Aftermath Irene.

(Visit to Niagara Falls last month)

I slept through the storm last night which is not unusual since I'm a deep sleeper. By now, my kids know not to reach for me at night as they'll get no response from me, so they go directly to Seth. I'm glad to report that nothing was damaged on our property and we didn't loose any electricity.

I woke up at 9:40 am realizing that David's drum lesson is supposed to start in 20 minutes. I rushed to the family room shouting that he should get dressed right away and he'll eat cheerios in a car. While he was writing something at his art table, he calmly told me that he and Julia already had breakfast after which he washed the dishes and Julia washed the kitchen floor. "Great, go and get dressed then", I told him.

"I need to finish writing this note and tape it to our kitchen wall", was his response.

I glanced over his shoulder and saw this written on his note "no running, wet" and there was a picture of a puddle.

So, while we got no water damage outside on our property, there were plenty of puddles in our kitchen and a trash filled with an entire roll of a wet paper towel. While hurricane Irene might have come and left, hurricanes David and Julia are here to stay.

Tea Time.

Julia turned 5 years old last week. Five! Last year she couldn't care less how old she was turning and this year she couldn't stop telling people that she is going to be 5 soon. I decided to throw her a tea party for girls only in our backyard. I was in a denial at first and then paid for it by staying up really late a week leading to the party making everything from scratch. Thankfully, I had come across some party ideas on this site , so I ended up using most of her ideas and barely any of mine.

David helped me out a lot at a last minute decorating, baking, making signs, but he didn't stay to enjoy any of it. Seth, his friend and David went away for a weekend to Poconos for a NASCAR car race. David's reaction? He told us he won't invite either me or Julia to his birthday party. Hopefully, it means I don't have to plan it either.

I can honestly say I've never been to a quieter party. It went on for awhile as the kids had a great time playing peacefully together. At night, Julia told me she wished her birthday was everyday. And when I said that I can't believe she is five already, she responded "But mama, my fingers are still little" ( I always kiss her fingers and ask her not to let them grow). Happy birthday, Julia, we are all so in love with you (even David even though he won't admit it).

Simply Irresistible.

I've been knitting baby booties lately since purchasing "booties, blankets & bears" book. I didn't have a recipient in my mind when knitting them, I just had to make them. They are so cute (at least in the book) that I couldn't resist. I think I might start following Julia's example and ask random strangers if they are pregnant. While visiting Intrepid last weekend, Julia asked one of the workers there if she had a baby in her stomach. The woman's response was "No, it's all me".

(This picture has nothing to do with knitting. I thought I'll just throw in one picture of the kids.)

Little Mama, Big Plans.

My girl suddenly developed an interest in playing mommy. Her plans for the future motherhood include having 2 daughters and 2 sons, sleeping with her babies every night, never taking them to school, talking instead of yelling at them and being the best mommy ever. It must be everything her childhood is missing right now.

Just Being.

My girl is being mesmerized by all the construction work being done on our backyard.

P.S. Finally, it is a t-shirt weather in our neck of the woods.

A Girl Can't Have Too Many Skirts.

I must stop coming across adorable skirt patterns. Since I I laid my eyes on a thinty a few days ago, my kids weren't fed, bathed or read to (well, not really thanks to Seth). But you get the idea. I couldn't put the needles down and two days later my girl was posing for the pictures in her new skirt.

And the reason I'm blogging instead of whipping 5 more of these skirts in the next 5 sizes (or helping Seth cook borcsh since it is 10 pm already)? David has been begging me to knit him a stuffed mouse which is not a fun project since a lot of sewing is involved. So, I'm delaying starting this project for as long as I can. But according to the kids, I should be knitting in a pattern -- first for Julia, then for David and then again for Julia and so forth. I'm already thinking of what to make David next. Maybe this shirt? Seth gave it two thumbs down. Personally, I think it's pretty cute since my boy is into ties. Maybe I'll let him decide.

Sunshine.

Enjoying a beautiful weather before another snow fall tomorrow.

Life.

My thoughts and feelings are scattered all over lately. There's fear, frustration, sadness and feeling of helplessness. Yet, at the end of the day I realize I have two healthy (still questionable about one of them) kids and life is really good.

Julia.... my Julia. I've been saying for years now that I should have studied child psychology before becoming a mother and more so now than ever. David has been reading Bible to us. Last night, Julia was woken up by a nightmare and later in a day she asked me: "Mommy, does God put bad dreams in our head while we are sleeping?". I'm not sure she was satisfied with my explanation though.

And then there are times when she talks back like a teenager. Her favorite phrase : "I don't care". It had been driving me nuts and after a few weeks of ignoring it, I finally snapped and asked her where she got it from and who in school talks this way (of course, I blame everything on school). She replied to me in a matter of fact voice "Dr. Seuss talks like that".

David now decided to go by Dave only on a paper though. Is it just sheer laziness of writing 5 letters? Who knows with him.

I've been knitting non-stop lately. The crazier my life gets, the more I knit, the less I sleep. I think I might have even found a knitting community in my town.

Julia has been begging me to teach her how to knit because according to her that's the only way she is going to get another knitted bunny.

David felt pity on me for carrying my yarn in my hands from one room to another, so he made me a "basket" just for my yarn.

And here are just some of the knits I've completed in the last few months:

I love to knit, but I despise sewing (if required) pieces together. So, I end up completing a project as I'm running out of the door with a wrapping paper in one hand. Thus, I don't get to photograph many of them.

My next few projects will be for my kids -- a mouse for David and a skirt for Julia.

I'll try my best to post more often, but honestly, I'd rather spend this time knitting. Thank you for stopping by here even though this place is not updated often.

Happy Valentine's.

Children. They do change everything. In the past I used to buy a Valentine's card for my husband just right after the Christmas was over. Today I realized I had forgotten to purchase a card in spite of helping my kids make handmade cards for all of their friends and teachers and decorate every corner of our house with handmade hearts in the past month or so. The priorities have definitely changed.

I really didn't want to purchase any more chachkas, so instead I turned to this fun project -- melted crayon hearts. I remember seeing it many times on other blogs and no wonder, because it's so much fun to make with the kids (after we took all the paper off). My friend also blogged about it here . We ended up making about 45 of them using every single crayon in our house and still managed to run out of them.

This is what out table looked like on Saturday. David needed to take a lot of breaks since he was handwriting a lot of notes, cards and even a song. Breaks took a form of reading. He's into reading Magic Tree House series books right now. Eight done, forty more to go.

He wanted to write a poem for his speech therapist, but then changed his mind and decided to write a song. I just hope my card from him is as sweet.

The kids wrote cards to each other and their teachers. I knitted this dishcloth for David's teacher and yes, I realize she deserves a cashmere blanket instead, but that's all I had time for. It's being blocked right now, thus no picture.

Perhaps, being inspired by all this crafting and talks of Valentine's, Julia has been coming up with really hilarious sayings. She's been walking around the house saying to herself "Darth Vader is in love with me". The other day as we were in a car, in her whiny voice (it comes out whenever she really wants something) she tells me "Mommy, I like daddy, but I really really want Luke Skywalker to be my father". And that's when we realized the kids need to take a break from watching "Star Wars".

I hope to write more entries soon since we've been keeping ourselves very busy. Hope tomorrow everyone feels more loved and appreciated (I'll make it up to my husband for a forgotten card).

Round Four.

David stayed home today with a low grade fever... again. We picked up Julia earlier from school who was complaining of a stomach ache. Yep, now she is sick too. What really made her upset was not that she is running a fever, but that she is going to miss her turn to have me and Seth come in tomorrow and talk about her during her star of the week. Without a beat, David reminded her that just yesterday she wished she were sick too. And then he told her to get on a couch, covered her with two blankets, set up arts and craft area next to the couch and has been reading to her for a half an hour now.

Those moments are extremely rare in our house and that's why when it does happen I run to get a camera. Of course, there are still 7 hours till their bed time and I'm sure in no time Julia will be reminding David that anger leads to a dark side as she usually does dozen times a day ( I told you kind moments are very rare between those two).

A Bit of Knitting.

That's a bit of understatement. I've been knitting non-stop since last summer taking the yarn and needles with me everywhere. Now, as I joined the ranks of parents who wait for their kids to complete one activity after another, I realize this hobby of mine comes in handy.

Among all of my knits in the past few months (and there have been A LOT), my favorite is this Stella Pixie Hat . It was supposed to be a gift for someone else, but once Julia saw it, she asked to wear it and then demanded suggested it came with a flower. I didn't get a chance to block it as she insisted on wearing it to school this morning. I loved working with this yarn which I got at my friend's garage sale and it matches Julia's coat.

There's A New Reader In Our House.

Happy Birthday!

Julia turned 4 years old last week.

We spent Julia's birthday doing all of her favorite things from eating pancakes in the morning, going for a long hike in search of some bugs and worms, but eventually settling on catching a spider and finding some coins (the spider was released later), making lanterns out of a balloon and some colorful tissue paper, taking a gymnastics and a swimming lessons to indulging in cupcakes.

I don't think Julia cares much for getting older as her brother does. As long as she has an excuse to dress up and there are pizza and a cake to eat, she'll make some effort to show a bit of excitement.

We are still figuring out who she is taking after: me or Seth. And everyday she proves to us that she is her own person surprising us with her likes and dislikes.

Happy Birthday, sonechko!

Her Latest Obsession.

This is how we've been passing our days lately: school, dig for worms, lunch with worms, nap or not, pick up David, dig for more worms, dinner with worms, bath, story time to worms, sleep.

I've heard some kids having imaginary friends, but Julia's latest "buddies" have really taken me by surprise. In Julia's case, her "bestest" friends are worms. We dig for them in our neighbors' curbs (those who have jobs, of course). We've dug a half of our front lawn looking for them. I purchased Julia and David the bug holding containers for $1 in Target and I hope that their interest will last as long as the quality of those jars. Julia gets so excited when she finds a worm and without a beat, she picks it up with her bare hands and puts it in a jar. David on the other hand won't handle them and has Julia pick a worm up for him and drop it in his container. The best part is they think the worms are their pets and they bring them inside, insist on keeping a jar on the dining table while having a meal and feed them leaves. I think the longest the worms stayed alive in those jars were two days.

And on the days when the dirt is too dry, she is perfectly content to collect the ants or any other crawling creatures instead. I finally had to put my foot down when she found a dead bird in our backyard and insisted on bringing it in and putting a Band-Aid on it.