An Everyday Adventure

If you can’t tell, we like to camp–even with a new baby!  Mostly the change doesn’t affect her, she sleeps well almost anywhere. It was a little warm on Saturday so she wouldn’t nap until we took her for a drive. We took the opportunity to have a root beer float at A&W.

We had to bring the dogs to their weekend home (Terry‘s mom’s house–only when we can’t take them with) on Thursday night. Terry brought Abigail with him while I went out to knit with April. I think Kathy liked getting to see Abigail!

This is our new tent. It worked great last weekend, this weekend it took on some water. Partially how we set it up, but mostly a design issue that we’re not real pleased with. If you really care, just ask.

Abigail had fun with her grandparents (you can see my niece smiling in the background too).

We got to meet the girlfriend of a friend of ours.  Her name is Elizabeth and she’s quite nice. I think it would be good for him to keep her around! This is a funny picture, but I don’t think Paul should be jealous of my dad! I’m pretty sure she likes Paul more!

My mom and I did some sock knitting over the weekend. I’m working on the Diagonal Cross-Rib socks from Favorite Socks from Interweave Press using KnitPicks Essential Tweed and she’s working on her very first pair of socks. She wanted short socks for summer so I let her pick some yarn from my stash (J. Knits Superwash Me Sock in Cincinnati) & I worked out a basic pattern for her. I’m helping her with the toe in this picture. I don’t think she was prepared or noticed that Terry was actually taking a picture of us. I’m used to him taking pictures all the time so I always try to be ready!

I think she liked hanging out with her cousins too. This is Cora holding her.

We had a good weekend. I don’t know of anymore camping plans for the rest of this summer, but we’re already starting to plan for next summer!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 3 months already since Abigail was born!  She has grown so much & she’s so much fun!  Happy 3 month birthday Abigail!

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The Loopy Ewe has been around for 2 years!  Go to their Anniversary blog post, leave a comment and be entered to win some great yarn!  They’ve saved some Wollmeise and lots of other fun prizes! The winner(s) will be announced this Friday (August 8th)!

I don’t know if you think this family photo needs an explanation, but I will give you one anyway.

We were camping this weekend with Terry‘s family. They get together twice a year and we always have a theme. This year the theme was the “Olympics”.  Terry was a canoer and I’m sitting at home in my chinese silk robe watching the Olympics on TV with my baby.  Abigail was going to come in the original attire of the Greek olympians (naked) but I had to wake her up from her nap for the pictures so I figured she might not like getting undressed too.

She was suprisingly happy!

I was also trying to sell postcards of the Great Wall, Tim was a ticket scalper & Jenna was wearing a dress I brought back from China. Doesn’t she look chinese?

I did get a good amount of sock knitting done but I never thought to take a picture when I had my knitting close.

Right now i’m working on the third pair of little socks for my little darling.  I”m using Ann Budd’s Better than Booties Baby Socks pattern–free from Knitting Daily. I’ve made 2 pairs of the ruffled rib & I’m working on the chevron lace right now. These are great for using up adult sock leftovers! I’ve used a size 1 rather than the 0 the pattern calls for and used about 20 grams of yarn for a pair. (At least I think it was twenty!)

I also made a pair of the ruffled rib for my youngest niece.  I knew her feet were bigger than Abigail‘s (being 6 months older) but I just guessed on how much bigger. I increased the foot length by 8 rows and my sister said they fit!  Wohoo! I still have a bunch of the orange & brown striped yarn I used so I may have to whip out a pair to match for Abigail before the next time all of us get together.

Thursday night my parents came for a visit & a day of babysitting Abigail.

It was a pretty exciting day for her.  She had her grandparents there for a full day while mom & dad were at work, she got to try out a new type of bottle that was AWESOME! (Thanks Kirstin!) The previous bottles were not so good, she would end up needing at least one clothes change afterwards because of milk leekage!  Grandma & Grandpa also cleaned the house for us–I guess that was more exciting for me & Terry than Abigail! Then there was a pretty big storm that rolled through in the evening.

Didn’t Terry get an amazing picture of the storm?

While we were waiting out the storm in the basement Abigail wasn’t very happy, we tried a variety of different things & then Grandpa decided to give it a try.

He swung her back & forth like this & she sent multiple drool streams onto the floor & the dog!  That made her happy!

On Saturday morning I helped my mom start her first sock with some of my own stash (I need the help knitting it up!) J. Knits Superwash Me – Sock (Ravelry link) in the colorway Cincinnati. She wanted some real short socks for summer and I didn’t have any patterns like that so we just looked at another sock pattern and modified it a little for what she wanted.

I also wound some yarn (jessicapearson/stash/sock” target=”_blank”>MadelineTosh Sock in Malachite) to start a new pair of socks with the pattern that came with the yarn from the yarn4socks sock club. The pattern is Scarborough Fair and is now available from the designer’s website.

My parents left early saturday afternoon and the rest of the weekend was rather “blah” due to my other visitor…a cold.  I’m doing much better than I was on Friday, but I think Abigail kinda caught it too as she hasn’t been a real happy camper this weekend either!

Yesterday Abigail had a quick trip to the doctor to make sure she was at least up to her birth weight. She weighed in at 7lbs 10oz! She’s gained 9oz since last Wednesday & 12oz since we left the hospital.

I also picked up some great fabric for making a sling for Abigail & ordered a pair of slingrings.

Grandpa Mike came over last night to visit and we borrowed him some seafoam engine treatment so he could get home on his motorcycle.

While he was here I took advantage of the other hands holding our dear baby and i knit some more on the squares for the Textured Pillow. I’ve got 3 done, 5 to go!

After Mike left Terry read a story to Abigail and we put her to bed!

Today is my due date, but I already have a 12 day old baby. Sorry for the late posting…I’ve been a little busy.

Abigail Ellen was born at 2:12pm on May 6, 2008. She weighed 7lbs 6.4ozs, measured in at a length of 20.75 inches and had a 13in head circumference.

Thanks to my husband, our daughter already has her own website www.abigailpearson.com so feel free to check that out.

Abigail is a pretty easy baby, she had a bit of a cranky night last night until we swaddled her and she went right to sleep for about 6 hours! We were pretty surprised to see the clock say 7am! I won’t count on that occurring regularly.

She loves the swing borrowed from her cousins and the afghan from her grandma is great for swaddling!

She “saw” her first movie on Friday night. Prince Caspian was such a big hit with her that she slept through the whole thing! There were quite a few babies and very young children in the theater with us. We also met this really nice couple from Omaha, NE. They brought a team up for regional Teen Bible Quiz at Park Assembly.

On a quick knitting side note, I finished the February Baby Sweater using maybe 1/2 a skein of Sundara Yarn Sock yarn in Tickled Pink. I also knit a pair & a half of socks for Abigail using leftover Lorna’s Laces & whatever yarn I used to knit my mom her socks. Last night I started the first square of the Textured Pillow from Natural Knits for Babies & Moms using Mooncake Harmony from the Yarn Cafe. Hopefully pictures will follow soon.

I need to finish getting ready for church and Abigail will probably need to be fed & changed again before we leave.

Last Thursday was a nasty day weather wise but Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, our very own Yarn Harlot arrived in Minnesota safe & sound.

She was preceded by the Yarnery Family Singers which were an absolute riot and a lot of yarn was given away.

Here is my proof that I was indeed at the event and got to meet Stephanie for the first time. She didn’t get to put any knitting needles in my baby’s hand, but we did lay our socks on my belly!

I’ve always thought that my husband was awesome but I have an extra good reason today.

He had this big test at work that he could schedule to take any time but he decided to take it today because salary recommendations are this Friday. He studied a bunch and got a 96%!! The first test he had to take he got a 93% on so he is doing really great! He also got a great recommendation from one of his co-workers today!

When I got home from work I asked how we should celebrate and he said we should go find a geocache! If you don’t know what a geocache is just google it and you’ll learn! So we changed clothes and went to a park a few blocks from our house.

We tramped through the slushy snow–realized that boots would have been better than tennis shoes–and walked through the woods a little ways. I stayed mostly on the trail and he looked through the trees, snow, logs, etc. His GPS pointed to a 3 or 4 foot deep hole, but wasn’t going to attempt looking in there when it was filled with snow. The area was pretty easy to find, so we’re planning a return trip as soon as the snow melts.

We got some good pictures on the way back to the car:

On a knitting note:

I worked on two wool soakers this weekend and realized that the soaker I finished a few weeks ago was not as “newborn” sized as I hoped. It looked like it would be a better fit for my 4.5 month old, 17lbs niece. Oh well, the new soakers are much smaller.

I used Mooncake Yarn Tranquility from The Yarn Cafe in Lavender and the Classic Wool Soaker pattern from Little Turtle Knits. I actually got the pattern from the book 100 Knitting Patterns published by Patons (I think).

These two are knit using Noelles Noodles Handpainted Aran Merino bought from Eat.Sleep.Knit and the Ribby Wrap pattern from Little Turtle Knits. I made the newborn and small sizes from the same skein and I still have a decent amount leftover.

I need to find buttons for both wraps and just finish the last couple rows of ribbing on the larger one along with the edging and gussets!