Good God He's Cute! If I Do Say So Myself...

So we made it through the birth and we're here struggling through the normal new parent stuff. Exciting stuff like cracked bleeding nipples, boobs the size (and solidity) watermelons, and junior's hourly spurting fonts of green poo. And I just want to say that the whole umbilical stump thing is pretty gross. Just the phrase "umbilical stump" is rather unpleasant. The little bugger is pretty cute though, and what kinda mommie would I be if I didn't post some baby pictures.

Fuzzy little mammal cheeks.

Poor Aunt Talley after the red-eye from DC.

The Hub, getting The Hug.

Snoozy McMilkmouth

And the whole family here bids an extremely fond farewell to the Lovely Lisa. We are so sad to see you go, but I'm sure it will be nice to get home and do your own housework for a change, instead of ours. Thank you thank you thank you.

Mission Accomplished

OBSO is officially a success! I guess The Critter didn't like the idea of being too late either.

I sorta got smacked by the birthin' stick. No no, wait, it was more like flattened like a copper penny on the steel rails of the West Coast Birthin' Train Line. Hang on, here it is... I was blasted off the shuttle launch pad into orbital motherhood in a wacky blink of an eye. Well you get the picture. It was pretty quick. Here's the short version:

6:30 am - Woke up with some cramping and spotting.
8:32 am - Jackson Fletcher Tarnay was born.
8:34 am - Midwife arrived.

The Hub has already taken 190 pictures. I'm serious.

And here he is in his Blogspot debut...

T Minus 2 Hours and 42 Minutes...

...until the Due Date. So I guess that means I have that, and then 24 hours until I'm considered "late". I hate being late! Okay, five minutes here and there is no big deal, but days? Actual days late! I don't know if I can take this, the obsessive compulsive in me is... planning ahead? Okay I've got another 26 hours before that happens. Settle. Deep breaths. Positive visualizations. The little engine that could... We'll keep y'all posted.

OBSO

Hey guess what!?

We're still pregnant. The Lovely Lisa has arrived and, as of yet, there has been no need for her calming massage-tastic skills. (Desire, but alas, no need.) So we have initiated Phase 1 of Operation Baby Shake Out. Meaning that we have eaten some spicy Thai food and taken some walks. Okay, it is a pretty mellow game plan, but you know, I'm nine months pregnant...

Unfortunately the weather has taken a turn toward blistering hot, so most OBSO activities have to be restricted to the hours before 9 am and after 7 pm. It is so hot during the middle of the day that all the cicadas come out and click, and the day sounds like its sizzling. For relief we have inflated a baby pool on the back porch to allow for gestational floatation. Ah sweet floatation. We even used it to practice some coping-breathing techniques last night as the water from the hose was really freaking cold.

So we have a few other things to check off the OBSO list, mostly foods to consume, such as eggplant parmesan and pepperoni pizza before the midwife steps in with the big guns. Eeek. Big guns. But that is still a few weeks off, so we'll just hold onto our little baby horses here and wait.

Oh and drink these...sweet smoothie nectar of the gods.


And finally a quick knitting update. The Hub hated the HubCap. Durn it. He says he's not a "roll brim" kinda guy. Any one want a nice woolie hat for July? Yours for the price of a smile! I have since knitted another hat that I love love love and started on a baby sweater! (Eeek, in over my head there, but giving it the old college try!) I bet you're on the edge of your seat about my knitting, huh?

Still Pregnant...

I now have yogurt in the refridge that has a longer due date than me.

So we had yet another midwife appointment and everything looks fine again. Yay! But this also means that we went to the Thriving Metropolis of Oakhurst, which has an actual movie theater, and saw yet another movie; the new Pixar creation "Cars". I think it was cute and entertaining and well done, but for some reason I was embroiled in a hormonal stew from the minute I sat down, and therefore spent the entire hour and a half trying not to cry at inappropriate moments. Like the film short before hand. And the introductory credits. How embarrassing is it to be discovered bawling during the intro credits? I have no idea why I was so emotional, I'm just chalking it up to weirdo pregnant lady stuff and moving on.

So I am busy knitting a hat for The Hub. One might even call it a Hub Cap. ha ha. heh. Yeah. Sorry. And it has stripes! It isn't quite done, but just in case I muck it up here at the end I will document its stripeyness now...



Tadaaa! Hmm, it looks a little square, lumpy, and dorky here. Rats, I was going more for skater beanie cool. Ah well. Ya win some, and some you end up making look like... well... that.

Testing... Testing... 1,2,3...

Okay, so to test out the new "easier" photo posting offered by this here blogger site I have some lovely new images for you!


This is the trial pot holder that I knitted up to see if the yarn a friend gave me would felt up... And the answer is no. Absolutely not. No felting (which is drastic and on-purpose post knit yarn shrinkage) despite being actually boiled in a pot on the stove, so it looks like we are welcoming a new blue Mr. Potholder to the kitchen staff! Come on in! Hold some pots!

There is a slightly funny story about the yarn however, so I will digress...
The dark blue yarn came from a married friend. It actually came from her husband who had a hand-knit sweater from a former girlfriend. Evidently said sweater was grossly too large for said husband, possibly indicating said ex-girlfriend's complete disconnect between reality and fantasy of her soon to be ex-boyfriend. So my friend frogged it! Yep that's right, just like that Weezer song that is now permanently stuck in my head... "if you want to destroy my sweater (woah oh oh oh oh) hold this thread while I walk away (while I walk away!)" Sweater 0 Friend 1.


And this little snuggly creation is what I will now and forever more refer to as my Fluffyfuzzynubble hat! That I knitted with my own two hands! And used complex new-fangled gear like "circular needles" and even "double pointed needles"! I figured out how to make it from a lovely knitter/blogger in LA who posts all her "recipes" for fellow knitting newbies. Although I did have to omit the gleeful consumption of alcohol part, as the midwife has casually mentioned that booze can SLOW DOWN OR POSTPONE LABOR and I am pretty much ready to get this show on the road!

Hmmm, so what are we missing here? Pot holder... hat... sweater anecdote... Aha! Me! That's what we're missing!


To appease my inner narcissist I just had to post this picture of my hair being really cute. I did a little swirly spurty up-do from Cousin Kathleen with wet hair the day before, and got a second day of swirly curly hair for free! Two do's for the price of six bobby pins! Ya can't beat that bargain with a stick!

Photo-tastrophe, A Monkey, And Carrying Implements!

So with my last post I came to a sad realization. The site where I've been caching all of my pictures is a free thing called "flickr", and unbeknownst to me it only holds a total of 200 pictures, regardless of size! So as I've been adding picture upon picture of random household stuff, other things have been falling off the back undetected by me. Durn. I guess I shoulda read that user agreement a bit more closely... So I may try a few new things with pictures soon... so give me a little while to figure out what that may be.

In much less glum news, yesterday was a Banner Goodie Day here at Chez 'Hoop. Primarily we received this in the mail!

Because no baby room is quite complete without a little monkey-head throw rug!

AND THEN! We got THIS!

The worlds most fabulous critter toter! From my fabulous sister! Yay, sister!

And then I decided that I'd had enough of this sittin' around, and I figured it was about time I learned to knit. Yup, the total domestic transmogrification has happened. ( I also have plans to work on a quilt too! Try not to gag.) So I went to our teensy tinsy little local yarn shop and made the whopping $11 purchase of some nasty acrylic variegated yarn and some knitting needles and a wee pamphletty book that totally sucks. I have to say that this website was much more useful until I got to the purling part. And then it was back to the baffling graphics of the pamphlet... Despite this, in two days I have managed to teach myself how to cast on, knit, purl, stockinette stitch, rib knit, add a stitch (knit AND purl) and decrease stitches. Why yes, I am quite proud!

I'd show a picture of what I created so far, but it really is quite ugly and you know, there's that picture issue right now... but soon I hope to locate some actual wool wool and possibly give this cute little felted project a try...

'Cause everyone needs a microscopic shoulder bag in purple mohair, right?

Such are the goals of my new sedentary life...