Post appointment...

Xander had his 5 year well child visit the other day and got 3 vaccinations while we were there- Dtap and polio in the left arm and MMR in the right.  While giving my child vaccines is no picnic in general, he pretty much flipped his lid during the shots. It is absolutely no fun to hold your child down while they are screaming and crying and begging you not to hurt them anymore.  I was feeling pretty traumatized afterwards but Xander was quite easily pacified with hugs and stickers. Friday morning he had a fever, easily treated with Motrin, but Friday evening his poor left arm looked like this.  I though it seemed a tad excessive so we took him to the Dr again this morning and apparently this is within the scope of a "normal" reaction.  I'd hate to see what an abnormal reaction would look like! Now the trick is to keep him from itching it and getting it infected. I really struggle sometimes with the vaccine debate but I guess a nasty, sore arm is better dying from tetanus or whooping cough, both of which are pretty readily found around here.  Still this is one part of parenting I could do without...

Xander's five year appointment

It's hard to believe my little man is going to be 5 years old in a few short weeks. My sweet baby boy is turning in to a real little person these days.  He's still my little man of course weighing in at only 36.5 lbs and measuring 40.1 in tall.  Height it appears is not going to be his strong suit.  Heck I only just pulled out all the size 4 pants! He is a busy, busy guy though.  Always on the move... He can be a little moody at times but then again who isn't! He's meeting all his developmental milestones and his speech and hearing seem to be within normal range even with tubes out so that is a huge relief.  He does not appear to be color blind unlike every other male in my family! His vision tested out at 20/30 in both eyes but at some point here soon I should probably take him to the eye doctor to have his eyes thoroughly checked- he is my son after all! So that is this year's health update.

Maggie is 33 weeks old!

Maggie is 33 weeks old today!  She is sitting up beautifully by herself and has even started to pull herself into a sitting position, provided she has a little tilt to start with. She still has only 2 teeth but I think she is working on some more given how fiercely she has been chewing on everything in site.  She finally figured out the food thing and, while she still tends to get her hands in the way, will now open her mouth for bites of food rather then sticking her tongue out to lick it. She could use a little help in the sleep department seeing as when I am home she seems to want to nurse all night long.  Someday I would like to reclaim my bed for my own!

Our newest additions

Lillian is the proud new mama of 12 piglets today.  They are so cute- especially when you consider what they grow up into!  There is a wide range of colors and patterns to choose from and I now truly understand where the term "pig pile" come from.  Welcome littles...

Maggie is 32 weeks old!

 I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best so you got all three!  Isn't she so precious?  She definitely had a six month growth spurt (maybe a little late) but she hasn't been sleeping quite as well as she had been.  This too shall pass... But even with the lack of sleep she is still a pretty happy girl.  She loves kicking her feet!

Maggie is 31 weeks old!

I could just eat her- 'nuff said!

Maggie is 7 months old and she has teeth!

Can you believe she is 7 months old already?!?!?!? Because I am having a hard time with it. She is sitting up beautifully by herself, although still not really rolling over yet. I think soon she will be able to pull herself into a sitting position.  She certainly doesn't like to miss anything going around her. She has started to eat some solids. She really likes Gerber teething biscuits and anything she can hold onto herself.  She is not yet a huge fan of anything you try to feed her, although bananas do seem to be most favored. Today we are at CocoKeys in Fitchburg Ma.  It is an indoor waterpark and the boys are having a blast while Maggie chills with Nanny.

I must apologize about all the crummy iPhone pics but they are certainly convenient! Maggie enjoyed sitting on the table at Buffalo Wild Wings- salt and vinegar wings yum! In the big news of the week she cut her first tooth yesterday and her second tooth today so my big girl now has her front two bottom teeth!

Maggie is 30 weeks old!

This photo is wicked blurry!  I want to upload a video but am having trouble with it... I'll keep working on it!

Maggie is 29 weeks old!

Yesterday I took Maggie to Nashua and we had her 6 month photos done- they are totally gorgeous.  I'll have to post some of my favorites here. It was a long, long day but she did great! Nan and I had a wonderful time. I'm planning on doing it again with Xander for his fifth birthday next month- a mommy/nanny day.  Hopefully he will enjoy it.

trying to get a picture of all three is a little but like herding cats!

Maggie is 28 weeks old!

I had to go up to a conference in Littleton, NH this week so the boys and Maggie came with me and they crashed in the hotel room with Nan supervising while I went and learned all about the fetal heart transitioning to the neonatal heart- fascinating!  Life is real miracle- it's a wonder any of us survive! Anyway the boys were pretty fascinated by the TV and the hotel pool but Maggie was flirting with me.

Maggie is 27 weeks old!

We had a wonderful Easter with Nan, Uncle Robert, Aunt Mugino, George and May coming to visit us. The adults had a lovely sit down dinner and banished the kids to a kid's table at our kitchen island and a good time was had by all! Maggie is thoroughly enjoying swim classes with mommy. She loves to kick her legs in the water.

Maggie is 26 weeks old!

This week Easter is coming and things have started to get rather crazy and busy around the Linnenbringer household! We took the kids to the Governor's Mansion for an Easter Egg hunt and to meet Governor Maggie Hassan.

Maggie is six months old!

So ye who follow my blog be prepared for a slew of posts.  I've been totally MIA and I apologize but in an effort to make Maggie feel as important as her brothers I am going to update the blog baby book style.  You'll get the nitty gritty and pics from the last month and I'll do better in the weeks to come!

Our gorgeous girl is 6 months old today! 

Maggie is 25 weeks old!

I can sit up by myself and I love to shake my head "no"! I must be growing like a weed because all I want to do is eat!!!!

Maggie is 24 weeks old!

Maggie is 23 weeks old!

Miss Maggie is 23 weeks old! She is doing pretty well.  She somewhat miraculously, overnight recovered from her conjunctivitis which was nice but she still has a bit of a persistent cough that I would like to see her get rid of. Of course we ended up taking her to the doctor probably unnecessarily because up until the morning of her appointment she had all kinds of goobery eyes!  Silly goose couldn't have cleared up a day earlier so I didn't waste a trip to the doctor!!!! Oh well she is up to 16 lbs now so little tank is still tanking up. She's been fussy with her cough and not sleeping well so I've not been sleeping well...so there has been some crabbiness at home recently. I see some much needed sleep in my future (please....) She is trying so hard to sit up but she keeps face planting. I guess she will have to work on her core strength some more! She has found her hands really well and now refuses to have her pacifier put into her mouth but insists on doing it herself.  I was having such fun watching her do it that I think I created a bit of a monster.... This is such a fun age because they are so interactive and yet not so mobile they get themselves into too much trouble. I'm not really looking forward to chasing a crawler around...

On the crafting front I made good progress on Xander's Wonderful Wallaby.  I haven't quite finished the doggy yet because I haven't been able to work on it in front of the boys since I want it to be a surprise for Easter, but I am almost there. The wallaby is going to be a lovely sweater although the yarn is pooling in rather interesting ways. Hopefully it will all come together in the end but it might end up being kind of a wild hodge podge; seeing as the body is pooling totally differently than the sleeves and I haven't even gotten to the hood yet.

Come yarn along with us at Ginny's Place.

Maggie is 22 weeks old!

Miss Maggie is 22 weeks old today.  She seems to be doing a little better with the sleeping this week than last week so maybe that was just a blip. Poor little bug has conjuctivitis this week and her eyes have been seriously goobery- the joys of big brothers! She should have a wonderfully robust immune system by the time she is school age becasue I swear she has caught every litte bug that the boys have brought home from school.  Apparently this round of conjuctivitis is viral so there is not much to do except wait it out.  So we are waiting it out and doing routine eye swabbing and hand washing.  It doesn't really seem to be bothering her except for some restless nights but who knows whether her eyes are bothering her or she is just having some restess nights! She is still my happy girl for the most part. She smiles every time she sees me, even through her goobery eyes, and it just melts my heart everytime!




I have been having a little knitting ADD this week. I'm still working on the dog from Spud and Chloe but it's been slow going since I don't want to work on it while the boys are around. It's gotten to the point where it is recognizable as a toy and I want it to be a suprise. So I cast on a little newborn charity hat and a sweater for Xander. The hat is for on the go and the sweater is for knitting at home when the boys are around. Hopefully the sweater will be for Xander's birthday.  I'm making him a wonderfully wallaby with some mosaic moon yarn I got in a co-op last year.  It's the first time I've knit with the mosaic moon bfl and it is lucious.  It's a good thing I made the sweater a size up because it is going to be a warm one.  It is so nice and soft too though. I haven't really knit enough yet to see how the colors are going to be but I have a feeling they are going to come out nicely, although more stripey that I had anticipated.  Stay tuned and come yarn along with us at Ginny's place.

Maggie is 5 months old!

My princess is five months old! Her new thing this week is shaking her head. It's hilarious. You look at her and ask her questions and she just shakes her head "no"!

Maggie is 21 weeks old!

The theme of the week is sleep or rather the lack there of... Maggie is a really good baby overall but she is getting to that age where she doesn't fall asleep anywhere at the drop of the hat. Since we lead a rather busy life slechping from school to swimming to work to the gym, etc, etc poor Magster is having a bit of hard time with it all. She gets overtired and then she gets quite fussy. She can't seem to get out of her own way long enough to fall asleep, with the eye rubbing and fussing. I think it is funny that babies have to learn to fall asleep. They do it so well at the beginning and then they hit this age around 5 months where it seems like they lose that ability and have to relearn it. In Maggie's case it also seems to be linked to her need to be with someone at all times.  She is constantly aware and watching everything going on around her and she has become especially aware of being left alone.  One thing is for sure she doesn't like being alone and she particularly doesn't like it when I am not there. So last night she slept in her own room for the first time. I was trying to get her to fall asleep on her own not while nursing. I made the mistake of not encouraging this ability with James and he still has issues falling asleep on his own so I'm hoping that lots of practice with Maggie will encourage better sleep habits. It went pretty well actually.  She did seem to wake up a little more often than when she sleeps in my room but with her pacifier and her mobile going she was able to fall back asleep pretty quickly for the most part. I did nurse her one time but that is pretty normal for her anyway. So we will practice napping in her crib today and see how that goes. Hopefully she will learn some good sleep habits and be able to fall sleep on her own without quite so much fussing. 

 

Does anyone have a good remedy for baby eczema? Both the boys had it but Maggie seems to be resisting all my normal remedies. She has it really badly on her arms where the boys had it on their legs- don't know if that makes a difference?

 

On the knitting front I haven't made much more progress on my dog from last week so not much to show. I've finished the body but am still working on the rest of it. I've got all kinds of knitting plans waiting to be put in motion though so I just need to get Maggie sleeping better so I can find some additional knitting time. Come and yarn along with us over at Ginny's place.

Maggie is 20 weeks old!

 

My sweet girl is almost 5 months old! It's crazy how fast time flies. She rolled over for the first time last week. She's gotten very interested in her feet.  It is so funny to see her laying on her back examining her toes with great intent. I'm just waiting for them to end up in her mouth sooner rather than later. She's able to hold things now so she spends a lot of time holding her Sophie la Girafe teether.  It's amazing how it goes straight from hand to mouth! She is the master of putting things in her mouth that is for sure. She is also trying really hard to sit up but is little a weeble wooble when she does.  It's really funny to see her wobbling back and forth while alternating grinning and looking startled at her own self.

I started working on the dog from Spud and Chloe but I didn't get very far yet.  It's not been a good week for finding time for knitting. I've been working a lot and with the snow, I got to spend an extra special long time at work. So I'll just have to keep chugging away but now I have to go back to work...

Happy Ash Wednesday! Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.

Maggie is 19 weeks old!

Maggie and James chillin'

As always Maggie is a perfect little chub. She is such a happy girl most of the time. When she is hungry she definitely makes it known! She is really trying to pull herself up and can now sit in a supported sitting position.  She is very close to rolling over but hasn't quite managed it yet. It's been kinda of a weird week in general.  I got mastitis and one thing I have learned about mastitis is that it hits you hard and fast and pretty much knocks you down flat on your tush! I didn't really get out of bed for 5 days straight so Maggie and I spent a lot of time snuggling and nursing while I tired to get better.  I'm feeling much better but am still not at full speed yet. I go back to work tomorrow so hopefully I will be feeling well enough... Of course yesterday in the midst of still being pretty sick myself I found out that my my mom broke her leg while on a ski trip to France.  She is in the hospital there and is having surgery today.  I haven't been able to talk to her myself but hopefully I will be able to speak with her this afternoon and check in personally.  It's hard to be so far away because there isn't really much that I can do.  I'm hoping she will be well enough to come on as scheduled on Sunday but I guess we will see.

Xander and Maggie snuggling...

As for farm updates we had a not so good day yesterday with lambing.  Midnight and Peep lambed, twins for Midnight and triplets for Peep but only 3 out of the 5 survived... Too cold I guess.  Of course they lambed while Frank was out so it was too late to try and save them by the time he got home and found them. Having not actually witnessed the lambing it is hard to know if they were stillborn or got cold or what exactly happened.  The realities of life on the farm... But we have 3 healthy lambs who are doing well this morning so it could have been worse.  Sadly we expect some lamb loss every year so let's hope this is all for the year! We are expecting potentially as many as 40 lambs this year so we have a ways to go yet before we are done.

Speaking of farm life my knitting has been somewhat farm related.  One of my goals for 2013 is to make most (not all...) of the toys from Susan Anderson's Spud and Chloe on the Farm.  I completed the barn this week.  I used a washable wool so I wanted to make sure the whole was washable so I used plastic canvas instead of cardboard (as suggested in the book) for the inners.  As it turns out I should have used a thicker canvas for the front because it came out a bit flimsy but I'm going to see if threading some pipe cleaners through might help stabilize the front a bit.  It works as is because the sides help hold it up but it would be nice if it were sturdier. It''s cute though and will provide the framework for much creative play I am sure!  I'm working on the dog now and ideally I will have that and the chicken done for Easter and then maybe the cow for Xander's birthday.  I also am definitely going to make some hay bales and buckets. After that we'll see...

Come and yarn along with us as Ginny's place...

Happy Birthday Deniz!

Wishing you a wonderful happy 35th birthday in heaven my darling. I still miss you everyday. Sing a chorus for me. Goodnight spoons.

In memory of Deniz Sarikaya, my dear friend, 1978-2005

Maggie is 18 weeks old!

Miss Maggie is doing well. She is growing well, yammering up a storm, working on rolling over and trying to sit up- neither of which she has actually accomplished yet but she's trying hard. She had her four month doctor appointment yesterday and all is well.  She weighs 14lbs 15.2 oz and is 25 inches long which according to her doctor makes her perfectly proportioned. She looks more and more like James everyday...but girly. I don't know how that works exactly but she is a girly version of her brother.

I've had some knitting ADD recently.  I've been working on several little project but nothing really exciting. I'm making another Little Pearl for a baby gift. This one is taking me forever, mostly though because I decided to knit it with some fingering weight yarn I had in the stash. So good for the pocketbook but not so good for a quick knit. I also started on knitting some stuff from Spud and Chloe on the Farm.  My goal for this year is to make most of the projects in the book and give them to the boys for Easter, birthdays, Christmas etc.  So I'm starting a little bit at a time. I started with the barn because I needed something mindless but I want to make the chicken for Easter so that will be next up.

Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.

Maggie is four months old!

It's never too early to start...

skiing that is.  This past Sunday was really a lovely day, cool but not too cold like it has been the last couple of days.  Sunday there was a light snow cover but not too much wind and lots of sunshine.  A perfect days to drag the kids outside for some winter fun. Usually James gets cold very easily so it was nice to be able to go outside and have fun and not freeze.  Nanny got the kids skis for Christmas (well they got hand me down skis for Christmas but....) so we did some skiing and some sledding on our front hill.  Here are the boys first few attempts at skiing.

Xander

James

Maggie is 17 weeks old!

Isn't she cute? Maggie has survived the swath of illness that swept through the family this week. James went down Monday afternoon, Xander Monday night, and me on Tuesday.  Luckily Maggie and Frank were spared so there was at least one adult to take care of sick and cranky kids and mommies. The boys seem fully recovered today and I am on the mend. It's been our second nasty illness this winter and as luck would have it each time one parent has not gotten sick. It so much easier when you have one functioning adult in the house. Maggie is doing so well.  She is such a joyful and happy little chub. Recently she has started to laugh and it is just the best sound in the whole world. She smiles all the time and is a really good sleeper.  The only time she fusses is when she is overtired and when she is hungry.  And when she is hungry she means business.  Patience is not a virtue that any of my children seem to possess! We go to the doctor next week so we'll make sure she is growing appropriately (of which I have no doubt).

So I finished Maggie's sweet bunting sweater. Of course as I was knitting the yoke I kept thinking to myself this is too long.  So several times I went back to the pattern and read it over and over again to see why my yoke seemed so much longer than the example. Every time I read the pattern over I couldn't see where I had made a mistake.  So I kept going and finished it.  I picked up my stitches along the front and knitted the front bands and it looks so cute!  But still I had this nagging sensation that it didn't look like the example and while my children are tiny I knit this is a 12-18 month size and yet when I tried it on James it wasn't that small.... So I went back to the pattern one last time and realized I had made a huge, horrible mistake! In the pattern it talks about the part where you bring the bunting string across as the "bunting join" and then in the next section when it describes how to knit the yoke it says to knit 4 inches from the "join" so I knit 4 inches from the bunting join, however what I now realize is that the "join" was the sleeve join, not the bunting join, so my yoke is 4 inches too long!!!!! Which is why it is more like a size 2 than 12 months and why it doesn't look like the example. So the age-old question becomes is it ok the way it is or do I rip out the front bands and rip the yoke back and reknit it? The idea of basically ripping apart a completely finished sweater is somewhat nauseating to me but I also want it to fit her. The photo below is of the sweater on James...and although it is a little small (but he is 3 1/2 years old...) I think it actually looks ok.  What would you do?

In any case I used the leftover yarn, which is totally scrumptious by the way, to knit Maggie a little hat. It is sort of a bel cloche but I didn't have enough yarn to do the brim and while I had intended for it to be worn with her sweater I didn't have enough yarn to make a bigger hat (although if I ripped back the sweater...). So I modified the pattern to work with what I had and it fits her now. It is seriously cute on her- looks like she is wearing a little purple cupcake on her head. It is also the first hat that really seems to stay on her head, although it does keep spinning so the "seam" is in the front. I'm gong to have to save my pennies to buy some more of this yarn because it is really lovely and the dusty rose color is calling my name.  

So not much reading going on this week- just some magazines and a couple pages of my dyeing book. It's been hard to read while not feeling well. Come and join the fun over at Ginny's place.

Maggie's First giggles...

Maggie laughed hysterically when I ripped open her velcro diaper cover. I tried to get it one video but all you get is these few giggles.  I then discovered that she has a ticklish spot on her inner thigh so now i can elict giggles whenever I need a mood booster!

Maggie is 16 weeks old!

Miss Maggie is 16 weeks old today! She is getting so talkative it is very fun.  She has long, grand conversations with herself daily. She's pretty loud sometimes but I guess she has to keep up with her brothers so she has to be loud. She is very close to rolling over but hasn't quite managed to get off her side yet. She keeps getting her arm in the way.  We took her swimming for the first time on Monday which was going really well until Xander threw up in the pool! He had swim class and then we all got in the pool and I think he just swallowed too much water because right afterwards he was running around the locker room and hasn't been sick again.  What a way to clear the pool! Anyway, Maggie really seemed to enjoy herself after the initial shock of the water.  She was very content just floating away in my arms. Of course since I had brought a regular disposable instead of a swim diaper she had that as extra floatation. The boys have swim classes on Mondays so I am hoping we can all go again frequently this winter and she will be well acclimated in time to start mommy and me classes when she is six months old.

So I am not big into New Year's Resolutions but I do tend to get a little distracted in my knitting so I thought I would make a list of knitting goals for this year. I make no guarantees that I will finish everything on this rather ambitious list but I thought it was worth setting out a good year's worth of knitting. With that being said I still didn't include a few more "mundane" project like at least one more baby gift and Maggie will need a pair of medium longies and a skirty. So here is my ambitious list:

1: practice practice practice so I can get faster
2: Be more adventurous with cables, here is my goal piece
3: Finish Maggie's blanket (Before she goes to kindergarten)
4: Knit my boys and my husband each a sweater- campfire pattern I think
5: try color work, starting with a Sweet Bunting for Maggie
6: Knit myself a sweater or a shawl
7: Finish my hundredth project on ravelry , I'm almost there!
8. Knit a few project from Spud and Chloe at the farm. Ideally for the boys birthdays.
9. Finish Francois.
10. Dye my own yarn.

So in order to get started on my goals I have been working on Maggie's Sweet Bunting.  I had actually cast in on around Christmas but it got put down for awhile in favor of knitting baby gifts so I picked it back up again and have knit the bodice to the underarm join and have just casted on the first sleeve.  This is the first time I have constructed a sweater this way so hopefully it will go well.  I got the yarn and pattern in a kit at the New England Fiber Festival last November and so far I am really liking both.  The yarn is wonderfully soft and is coming out subtly striped which was a welcome surprise.

Also at the NEFF we saw Gail Callahan do a demonstration on dyeing. Xander was fascinated with all the color mixing and I have always wanted to try my hand at dyeing.  I have actually seen Gail many times before at Webs, where she works and didn't realize who she was. I spend way too much time (and money =)) at Webs but when it is almost as close as LYS it is very tempting! For Christmas my mom got me Gail's book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece and I have just started reading it.  I want to try some dyeing with Xander since he seemed so interested in it and we have tons of roving from the sheep.  I'm a little worried about cleaning the kitchen after dyeing with a four year old but if we use food coloring we should be ok, right?

That's enough ambition for now.  Come yarn along with us at Ginny's Place.

First lamb of 2013

Mindy graced us this morning with a suprise- a not so little ewe lamb in the dead of winter.  She did this to us last year too (although less of a suprise last year).  Momma and baby are looking great despite the cold weather. I guess Mindy just likes to have winter babies!

Maggie is 15 weeks old!

The little princess is 15 weeks old this week and weighs a whopping 14 pounds. I went to a baby shower at work the other day and threw her on scale and she was 14 lbs 1.4 oz. with only T-shirt on. I can only hope her growth slows down a little bit because otherwise she will be too heavy to carry pretty soon. We are so lucky to have such a good baby. She's almost sleeping through the night, only getting up once sometimes twice to eat. And most of the time she is content to just hang out and watch the chaos swirling around her and only cries when she's hungry or has a wet diaper or is over tired. I'm sure we'll have plenty of moments to come but since her brothers seem to be in full blown limit testing mode I'm taking the calm, happy baby very gratefully!

Speaking of baby showers I went to that one at work and I'm going to another one this weekend so I've been busily knitting away at baby gifts. For this one I made a Little Pearl Vest. It knits up very quickly and easily and is a nice little vest. I don't think it's too girly if done in a very boyish colorway. Since it is almost all knit it's very fast. Size wise it's also very small which is okay as long as you're aware of that. According to the pattern notes it is meant to be snug anyway. I took up Gretchen's challenge to not count too carefully when doing the increases and failed miserably. I put too many increases at the beginning and not enough towards the end so it's kind of slanted when it comes together but it comes together so I'm going with it. I'll have to be a little bit more careful if I do this vest again. Although until I took this picture I never noticed the pooling along one side- oh well!

Still not much going on on the reading front. Just too busy these days. Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.

Maggie is 14 weeks old!

Well little miss is officially 14 weeks old and survived my first weekend back to work without too much difficulty- at least on her part.  I'm not sure Frank was entirely unscathed. We are still working on figuring out what her routines are going to be and how much and when she is going to be eating. That way I can make sure she has enough pumped milk to last the night without Frank having to defrost milk in the middle of the night. She is a very happy baby for the most part and just lights up every time she sees me so that makes me feel like a million bucks!

I've been working on several baby presents recently.  I have 2 baby showers in the next week and another friend due early next month. What is it with January babies this year? My baby presents of choice recently have been little vests- perfect for these winter babies. I've done a Milo and a Little Pearl so far. For one I made a hat and booties to go with and the other just a hat so far.  I'm not sure I have enough yarn to make booties. I'm going to move onto my third vest now and then come back and see if I have enough time and yarn to squeeze out a pair of booties too. I went back and forth about the hat vs booties dilema but decided that in most cases people would probably prefer a hat over booties.

Not much going on on the reading front these days.  With my return to work and the craziness of Christmas I'm feeling like I am drowning a little under the dishes, laundry, pumping, etc.  I'm using my knitting as mediation and hopefully I will have time to pick up some reading in the next few months.

Come and yarn along with us at Ginny's place.