Strain Station

Time for a Catie update!

The past few months have been pretty amazing, for Catie.  Around the end of my pregnancy and shortly after Jack’s birth, she was going through a really rough period.  Barely using the limited speech she had, behavioral issues, etc.

Around the time we posted the video of her playing the “silly face” game, something changed.  A dam seemed to break inside of her, and she started using more words, paying more attention, interacting more.

Her growth since then has just been awesome.  So many new words, including phrases, asking for things without dragging us or using our hands as tools, understanding tons of new things.  She’s even been trying new foods!  She finally “got” the computer mouse and has been playing tons of games on the computer, her v-smile, and her ipod touch.

She is interacting a ton with Emily and especially with little Jack.  She just loves him so much, it is wonderful to see.  They all love to make each other laugh, and I get to watch them grow together every day and Catie get to be the “big sister”.  And singing with me… the best feeling in the WORLD was hearing her little voice sing with me

There’s a song from one of the Signing Time videos that always makes me cry And the first verse goes like this:

Sometimes I see you stuck
For such a long time
A daily nothing new
Pretend I don’t mind

With lists of things you’ll never do
Until somehow you do
And you do — you do — you shine

The days and months and years,
they run together
Is it just one day? Or is this forever?

You’ve taught me in your lifetime
More than I’d learned in mine
And you do, you do, you shine

Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine
Shine your light on me
Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine
everyone will see
Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine
I’m so glad you are mine

I am so glad that you are mine, Catie

My big boy!  He tried avocado yesterday and loved it!  And after a rough night last night, this morning we woke up to his first tooth.

He’s growing up so fast.  Slow down little man!  At least he doesn’t seem to be in a rush to crawl like Emily was.  He still pretty much stays where you put him, which I appreciate

ok not really.  I was struggling with a title there.  that was the best I could do!

today I’m going to talk about knitting and crochet.  I started knitting almost two years ago.  I found a blog entry from may 2008 where I noted that I wanted to talk about knitting (and running) and that would have been the entry where I explained about starting to knit.  except I never wrote it.  follow through isn’t always my strong point

to tell the story I need to go back a little further though.  before I learned to knit, when I thought I never would (and really didn’t think I wanted to anyway).  I thought knitting was something that old ladies do… and I was right.  I mean, old ladies do knit.  they probably didn’t start doing it as old ladies though, it’s not like one day they woke up and thought “damn, I’m old.  better get some knitting needles”.  presumably they started knitting and THEN got old.

when I joined atlantamommas shortly after catie was born, some of my new friends were knitters.  they had “moms knit in” (instead of moms night in – clever, like I was trying to be with the title of this post) where they all got together and knitted. to be honest, I thought that sounded totally lame.  (sorry guys!)  maybe I was just put off by something that they could do that I couldn’t do.

fast forward a few years – catie was 3, emily a newborn, and I spent every waking minute talking to or hanging out with Tamar.  who also knits!  she was pregnant with esther, and she was knitting this awesome afghan:

I thought that was wicked cool.  I wanted one just like it.  I was starting to come around to the idea that knitting was cool… unfortunately it still wasn’t something I knew how to do.  and I certainly wasn’t going to ASK someone how to do it.  heavens no.

it was around that time that a girl on the ICAN of Atlanta forum taught herself to knit.  and she posted about it.  she taught herself using the videos on knittinghelp.com and she posted a bunch of pictures of the neat stuff she had made.  every time she posted she talked about how great the videos were and how easy it was to learn.  so one night when I was bored I decided to check them out.  I wasn’t going to learn how, or anything.  I was just going to take a look to prove to myself I couldn’t do it.

and I really did think that, too, even watching the videos.  it was John, watching over my shoulder, who encouraged me:  “you could totally do that” he said, “even a monkey could learn how to do that”.  hm.  was he implying that I was no smarter than a monkey?  or just that if a monkey could do it, certainly a person smarter than a monkey, like myself, could ALSO learn to do it?

either way, if he thought I could do it, maybe I could.  maybe.  I wasn’t convinced.  I am not a crafty person.  the good thing about all of this was that I could try in utter secrecy.  If I failed, only John would know.  He knows all of my shortcomings and he loves me anyway, so that would be ok.

I went out and bought a pair of needles and one skein of yarn.  I didn’t need much, because I was surely not going to be able to do it, and I didn’t want to waste too much money.  I had watched the videos over and over the night before, and now I prepared to mimic them while I watched.  “in through the window, around to the back.  peek through the window, off jumps jack”.  around and through and off I went!

much to my surprise, I did figure it out.  my first project was a baby blanket.  way to start small, eh?  It wasn’t great looking (and because I didn’t really understand what I was doing, there were a bunch of dropped stitches.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the entire thing had unraveled into a pile of electric blue yarn by now) but it was a blanket, and I had knitted it!

well, this is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be.  so I guess I will call this part 1.  tomorrow, crochet, and some recent projects.  stay tuned

ok I know, I know.  I haven’t blogged every day.  this will make up for it.  this made  my day, and perhaps my week, and possibly even my month

I’m crocheting this afghan.  I have about 10 other projects waiting in the wings, but I saw this at Joanns the other night and just had to make it.  I’m getting warmer the further I get though, and my hands are sweating.  LOL

I had a very busy day today. I’m sitting in on a childbirth education class that my friend Nichole teaches for the HOPE center. I am pursuing doula certification and the class is one of the requirements. so I was up and out of the house by 8am, and didn’t get home till about 1:30

I made lunch, sardine avocado toast. I wish I could say it was awesome, Alton Brown, but I can’t. It was edible once I mushed the fish up so that they no longer looked like something we pulled straight from the fish tank upstairs, but it really didn’t sit well in my stomach. I just kept seeing all those little tails… blech.

I ran to Hobby Lobby to pick up some things for a yarn swap I’m in on Ravelry, then cleaned up the house while John napped, fed the kids, and got them to bed. Jenny came over to watch them so we could go out to dinner – our first time out together since before Jack was born!

We went to Figo for dinner (mmmm! carrot coconut ginger soup, and wild mushroom risotto) and then to Party Chic for dessert (strawberry shortcake) and coffee.

Emily had woken up, and Jenny kept her entertained until we got home, she was in the BEST mood. Especially considering how cranky she has been since starting the molars debacle, and the fact that it was 10pm. Perhaps happy to have the house to herself for once?

Once she was back in bed, we watched an episode of Jericho, and now it is time for sleep!

what’s that you say?  today is Thursday?  poppycock.

apparently the entry about that was too short. I’ve been asked to elaborate a few times

I first learned about the pan on a commercial, a little while before Christmas, and was intrigued. I saw it at Walgreens and thought about buying it, but I was in a hurry, so I didn’t.

On Christmas eve, I went to the Walgreens by the house we were staying at to pick up some little gifts, just so the girls would have something to open the next morning (we hadn’t brought any gifts for them since we knew they’d be getting a lot from my family and we’d need the space in the van).

I decided if they had it that I’d buy it for myself. But they didn’t… I don’t know if they were out or if the Detroit Walgreens never had them. Either way.

The next day, opening gifts at my Aunt’s house, there it was, the Perfect Brownie Pan! I was confused, did I ask her for it? I didn’t think I had put it on my list. So I asked and she said no, she saw them on display at a store and the brownies looked perfect so she bought one for all of us.

The first batch that I tried to make was a total flop. I didn’t have enough oil, so I tried substituting an extra egg, and I also cooked them too long. They were like perfectly shaped dry chocolate sponges.

The next batch was perfect. It’s really the pan. If you just make the brownies with the right amount of oil and eggs, and don’t incinerate them, you end up with absolutely perfect brownies.

The pan bottom is even two pieces, so the outside drops off and you don’t have to scoop the perfectly cut brownies out of the pan.

I used it to make a cake for Tamar’s birthday today, and it worked just as well – tiny square little snack sized cakes. YUM!

The only downfall to this pan is the obvious one, that unless you make tofu-cheese-loaf in it, you run the risk of eating an entire pan of perfect brownies and/or snack cakes and gaining back all the weight you just Shredded off. Caveat emptor.

I have a love/hate relationship with the phone.  Lately it’s come to my attention that some of my friends think I only hate the phone, or fear the phone.  So I thought I would write a post about the phone, and my phone issues, such as they are.

Here’s the thing:  I really love to talk on the phone.  Over the years I have had several “phone” friends that I talked to daily.  The first one was my mom.  When I had lived in East Lansing with my ex-husband, we came up with a Wednesday and Sunday phone call.  We continued that for years, after I moved back to the Detroit area, and then after I moved to Georgia.

When she had her brain tumors removed and had the seizures, we started talking every day.  And I talked to her after work every day until the day that I got the call to come to Detroit because she was dying.

After that…  5:30pm sort of haunted me.  Time in the car haunted me.  Any time that was too quiet, when my brain could really get going, focus on my grief, focus on my regrets, focus on the pain, haunted me.  I started talking on the phone to Jennie.  I think there was one month that we logged over 100 hours on the phone.  I was at her house pretty much every day, but when I wasn’t there, we were on the phone.

Time went by.  People change.  Friendships change.  When Tamar and I got close I started talking to her every day.  Had some big cell phone bills then, too.  When I reconnected with my friend Emma from high school, I started talking to her all the time.  I guess I’m sort of in-between phone friends right now, but I’m working on Nichole

Anyway, that’s the love part of the relationship.  I do love to talk.  I’m sure that’s shocking to most of you eh? LOL

The hate part is calling strangers.  All the way from a total stranger to a casual acquaintance.  Basically, if I have to say more than “it’s Christine” for someone to know who I am, I don’t want to call them.  That goes for ordering food, calling to find out a store’s hours, anything like that.  I don’t think that is really THAT strange – John doesn’t really like to call people either.  The other night we wanted Chinese food and neither of us would call, so we ate Tuna Helper instead.  Maybe that’s just our brand of crazy.

Luckily technology makes not calling people easy.  Look it up on a website, send an email, write on someone’s “wall” on Facebook, instant message, text their phone.  There are so many ways to connect with the strangers, get information, plan a playdate, order pizza, without ever having to stammer “uhm, christine, um, strain?  you know, short, blonde… from that group we’re in together?  we met that one time, at the playground?”

So there it is, for the record.  I’m not afraid of the phone, I don’t hate the phone, I like to talk.  If you call me I’ll talk to you.  Just don’t ask me to call and make reservations.  There’s a website for that!