50 Things I Love

Because imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, I hope Katie won’t mind that I’m totally copying her.  Some things, like my husband and children are obvious so I’m not putting them.

Some things that I love right now:

1. Puns
2. Singing Kool and the Gang‘s <i>Celebration</i> when Oliver uses the potty.
3. Naptime
4. Working
5. Coming home
6. Riding in an airplane all by myself
7. Knitting
8. Matt Damon
9. Big cities
10. Driving down the road with music blaring, singing at the top of my lungs, dancing like a maniac, and looking over and seeing the person in the lane next to me is watching me and that I have totally just made his morning.
11. m&ms with my coffee
12. Babies’ skin.  I love how soft and smooth it is, like it has never had a worry or been disappointed
13. Karaoke Revolution
14. Cooking
15. Office supplies.  I know it’s weird, but having a drawer full of blank, lined paper makes me happy.  Also, clicky pencils.
16. Diet Coke
17. Blue
18. Painted walls
19. Taking pictures
20. Pirate jokes
21. The West Wing
22. Britney Spears
23. Manos, the Hands of Fate
24. Rings.  I wish I had one for every finger.  I have fat fingers though, so it’s hard to find.
25. Vanilla ice cream with magic shell chocolate on top.  Mmmmm.
26. That I got my belly button pierced again
27. Tank tops
28. Boots!
29. A new computer
30. Shopping with Kullervo, without the kids
31. Making people laugh (probably everyone likes this)
32. Gmail chat
33. Papa John’s pizza with pineapple (and the garlic sauce)
34. Oliver’s paintings
35. Surprising creative things that I come up with and then implement, and that turn out as good or better than I had hoped, like this
36. Doing gender atypical things (for example, changing my own oil in my car, which I did for years)
37. Chocolate milk
38. Cupcakes (hee!)
39. New York City
40. Redecorating when Kullervo isn’t home
41. Vacuuming
42. Having plans to do something with Kullervo at night after the kids go to bed, but getting so wrapped up in conversation that we forget to do it until it’s too late
43. Brownie batter
44. The idea of outside
45. Sheep
46. The blog post that will. not. die
47. Being an Assassin Wife of Fury
    
48. Down comforters and pillows
49. The way that Kullervo looks in a pair of jeans (hot!!)
50. Socks

Maryland Sheep & Wool Unsuccess Story

I took the kids to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this morning. It’s about 45 minutes away, and so we set off at about 8. The car ride over was pretty uneventful; Oliver and I sang and danced to Kelly Clarkson’s new album. When we were about 4 miles away, traffic got pretty backed up.
The view in front of us:

The view behind us:

Oliver got bored in traffic, so I let him play with the camera. Here are his shots.
Hazel, taking her morning nap:

Self-portrait:

… his legs… He really likes taking pictures of his legs.

“I got my foot, Mommy!”

Attempting more self-portraits:

When we got there, it started to rain. Like, driving onto the grounds, the rain started. Kind of annoying, but we decided we’d tough it out. It was pretty warm, and a little bit of rain has never done anything except frizz my hair. The volunteers assisting people in parking were kind of mean–they yelled at us, and made me park unreasonably far away, especially considering that there was a ton of open space we could have parked in that was eons closer.

As we were walking towards the festival, a good Samaritan gave us an umbrella. It was incredibly sweet and thoughtful, but there is a good reason I don’t usually give an umbrella to my three year old (and any parent of a toddler will tell you that having an umbrella means letting him hold it). Oliver looked adorable with it (and I got a lot of compliments on my beautiful daughter and her beautiful blond curls), but in twirling it around and dawdling, he almost took out a few eyes along the way.

When we got into the festival we headed straight for the animals. Oliver had been pretty excited to see them, and Hazel loves animals (future vet?) with a passion I haven’t really seen before. She just gets so excited about them. Anyway, we saw a lot of lambs and sheep and ewes. Someone who had just shown their sheep let Oliver and Hazel pet him. His wool was incredible–thick and beautiful. But the sheep didn’t ‘baa’ like a normal sheep. It yelled and scared Oliver. But Oliver remembered his name–Hudson.

After the animals, I was hoping to browse some yarn. But due to the rain, the umbrellas everywhere (there were really a ton of people there considering the weather), and my fear of losing Oliver, I didn’t browse too much, and did not find anything that jumped out at me and demanding that I buy it. So, we left empty handed (well, with a new umbrella).

It was too rainy at the fair to take any pictures, but when we got home the rain had stopped, so we played outside. Here is Oliver’s new umbrella:

And a gratuitous shot of Miss Hazel.

So, altogether it was a fun way to spend the morning even if it was kind of a bust. I think I might just like going and doing cool things with my kids.

FO – A Hat for Hazel!

I made this hat–twice actually–for Hazel. I didn’t have a pattern; I just kind of knit, using a stitch I really liked (from the most recent socks I made for Conner). I had to knit it twice because the first time it was too wide and too short (so much for swatching…). However, since it was cashmere, it was yummy to knit with. I think it turned out well, especially since it’s really the first thing I’ve made without a pattern.

Hazel likes to touch it too! (It’s soooo soft!)