Mile High

This weekend was my office holiday party. While it wasn't as much fun as last year, wherein Jon and I lost all our fake money playing fake Blackjack, it was still a good time. The party was held at Mile High Stadium, where the Broncos play, and we got to take a tour of the facilities. The best part was going down to the field. When will I ever get to do that again? We also saw the visitor's locker room, luxury boxes, the world's largest kegerator, and some other stuff. But the field...that was cool.

And we got to get all dressed up and go out together. That really was the best part.

Deep Freeze

The official low temperature for Denver last night was -18 degrees. When I left for work this morning, we had warmed up to -7 degrees. The high today is 17. In fact, depending on which weather report you watch, Denver won't see a high above freezing all week. What makes this little cold snap particularly fun is that my office turns the heat OFF over the weekend, so it is FREEZING in here. It's going to take a long time for the temps to get back to normal at my desk. I'm sitting here wrapped in a scarf and wearing a hat.

So. Cold.

Sleep is here...knock on wood

For the past week, Evelyn has fallen into an amazing sleep routine. She gets a bath between 7 and 7:30pm. Then a bottle of formula. She is alseep by 8pm. Then, and this is the exciting part, she sleeps until almost 2am!! That is six hours of uninterrupted sleep, which means I'm getting about 4 hours! She has awakened betwen 1:30am and 2am each night, but no earlier. Then she nurses and goes back to sleep for 3 hours. (And really I think she's getting up after 3 hours just out of habit. She doesn't eat much. Might this be on the way out as well?) It is awesome. I'm up only two times a night at most. I'm still pretty tired, but no where near the zombiness that had taken over previously. I'm almost human again. AND I get two hours of time to myself after she goes to bed. This new trend just magically started happening at 3 months. It was like her brain said "I'm much older today. I think I'll sleep a little longer." I looooove it. (Now knock on wood that blogging about it doesn't somehow jinx the situation!)

Also, this morning Evelyn was trying to grab her tongue. She is getting really interested in her hands and mouth. She loves to talk, suck on her fists, put anything she can grab on to into her mouth. Two nights ago I think she started realizing that she had feet. She was in the bath staring at her feet and splashing them around. All these little milestones are so thrilling to watch. I mean, what was it like to not know you have feet? How exciting must it have been to realize, hey, those things down there belong to ME and I can move them around! Her little brain is growing a mile-a-minute. I can't imagine learning so much so fast anymore. It is miraculous, really, when you think about how much a baby has to master in the first two years of life.

I love that little girl. She makes me laugh and laugh. She is a delight to have in our lives.

I finished something!

Hooray! I finished something! It was small and silly, but it is finished.

Behold my beautiful knit gift card holder...

I think it looks like a candy cane. :)

Pattern:

I held two colors together throughout.

Cast on 20 stitches using any method you like. I used the long-tail cast-on

Work in stockinette st until work measured about 3.5”, or as long as the gift card you are using.

Work two rows in reverse st st.

Continue working in st st until work measured the same length as first section, about 3.5”. Then work 3 more rows in st st.

Two rows reverse st st.

Work 5 rows in st st before beginning decreases.

Decreased two stitches on each RS row (k2tog, knit to last two stitches, ssk) for 6 rows; purl WS rows.

On next RS row create a button hole: k2tog, k3, k2tog, yo, yo, k2tog, k3, ssk.

Purl next row.

Bind off in decreasing pattern.

Steam block the piece, sew on a button, seam the edges and you are done!

Thanksgiving pictures

Here are the Thanksgiving pictures. They are not in any sort of easy-to-follow order. Blogger was being dumb and not letting me move the pictures around. So, sorry in advance.

Evelyn and I at the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I'm in my racing stance.



















The Lew family women preparing for the Turkey Trot. That's Rosie, Shawna, me and Evie, and Carol. Look at our lovely shirts!




















The family. Jon, Rosie, Jay, Shawna, me and Evie.

Yay! We decorated our tree! (see below for how we got the tree...)

The baby looks all crazy, but see our pretty tree? I even made some cinnamon-dough ornaments. They were made with glitter and yarn. Very crafty! :) But really, is a Christmas tree really a Christmas tree without some ugly homemade ornament?

This is how we got the aforementioned tree. By cutting it down ourselves at a tree farm! How fun is that? I took a few pictures of Jon chopping down the tree with his BARE HANDS, but I apparently messed something up and didn't take the pictures after all. Suffice it to say it was memory making at its finest.

Evelyn getting a bath in the sink at her grandmother's house. It's cute.

2009: The Year of Going Green

My new year's resolution for 2009 is to go green. Jon is on board, but this is pretty much my thing. I'll try to buy organic whenever practical, buy products with less packaging, or just buy less in general. Eating less meat, eating more local ingredients, and eating more humanely-raised animal products will top the list. Trying to walk or bike or take public transportation would be nice, but pretty hard with a 3 month old. I especially want to go green with the stuff we buy for Evelyn. She is eating one bottle of formula a day now, and we wanted to get the organic formula, but her pediatrician recommended a conventional brand. So, obviously, we go with the doctor's recommendation. But with clothes, furniture, diapers, toys, solid foods in the future, etc., I think we can reduce the chemicals and nastiness we bring into her world. We can reduce the amount of plastic we use in our house, reduce the amount of trash we produce, and reduce the amount of non-recycleable items we consume. We can cut back on things like fast food, which uses way too much packaging and probably not green manufacturing practices. We can make small changes over time that will add up to big changes in the long run. I'm excited about this.

Other things I'd like to do in 2009, but which are not official resolutions, include:

1. Relearn how to sew. There are some seriously adorable children's clothing patterns out there and I'd like to make some simple things for Evie.
2. Find more time to knit.
3. Take better pictures.
4. Go hiking or walking in the woods with Evelyn, or just generally reconnect with nature.
5. Focus a little more at work. (Since returning from maternity leave my mind has not quite gotten the idea that we need to do work. It wanders. I procrastinate. I'm going to get back on track.)
6. Move into a new apartment with significantly more space and much better lighting.
7. Work on the debt, work on the savings.
8. Cook more at home. (I used to cook dinner 5 times a week. Then I got pregnant. Then I had a baby. I need to get back to the old way.)

So there you have it. A game plan for the coming year.

May she never know Wilford Brimley

Evelyn has a genetic marker that makes her significantly more likely to develop Type 1 Diabetes, the childhood-onset, insulin-dependent kind of diabetes. It does not make her likely to develop the disease, just more likely than if she didn't have the marker. She has a 3 in 100 chance, vs. a 1 in 300 chance in the general population. A 3 percent chance is very small. Nevertheless, it makes me sad/nervous/worried/upset/guilty. We found out that she has the marker because the hospital where she was born is involved in a multi-national study, sponsored by the NIH, to determine what, if any, environmental factors make a child develop type 1 diabetes. What makes Baby X with the marker develop the disease, when Baby Y with the same marker does not? They asked our permission to test her cord blood and we agreed. The researchers called us about a week ago with the results.

It is a very important study, and they have asked us to include Evelyn, but the amount of work involved is just too much. Evie would have to have a clinic visit with a blood draw every three months until she is 4 years old, and then every 6 months until she is 15. We would have to keep track of when she eats new foods, when she gets sick, when she gets vaccinated. There are stool samples involved. While the work on the parent's end is a lot, I am more worried about Evelyn. Getting pricked all the time, maybe feeling like there is something wrong with her because she goes to a clinic so often--I don't want that for her. Instead we'll probably tell our pediatrician about the findings and then read up on the symptoms of diabetes so we can watch out as she gets older. Sadly there is no way to prevent getting the disease. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, it's not like a low-sugar diet or lots of exercise can make any difference in developing the disease.

I know one person with insulin-dependent diabetes and he has had some serious problems. I don't think he controls his sugar levels very well, though, so I'm not sure he is the best person to look to for a guide. We can't do anything but watch for symptoms anyway, so I really shouldn't worry. Three percent is a very low chance...