Moving Around

I promised walking updates.


If she can find a weighted basket, overturned box,or the like, she will use it as a walker to get around. She does crawl too - she crawls to something she can climb up on!


Note that Monkey has squished herself into the corner. She is safe - for now. mwhahahaha. I do believe Abigail is babbling away to her here. Perhaps saying "I'll get you my pretty, and my little dog too!"


I did say she likes to get into everything. Robin is particularly proud here. She should have her Bombers hat on!
Note the blue and gold in the next picture. Robin dressed her in Bomber colours and we won the next game against Montreal. I'm not saying Abigail had anything to do with this... ;)


This is her new car / walker given to us by one of Robin's co-workers when she heard about Abigail's immediate transition to walking upright with help. She hasn't mastered walking with a wheeled walker, so we keep this in car mode for now. So far she only travels in reverse, but she knows how to use the stick-shift (in her left hand) and rotate the engine (in her right). Literally, Robin sat her down, showed her the two toy parts on the front, and off she went like an old pro. You'd think she actually needs to change gears to drive this thing.
She is far too smart. We're in trouble!

Samhain is tomorrow. Abigail and I will be joining friend for crafts. Robin will be cooking our Dumb Supper. We'll be dressing up, but still not sure what. Then early to bed for me as I have an early flight the next morning and a long weekend in Chicago.

Snow and Hats

There is snow on the ground. And I have to catch a bus to campus this morning. I'm not a happy camper. "Poor little Prairie Girl has to go out in 0 degree weather. Boo hoo" Yeah, that's right -- I'm using sarcasm on myself.
I've got my coffee and my knitting in hand, both trying to warm me in preparation. The worst part about the cold is that my hands freeze when I try to knit as I walk to and wait at the bus stop. That's no-good*. I am determined to finish this hat for Abigail before I leave for Chicago, especially now that it is getting colder.

*Is it "no good" or "no-good"? I originally typed the former, but I think the latter makes more sense grammatically and intentionally. If I were to write "no good" I should really write "not good".

Speaking of hats, I have only one more hat to make to complete my orders. It was a productive fall for witch hat making! I mean, for fundraising for GRAB Animal Rescue. I made many interesting hats (see flickr) - red and black stripes, pink and black stripes, pink and green stripes, camofluage, blue-black, black with a red fuzzy edge, and a family of mossy-green hats. Fun fun fun.

I'm a Knitting DingDong

Since this is the "KNITS and notes" and I rarely blog about my yarn, I thought it time to show you some of my recent work and reveal what a ding-dong I can be!

After knitting the pieces flat, I folded the foot over and stitched together to make a pocket for my foot. Why should I look to see how other people stitch it together when this makes (non)sense to me?...
Obviously felting the slipper will magically transform it to a normal slipper shape that doesn’t look like a duck foot... WTF? Why does it still look like a duck foot?
Oh, well look at that. Instead of laying it this way with the skinny part at the top...
and folding that over horizontally...
I should have turned it 180 degrees...
and folded the two sides IN vertically...
then stitched it up...
THEN felted it...
In the end, after unstitching the felted slipper (fun!) and restitching it together, then felting again to try and get rid of the new stitch lines...
I ended up with a half-decent pair of slippers.
Good thing I was experimenting with my own pair.
Now you know how NOT to make a slipper.
Fortunately this was a very fast project and used up yarn I already had (hence why one foot is red and yellow instead of red and orange). It was something I could do while supervising Abigail walking around. I was so excited to actually be making something for myself!! (Instead of socks for my mom, sis, nephew, daughter and witch hats for charity.) I was incredibly upset when these first turned out like duck feet. Robin thought they were cute... I wanted my proper slippers! I wanted my little project for me!!

Next Post: Abigail walking. Or pop over to Flickr to see the uploaded photos.

Weekly Stuff

It's been a rather quiet week. Abigail continues to grow stronger. She'd really like to be walking.

"Sit!" I tell her.
We attended the OctoberFest/ Thanksgiving Day Parade on Monday and she enjoyed that

It was a great parade. Very long. It was a beautiful day too.
Sunday we had Robin's cousins over for dinner. We also played Unexploded Cows. I won. (This is a rarity for me!) Abigail tried to play too.


Yesterday I picked up some feeding supplies for Abigail. I bought a couple of Safe Sippy cups because she hasn't taken to a bottle, so we may skip right to a sippy cup. We'll need them eventually. I also found this mesh-bag-on-a-stick feeder (called the Baby Safe Feeder). It's a nifty invention (yet another dad invention, like the Snappi) that you stick non-pureed food into and allow them to eat/teeth on. The mesh bag keeps them from choking on pieces and encourages chewing (as they mush the food out). Yesterday we tried apple and she had a great time biting down and tasting the juice. Later in the evening I put banana in to show Robin. Banana was definitely messier.


You may have noticed that I changed up the layout here a little. I have added a video feature on the sidebar, which should show the most recent videos I've put on Youtube. There are two new videos up! Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving / Turkey Day

From our family to all of yours.
Enjoy feasting.

This photo is from a medieval wedding we attended this fall.
As you can see, Abigail is not always as smiley as the photos portray her.

Video Mania. Again.

I uploaded these videos yesterday, so they'll be ready to view now. Here are some short insights into my days...

Abigail crawls everywhere. She climbs everything she can get to. She babbles away. She pulls all her books off the shelves and tosses them across the room, followed by wooden blocks. But pull out the camera and her world freezes. CAMERA! I've created a monster. I have to try and be more sneaky with the camera now.


But my suffering (as non-painful as it is) is nothing compared to Darla's (and Monkey and Fenwick's when Abigail catches them). Both fortunately and unfortunately for them, she is easily distracted.



The final short video is not ordinary, but it's too cute not to share. Here is Abigail as a fairy, flying through bubbles at a recent wedding.

A New Friend for Abigail

7 months and one day apart they are.
Abigail has a new friend, born yesterday to our friends Tay and Mike. We haven't seen her yet, but she's a lovely pink little thing. 8lbs (just like Abbie was) and 20" long. She was born yester-eve at 1749h after only 2.5 hours of active labour.
Yes, I am jealous. But moreso I am very happy for our friends and glad that Tay had a short labour. I look forward to hearing more from her. They have yet to choose the baby's name. Like us, they want to get to know her a little first.

Happy Birthday Robin / troublemaker

I hope you are all leaving birthday wishes on Robin's wall.
Today he got the Star Wars Transformer Death Star Deluxe Edition from Abigail. (Okay, we all know who really got it, but as a toy it seemed more appropriate from Abigail.) He also got a new muffin pan, one he can use to make Yorkshire Puddings at the proper high temperature. Every time he makes them he complains that with the non-stick pan he can't set the oven high enough to get a proper Yorkshire Pudding. I bet I know one item we're having for Thanksgiving dinner this year! Corey sent some DVDs. My mom already gave him his gift while we were in Winnipeg - Blue Bomber shirt and hat and baby-wear.

Now, on to me. Or Abbie. However you want to frame it. Have I mentioned that Abigail is not satisfied with crawling on all fours? She'd much rather walk on her knees. She finds whatever she can climb up on and pushes it around infront of her. She gets into everything! I know, this is normal, but it doesn't make my life any easier!

The co-sleeper is no longer at this height.



Poor animals... it doesn't take her long to locate, zoom in, and crawl over to grab them now.

Ran for the Cure

Robin and Abigail were "walking briskly" for the cure today.


It was a cool morning. Perfect for runners and people with babies strapped to their chest.

Abigail and Robin extend a great big thank you to all of their supporters. Together you raised $385 for finding the cure for breast cancer. Combined with the thousands of other runners in KW and multiplied by multiple run locations across the country... well, it adds up quickly. You'll have to check the CIBC webpage for a final amount this week. If you're interested.

Ever Changing

Two days after she figured out crawling on a textured surface (carpet, futon, etc), Abigail mastered the strength to crawl on the new laminate floors also. She also enjoys pulling herself up into a kneeling position so that she may better look out over her world from a new height. Today I dropped her co-sleeper bed down to its lower (playpen level) setting because she has begun to pull herself up to the outer edges of it and look out. It is very adorable, however, since she also likes to then push up onto her feet at an angle, she could easily have launched herself over the edge if she tried. Fortunately she did not! This morning she is taking her first nap in her "crib" (still her co-sleeper, but it is no longer at bed level).

We have a busy weekend ahead. Robin is meeting up with some work buddies for drinks tonight to celebrate his birthday (this Monday). Abigail and I will be meeting up with colleagues this afternoon for coffee and stimulating discussion (or such is the hope/plan). Tomorrow Abi and I will be at Pagan Pride Day in Waterloo Park where, among other things, I will be facilitating a discussion of Pagan parenting. Sunday we are Running (walking) for the Cure in the morning and that afternoon I will be doing field research. Monday is Robin's birthday. He asked me for a shoe-horn today for his birthday. Wow, if I'd known it was that simple... I guess I can go return his gift now. I suspect the shoe-horn is so that he doesn't have to undo the laces on his new shoes. These are real shoes! Not Vans or runners.