Milestones…

My baby turned 5. I remember being 5. He’s going to remember this for the rest of his life…hopefully he’ll remember that he had fun decorating his cake!

And hopefully he won’t remember that Mama was too sick (just a cold, thanks for asking! ;)) to bake him one. I sat tonight, watching him write his name on all the thank you notes, & my heart just swelled right up. He’s such an amazing boy. Later in the evening I thought the same while looking at Aiden. The poor little guy is sick now (yes, with my cold), and has a fever, so he’s been sleeping a lot, but he wakes every few hours for a little mama cuddle, and something to drink. Poor guy. It reminds me that he’s still just a baby, three years old or not!

It’s crazy how that works, isn’t it? How they seem so old & so young, all at once? Last week he did a “big” puzzle all by himself. He was so proud:

Last time I checked, Ian still had trouble with that square of shoes.

Lest you think I forgot, Spencer is growing up too – he can climb off the couch by himself now (yaaay!). 🙂

My small milestone is buying a book I visited for months. I’m still not certain I *needed* it, but I love, love, love the projects, the pictures & the use of color so much, that I decided to get it anyway. Plus this is an author I’d love to support. Of course you know I’m talking about Itty Bitty Nursery!

Here are my favorites:

I can sooooo see my kids playing with the 3 little pigs set. And I don’t know why or how, but I MUST have that mousie mobile. Not that I need a mobile. Or have a crib. But still. It. must. be. mine.

The others are just plain beautiful. They’re on my someday list, although I may have to find babies to knit them for! 🙂

I’m 2 for 2 on the blanket making. Since I didn’t get to do it for Christmas, I’ve decided that this year all my nieces & nephews (and my one small cousin) will get homesewn blankets from me. I’m proud that I’ve actually finished both…although this one was done waaay last minute and when we should have been leaving to drive to said birthday. Oh well, she was happy with it. She’s the oldest girl in the family (6 now, I believe…or was it 7?!), and loved that it was “grown up” looking, I’m told. You can’t really tell from the pic, but I backed it with blue jean material.

I’ve been a bad blogger of late, and haven’t posted yet about the Vintage Sock Swap package I received! My pal went to great lengths to make me a Scottish themed package, even having yarn sent over from a friend of hers in Glasgow. It’s St. Ives Sunbeam. She made the Child’s First Sock in Shell Pattern for me (Nancy Bush Vintage Socks), but altered them to be anklets. I have some short legs & wide calves, so after trying for calf shaping she decided to play it safe & send these adorable short socks instead. I’m happy!

She also sent some yummy smelling soap, a bunch of shortbread (some with butterscotch on them too, yum!), a cool t-shirt for dh (not pictured – he liked it so it went straight to the laundry pile for a prewash), a skein of super-soft Wool of the Andes that will probably be longies for Spencer, 6 awesome Celtic knot buttons, a nifty silver bangle (from Pier One…oh how I love that store…), Knit from the Heart pattern book (has some great color combos on cute kids stuff in it), and more stuff I’m missing, I’m sure. Oh, there’s a hilarious “Got Haggis” sticker, too! That will have to go somewhere in my craftroom; it’s too cool! 🙂

Anywho, it was a fun swap & I’m glad I did it. I’m going to put the kabosh on knitting swaps for a bit though, I’m just too behind in other stuff.

Before I sign off, I have to post a few linkies I’ve come across recently:

Sprite Stitch is a blog with neat charts for 16-bit Nintendo characters & the like. They’re generally cross stitch, but with other fiber mediums thrown in occasionally, too.

I was looking for pics of my favorite river for a friend who wanted river/flowing water images for her birth last week, and found this guy’s Picasa album. The Platte River, Sleeping Bear, Crystal Lake, the Frankfort Piers…these are my childhood vacation places.

Exercise Before Knitting is a blog I keep going back to…I think I’ll be adding her to my expanding blogroll pretty soon. So many great projects & I love the info. on running. I can’t wait to get back to it.

The new Interweave Knits Spring gallery is out, so you can see all the great new projects in the next issue. I am particularly in love with the Cobweb-lace stole. It looks like it was knit in a slubby cotton laceweight…that’s almost a contradiction in terms, isn’t it — both slubby & laceweight?

Through the Loops has her Belvedere pattern out. You’ve seen it before if you read Peaknit’s blog. It is the sock she received from a single sock swap. I’ll be grabbing this pattern as soon as we get paid again…I doubt paypal accepts soda can returns… 😉

Now wish me luck; I have 3 sick kids and am trying to recover myself! At least only one is puking (yes, I did start this post last night & spend all day finishing it up…)!