Monday, April 29, 2013

Ruby's painting


My grandmother Doris was an artist. She was a great artist, a fabulous painter. 
I'm lucking to have a few of her paintings that I treasure. Some are on the walls. Others are waiting to have new frames put on them. Others are waiting for me to find the perfect wall space.

My Aunt Julie, Doris' daughter is also an artist. She inherited her mom's wonderful artistic ability. And I'm also lucky enough to have a painting or two.


And now, so does Ruby.



She gave Ruby this sweet little bunny as part one of the gift during a visit last summer.


Then recently, part two of the gift arrived.


It's perfect! And it fits in beautifully with Ruby's room!


She loves it too! She likes to sit in her chair and turn around and point to her painting. She also loves her sweet little bunny! Thanks Aunt Julie!

Friday, April 26, 2013

this moment


~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Patching Politeness

Ann over at Little Four Eyes has a great post this week about what not to say to young kids in eye patches. I think it's well written and very helpful. Especially now as our patching adventures have improved and we're venturing outside our house with the patch on.

We were at a play area at the mall on Saturday and I couldn't help but notice every kid that passed Ruby did stare a few extra moments, but not one of them said anything to her. She just laughed and kept climbing up the little slide, watching the big kids and then giggling as she made her way down.
(Ruby at our first out of the house adventure with the patch)

Thanks for the great advice Ann & LFE!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Progress!


Somethings happened recently. I'm almost afraid to put it out there in universe for fear it might change. But I'm willing to take a risk as it's been a long hard journey thus far: We Are Patching. 

 It started out slowly. What used to be 10 minutes of thrashing and screaming and crying (by both Ruby and me) with her squinting the bad eye so that she wouldn't even open it, has now turned into what I'm calling a symbolic eye patch protest for about 3 minutes, and then it's like, uh. ok, the patch is on, let's go play.




Don't get me wrong, I'm still on her the entire time. I have to keep my eye on her and my hands have to be faster than her speed of light toddler hands. She seems to forget the patch is on if she's occupied and happy. But if she touches it, it's back to square one.

When we venture out of the house, I'm in the back seat with her, keeping her happy, keeping her occupied, keeping her from ripping the patch off in the car.

And when I get cocky and think I've got this imom thing down, and get her patched and the two of us head out. I hear a little bit of laughter coming from the backseat as she rips it off and waves it around. (OK, maybe she doesn't laugh on purpose but I feel like she does. Like look mama, I'm totally in control - no patch for me!)


We've been able to patch anywhere from 1 hour to 3.5 hours. I'm still aiming for a 4 hour goal which is still low for our 4-6 hour a day recommendation from our PO. But as my hubby keeps reminding me on days when I'm bummed about a 1 hour patch session, this is a huge step from where we were two weeks ago. And he's right.

We had a visit to her PO about two weeks ago. The visit went well (I didn't cry for the first time, so really, there's a victory there). But we had the hard talk again about being strong with the patch. And this time, I think Ruby heard her doctor. The very next day she patched for 30 minutes at daycare. I almost cried when her teacher told me about it at pick up. We were both so excited! And it's been at least 30 minutes a day ever since.

Tomorrow we head back for the second part of her appointment (sometimes her appointments are really long and we have to break them up.) We are getting a new lens with a prescription that's not as strong as her current one (hopefully it's in so we don't have to go back a third time) and her glaucoma test. Fingers crossed we get good results on that one! Children who've had a cataract removed are at a higher risk for developing glaucoma.

But for today, we'll keep up the patching battle and be happy with what we have! Stay strong patchers! And stay strong imoms!

Friday, April 19, 2013

this moment



~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~

Do you have a moment this week? If so, leave a link in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Coming up for air

It's been a rough couple of weeks. There's been a lot on my plate, both at work and at home. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard. 

Being a working mama is hard work.

But things are finally beginning to settle down. I'm beginning to look around for ways to get more relaxation and exercise into my daily routine. 

Because the current routine of stress, downing chai tea lattes and playing with my favorite wee one isn't quite enough. I'm wondering what you all do for relaxation in your busy schedules?

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Hey baby....nice coat



Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky
Size: 0-3 month


For: A sweet baby girl who will be here soon! She'll live in Seattle so she'll always need a good coat pretty much year round!



Thursday, April 11, 2013

Vogue Knitting Live: Seattle

Last weekend Vogue Knitting Live was in Seattle for their first show in our area. It was full of classes, lectures, fashion shows (in true Vogue fashion) and of course, a marketplace.

I met up with some dear friends for an afternoon of catching up, knitting and yarn "browsing." Upon our arrival, Rebecca and I quickly decided we need to walk through the entire venue before making any purchases. A tactic employed by our friend Monica - who shows great restraint at all yarn shows for day one. Then on day two - stand back and just take it all in. It's that impressive. So we decided to try "The Monica" and wander and just marvel at the soft, pretty yarn.

That lasted maybe 20 minutes before one of us broke down and bought something. (It was Rebecca).

I at least waited about 30 minutes and 10 minutes of knitting before dashing back to the Cascade 220 booth for this beauty.



It'll be turned into this beauty.


I also learned that Cascade 220 has a huge inventory of lovely and FREE patterns on their site.

Knitting shows are so educational.

Then, after another 10 minutes of knitting I returned to the Cascade 220 booth and took advantage of their special: 4 skeins of Cascade 128 Superwash for $25!


Yeah, that's right...no typo there! That's enough to make this coat for Ruby that's on my knitting list.

(For great pictures of VKL Seattle, check out Rebecca's blog. I had my camera but was clearly mesmerized by all the pretty to take any pictures.)

Friday, April 05, 2013

this moment




~
Over at SouleMama, she has a Friday ritual called this moment - a single photo, no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor & remember.
~
Have a photo for this moment? Put it in the comments, I'd love to see it!

Monday, April 01, 2013

FO: Rusbud Hat


Pattern: Rosebud Hat by Jared Flood
Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter





Not yet on my Ravelry page. Took me this long to get it on the blog...so...yeah....Ravelry is up next!