diapers from another point of view

I think I've made myself pretty clear on how I feel about diapers. But I never really thought about how Sophie felt about them before... or maybe she never did before. She sure does now!

A couple weeks ago now Sophie had a diaper rash that got infected with Staph. Luckily I saw it coming (her friend also had a pretty bad infection a while earlier) and caught it before it could do too much damage, but as part of my damage-control efforts I switched her into disposable diapers for a week and bleached all of my cloth diapers.

Now she's rash free and back in her cloth diapers, but every single time I change her she asks for a disposable diaper. And throws an enormous fit when I insist on her wearing a cloth one. Sometimes she even pretends to need a diaper change just so she can beg for a disposable diaper. She hates diaper changes!

What is up with this? Is it just the novelty of having the new disposable diapers? I don't think she can remember having them before, the last time she was in disposables was almost a year ago. Maybe it's just her being contrary and wanting what I tell her she can't have? (She does do that a lot nowadays...). Maybe she likes the feeling of being dry all the time. Those disposables do a good job of keeping yeast away, that's for sure. There's no way I would ever switch to using disposable diapers, no matter what Sophie says, but this is giving me food for thought. Has anyone else had cloth-diapered toddlers who liked disposables better?

mama-sized

After finishing Sophie's sweater, I decided that I was finally brave enough to start my own:



I'm almost ready to start the bottom ribbing now and so far it fits!



The color is bad in this picture (it's more accurate in the top photo) but it shows the cables going up each front. This is my first adventure with cabling and I think it looks harder than it is.

toddler slouchy hat

Slouchy Hat for Little Ones



To fit about a two year old:

50g sportweight (dk) yarn (I used Frog Tree Sportweight Alpaca)
US size 4 needles (16" circular and dpn) or size needles to get gauge

Gauge: 6 sts to 1" over st st

CO 96 sts on the circular needles. Place st marker indicating beg of round. Join for working in the round.

First round: *K2, P2* around. Continue working even in K2,P2 rib for about 1"-1 1/2".
Next: *K12, M1* (I used Kf/b). You are increasing 8 sts evenly around. You could increase more if you want it to be slouchier.
Next round: K around.
Continue even in st st for 3"-5" (depending on how slouchy you want it to be).

Begin crown decreases (switch to dpn as needed):
Round 1: *K7, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 2: *K6, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 3: *K5, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 4: *K4, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 5: *K3, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 6: *K2, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 7: *K1, K2tog* around. Work one round even.
Round 8: K2tog around.

Finish: Cut yarn, leaving a tail for sewing. Thread yarn through remaining sts and pull tight. Weave in all ends.




Cute!

raised by wolves

Sophie really likes spaghetti.

Since she won't really eat anything other than pasta, I've been trying to squeeze lots of veggies into the sauce. For this spaghetti sauce, I sauteed an onion and three cloves of garlic, added tomato sauce (canned, so not so great), some TVP, a shredded zucchini, a chopped tomato, 1/2 cup of carrot puree, and lots of basil and oregano.

And she liked it!

coffee mug wrap

I made this little coffee mug wrap the other night for Sophie's grandma:



The pattern is this one from DaniDo Crafty, the squared check version.



The yarn is Frog Tree Sport Weight Alpaca.

I pretty much followed the pattern, except that I only put one button on instead of three (it's supposed to be adjustable, but it was so delicate and the buttonhole was so big that it would have been too much with three huge buttons).

If I make this again I will make the buttonhole smaller - the pattern says to cast off three for the buttonhole, but it's way too big. I would either just cast off two stitches, or do some other kind of buttonhole altogether.

All in all though, a good pattern. It only took me a couple hours to knit, blocked it overnight and sewed the button on in the morning.

breastfeeding kit

That's how I felt when I got formula samples in the mail two weeks after Sophie was born!

she's the boss

(Look! She's wearing her sweater!)


So the other night I was laying in bed with Sophie. Her teeth were brushed, pajamas on, all the night-time books were already read, and the light was off. But she didn't want to go to sleep. I didn't want to make her cry, so I decided to just lay down with her until she fell asleep - it can't take that long, right? After a while I started to sneak away, but she wasn't asleep. She grabbed me around the neck and hugged me as tight as she can, so I layed back down with her. This time she made sure she was facing me so that I couldn't sneak away again.

Me: "Can I have a kiss?"
Sophie: "No."
Me (whispering): "Please?"
Sophie (whispering also): "No."

I guess "no" really means "no," eh? The girl's learned something from me!

And I haven't had a single kiss in more than 24 hours.