Through The Looking Glass

Er, kind of. Check out seconds 29-35.

Liz asked if I had an Amazon affiliate link, which I didn’t. But now I do! Click here to shop on your own, or here to see the aStore I set up with gift suggestions in three categories: adults, kids, and movies.

A few weeks ago I put all of Sam’s receiving blankets in a pile to give to Uccellina, who is having TWINS!!! sometime in March.

But… I just couldn’t do it. They are store-bought, nothing special except that one package came from Laurie and one from my mom. But… no. I was feeling too sentimental, so they sat by the stairs in our apartment for a while.

And then yesterday I suddenly knew what to do with them: I’d cut them up and make a scrappy blanket/quilt. The tiny blankets that no longer cover my son who used to be tiny can become one mecha blanket and keep him warm for years. And I can buy or sew new ones for my friend’s babies.

I know I already have two or three or a thousand unfinished blanket projects for him, but this one just demanded that I work on it Right Now. It’s going to be Twin sized. The seams will be backwards and I’ll tack it to the backing (which will probably be a twin-sized sheet). Super-easy. And I’ll have six squares (er, rectangles) left over, which I may or may not fashion into a Frankenstein receiving blanket.

I have two complaints.

1. MY BABY IS SO BIG!!! As you may recall:

2. These fucking things are rounded, and badly. Cutting them into anything resembling squares was an exercise in futility. (And it might be said that the mere handling of baby blankets is something of an exercise in fertility, since it seems to have rekindled my mad baby lust.)

Except for some dishes that need to be washed and beds that need to be made, I am done. And I am feeling pretty good about the last two days. I am not really the best at caring for older children — I have a notable lack of experience — but I think I did fine.

(this picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post)

There was more head-butting the second day, probably due in large part to the children being totally over the novelty of having their parents gone. And who can blame them? They argued more and I hated it (seriously, the six-year-old argued against having ice cream for desert) but they were asleep at 8:30 and got to school on time and with hair brushed (but maybe not teeth) so I think it’s a win. I know they’ll be happy to see their parents this afternoon, and by tomorrow they will probably be sick of them.

When I took them to school this morning we were early enough for Eamon to run around with his friend Arlo. Sam chased them, never catching up. It was so sweet and a little sad — he just kept turning around and running after Eamon, not realizing that he was being ignored. I also got a reminder of the things I love about this town. Arlo’s dad dropped him off. He happens to be an actor I really like. Unlike the gossiping moms in their designer duds from yesterday, he was totally engaged in his kid, laughing at their games and making faces at Sam. Awesome. And needless to say, he is more of a character actor than a lead (though he did have a great TV show for a while).

Dude, I just found a spam comment from Ann Magnuson. Dude!

The kids are at school and so far everything has gone well. My shortcomings seem to mainly revolve around enforcing rules I don’t like but find necessary (lights out when they want to read) and making instant oatmeal (near total failure). Otherwise things are going swimmingly.

They got home yesterday afternoon and Eden only made a cursory effort to trick me into letting her on Webkinz before homework.

–I prefer to do it at school.

–But then it would be called schoolwork.

Eamon didn’t even try to get out of doing his work, and was only briefly distracted by the picture accompanying his reading worksheet.

Even dinner went well once it was established that Eamon won’t eat spaghetti with sauce. I was even able to coax him into eating some tofu.

Both kids accept it when I say no with only one attempt to convince me otherwise. (”No.” “But–” “No.” “OK.” It is awesome. And so obvious that I am not their Mom.)

Eamon and Sam took their bath together and Will says it was the coolest thing ever. Eden and I read the first chapter of A Wrinkle In Time, and she loves it. My work here is done! (Except for the second 24 hours.)

This morning everyone woke up easily and we got to school early. Both kids have messy hair. I brushed them! Oh well. Eamon’s teacher has teeth like a shark and I very nearly took him right back home with me. (Well, not a shark. I am pretty sure there was only one row. But they are very big. She looks like Ursula from The Little Mermaid.)

Now I just have to hang out with Sam till the kids are dropped of after school! It’s ridiculously quiet with just one kid playing. Even if he is banging pots and pans on the stone floor.

In other news, Sam has said “Eden,” “Eamon,” and “Charlie” today. Also “Daddy.”

For the next three days I will be looking after my friends’ kids. Sam and I are staying at their house, doing homework with them and feeding them, getting them to bed at night and to school in the morning. They are six and eight years old. I am not nervous, but I think it will be a totally new experience. Um, and it would maybe have been nice to get more than zero sleep last night.

Wish me luck!

I have approximately eight billion tabs open in Firefox and rather than make seven billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine sideblog posts with all the links I thought I’d just round them up here.

@ Whip Up — a roundup of Advent Calendar tutorials. I still have not made the advent stockings I’ve been talking about for the last twelve months. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. I am right this minute looking to see what Playmobil’s Advent choices are this year.

@ The Purl Bee — Sweet little knitted sachets shaped like pine trees. These could also be fun for Halloween if you used Candy Corn colors!

LOLkids — this might be even better than LOLvikings. Well, as good as LOLvikings. These are by Jen, formerly of JenEx. Utter brilliance.

@ Wee Wonderfuls — updates to the shop including the sweetest Peppermint Fairy Stitchettes. And how great is that card?!

And lastly (shut up, that was almost eight billion), my new top pick for Stocking Stuffers for nearly anyone: FlipKnits, little knitting how-to flip books by Annie Modesitt. They are on sale, all four for the price of three through the end of December. I wouldn’t mind a set of these myself!