Thankgiving in Los Angeles

(no photos available)
We are all in LA for Thanksgiving enjoying Aunt Vicki's gourmet meals
and Elyssa's made-to-order cocktails. Of course everyone is enjoying
Audrey's smiles and gagas.

Yesterday we were able to get together with some college friends, Titi
and Kristen. We walked around Hollywood and the Hollywood Forever
cemetery. Then we headed to downtown where we attempted to go to the
public library, but it was closed for the holiday. We walked around
downtown visiting a coffee shop with pirate chai (mmm) and walking up
to Bunker Hill.

I almost lost my wallet in Hollywood which would have been the worst
place I ever lost my wallet since I need my ID to fly home on Sunday.
Much worse than last month's loss of wallet at the Denver Zoo. But
thankfully Kristen found it in the gutter on the side of the Santa
Monica Blvd just outside the entrance to the Hollywood Forever
cemetery. I must have left it on the roof of the car when we were
leaving. And there it lay, a bit dusty but intact proving once again
that if karma exists I must have stores of the good kind!

Today we are going to Cici's for breakfast, and afterwards we are
going to Venice Beach where all the brawny boys hang out.

Although I am having a good time here I feel bummed that I am missing
the pumpkin canning at Maggie's. I hope it goes well and the never-
been- callibrated pressure canner works.

No knitting news. I left my projects at home.

Sent from my iPhone

Pictures from our Mountain View, CA Trip

Audrey with sleeping Sea Otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
Me and Audrey in front of some Jellies at the Aquarium:

Audrey excited about eatting!:

Me with the Alcatraz recreation lot behind me:

Audrey and Ted:

Bay Area

(Sorry, no pictures. We forgot our camera cable.) Adam, Audrey and I are enjoying our 3 weeks in the Bay Area. Adam is working a lot, as we expected. Audrey and I are visiting the tourist sites. Some of the places we have been:

-Imagiknits. We went to the Mission and found a yarn shop called Imagiknits where I bought some Cotton Fleece in orange for a jumper for Audrey. I found the shop easily. Parking was readily available. The shop itself offered a little bit of everything. I was looking for worsted weight cotton and I found it. The staff seemed helpful, attentive, and knowlegable.

-Delores Park Cafe. After spending some time browsing Imagiknits, we walked past the park to find the Delores Park Cafe where we enjoyed a grilled cheese, a salad, and an iced tea. I loved people watching here and so did Audrey.

-Golden Gate Park. We drove through GGP riding along the MLK, one of the loveliest roads by that name that I have seen. Later we returned and walked over to the de Young Museum where we took in the view from the tower.

-Golden Gate Bridge. We drove across it on a clear day, the rust-colored bridge contrasting agaist a cloudless blue sky.

-The Beach near Cliffside. Ok, I didn't actually walk on the beach, but I pushed a stroller NEAR the beach. Views, surfers, seals, ruins of public baths. We saw people dancing on roller skate.

-Stinson Beach. On a cooler day we walked on stinson beach enjoying the rushing of the waves. I think I could get used to that noise easily.

-Park Side Cafe. After walking along Stinson beach we had lunch at the Park Side Cafe where Audrey made friends with the waitress, the people eating at all of the adjacent tables, and the bus woman.

-Muir Woods. Parking is hard to come by at Muir Woods. Granted we did go on a weekend with great weather, but jeez oh man. I circled for nearly an hour, and when I finally found a place to put my car, Audrey had fallen asleep, and I wasn't about to wake her up. The woods were beautiful. I'd love to go back when I have more time and do some of the less busy trails.

-The San Jose Tech Museum. Hmm, Adam enjoyed it. I felt like I was ready to fall asleep. Not sure if it was boredom or sleep deprivation. Either is possible.

-Mountain View Public Library. We walked over from our apartment yesterday. They couldn't give us a guest card, much to my disappointment, but we had a good time reading board books and watching the other kids in the children's room. Afterwards we found Panzee our stuffed chimp puppet for sale in their Friends shop.

We did other things too, like walk around Haight Street and stop for coffee at a couple of different places. We have eaten out a lot, but I didn't talk about all of them. And really our best times have been spent with friends.

Oh, and just last night, I happened to be in my first ever earthquake, a 5.6. Shake, Rattle, and Roll baby! It turns out 5.6 earthquakes are considered moderate and can cause damage. Our whole house was swaying back and forth. It took a while for the verticle blinds to steady themselves. It has left me feeling giddy, even though we know how dangerous they can be, perhaps like playing with fire. Afterwards we looked up what to do in an earthquake -- get under a table. Then we turned on the tv and watched the funny local coverage of the disaster. I couldn't believe how long channel 4 had uninterrupted coverage with people calling in telling how their wine bottles fell and broke, or they ran outside and asked their neighbors, "did you feel that." It was still on when I went to bed.

More Family

We have had a busy and exciting couple of days. Elyssa, Adam's sister, and her boyfriend Zach were in town for the weekend. Elyssa met Audrey before, but it was Zach's first time seeing her. On Friday, we went up to visit our cousins in the mountains again.

This time we hiked Shrine Pass Ridge from Vail Pass that went up to about 12,000 ft with less than 1000 ft of elevation gain and rewards hikers with a magnificent view. Round trip the hike was about 3 miles. A great view for minimal effort. Elyssa and Zach did remarkably well for having arrived from Boston only the day before.

We ate a picnic lunch on top of the ridge where the fat ground squirrels were prepared to climb into your lap to get your crumbs. No fear at all. We waved our arms, made threatening sounds, threw stones. Nothing would scare away these brave squirrels.

After our hike, we went back to Gordon and Ricki's for a bbq where we talked and talked until Audrey was over it.

Saturday, we had other family over to our house for a bbq. I spent most of the day preparing menus and appetizers. We did take a brief break to visit the Avery Brewery tasting room which is a great place to bring microbrewery enthusiasts. Good beer at a great price (free!)

This bbq was the first time I had entertained people in our house since Audrey was born. I'm not sure I could have done a dinner for 10 without Elyssa and Zach holding and playing with Audrey.

Elyssa and Zach went back to Boston on Monday. We had a great weekend with lots of delicious food and fun conversation.

Yesterday I got to entertain for the second time since Audrey was born and the second time in one week. Other cousins, Zach and Morgan were in town. Zach goes to school here and his sister, Morgan, drove out with him and is flying back east today. They are both so calm and comfortable around babies! We had a relaxed evening of eating and playing with Audrey. We determined that Audrey is definitely teething. She drooled all over the front of her dress! And when we gave her the frozen caterpillar toy, she went to town gnawing on it.

It has been so nice seeing all of our family over the last week. I'm afraid the next week looks pale in comparison. We do have some exciting trips planned for the next couple of weekend though. More on that later.

Mountains with the Nutiks

After a difficult sleep night, we spent all day Sunday up in the mountains with our cousins. The weather in Boulder was expected to be up near 100F, so we were thankful for the opportunity to escape the city.

They found a wonderful hike that switchbacked up a mountain across I-70 from the Vail ski resort. We hiked for about 3 hours which is perfect for me in my (still!) post partum condition.

Adam wore Audrey in our Ergo for the first time and he loved it. He said it felt a lot more comfortable to him than the wrap-style baby carriers we had been using. I was worried that the Ergo wouldn't fit him well since he is 6 ft 4 in, but it fits him well.

After our hike we all went over to Vail to enjoy their Arts Festival and Farmer's Market. We found a perfect shady spot to enjoy our picnic lunch, some delicious Colorado peaches, and some Jazz.

We changed Audrey into an adorable red, black, and white sundress that we received as a gift from the Scheiners. Opposite, you can see her in her sundress with cousin Gordon.

The Vail Art Festival was a lot of fun too, but we were getting tired and dehydrated. Although the weather in the mountains is cooler, it was still in the 90s. We saw some landscapes photos that were impressive. We especially liked one of the area near Canyonlands in Southeastern Utah. I have tried photographing this area too and it takes skill and presumably, the right equipment, to capture the crags and canyons in all their splendor.

When the heat and the lack of water caught up with us, we decided to head back to Gordon and Ricki's place for some refreshments.

Tyler, nearly 2, really enjoyed seeing Audrey and learned her name right away. It was wonderful seeing Tyler run around and hearing Tyler using so many words. It was like being able to look into the future. Before we know it Audrey will be big!

After a long day in the mountains we headed back to Boulder. We were a little scared of the nighttime as Audrey hadn't been sleeping well since her 4 month shots. But I was surprised by how easily she fell asleep and I was totally elated when she didn't wake for a feeding until 3:30am. She gave me 5.5 straight hours of sleep.! It had been a long time since I had that many hours of sleep in a row. We should go up to the mountains more often.

Four Months!

Today, Audrey is 4 months old! And 4 months means another trip to the doctors. She wore her little lemon dress that daddy picked out. Once again, Dr. Baumgartner confirms that Audrey is a healthy, happy girl.

She weighs 14 lbs 1 oz.
She is 24 inches long.

She is right about 50th percentile for both height and weight.

Audrey is now sleeping off her shots. She plans to spend the rest of her birthday taking it easy at home.

Stripes

Notice the cute (knit by me) wool longies that Audrey is wearing! I based these on the Little Turtle Knits "the longies pattern," but made a lot of changes, like I knit it with 20 sts/inch instead of 18 sts/inch. I also added cute stripes on the legs (with a jogless jog!) and a little bit more ribbing on the bottom cuff.

Yarn: Cascade 220 in dark green, light green, and hot pink
Gauge: 20 sts/inch
Needles: US 7 and US 5 for ribbing
Pattern: Little Turtle Knits, "the longies pattern" with modifications

I'm the Princess, That's Why!

Here is Audrey with her first ever t-shirt. Not only is it a t-shirt, but it is a t-shirt with a sassy cliche on it. And boy does she look cute! According to the person who gave this shirt to Audrey, they are made by a guy in Boulder who has made a ton of money off of them by making big deals with big companies. This tee is especially adorable because it matches Audrey's newest pink and purple striped wool soaker that you can just catch a glimps of if you look closely.

Audrey's new favorite toy

Audrey's new favorite toy is her Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Center, a.k.a. exersaucer. She absolutely loves it. I was skeptical at first. Do we really need another expensive toy that could qualify as a piece of furniture? In all honesty, the answer is no, we don't NEED it. But we decided that it might make life easier.

World Breastfeeding Week

August 1 - 7 is World Breastfeeding Week. We have been exclusively breastfeeding since the beginning and plan on continuing until Audrey wants to quit. I feel lucky to have had no complications and a supportive husband. Audrey latched right on. My milk came in 3 days after I gave birth and we have been gaining weight and producing lovely stool and urine specimens ever since.

Did you know that exclusively breastfed baby's poo doesn't even smell bad! Really, it smells almost sweet.

In honor of this week-long initiative to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, I have put together a list of a few breastfeeding resources:

The National Women's Health Information Center's breastfeeding pages

Kellymom - A website that provides evidence-based information on breastfeeding and other parenting topics.

Dr. Jack Newman's breastfeeding page - I like this page specifically for the latch videos. So much of the first breastfeeding for me and my daughter was done alone. I wasn't sure we were doing it right. Dr. Newman's videos reassured me that we were.

Baby Center's breastfeeding page - Lots of articles on a variety of breastfeeding topics from the basics to dealing with challenges to pumping and storing expressed milk.

50 State Summary of Breastfeeding Laws - The National Conference of State Legislature's website summarizing the state laws (or lack of laws) protecting nursing mothers.

There Was a Litte Girl...

When Audrey's hair is wet, it is so curly! I keep wondering if her hair will get curlier as it gets longer.

There Was a Little Girl
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
And when she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid.

Yarn Cakes

Mmm, almost good enough to eat! I got some Cascade 220 to make some pretty woolie diaper covers. I have already made 2 (and I am almost done with a third) that fit Audrey's current size. My next project is going to be to make a pair of longies to fit her in the fall. I got both patterns from Little Turtle Knits.

Audrey

I have just started a very exciting segment of my life -- Mommyhood. Above is my little girl, Audrey Claire. She was born on Tuesday, April 10, 2007. I have decided to start a blog specifically related to my experiences as a mother for a number of reasons.
1. I need something to do with all of my free time now that I am a stay-at-home-mom. The couch and bonbons routine is getting kinda old.
2. Blogging is addictive and my knitting blog isn't as much fun now that I am hardly thinking about knitting.
3. I need somewhere to store all of my thoughts before I forget them so when my daughter asks me what day of the week she was born on, I can look it up.

According to the old poem, Audrey having been born on Tuesday will be "full of grace" which is exactly what they say about the Virgin Mary. I hope she doesn't end up pregnant at 14. I won't buy the story about an immaculate conception as easily as cuckolded Joseph.

Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturday's child works for its living
and a child that's born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise and good and gay.

--Unknown