Cabin fever

The last few days have been a huge blur and although I had pretty much planned this whole post out in my head while putting Knittybaby to sleep, I've completly forgot how it logically seemed to go together. I've had one of those evenings where Little Man was asleep by 7 and Knittybaby was asleep on my lap by 7:15. I thought I was home free, but as I was carrying him to bed he totally re-perked. This kid goes from sound asleep to wide awake in seconds. I spent the next two hours trying to get him back to sleep and finally gave him to the Skeptic at nine. At that point I had to break my "no housework after 9pm" rule and mop the floor (because the Skeptic doesn't know how to clean up a serious mayo spill) and make more laundry detergent (yup, you read that right. I'll tell you how to make it another day) and then get Knittybaby back to sleep once more. So now it's 10:30 and I'm going to try to make sense of all these random thoughts.

First, thank you so much for all your de-lurking comments! I was happy to get to know who more of you are and read your blogs or just drop you an e-mail. I was also floored by the number of comments I've gotten on the needle roll. I did make up the pattern myself, thanks! I'm not organized enough to write up a complete tutorial right now, but basically I used Wonder-Under to fuse the two fabrics together, folded it up, sewed the slots and added a flap. I plan to make one more my for SP9's last package (better get moving) another for just sock needles and another for my circulars. I'm also thinking about maybe putting a few up for swaps, maybe for hand dyed yarn or something like that. I really enjoyed making it and have so much lovely fabric to use up. We'll see where the time is.

We're already starting to need Spring to come. Little Man is not a "stay home all day" type of guy. I've been trying to keep him busy with pre-school, playgroup and playdates, but it still isn't enough. This boy needs to get out to parks and long walks and bike rides to burn off some of his never ending energy. He'll do the backyard for about 30 minutes but gets cold and wants to come in. We did have our first playdate with the Heathen Housewife and her crew last Thursday. I had a great time chatting with her; she's a lovely person and I think Little Man and her three year old daughter had a pretty good time, with the exception of the "He's smashing me!" episode and the time that Little Man decided to be a dinosaur. Oh, and his most major meltdown I've witnessed in months when it was time to go. But the Housewife was swell and helped us all get out of the door without me having a meltdown myself.

So how are we dealing with this cabin fever? Aside from getting out a lot, I've decided that organized messes are way better than "I think I'll sneak up to mom's closet" messes so we've been keeping busy:

Painting a cardboard container. You can get these at JoAnn's for about $2.oo. Paint it and call it a "treasure box to keep things away from little brothers."Entertainment time: 45 minutes.

Goop: 16 oz cornstarch + 1.5 cups water + food coloring. I was seriously short on cornstarch so I just gave him a bunch of extra flour and let him mix it all up. Entertainment time: 1 whole hour!!! (Do this before you need to wash your floor).


Little Man's snack of choice while I'm putting Knittybaby down for a nap:

Yes, I need to hide things better. That was a giant size chocolate bar. And God knows how much sugar he ate.

So I was thinking, seeing how much I like swaps and seeing how many other moms are getting cabin fever with their kids right now, wouldn't it be fun to do a knitters' cabin fever swap? Yarn for mom and a craft activity for the kids? Hmmmmm, not saying I'll commit just yet but it could be fun.

5:30 am will be here before I know it. Good night!