Can you get arrested for Blog Negligence?

Zang, I hope not.

It's been nut-a-ree around here the past month or so. Caz put the finishing touches on his book, working right down to the wire (like, he had to call up the printer with a last-minute change, and luckily the printer hadn't gotten to that page yet!). Then I turned 33 years old, and I'm finding myself kinda dazed by the thought that I'm actually, fer realz, a 30-something. And then Caz dashed off for darn near a week at GenCon demoing his game and selling his book and talking to other folks in the industry, trying to line up other writing gigs. Then we had a week in which to recuperate from massive sleep-deprivation (if anyone ever was unsure, I can hereby declare that one adult and two 2-year-olds can fit in a queen-sized bed, but it's not going to be pretty... oooch! Toddlers have bizarrely sharp knees, especially when they're pressed into your back!) before my in-laws came to visit. It was a wonderfully nice visit, and we had a really nice time. And then we had a week to fret about finances and stomp around on each others' nerves before Caz started (at last at last at last!) his new job.

So now, we're in that weird window that always seems to happen - where there's work being done and you're starting to relax and not think, "Oh god oh god oh god, we're going to be in the poorhouse by this time next week," every unoccupied moment, except you still haven't gotten that first paycheck, so for all the increased relaxation and celebratory desire to spend money on all those things you've been putting off, in reality? You're still just as broke as you ever were. It's temporary, and thank heaven for that, but man... it makes me twitchy as all get-out.

So what's been going on otherwise? Well, let's see....

I have indeed still been knitting. I finished the Embossed Leaves socks from the Winter '05 Interweave Knits, and I love them. I can't wait to take pics of them, because they're just awesome. I also (this is part of that dangerous celebratory relaxing-on-the-budget feeling) have been trolling around the internet for cheap sandals so I can properly show off my gorgeous gorgeous socks. I found what I think are the perfect pair, and now they're sitting in my Amazon cart just waiting for me to have the money to buy them. And if they're back to regular price the same day we get money in the bank account, it will be nothing more than proof that the universe likes to see me sputter and try not to swear when I really really REALLY want to.

Which reminds me of the other latest development(s): the kids, they are a-growing. Not like this is probably a shocker or anything, but man... some of this stuff I'm just not prepared for. Like how suddenly the kids' cribs went from "effective toddler corals" to "laughable". Or Ben's sudden penchant for jamming things like wads of carpet lint or stuffing he squirrels out of the holes Connie (one of our cats) scratched into the couch up his nose. Or, and this is especially dire, their sudden increase in speech abilities (though they seem to have inherited their father's reluctance to actually use them when it would be most expedient to do so). It was cute when I said, "Awesome" and Ben piped up "awesome!" next to me. It was less cute and more, "Oh crud" when I was snarling to Caz that if his recruiter-lady didn't come through with the promises she was making him job-wise, I was going to have to find her and beat her down, and from beside me I heard, "down!"

But really, all of that pales in comparison to Ben making it totally and unmistakably clear to us (and to anyone within a two-block radius) that he is a Big Boy now, and as such would prefer that maternal hands not touch his banana, as he can plainly peel it himself (though if Mama would just start it for him, that would be great - unless Mama likes to see him take great whopping bites out of the banana, peel and all). The Big Boy thing effects all kinds of situations and interactions. So I'm learning to be trickier. Now, when it's time to leave the park? I don't say, "It's time to go now!" I've wised up (after Ben did that go-limp-dead-weight thing in front of a whole bunch of peppy, fit, tanned, chatty parents at the park when I merely suggested we go to another area of the park so he could go on the better swings) and now I just say, "Let's go to the car!" I figure I've got maybe a week or so before he catches on to that one. Oy!

And if you're wondering, "Gosh, Thorny - what about Henry, is he showing any signs of his Two-ness?" Well, not exactly. But then, Henry was kinda born two. Seriously, one of the first times I tried to nurse him, he looked at me, he looked at my breast, and then he looked at me again as if to say, "You want me to believe that I'm going to get something to eat from that?? What, do I look like I was born yesterday?" And I had to shrug and say, as gently as I could, "Well, no. You look more like you were born today, actually." And if I didn't know better, I'd swear he rolled his eyes at me.

Henry has always done things his own way, in his own time. Which is kind of cute sometimes, but man... I really, really, REALLY wish he'd stop insisting on using the wrong end of a spoon. We've been at that one for months now, seriously. Instead Henry insists on eating a bowl of yogurt with the handle end of his spoon, microgram by microgram. Tonight Caz (obviously under the influence of that same reckless celebratory-relaxed feeling I've got going on) compared Henry eating yogurt to me eating crab legs (I'm already famous as a slow eater, food that requires personal disassembling takes it from "funny" to "obnoxious"). The sad part is, he's right, though of course that did not stop me from declaring that I could work my way through TWO pounds of crab legs by the time Henry ate a single serving of yogurt on his own, easy peasy. Luckily, we're a long way from being able to afford crab, so I'm fairly sure I'll never have to suffer the vast indignity of being proven wrong.

So yeah, that's the news. There's more knitting going on, btw - I just finished my second warshrag tonight, and I'm pretty happy with it. And I finally unearthed an old Jaywalker that had been hanging out just waiting to be grafted, and lo, at last I grafted that damn toe!! (Come on, it's only five months later, what's the big deal??) I wound up tinking and re-knitting the last couple rows (after one more botched attempt at grafting it, for old time's sake), and I think the whole problem had been that the yarn is kinda splitty, so that one stitch just wasn't properly knitted, and thus grafting didn't work well. But it's done done done DONE and I've got the second one started. Which is good, because man... my fall knitting calendar is PACKED.

Not only is there Christmas knitting to contemplate (1.5 stockings for the kids, scarf for Caz, scarf and hat for sister, possible scarf for Dad), but there's also my Olympic (now Turtle) sweater that's still waiting to be seamed and have a collar knitted on. Plus, a friend of ours is getting married in October and the kids are invited, and so, um... I decided I would knit the second sweater by then so they could wear little matching hand-knitted sweaters to the wedding (and so I could avoid having to buy fancy toddler wedding-wear we can't afford). Stop laughing!! Nothing gets me going like a deadline, it'll be... fine, really!

Ooh, and I got a simply faaaabulous birthday package from Abigail who was my pal for the August Birthday Swap. (Again, pics at a later time - I'm awful about pictures in general, and lately every time I've had time to take pictures, it's been ucky murky weather and so I end up feeling very "what's the point?" about picture-taking.) She sent me some lovely stuff - some Brown Sheep Wildfoote in a great snazzy red, and some lovely deep olive-y green merino yarn that I think is going to become a new hat for me (probably some time after Christmas, though), and a super red entrelac WARSHRAG! And that's just the knitting stuff - there was yummy-scented soap and treats and goodness a-plenty in there. Thanks again, Abigail!!

(See? I really need to blog more often, because otherwise it just becomes this mad ramble of interesting stuff with no cohesion whatsoever. But having a working computer here at home again will make that a lot easier. Now it's just dealing with me and my daft-ness. Oof!)

Otherwise, I've been reading like a fiend. All kinds of crazy stuff - also not burdened with an overabundance of cohesion, come to think of it. But it's been good, to be reading so much. I remember when the kids were first born, I felt like I'd never be able to read something that wasn't a breastfeeding book or other parenting manual for the rest of my life. Thank goodness that was just temporary.

So yeah. Caz working, kids growing, me knitting and reading and trying to hold it all together. That's about the sum of it. (Don't you wish I'd just written that at at the top, rather than making you wade through all of this? grin.)