Baptism and Pumpkins

It's hard work coming into the Lord. 

Uncle Justin as GodFather, Gwynne as Christian Witness or Jude's "Loves the Lord but not the Pope Godmama"

  "I do it" Yes I gave the 2 year old a steak knife to carve a pumpkin with.

 "RARRRR I scare you!"
 The family of pumpkins.

Day 2 of 2 kids

When Jude was born the hubby was laid off. This was bad financially, but awesome in terms of childcare. We divided and conquered. The 2 year old was out for hours at the park with daddy, and then napped for hours with mommy and harmony was reached in the household.

The hubby went back to work this week. This awesome financially but bad in terms of childcare. I am being conquered. The two year old has not napped in 3 days and the days are looooonger than usual it seems. It doesn't help that it is raining....

On Monday we had a good day; we visited my friend Gwynne and her little boy. We played in the playgrounds of Prospect Park and came home nice and tired. Not tired enough for a real nap, but tired enough to rest for good long while. Tuesday and Wednesday were a whole different ballgame. First of all it has been raining so there was no park time to tire us out. So we ventured out to a playgroup, where Joe was the only boy, and the moms were cliquey. The adventure ended in huge meltdown, complete with tears and screams and not all of them were Joe's. The afternoon brought no nap but we started our pumpkins.

The pumpkins are currently drowning in the front yard. They took roughly 2 hours to clean out and carve, mostly because Joe kept putting the seeds back in. When the hubby came home, it was 2 hours of roughhousing and bedtime.

Wednesday dawned rainy and cold. We had errands to run, which is about 80 million times harder with 2 kids in the rain. We had plans to go to story time at the library, packages that needed to be delivered to the post office, and eggs that needed to be purchased from the grocery store.

The packages got delivered. We missed story time, but got to meet some of the moms who participate in it as they hung out in the warmth of the library. They all had perfect hair and nails . I am intimidated by these perfect hair women. I don't know why, maybe it's a hold over from high school where the popular girls all had hair that was done and nail appointments each week; maybe it's because not one of them talked to me while we were there... I know I shouldn't care but they make me feel like I'm doing something wrong as a mom; like I did Joe some disservice by not knowing about this library group before he turned 2, like I've missed out on hours of fantastic mom conversations because I am not a group joiner, like somehow I am a dirty slob because I didn't get a chance to shower today. 

I've been doing this mom thing for 2 (almost 3) years and still when you put me in a room of perfect hair moms, I feel like a unsure newbie. 

So I hid behind the baby. I hauled the little porker out of the stroller and read stories to him and Joe. When Joe wandered off to play with the puzzles, I practically held Jude in the air and screamed "Look at what I made!" Baby as conversation starter. We shall see if I can break into this mom group, or if I run away as soon as story time is over next week....

The eggs didn't get purchased, it was way to wet to walk to the store from the library. Maybe tomorrow. Nap didn't happen. What the heck do I do in the rain with these kids all afternoon?

The knitting for christmas

I must put this somewhere so I actually do it (instead of continueally looking up new patterns). We shall see how many get done in the (gasp!) 8ish weeks until christmas...

For Mom: a cabled scarf but not as a scarf as a neck warmer- because she is a fan of turtlenecks

For Liz: it's something for E.T's room- though i do feel like i should get her something as it is the last year she will receive gifts (once you have kids you get nothing, but your kids get tons)

For Kathleen's Kids: Carmen: no idea yet

                                     Miles: maybe a hat and mittens? 

                                     Sophia: a backpack

These three kids are the hardest to buy/make for as I never see them and I don't know what they are into.

For Eileen's Kids: Megan: a cute little bag

                                 Sarah: knitted bookmarks and a floppy dog

For Matt's Kid: Liam: a hat and maybe scarf (it has to be chic though)

For Julie's Kids: Caleb: Dinosaur 

                              Gabrielle: Bunny 

For Danielle's Kids: Heather: same bag as megan

                                    Kyle: hand puppet dragon modeled 

Peg my mother in law: cabled scarf (but not as fancy as my mom's)

The other adults in my life are getting ornaments, and coasters, and washcloths.

I have other projects in mind for people I've never met.

what have I been doing?

Sheesh It's been a long time since an update....What have I been doing?

well there has been some knitting going on (I've found Ravelry.com and LOOOVE IT). I have a new niece coming soon, so I get to make all sorts of lovely girl items. On the needles now (or at least in the very near future) is a twirly dress made from ribbon yarn, a few cuddlies, and a blanket.

For christmas I am trying to knit or needle felt something for everyone, so all the spare time is spent struggling over cables and stabbing wool.

There is a job hunt going on. Both my husband and I are out of work. Which, quite frankly sucks. I was only part time last year, so when the school year ended so did my job. The hubby was laid off right as the baby was born. Lay offs are common in the construction world, and we thought it would be temporary....but three months in and he is still on the couch along with about 6,000 other guys from his union. We are exploring options. Including maybe moving out of NYC. There is a lot of math involved in this decision though, so we are only entertaining the notion of exploring the option...

There is a baby to feed and adventures to go on too...

Jude is now 2 months and a little bit old. He weighs in at 15lbs and a bunch of ounces and is 24 inches long... And Joe is a wonderful big brother saying things like " I love the Jude". He also makes great connections to life like "Mamma look the cow! The cow pumpin mamma!" which make me feel like I should I have a tee-shirt like the moolicious sign!