toys are good food

What's blue and white and extremely cushy?

Giraffes, apparently.

We love this fluffy, soft (so, so soft!) cushion for Evie to lay out, but to be honest there was a lot of discussions and debates on what kind of animal this is. Then we saw the tag stating it was a giraffe. Can't argue with that, huh?

Evie's Great-Uncle Ike got this for her. She likes.

Bathing beauty

You knew sooner or later there would be the common baby bath foto, well here it is. Culled from my pix pool for the day I didn't take a new picture.

This picture was taken a few weeks back during our first "real" bath in this nifty bath tub. Prior to this, it was all sponge baths. It was a bit terrifying for us all, but we got through it okay and even got a clean Evie out of the ordeal.

Lady Baby in red

Another knit that I made for Evie before she was an Evie (meaning, when I was still pregnant with an unknown) was a kimono sweater. The idea was that we'd bring our lovely, new baby home in this hand knit sweater. Two things foiled this plan: sizing and weather.

The sweater was too big for our wee 7lb Evie to wear as a coming home outfit. It's not all that large of a sweater (newborn size), but really it is so much better than being too small, at least she still had a chance to wear it. I just had to remember to pull the sweater out before it becomes too small.

As for the weather, Texas was playing it's usual games, and it was freakishly warm for early January. Definitely not sweater weather. (It was freezing cold when we arrived for labor just three days earlier. Go figure.)

After eyeballing this sweater since bringing Evie home, I finally tried it on her during this (hopefully) last cold snap (last week). Good thing, too - it *just* fits and soon will be too small for our wee lass.

Anyhoo, this is the One-Piece Baby Kimono (Rav link) from Mason-Dixon Knitting. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in, obviously, red.

This yarn was a total pleasure to knit and makes it a pleasure to burp Evie, as you get to pat and pet it on her back. (Although after just the one wear, the yarn is a bit fuzzy, so I don't know if I'd recommend it for something that would get a lot of wear/tear.)

I did not add the ribbon ties to the sweater as instructed by the pattern. At first, I held off with two ribbon choices waiting to meet my baby, then out of sheer laziness. Now I don't think it would fit with the ties, so she's wearing it open like a cardigan (and like her mom does).

Multitasking

What you don't see off to the right of the picture is the laptop playing a podcast and surfing Ravelry and Facebook.

More knits

Once I became more comfortable and confident around Evie (and not freaking out every living second), I found a small amount of free time to knit. It may only be enough for one row, or a bit more if she's sleeping well. Anyhoo, it has been enough time to finish a womb, a heart, and a soaker.

This is the soaker's story.

Okay, so there's really no story to the wool soaker, just that most folks don't understand the what, why, and how behind them. Now, I'm no expert and I haven't even used mine yet, but this is what I understand.

The knitted soaker is a cover worn over a cloth diaper and is typically made from lanolized wool. The genius that is wool works to keep both the baby's bottom and her clothing (or the crib sheet) dry. It takes a lot of wet before a wool soaker will feel damp.

Wool both repels wet and absorbs moisture (funny that), the fabric breathes, which keeps the baby warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and wool is anti-bacterial so it doesn't get all funky. Amazing, no?

Anyhoo, I used the Curly Purly Soaker pattern that I found on Ravelry through the cloth diapering group. I knit the medium size knowing that this wouldn't fit Evie right away. This was knit up with a bit more than one skein of Noro Kureyon. (Thanks to Jen for the scraps.)

I still need to lanolize the soaker (how-to here), which keeps the wool water repellent and will need to be repeated throughout the soaker's use (about once a month). But we should be golden.

I'm pretty excited and am planning to make more. Any wool soaker pattern that you knitting and cloth diapering momma's recommend? (Yeah, I've got a few queued on Ravelry.)

Saturday

Weekends are for sleeping in. Especially cold, rainy Saturdays.

I hope y'all are cozy and warm.

Monkey Butt

I got this "outtake" while trying to get a picture of Evie in her crib. It's the old hold-the-camera-way-above-your-head-and-hope-for-the-best shot. The fact that the monkey butt is in focus makes me laugh.

Hopefully it makes you laugh, too.

Superstar

You may have seen snippets of this blanket before, but it is a favorite of Evie and ours. Knitting Auntie Petra, of Purling Ps crocheted it for Evie.

Bonus foto after the break.

Oops

I missed yesterday's post, and by the time I remembered it was late. Hopefully you'll forgive me.

I also screwed up when stating that Texas was done with its winter. Well, at least Evie got to wear her hand knit socks.

Baby knits

There's more than just baby going on around here. There's baby knits, too.

Before Evie arrived, I had knit up some items for my soon-to-be babe, which I never shared with y'all. Of course, we didn't know the baby's sex, and my knits were gender neutral. (I was good with that.)

One of the first things I made was a set of winter outer wear: hat, mitts, and socks. The hat pattern, Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap, was the starting point for this set. I then found a pattern for complimentary newborn mitts (Ravelry link). I finished the set off with Baby Socks.

I used one skein of Blue Moon Fiber Art Socks That Rock in the Sedona colorway. These three were all easy and fun knits to work up, and they do look so darn cute on babies.

The hat is still too big for Evie (and Texas is done with its winter), she never wore thumbless mitts (no need), and the socks are a smidgen too big (and I have no photo of these).

And if you happen to thing she looks a bit like a lawn gnome in this get up... Well, she comes by it honestly.

Mamma told me there'd be days like this

4 immunization shots
÷ 2 tiny legs
= 1 bad day

Some days I need a drink, too.

My Evie Angel

This Saturday marked Evie's two month birthday. I don't have a sappy post written for future Evie to read or to make people tear up (you know who you are). I start to write something in my head, but never get it down on paper or on the keyboard.

Evie has changed in amazing ways, and captures our hearts over and over again. She is sweetness and light and all that is good in the world.

She's our little angel-heart. And she has the shirt to prove it. (Shirt how-to found here.)

End of days

We are sorry to have MI Grandma's visit come to an end. There was fun, laughs, and good food, but they are headed back up North to the cold. Before they left, she and Evie had a few last moments in the sun.

Due to technical difficulties then sloth, this did not get posted until late on Saturday. That means I owe y'all one.

It's Video Thursday!

This is one happy baby.

No sleep til Brooklyn

Why couldn't she sleep like this at 4 AM (or 5, 6, or 7?)

The Gingers

Evie's Michigan Grandmother made it out of snowy AR, where they were stuck for a day, and was able to shower some love on this sweet girl. These two ladies hit it off right away, and soon enough Grandma had Evelyn sleeping in her arms.

The quantity of ginger in this one setting was obscene: the 'ginger' Grandma holding her strawberry blonde granddaughter, while drinking Vernor's ginger ale and snacking on gingersnaps. Oh yeah, and they brought their golden retriever with them (which really should be called a copper retriever, ya' know).

And because it's Two for Tuesdays, here's a bonus pic from the other day.

So far...

So good. (Okay, so it's only been two days.)

click to enbiggen

I took this pic in the last light of the afternoon. Evie was completely adorable in her overalls, and was helping me wade through paperwork at the kitchen table. (A cute baby can do a lot for drudge work.)

The tricky part about posting a picture a day of Evie is that I want to post more than one picture. For every one image posted, I am taking 5 to 10 pictures and trying to cull it down to one I like for the day. And that doesn't even factor in that I may take a couple sets at different times during the day.

But at least we're building up a good stash of Evie pix to browse through in our old age.

Firsts

Happy first of March. We are experiencing many firsts with our first child. Today, we were privy to hear her first laugh.

In the beginning, we were too concerned with everything that was going on and what it could possibly mean that we missed Evie's first smile - or, at least, to document it as such. We never knew if it was gas or a spasm, but now we totally recognize her grin and that it is for us (or the elephant in her mobile).

Evie's first laugh could not be mistaken for anything else. She had just woken from a good nap, had a fresh, clean diaper, and was about to nurse. I was chatting to her, as I'm want to do, and commenting on her beautiful smiles. Matty came over to see said smiles, and with both our heads close together and peering down at her, Evelyn chortled.

Two of the loveliest notes that I've ever heard.

For this last month of my leave, I am attempting to take - and post - a picture of Evie every day. Call it my March madness. I can't promise any accompanying commentary, witty or otherwise.