Our old girl

 

Thank you for all the love, sweet old Loki.

We won't be the same without you.

Snow day!

We got a good amount this time!
Photo set here

Introducing KinderDance

Eleri's new class at the community rec center

Happy Little Christmas

We did it on the actual day, but the pics are late because of life happening and stuff.

This year, Eleri got the fève!

 

She wanted to crown herself, but that's not fair, so she crowned Rowan.

And with that, Christmas is done for another year.

In other news, later that same night, Rowan was also officially made Tenderfoot.

 

We like to stay on our toes around here.

And for Mom:

Merry Christmas 2013

 

 

Another successful Christmas in the books.

Find the pictures here.

You want a picture of the kids and the dogs, you say?

No, that's not crazy. Not crazy at all!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

Beginner Band - Rowan's first concert

Tonight was the Winter Concert for Sterling's music program. It's about 90 minutes of musical cacophony as the students show us what they've been up to in their hours after school. This was Rowan's first year playing in the band, and he really enjoys it.

This is video number 1. There was some sort of student being ready malfunction between songs, so the wait with nothing happening got really long. I ended up stopping this one and starting another video once they were ready to play again, so you can save yourself some time by hitting the stop button on this one once the song is done.



Video number 2 (with bonus Rowan announcing one of the songs!)


It's like you were there! Except you missed the beginner violins, the advanced violins, the violin solo, the advanced band, the sterling band, the sterling singers, and the sterling stars. I could have taped it all, but Merry Christmas!

Santa visit 2013

Rowan asked for a Telescope. Niall asked for Snap Circuits Extreme. Eleri asked for a Minnie Mouse umbrella.

I've been fretting the evening away though. Sally started out the trip with us, but somewhere somehow she went missing. Eleri has no clue because of the backup Sally, but I've been completely over-emotional about it. I'm hoping Sally is located. We still have 2, and Eleri is unaware, but no one else will know just how important Sally is. I know I'm anthropomorphizing my daughter's stuffed friend, but I can't help it. I want all the Sallies here where they belong!

Niall is 9

His golden birthday. 9 on the 9th! We pretty much celebrated him all weekend. He played lots of Wii, got his presents, and got to go to the movies with John. Pictures to come.

Big News!

This just happened.

Worth the Blister?

School pictures!

This year, I decided to take school pictures myself. I've bought the package from Lifetouch every year, and they're not bad, but I feel like I've gotten good enough to take my own pictures from now on. Either I'm good enough, or I'm cheap enough! lol

I posted a set on facebook, and everyone had different opinions about which one was best, so I just picked my favorites.

Here is Rowan's 6th grade picture

 

 

And here's Niall's 3rd grade picture.

 

Halloween 2013

Another one in the books. No one was sick this year. Hooray!

Niall was a shadow. Eleri was Sally the mouse. Rowan was a fox.

 

We carved pumpkins after school, but Niall pooped out on doing his. He chose a complicated design. Oh well.

I carved Eleri's after she chose the design, and Rowan carved his own.

Happy Halloween!

Now she is five

 

It's hard to believe, isn't it?

 

Eleri has had a great birthday. She got lots of presents, had a party with her friends, and in general feels like a special little person. What more can we ask for? Birthday photo set located here: Eleri's 5th Birthday

We also got the news from the endocrine doctor. Everything looks the same as it did before, so we can keep on as we're keeping on, and they'll see her again in April. :)

It's hard to believe that next year she'll be in kindergarten. Crazy. What am I going to do without my little shadow?

The birthday starts early

Eleri got a bit of her birthday fun early this week. We had to take the van to the shop for the scary noise it was making (no big deal, heat shield is now tightened, yay!) and I had taken her car seat out just in case we needed to put it in the green car to get somewhere.
I'd been planning to turn her forward facing for her birthday but I didn't want to install her car seat rearfacing only to turn it forward in less than a week, so we turned it early.

 

She loves it. She keeps saying "weeee!" and says that she loves looking forward. She looks so BIG to me now!

 

Putting her forward facing meant that we needed to drag the other seat out of the shed to put it in the van, so she could be behind the driver. More convenient for me during the day - especially since that door is the one that works well. The one on the passenger side is stupid and takes an act of congress to get open, and we all know how well that's been working lately...

But to get the seat out of the shed, John had to take a bunch of the outside toys out to get to it. One of those things was the bike I'd been saving for Eleri's birthday. She saw it and there was no going back. So, another birthday present early. She loves her new bike, too!

 

 

For your enjoyment

This weekend I got purple hair!

 

No, it won't wash out. Yes, I meant for it to be like that.

I've wanted purple hair for years!

And Loki got bat ears

 

Hers will come off. That dog will do ANYTHING for jerky.

Enjoy the little things!

 

We saw the endocrine people today. I found that shirt about a month ago. Isn't it perfect for her?

The good news - Eleri has grown 2cm in the last 5 months. We no longer have to cuff the legs of the jeans that we had to cuff twice last year. Hooray!

But her growth velocity is still only at 4.8cm a year. They really want it to be at least 5cm, but since it's almost there we can do a little more watchful waiting, maybe. They took 3 tubes of blood today to run some more growth hormone tests. If she's at the same level as she was last time, or has gone up, we'll continue to wait and watch. If her level is lower, they want to go ahead with the full growth hormone stim test. They'll call with results in a couple of weeks and we'll go from there.

Official Stats

Height: 92.9cm or 3 feet and 0.58 inches
Weight: 13.1kg or 28lbs 14.1oz

Happy girl

 

Someone was really happy that dance class is starting back up again.

Practice!

I think the tuba is getting easier to listen to. :)

The one that taught me about gauge

I cast on this sweater 2ish years ago. I went to the yarn shop with Fran, and we saw the sweetest little sweater. She loved it and bought the pattern and yarn, and then handed it all to me and sent me on my merry way with it.

I knit a gauge swatch or two, figured I had it, and started knitting. I knit the fronts, the back, the sleeves, and then thought they might be easier to sew together if I blocked them first, so I threw them in the bath.

That's where I got my big lesson.

You see, the yarn was completely different after it had gotten wet. WAY different. It GREW. A LOT. And suddenly the reason I didn't get gauge on the needles the pattern recommended was pretty obvious. Because it grew once it got wet.

I skipped that step where you're supposed to wash your swatch the way you'll wash your finished item. I'd done that over and over again, and the swatch never really changed with washing. It might get a bit thicker, but the size was always pretty much the same - but then the fiber was always the same. I usually just knit with straight wool, or a wool and acrylic blend, or plain old acrylic. This was a fancy blend of merino, silk, and cashmere. It didn't do what I was used to, and there is where I fell down.

Faced with a way bigger sweater than I wanted, and having to do a bunch of seaming while matching up stripes, I stuffed it in a bag and walked away from it. But I did remember the lesson and made sure to wash the swatches when I cast on for bigger sweaters for me - you better believe that!

Finally, I took the pieces back to Fran and handed them over. I really do hate seaming, and she said she'd be happy to put the pieces together for me, but she was not going to knit that ruffle.

I got the pieces back from her this summer, and finally sat down yesterday to do the last bit. That ruffle went on for ages, but everything else was done, and even though the sweater was way bigger than I originally thought it would be, Eleri was now the perfect size to fit it, so I needed to get cracking before there was a chill in the air.

She picked out the button after her nap, and here we are.

2 years later, it's a perfect fit!