Knit 1 Barf 2

THE GERMANS ARE COMING!

Jim's family from Germany will be here August 1st. We are picking them up from the airport in Minneapolis.

In preparation for their arrival we are attempting to get caught up on five year's worth of spring cleaning. Not an easy thing to do when you've got a 9 month-old-baby that is in the habit of scattering her stomach contents about the house. She's been battling one bug after another lately, and this has only exacerbated the problem. Crawling hasn't helped, either. Crawl, crawl, barf, crawl through the barf, crawl, crawl, barf, stop and play with the barf, crawl through the barf, crawl crawl........ you get the idea.

Matters came to a bit of a crescendo today when I spoke with the owner/manager of our childcare center. She became the 4th or 5th employee at the childcare center to comment on Bonnie's recent increase in GI activity. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I basically told her that this problem has been discussed with her pediatrician on numerous occasions (including wihtin the last 24 hours) and that barfing was simply a way of life and that we would just have to deal with it until she grows out of it. "Bonnie, stand closer to your prom date while I take this picture *barf*" I went on to say that if they couldn't handle it, we would find another childcare provider that could. I'm so sick of being questioned about Bonnie's barfing every time I walk in the door to that place. Hopefully, this will be the end of it.

Then there's my knitting. I'm under the gun for several of my projects. First, I decided that it would be a wonderful idea to sign up for a sock knitting class in July. In reality, I'm way too busy for it, but I've paid my $30 and I'm gonna get my sock knitting knowledge! However, doing this means that there is a certian amount of knitting I must do each week to keep up with the class. To compound the problem, I decided that it would benefit my learning if I knit both socks at the same time. I'm pretty sure I'm right about that, but it doubles the amount of knitting that I must do between classes.

Next, I thought it would be a lovely idea to knit a little jumper for a fiend that had a baby in May. We are going to stop at this friend's house and see the baby and drop off gifts on August 1st, on our way up to get the Germans at the airport in Minneapolis. So I'm under the gun for that one. Fortunately, I'm almost done, but since I'm knitting in the round from the bottom up, the trickiest part of the jumper has yet to come - especially since I'm desinging the dress as I go and knitting without a pattern!!!

Finally, I want to knit a gift for Jim's sister before her baby shower on August 11, just one week after her wedding. I've decided to knit these cute stuffed blocks that I can customize with his name (one letter on each of four blocks). Good thing his name is going to be Owen and not Thaddeous or Archibald. If that was the case, he would get plain blocks. The blocks shoud be fairly quick and easy to do, but I haven't even bought the yarn, yet. I hope to do that this weekeend. By then, I hope to have the jumper done, and my sock knitting should be less onerous since I've now got the hang of knitting in the round with DPNS. Of course, if all else fails I can give her the blocks sometime after the baby shower, but, if I do that, I'll miss out on the opportunity to have tons of people ooh and ahh over my handiwork.

I'll try to post some shots of my knitting tomorrow. However, needless to say, I dont' have tons of time for blogging!