Having two kids is totally easy.

If you never go anywhere and one of them sleeps 22 hours a day.
It seems de rigueur to have some deep and profound brain things inside my head regarding the end of the year. However, a mild case of PPD and an utterly flattening case of stomach flu have rendered me incapable of even the general and vague thoughts I can usually come up with, so I will clean up a few loose ends.
First, I received a passel of lovely things from bloggy friends and I will now show them off.
Chronologically, we have



Two skeins of Claudia Handpaint from Blogless Lynn. Not pictured: the tray of chicken enchiladas, bucket-o-pork-roast, 6 pack of beer and limes, and head of cabbage we lived on for the first week after Noob arrived. (Sorry Lynn, since Noob had nursing problems we just went ahead and ate the cabbage, but it was still deeply appreciated.)

Next up,



The adorable onesie that Lene sent all the way from Canada, because apparently boy-scent is international. I can't freaking WAIT until Noob is big enough to wear it. (I also can't wait until he's old enough to train to blame Daddy for all yucky smells he encounters. Bug is well trained on that notion.)

Next,



The fantastic Crazy Aunt Cookie set. It's a *tad* large and the hat may be loved more by me than by its intended recipient, but he'll get used to it. :-)



It's already been put into service, on the hayride to see the Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. (I forgot MY coat, but the Noob was nice and toasty.)

Finally,



The ubiquitous Stacey box. (There's actually a good chance, now that I think about it, that I did not even TELL Stacey I received it, which means I didn't thank her either. I blame the Noob and the hourly nursing between 1-7am. Must remedy.) The black sheep (a mark of my evilness, apparently), some delicious yarn in a color that will complement the eye-searing neon confection I will be wearing to her Texas wedding, should she ever bother with one, blackberry soap, a sparkly girlie notebook, and a bright green pen that is not shown because the Bug made off with it almost instantly.

Since I totally did not deserve any of this largesse and am a bit embarrassed seeing it all collected in one place (an aside - does anyone else feel like there's a really fine line between showing appreciation on the blog for gifts received and the "see the wonderful things I got and be ye jealous, peasants!" thing?) I will now distract you with pictures of (pre-barfing) cuteness. (Lest we feel like the Bug is being neglected, I asked him to let me take his picture and was soundly refused.)

A day late and a dollar short

For Eye Candy Friday, and two days for Christmas. I couldn't buy enough of this card to send to everyone, so consider yourselves Christmas-carded.



I need to get caught up, but Christmas dealt us a cold that has flattened us all (well, except the Noob, he's so far managed to escape it) so it will have to wait a little longer.

Insert witty post title here.

Thank you for all the congratulations on the previous post. As you can guess, we're all over the moon about it. Bug thinks Noob is the bestest thing ever, and wants to kiss him and pet him every five minutes or so. Even tried to help me feed, but since I'm breastfeeding I didn't really need him to hold my boob for me. (Add that one to the therapy list.)

What the heck day is this, anyway? I can't even tell, they're kinda all blurring together. I can tell you, though, that compared to last week, Christmas is a bit...anticlimactic.
However, SOME PEOPLE are accusing me [winkwink] of having a baby just to get out of finishing my Christmas knitting, and here I have photographic proof that it didn't happen that way. (As a matter of fact, I removed the blocking wires and unpinned the second Aunt scarf after my water broke, before I went off to the birth center. I know where my priorities lie.)



Stats on Ravelry, here (for the green one) and here (for the other one).

Hmm, what else? Oh yeah, proof that it isn't only Christmas-knitters who procrastinate.



Does that look like a newly installed laminate floor and a new full-sized bed to you? Don't worry, the DH has, like, 47 whole hours to get it taken care of. o.0

Amaryllis watch...



I have a few more pictures of the Noob. (Yeah, like you're going to get away without looking at more pictures.)

Grampa came to see him:



The rest of the time he does this:



Unless it's 2am and then he's wide awake. You will forgive me for not having pictures of that. o.0

Now, I must brave the crowds for some last minute shopping. [weep]

Sorry I'm Late

I was finishing my best FO ever.



I'm pleased to introduce The Noob (aka Jack Michael).



Size: 19.5"
Weight: 7lb 6oz (DK, I'd say)
Pattern: my own
Finished: 12:20pm 12/14/08
Fit: Perfect.

My Christmas Spirit

Has been sucked into the ghost containment grid. It's hard to be all Christmassy and cheerful (even if you're inclined that way, unlike some certain someones, who for some reason fear sweet lil me) when you walk outside and think, "&($)@(&(*&$@), it's hot."



75 frickin' degrees. It's hard on a knitter who lives someplace where it's not all that unusual to have it be 75 frickin' degrees on December 12.
That means I have 13 days to get in the spirit. Don't see it happening, but the DH swears he'll have the floor in the guest room next week (which means he'll have tidied the shed and emptied the guest room of its current load of crap first) which will get me close. I did finally suck it up and get most of the rest of the Christmas decorations out last night. Behold, my hypocrisy knows no bounds, as my heathen self displays a nativity scene on the gingerbread horror. (I can't help it, I painted it, and I really like the camel and the sheep and the kings. At least I didn't bother with the tiny hay bales this year for authenticity.)





Knitting on the secret thing continues. Well, I don't suppose it's truly a secret thing - I'm test knitting for Sock Madness III. I just can't show you what it looks like. I don't feel like I'm giving away any details when I tell you it is, indeed, a sock.

[picture sock here]

I finally remembered a place to block and dry Aunt Scarf #2 - Bug's bed! He hasn't used it yet, preferring to sleep crossways on mine with either his head between my shoulder blades, kicking DH in the face, or with his hot hot feet and sharp toenails digging into my back. Sigh. At least I can make the best of it and block my scarf on his Thomas the Tank Engine sheets, right?

And because it goes so well with Christmas,

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Werewolf   You are a vicious fighter and a vicious lover, absolutely dedicated to your pack. You are pushed to anger by disloyalty and injustice and have a tendency toward sudden, periodic bursts of wild behavior.
Vampire
Cthulu Spawn
Demon
Sorceror
Incubus/Succubus
Ghost
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Courtesy of Rabbitch.

Finally, because when I touch the camera, Bug says, "Would you please take a picture of me?" Then he demands to see it, and when I show him, he says, "Awwww."



Oops, I forgot to post this: proof that Texas (blech) doesn't have a lock on the pretty sunsets.

So Cookie doesn't worry

No, I have not had any babies yet, I just WORKED. Yes, it's true, and some people were worried that I wasn't stalking their blogs as much as usual and sent in the Marines.
I did have A Day, though. It was going to be busy enough - going to view a dinner table/buffet set we'd seen on Craig's List at lunch, the ultrasound appointment in mid afternoon, etc. Effectively hosed my whole afternoon. However, about 12 minutes before I was supposed to leave to go see the furniture, the daycare called ME and the insurance people called DH. Long story short, Bug has pink eye, and DH needs more info for the insurance people. (Apparently, when talking insurance, the receptionist is really the only person who knows WTF is going on, and don't even bother talking to the agent or anyone else in the office.) Anyway, I picked up the Bug, dragged him to the house to look at the furniture, bought the furniture (whee, storage), came home and worked for an hour, toddled off to my ultrasound, then came home while DH took the Bug to the ped. Since he does indeed have pink eye, tomorrow will be more of the same since he can't go back to daycare until he's been medicated for 24 hours.
As for the furniture, it's nice enough. Someplace to hold extra dishes and napkins, whee! It has a hutch on it that I find mostly hideous, but DH insisted on putting it up, hoping it would grow on me. I put my snowmen on it and might let it stay until after Christmas. Maybe I will have the fortitude to take pictures of its gingerbread horror tomorrow.
Hmmm, nothing else new. No pics, because the knitting I'm currently doing is Not For Public Release, and I didn't take a pic of the furniture, and I haven't had the time or the space to pin out Aunt Scarf #2 yet. Earlier this evening I came out of the office while DH was mopping the floor (finally) to see what Bug was doing, and found him running around naked, covered in marker. I would have taken a picture of that, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to make it come out family-friendly without losing the whole effect of the marker.
So, you get nuthin'. I'd be sorry, but I had A Day.

Sunday Funday

Okay, not really, but it wasn't all bad. This was actually a pretty productive weekend. I cleaned a little, purged the guest room a little, knitted a little, decorated a little. I even planted the amaryllis I bought a month or so ago, which is a good thing because it had started without me.



That's about 6 inches of stalk there, and I'm doing my level best not to make jokes about its appearance. Sadly, it's quite crooked as a result of growing in a box (it's also as pale as a software programmer, same reason) but I have hopes that exposure to some warmth and indirect sunlight on my kitchen table will straighten it up and turn it green. Alas, because I am mentally 12, I have the only "boy" amaryllis out there.

Other than that, nothing new. We got the Christmas tree up and lights on it, but haven't made it to the decorations yet. I have an entire cargo area full of stuff going to Goodwill, and I might actually drop it off in a reasonable time period since it quite effectively blocks the view out my rear view mirror. I even found DH's missing pants and about ten socks I'd been looking for mates for - the cleaning lady used to use the guest room bed if she folded my laundry, and DH came in one day and dumped all the camper stuff on top of it without telling me. I only just excavated down to it today. SIGH. Anyway, the room is still a wreck but at least there are a couple of pathways available that allow someone to get TO the bed without breaking necks or ankles. I'm pretty sure there will be another Goodwill trip or six happening in the next week. You'd think DH would feel a little guilty seeing his gigantically pregnant wife hauling stuff out of the guest room for the arrival of HIS daughter, but you'd be wrong. o.0 (No, Cookie, you don't have to kill him. Yet.)
Oh, I did finish Aunt Scarf #2, this time using the EZ sewn bindoff as described here. It looks to have done the trick, but no photos until I soak and block. I'm pretty happy with the scarf itself and the appearance of the bind off, so I'm certain I'll pick out the edge of the green scarf and sew it EZ style. Then I'll wrap them and congratulate myself heartily, which will ensure I will either forget to deliver or forget to mail them for two months.

Just what the blogger ordered.

Last night, DH went into the office to putter on the computer. Bug ran between the office and where I sat, on the couch. I considered several times putting a movie in, so I wouldn't be subjected to either DH's lousy taste in sitcoms or Bug's penchant for watching the same Thomas video 132750 times in a row. (I've tried the "I'm watching that" when the TV is off, but no one listens.) Last night, Bug picked up the Thomas he wanted to watch, and I sent him off to DH and told him to have Daddy play it on Mama's computer. Surprise of all surprises, DH not only understood what Bug was trying to say, he complied. I got to sit in my favorite comfy spot on the couch for AN HOUR AND A HALF and knit in the quiet.
People, you have no idea.
Later after I figured DH had suffered Thomas enough and would be wanting to watch his shows (and after I'd fixed the missed YO in the previous repeat and knit another one) I went off to do some dishes. Bug came in and demanded a big cabbage.



Seriously, whose kid IS this?

And to continue on my "wow, karma is being nice to me and I'm afraid" kick, I went to JoAnn. I didn't want to kill anyone. In fact, I ran into a friend. AND. AND. I found The Buttons. So similar to the ones from that blouse I had 20 years ago that my dad ruined in the wash (the reason I started doing my own laundry), the ones from that blouse that I just THREW AWAY before I knew that I should remove the buttons and save them, the ones I have been lamenting for TWENTY FREAKING YEARS.



Angels sing every time I look at them. (They're the ones on the right, the square bronzy sun ones. The other ones I love too, and are going in the stash because I love them, but I will sleep with The Buttons under my pillow and mention them as a line item in my will, should I ever be organized enough to make one.)

(I know that's a sucky picture of Buttons About Which Angels Sing, but I dropped my camera and it's having focus issues.)

Now to find the knitwear worthy of The Buttons. I'm starting to think (since even Cookie is in on the peer pressure now) that they'll have to be paired up with some Silky Wool. And The Bestest Pattern Ever, which I don't know about yet. Maybe I'll design something. (Hey, in high school I picked my Big-Ass Earrings and Hairclip (TM) first and THEN found something to wear with them. There is precedent here.)

D'ya ever wonder

Why all my posts are about Random? (Hint: it's cuz my life is like that. All. Over. The. Place.)
No babies yet. This is the good thing about posting infrequently - if I posted every day and then missed a day or two, I'd get a thousand emails (okay, like two) saying, "OMG did you have the baby yet?!?!?!!!1!!" Instead of that, I just get to hear it from coworkers, daycare people, and random neighbors. "What, you STILL haven't had that thing?"
No, I had it, but I had the doctor insert a basketball into the empty space because I so enjoy the preggo cow look and the inability to fasten my shoes. o.0
DH can't even help me these days - he threw out his back. And yesterday, instead of going to the hairy male chiropractor like I suggested, he went for a massage to the cute little blonde with the blue eyes. And now it's worse. Since I can't say it at home for reasons of marital harmony (or maybe I already did, I can't remember) I'll say it here: HEY HON? I. TOLD. YOU. SO.
Whew, I feel much better.
He's figured out how he injured it, too. He was in the recliner the other day and the Bug came along and hung off the back of it, tipping the whole chair and the DH over on his little legs. DH said it took a minute to figure out how to get out of the chair and get it upright and off the Bug without putting more pressure on him. You'd think the kid would learn, but the reason DH figured it out is that Bug tried to do it again last night while I was off knitting.
Wanna see my favoritest new-to-me thing ever?



Yes, my friends, it's a bookshelf. A grown-up bookshelf. From Craig's List. DH thinks it's tacky. He thinks all bookshelves are tacky. (Before you ask, no one in his family is much of a reader. I can't think of a single bookshelf I've seen in any of his family's houses.) See that top shelf? With a few exceptions (mostly stuff that's tucked away that I haven't found yet) that's my whole knitting library. The bottom shelf holds half the Bug's books, that until now have been stacked in odd places, tucked here and there. He keeps finding ones he hasn't seen in a while and saying, "This is for MINE?" like he's received a great gift. I love that he can get at his books now. And that they're easy enough for him to put away. And that the bookshelf is securely anchored to the wall. o.0
I knitted a whole repeat of Aunt Scarf #2 last night and weighed, and determined that I have about six repeats left. This makes me happy, since even with the nesting and cleaning and laundry I can manage 1-2 repeats a night. I will be doing a sewn bind off, and if I like it better I'll pick out the bind off on Aunt Scarf #1 and do a sewn bind off on it too. That will mean my Christmas knitting is complete. WOOHOO! That gives me a little time to finish the remaining 2.5 votive sleeves, but since my aunts know nothing about those, if I don't finish them I'll still have Christmas knitting done early. Heck yeah.