The Toy

I took Elodie to McDonald's today, which is something we do a few afternoons a week. She's in kindergarten now, but is only on half days, so is home with me in the afternoons. We often get bored or tired or frustrated being cooped up in the house, so we pack up the knitting and walk a few blocks to McDonald's. I get a diet coke and knit while Elodie plays with the many kids that are always in the play place.

Today, we both saw something that made us both a little sad. There was a little boy that E was playing with. He seemed to be really sweet, and they were having a great time. When his mom said it was time to go, the boy was upset that they were leaving. She hauled him into the bathroom. Several minutes later, the boy came out very red faced, like he'd been crying very hard. As they were leaving, she told him to "shut up", and then threw his toy into the garbage.

Now, I do not, by any means, have a clean mouth. In fact, it's usually quite filthy. But there's one thing that I cannot abide, and that's the words "shut up" uttered at another human being. I'll drop the eff word without the slightest hesitation. But telling another person to shut up is demeaning. And a mother telling her child that, her five-year-old child, is absolutely, unquestionably wrong in my books. To me, it's beyond rude. And to tell your child to shut up and then throw away one of their possessions is awful.

I am totally scarred by that interaction I witnessed today, and will take this opportunity to remind myself that abuse comes in all sorts of forms. Whenever a person makes another feel bad about themselves, it's abuse. It is our jobs as parents to guide our children, but to also empower them so they make proper choices, not to berate them and make them feel worthless.

Parents, take note, your words stick with your children. And they mean something.

Wheat Free

Our family has decided to eliminate wheat from our diet.

Background: Last year, I decided enough was enough and started seeing a nutritionist. In six months, I lost 30 pounds. I stopped going in May of this past year, and while I haven't gained much at all (five pounds maybe?), I've noticed that our whole family eats A LOT of wheat. Look in your supermarket, and you'll see that there's wheat in probably 75% of the food there. I've also noticed that if I eat bread or something with quite a bit of wheat in it, I feel awful. My tummy hurts, I get a headache, I have difficulty breathing, sometimes I experience chest pain. And now my daughter has been complaining of a sore tummy every time she has a bowl of KD(macaroni and cheese), or if she has a sandwich. We switched to rye bread well over a year ago, but even that has whole wheat flour in it.

Also, wheat consumption has been tied to infertility, so hey, maybe it'll do something if I cut it out.

So we're going to try this little experiment and see if it does anything to improve how we feel. I'm going a bit more extreme and cutting out all grains except for rice, gluten-free oats and quinoa. This is day two for me, and I'm already feeling pretty decent. Please note that today is Thanksgiving up here in Canada, though, so that meant that I didn't get any bun with my turkey dinner, or stuffing (not that I like stuffing anyway), and no pie crust on my apple pie. And boy, did I ever want that bun!!

Wish me luck. I'll keep you all posted on how this goes.

Bring on the Baby Knits!

Sorry for the extended radio silence. It's been a really, really busy few months.

My best friend, who has been my best friend for nearly 20 years, is expecting her first baby in February. Not only do I get to be her doula, and watch her make the amazing transformation from woman into mother, but I also get to be an auntie!! YAY! I love her very much, and am so, so excited to meet her little one. She's going to be one heck of an awesome mama.

So anyway, she found out she's having a boy, and I broke out the knitting needles. You should see my Ravelry queue.

After seeing the beautiful Puerperium Cardigan that the Yarn Harlot did, I decided to cast one on myself. Of course, I got a little loopy right in the beginning and put my darn markers on in the wrong order (meaning backward, if you can believe it), and so the cardigan closes on the opposite side, and the buttons are on the front, not the back. *sigh*. You would think after half a decade of very dedicated knitting, I would have learned to count??



But you know what, the baby isn't going to mind. Next up, Demne. Also, I found a new use for my Touchpad.

Update and Omorika

I know, I know, I skipped a whole month. In my defense, Elodie had her birthday, and it was spectacular. She had a tea party.



Like a crazy person, I worked all damn day the day before making cake pops in the shape of wee teapots.







The kids enjoyed them.



I also performed at the Jubilee Auditorium in front of a whole bunch of people. I'm in the professional division of the Youth Singers of Calgary, in OnCue. We're an a cappella group of nine that performs in and around Calgary. The last month has been riddled with performances.



(I'm the one to the right of the person holding the microphone.)

I finished designing a shawl.



I love it. It turned out super beautiful.



And a seriously quick knit.

Let The Anger Out!

Well, I'm on Clomid now. This is the second cycle of those beastly little pills, and I'm ready to pitch them out the window. You only take them for five days a cycle, and then your body goes into overdrive for the rest of the month. PMS becomes SUPER PMS, and sore bewbs become SUPER sore bewbs, and a little hormonal acne becomes a complete crater face! The doctor's theory is that while I am ovulating, I'm popping immature follicles, thereby making them extremely hard to fertilize. So the hope is that this drug will increase the maturity of those follicles and make them easier for the little tadpoles to penetrate.

Seriously, how did anyone ever get pregnant?!

I was seriously sad when the first cycle didn't work. I mean, I suppose it's to be expected, but I'm not a very patient person. Despite my years of knitting and spinning, when I want things, I want them NOW.

One thing that is seriously concerning me, though, about this drug is the increased risk of multiples. Twins. In a normal pregnancy, a person has about a 1-3% chance of conceiving twins. In a Clomid pregnancy, that risk increases to at least 10%. At least. If twins run in your family (which they do) or your husband's family (which they do), your chance goes up even past that, sometimes breaching 30%. While I would love to get pregnant, a twin pregnancy would freak me right the frack out.

I mean, I was a neanderthal with just ONE in there! What would happen with two?! I'll tell you what would happen. I'd be a house.

My mom has been having dreams and inklings that when I get pregnant again, I'll have twin boys. And every psychic she's gone to (if you prescribe to that sort of thing) has said that I'd have a girl and two boys.

Anyway, here's hoping this is the last cycle I need this little wee crazy pills and that life in my house can go back to normal. As an example of how damn crazy this pills make me: On Saturday night, Elodie picked "The Giving Tree" as her bedtime story. It is such a beautiful story. And I have read it to her dozens of times.

Well, I had to call Robbie in to finish it. Every time the damn tree gave the boy another piece of herself because she loved him so much, I would start crying. I couldn't finish it! And for the last three of my births, I've been a blubbering mess when baby is born. There's something about watching a two-minute old baby staring at her mom like, Oh, so this is what your face looks like, that just makes me break down. And when the mama looks at me next and says thank you, like I did something to create this beautiful moment? Forget it! I'm incoherent.

Anyway. I have been knitting, and crocheting, but I just haven't had time to snap pictures. Next time I post, I'll get a few pictures of the WIPs I have going on (two sweaters) and some of the hats I've crocheted recently. Gotta love baby hats.