Gender

I've read how young kids can get overly focused on categorizing people once they figure out age or gender. Right now Penny is talking about gender non-stop. Here have been some of the remarks over the past few months:

I'm starting with the worst one:
"Mommy, I can't do the monkey bars. They are too hard. They are for boys. Not for girls"

"I want a spiderman shirt. I love spiderman. But the spiderman shirt has to be pink. Only girls can wear pink spiderman shirts"

At a public restroom:
"This is the girls bathroom. The boys can't come in here. We have to go to different bathrooms because girls and boys get marry when they are big so they can't use the same bathroom"

On our bike ride:
"Mommy, the boys are always naked. I want to be a boy then I can run with no shirt"
A woman running past us heard this comment and cracked up.

Then when we go to the park she specifically says "I want to only play with girls. And they can't be babies. And they can't be boys. Mommy, no boys, okay?"
She has a ton of friends who are boys at school, but she doesn't want to play with any at the playground.

And don't get me started on the whole dress thing. She wouldn't play with a 5-year-old girl at the playground the other day because "She's not wearing a dress. I only want to play with girls who wear dresses!" Although, I grumbled the other day at the cost of uniforms for her pre-kindergarten class, I'm actually excited to not have to hear the little girls comment on each other's dresses every morning when we walk into class. Geez louise...what we have gotten ourselves into?

A new love...fair isle

Have I mentioned knitting is an obsession? yeah, just a little bit. And I'm knitting up a storm because birthday season is just around the corner! This weekend I finished the Jenns' birthday presents.  Yes, that is plural...my sister Jennifer's birthday is in a month and my sister-in-law Jenn's birthday is a month later. Her birthday is the same day as my brother Christopher's birthday. Convenient to marry a guy with your birthday. He'll never forget it. Even more convenient that they got married on my mom's birthday that happens to also be my sister-in-law Laura's birthday. Just for good measure Penelope's birthday, my mother-in-law Phyllis's birthday, and mine and Chris's wedding anniversary are all thrown in there too. Maybe I'll do a chart...although, even with a chart it would get confusing with all the Lauras, Chris' and Jenns.

So anyways back to the knitting...I think I have to admit a problem when I start my day at 6:30 dreaming of a pattern and actually thinking it might be worth calling in for a "mental health" day. Thankfully I'm really busy at work so the day flew by. I saw this pattern on Sunday and knew right away that I wanted to make it for Penny.

If you've been following for 2 years you may remember my very first project was a hat for Penny. Last year I did a more complicated hat and this year I decided to tackle fair isle. I've got to admit I was a little scared the way some knitters complain about fair isle and colorwork. Fair isle is named after a small island in Scotland where it was started. It is using the basic knit stitch with multiple colors to make patterns.

I couldn't wait till after bedtime to start so I brought my yarn and needles to her gymnastics class, then picked it up again at 8:00. I'm loving it! It's amazing how quickly this hat knits up!

Can you see the snowflakes taking shape? The pink yarn was one Penelope picked out a few months ago. For non-knitters, the navy yarn pieces are just markers so I know when to start the next snowflake. And yes, that's an egg with bacon for my starting marker. My sister bought these great breakfast inspired markers on etsy.

Knock on wood...I haven't made a mistake yet. I think I get into some kind of zone with the projects that require my utmost attention. My thoughts never wander because I'm concentrating on the pattern. I feel more relaxed after an hour of doing this than any yoga class I've done. I have a feeling I might be done on this by the weekend. yup, an obsession.


 (By the way, all of you listed in the first paragraph are not getting knitted items...I'm not that fast! Maybe next year. I'll post pictures of the birthday knits in a couple months)

Pinterest crazy

Before I get to my Pinterest projects here are my lovely farmer's market flowers in our vintage mason jar. We bought it last week at the Squash Blossom Farm store. I love that I found a blue one. I can't find the exact date that they stopped making the blue ones, but I learned the logo has changed over the years and that's a good way to date it. The logo on this jar came from 1930-1960 (why do I spend time googling the age of a jar that cost me $5 when I have a mountain of laundry to fold? Now that's real procrastination)

As I was taking photos of my flowers I took this photo of our dining room wall.

This is Pinterest projects gone crazy. Window as a photo frame,  flower garland made from an old music book, and decorating with scrabble letters. To be fair we've actually had the window frame with pictures in it for 5 years so that was Pre-pinterest. I did the top left frame with scrabble letters of our names...I don't like how it turned out, but it has been up there for months. I think I need to glue them on a different background to see if that would help. Maybe they need their own frame and to be hung somewhere else. I have some burlap I could use as a background but I think that would be too country. If you're thinking "Laura, you've got a wooden frame with chipped paint, an oil lamp, a milk-glass vase, and newspaper flowers hanging on the frame...you might as well go ahead and do the burlap." yeah, I know...In my mind I think like modern but then when I look at my pins and what I buy my sub-conscious is obviously drawn to the shabby chic country look.

Our knick-knacks are kind of a mish mash, they make me happy.
oil lamp: this is from my Grandma Henry's house. She had 2 that she kept in her living room. They were right next to this flowered couch that was the perfect couch to read a book. So it always reminds me of her house.
white milk-glass vase: Chris's grandma got it as a wedding present. She gave it to us since the style matched our Minneapolis bungalow.
Colorful frame: we bought this in Venice on our visit in 2007
Fancy relish dish: when we announced we were engaged we got a gift the next week of a fancy relish dish. Chris and I thought it was funny that a relish dish was a our first gift and have had it out on display since the day we got it. We've actually never used it for pickles or relish. It usually has change and stamps.
candle snuffer: This is another hand-me-down from Chris's grandma.

Oh, and I realized I never shared my candle stick holders on the blog. My brother's friend Nate does wonderful pottery. We did a craft barter 2 years ago. I made him this hat and he made me 4 candlestick holders. Good deal huh?

A Pleasant Summer Day

Last month we were sweltering like everyone else in the country. We had multiple days over 100. I don't think that's fair since we also deal with -30 temps in the winter. I guess we moved to an over-achieving state.
But just like last year it looks like August will be wonderfully pleasant. In July I kept reminding Chris "remember last August I wore a cardigan to the state fair and rode my bike to work almost every day." This week the highs are in the 70's-80's. Perfect! don't get me wrong...I love hot days where the only place you can be is near a pool, but a nice 75 degree Saturday in August makes me giddy.

This morning when it was a brisk 60 degrees I convinced Chris that we should bike ride over to Zumbro River Cafe. We've never been there and all of you know how much I love trying breakfast places. So we put Penny in the burley and were on our way. 90% of the ride was downhill. The moment we got there Chris and I both looked at each other with the same thought "We have to find another way home. There's no way we are going up those hills" After a scrumptious breakfast we decided to follow the trail along the river. We knew at some point it would get us to the Farmer's Market downtown and we had to pick up our CSA box anyways. It was a beautiful ride!! Next time I'll have my camera with me. I did take a shot of a few of our goodies when we got home:

In today's box we got carrots, onion, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, hot and sweet peppers, shitake mushrooms, pea shoots a pound of potatoes and ginger. It's interesting how often the boxes change. Last week we had green beans, squash, eggplant, and chard, but no broccoli, tomatoes or pea shoots. It's nice that our farmer mixes it up some. Some of his crops haven't been doing great due to the July heat so he has to decide what he'll put in the CSA box vs sell at the market. Only CSA members have been able to get broccoli because most of his crop failed. I really like being part of the CSA and I'd highly recommend others to try it...but get a half share! I do admit we've had a few things go bad because we don't eat it fast enough.

Now back to our bike ride adventure. As we headed home from the farmer's market we passed a garage sale. I stopped to see what they had and noticed a baby doll cradle. Penny's baby has a shoebox bed so I thought this would be a good switch. It was too big to sit in the burley with Penny so we tied it onto the back with the bike lock. I noticed quite a few people pointing from their cars. Chris asked me "Do you feel like you've turned into your mom now?" I said "Nope. She put a half dead rattlesnake in her bike carrier. I have a kid's toy, a bouquet of flowers and a backpack of veggies. she still wins."

Here's a photo of the cradle strapped to the Burley.

And it's only 3:00 as I'm writing this...who knows what else we'll do on this beautiful day?

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: 2011 photo book

Click here to view this photo book larger

With 70 minutes to spare, I finished my Shutterfly book and got the 40% discount. Thank you Amy and Shutterfly for helping me keep my August deadline every year. I may fall asleep at my desk tomorrow....

Out of the Mouth of Penny

Penny really keeps us entertained. I decided to write down some of the funny things that she has been saying:

Goin to the chapel Recently I hung up some pictures from our wedding. I'm horrible about hanging pictures so she really hasn't seen many of Chris and I before she was born. She wanted to know why Mommy was a princess and Daddy a prince. I explained that was the day we got married. She then wanted to know where she was that day (I think this is common because Molly had the same question for Amy...the idea of a world before they were born is a very difficult concept). I said she wasn't there that day but pointed out she was at Uncle Christopher's and Aunt Jenn's wedding. She now looks at their picture and says "that's the day I got marry with Uncle Christopher and Aunt Jenn" Yesterday she woke up and came to my room all excited. She said "Mommy, I had a story in my sleep! Everyone was getting marry and we went to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and had a party with Goofy and Mickey and we were all princesses and princes." Adorable, huh? She's never told me about a dream before. I love that she called it "a story in my sleep"

Honeymoon memories On a similar subject Penny loves looking through our honeymoon album. We went to Disneyworld and I have an elaborate scrapbook. About a year ago I took it down and narrated the trip to her "this is mommy and daddy eating breakfast with Mickey" "this is mommy and daddy riding splash mountain all by ourselves" "this is mommy making a sad face that A Small World was closed" Well, now she narrates it, but inserts herself into the story. She usually says "Mommy and daddy riding the rides. I was too little so I take the carmera (that's how she says camera). "Mommy and daddy at the pool. I was playing at the hoandtell" (that's how she says hotel...gets it a little confused with show and tell) So I'm thinking we can hold off on Disneyworld for a few more years since she has so many memories from our honeymoon!

Sigh...other kids Earlier this week Penny came home from school and said "Look at my booooty" while shaking her bum. I burst out laughing, mainly from shock. Bad mom move because now it is very hard to get her to stop. She thinks it is hilarious! I said "who taught you that?" and she named pretty much every girl in her class. Is someone letting their daughter watch Real Housewives of New Jersey?

Letters For about a year we've been playing the game "what does that start with." first we did it with names...M is for Mommy, Molly, monster etc. Well, it has become an obsession for Penny. A car ride usually sounds like this "Mommy, what does street start with? Mommy, car starts with c. Did you know that? Mommy, that sign has a P! Like Penny, princess, present, and POOP!" Hilarious laughter every time on that one. We really hit a pinnacle of this game last night. About 3 am this morning there was a huge thunderstorm. Penny showed up in our room. I thought she was scared. Nope, she whispered in my ear "mommy, what does lightning start with?"
Me: "L, lightning starts with l"
Penny: "Oh, like Luke and Lakshmi and love"
Then she went back to bed.

The Power of Parents This morning it has been raining cats and dogs. I know that is probably painful to hear for those of you in the lower mid-west. We've been dry, but nothing like the rest of the states. Penny woke up and said "mommmmmy...make it stop raining. I want the sun. No clouds. Make the clouds go away" I've decided the reason why kids come to the conclusion that their parents can't do anything is because they ask for the impossible at age 3.

Sarah Baby Sarah is no longer a baby sister. Instead she is a 4-year-old that does everything Mommy wants and gets to do everything Penny wants to do. "Mommy, do you know Sarah eats broccoli and never cries? Sarah has a cat named sarah and the cat is really nice and did you know that Sarah listens to her teachers? And Sarah gets to go to China with the sun so she plays with the kids in China and doesn't have to go to sleep then comes back to play at the United States of America?" It's constant chatter about Sarah and Sarah's toys and Sarah's mommy and daddy. The funny thing was that I had to travel for work for a week and Chris said she never once brought up Sarah. It's just something she talks about to me.

Well, I better go see what she is up to now...she just ran into the office asking for a piece of paper so she can draw a map to get to Sarah's house.