Posting at half past four in the morning, with a sole hour of sleep under my belt and an unconscious baby on my lap. Why? Not insomnia, to be sure. Squiddle has been sick (fever/congestion/cough) since Wednesday, and just as he started to get better, Jazzy caught it yesterday. And you can't explain to a baby why he feels crappy and can't breathe. And the only place he seems to want to sleep in on someone....

Going to try to sneak back to the bedroom and see if "between Mummy and Daddy" is a close enough compromise that he won't wake crying. Again.

ETA: Nope. No dice. Apparently only the Mummy's lap/desk chair combo lets Jazzy sleep. Joy...

Jazzy has taken to randomly screeching like a pterodactyl. Squiddle never did this! It doesn't seem to be linked to unhappiness, though, so we're figuring it's just him testing out his vocal chords.

He has also taken to banging on things. This evening I pulled out Wonderful Husband's doumbek and let both the boys have a go on it for a while. Then Wonderful Husband took over and started playing an actual rhythm. Squiddle's comment: "You're making me dance!" :)

Jazzy now has three teeth, having just cut his upper left incisor.

And today I tried making an icebox cake for the first time. Basically just alternating layers of whipped cream, graham crackers, and sliced strawberries, chilled in the fridge for a few hours. I was slightly dubious. We were all slightly dubious. It rocked, the moisture in the whipped cream transforming the graham crackers into a perfect cake-like texture. Definitely a keeper recipe! I've seen a variant with layers of pudding replacing some of the shipped cream. I may have to try that next time....

Hot weather arrived and with it, flea season. Yech. The cat has been Advantaged and I'm working my way through washing the everything-that-can-be-washed and vacuuming the everything-that-can-be-vacuumed. And squashing every flea I can catch. :/

I've also been working on quilts in a dual-purpose sense. Firstly, going through my vast collection of Works-In-Progress/UnFinished Objects (WIPs/UFOs) and getting some of them done (I'm aiming for one a month) and simultaneously targeting those which will neatly become Christmas presents. For further details, see my quilting blog.

Jazzy is now crawling forward and pulling himself to a stand so I'm having to go through the house with an eye to re-babyproofing it. Squiddle continues to be a bit of a threenager and had a wonderful meltdown at a Chinese restaurant the other day over wanting soup. Which we were ordering for him at the time! Fortunately the waitress also had a three-year-old and went and put in the order for the soup first and then came back to take the rest of our order. (And it was really good soup, too.)

And I've been working my way through rereading Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court and Too Much, Texas books. So, quick book review time!

Title: Yarn Harlot: the secret life of a knitter
Author: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Length: 219 pages

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Title: From Here to Home
Author: Marie Bostwick
Length: 351 pages

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Squiddle is finally down for a nap. In his new castle bed! Which is very spiff:



It got assembled a week ago. And last Friday the convertible bed got converted back to a crib. So now the boys are sleeping in the same room. Well, the first two nights Jazzy woke with screaming fits around 2am and had to come back into Mummy and Daddy's room. But the last three nights, bar me getting up 3-4 times a night, they've both slept in the same room. Hallelujah...

First post at Dreamwidth! Not much going on, but a few amusing things to share. Squiddle, ever more articulate, told me the other day that "The moon is a planet made of cheese." And Wonderful Husband came up with the idea that the little mermaid wasn't really walking on knives and glass, just no one had told her not to walk on the Legos.

I'm taking care of things at my parents' place while they're out of town. Today that included deadheading the rosebushes I planted out front years and years ago. This was actually done in self-interest, as I'm cutting myself a bouquet of roses for my dining room table every week. Today also included weeding their vegetable and herb beds, during which chore Rey, one of their cats, tried desperately to get under my hands to elicit gentle caresses. I summoned the Squiddle to help. His exact phrasing was "Rey, you naughty kitty. Come out of there!"

My baby, all grown up and talking in complete comprehensible sentences. (Sometimes.) It wasn't that long ago that he was at "Wei, wheh ah yu?" when talking to her....

Of course, I was slightly less pleased by his opining that a snail was yucky. I mean, sure I don't want them in among my vegetables, but I'm even less sanguine about him disliking them because of... reasons. Whatever they are. I suspect Peppa Pig may be to blame for this one.

Have a baby draped on me, sleeping. Haven't had this experience as much with Jazzy as I did with Squiddle since, y'know, I now have a toddler to run after too. Just going to lean back, close my eyes, and enjoy my baby.

Well, the Squiddle is sick, with what's probably the flu. We're keeping him dosed with kiddie acetaminophen and ibuprofen, and if he's still feverish and coughing and congested and miserable tomorrow, we'll get a same-day appointment for him with our pediatrician.

Jazzy, meanwhile, has probably got a milder version of the same thing - runny nose, but no fever or coughing. He's also, at four months, outgrown the six-month sizes of clothing, so today I'm digging out the nine-month bin....

I planted 107 popcorn seeds (one whole packetful) on Tuesday. Will be interested to see how many come up. Meantime, in the garden bed I planted with fifty bajillion seeds a week or so ago, the radishes and mizuna are popping their heads up and I think I saw the first sprouts in the spinach and snow peas areas. (Also in that bed: mesclun, lettuce, cucumbers, two types of beets, leeks, carrots, arugula, and parsnips. Plus the potatoes and calendulas that had self-seeded from last year. I may have drawn myself a map so I remembered what's where.)

We bought a betta to add to the tank, so that's up to six fish now and everybody seems happy thus far. I'm going to wait a week or two before adding anything more. I'm thinking maybe some mollies or guppies would be pretty, but I want to do some research first.

I got an out-of-the-blue call today that pretty much summed up to "Hi, you don't know me, but I was given a bag of quilting fabrics and I don't really do that, so would you like them?" Seems someone (I suspect one of my guildmates) had given Shirley my phone number. And I love the fabrics she gave me - they're quite varied and I think I'll find them useful.

Also today, my sister, after two weeks in the hospital, has finally been released to go home. Hooray! This extended postpartum stay involved an abcess the size of a tennis ball. *grimace* Nobody was really happy about that. And she's still on antibiotics. But she and niecelet finally got released. And apparently the frozen breast milk I shipped up has come in handy, so at least that was good.

And, last but definitely not least, Wonderful Husband and I have now been married thirteen years. ^_^ Still my lover and my best friend, even if we don't get to date or dance as much as we used to. ^_^