lately. I know that cooking with baby in hand/on hip is not always a safe idea, but she's been holding her plastic spoon like it holds the secret to life itself, so I knew she wouldn't put a hand on the pan.

She was also grouching- probably about being hungry, since she won't eat what I fix for her. So I finally took her spoon and put about an eighth of a teaspoon of peanut butter on the tip. Just enough for the taste. She thought this meant "Mommy's going to spoon-feed you now," but that was exactly the point: it's time to learn to get food off a spoon by herself. She's been self-feeding non-spoon foods for a while, but she hasn't been interested in using utensils up until now. I pried her little fingers open and put the spoon in her hand, then guided the spoon to her mouth.

Her eyes lit up and her dimple showed as she thought, "Now I know why they put this stuff out for the mice! They must really love those mice!"

Some days, being a mom is irritating. But some days, it's indescribably cool.

P.S. If you get my posts emailed to you and you have the email address of someone else who is mildly interested in the stuff I'm posting, could you send me their addresses? I know I don't have Kenneth or Emily. Are there others? Are they interested?

Socks

Okay, honestly, I hate knitting socks. That could be because I took the sock class too soon after I started knitting and ribbing is such a pain to make, BUT my mother-in-law saw the one sock I have ever knit and said she thought it would be nice. So I think I will probably knit her a pair of wool socks for Christmas. I have really got to get started! It's almost November and I haven't started on the boys' presents, either.

Speaking of, those of you who get this post that have kids I haven't asked about yet- what are their favorite colors? What color is your bathroom? What sizes do the kids wear?

Happy Christmas!

Walking

Isabel's not quite walking. She's been psyching us out for months now.

Last night at church, I put her down when we got in the door, took off her coat, and started to go to the coat rack to hang it up. I stopped and looked at her for some reason - she hadn't automatically gone to her bottom like she usually does. Instead, she lifted one leg, put it forward and down... then she squatted and went to her knees.

But it's a step in the right direction, right? (no pun intended) I personally think she practices when people aren't looking, and someday soon, she's going to drop the facade and run to play with her friends. But until then... she's an awfully fast crawler!

Sometimes...

A girl can get discouraged single parenting. Isabel didn't want to go to bed tonight. She was a little fussy all day, too. I finally took off the sweatshirt I was wearing and that seemed to do it for her.
We had company today and she got away with a lot. I have a hard time disciplining her like I think is right when there are people around. I'm still often afraid someone's going to turn me in for swatting her behind.
I think it's odd that people can get so worked up about a swat on the behind, but they don't care if you just give your child junk food to eat. No wonder it's so hard to raise kids and feel like you're doing a good job!