New words, etc.

New words we are starting to hear from Evelyn:

Grandma (ma-mama, which is totally different thatn Ma Ma.)
Goodnight (ga-ga)

So it isn't that her words are getting easier to understand, but that they are being used in very specific ways. Ma-mama, when she is looking out the window when her grandma leaves the house. Or ga-ga, when she leaves her bath and everyone says goodnight before heading to the bedroom for pajamas and bed.

We are stalling out on the "new word" front, but I think it is on the parents' end. I am almost positive Evelyn is saying a lot more, we just are not recognizing a lot more.

Also, I would like to let everyone know, in the whole blogosphere, that stay-at-home parents are doing some seriously hard work, and anyone that thinks working in an office is harder, on an hour-by-hour basis, is so wrong I can't even convey the level of wrongness. I get exhausted at home. I don't play with Evelyn nearly as much as I should, letting her "play by herself" or, alas, watch a cartoon. I hate hate HATE that I resort to TV for a little downtime. Hate. I am so ready for spring, when we can play outside (although Evelyn is super interested in playing in the street now, so that's fun) and get out of the house! Now we take trips to museums and run errands, but it is hard to just sit outside and enjoy the day. Spring is around the corner, for sure, so I will just wait.

I wish would do some things differently. But that is a blog post for another day...

She wore it!

Stock Show

Jon and I both think we are living in the middle of nowhere. Oh, not really, but just enough to be annoying. We are not within walking distance of anything except a strip mall with a car parts store, a Jo-Ann fabric and a few smattering quilting, bicycle and framing stores. Oh, there’s also the weird Mexican steakhouse we have never wanted to try and a gas station. That is it. We are biking distance from some other desirable places (hello, yarn store!), but that requires a lot more planning and effort when there is a toddler in tow.

We feel that we are just a little too removed from the places we want to go. The good Japanese restaurants, the fun shops, the hip areas. And so it is completely illogical that when we talk about our dream home, we talk about a little llama and alpaca hobby farm somewhere outside the city. Yes, a hobby farm. Jon and I. I’ll let you digest that.

We both really want a goat, some chickens, maybe a llama or a couple alpaca. We want the quiet of the country, some land to grow vegetables, and general awayness. There is no way this would ever become reality. I mean, we want an alpaca, sure, but what the heck do you do with an alpaca?! Chickens we could handle (fresh eggs!) but that is about it. We couldn’t even grow squash last summer! Squash, people. The easiest, stupidest vegetable ever. Sigh. Our dreams are a bit silly sometimes, but maybe that is why it is a dream.

(Another dream is to move to Japan. That seems equally unlikely.)

Our dream of a hobby farm was only emboldened this weekend when we went to the National Western Stock Show with Evelyn. She LOVED it. Love. We watched some sort of super boring horse competition-- where a rider trots around the ring, walking over a pipe, and then gets the horse to go backward for 10 feet--for about 45 minutes. Evelyn was enthralled. Anything that keeps a one-year old entertained for that long is impressive. After the horse thing we went to the stock yard and saw rows and rows of the biggest, cleanest, best-looking cows I have ever seen. The next area was full of llamas and alpacas (and yarn sellers!). Evelyn was in toddler heaven. She thought the llamas were sheep and the alpacas were dogs (judging by her animal sounds, at least), but she loved it. Loved loved loved it! We even went to a petting zoo where she shyly pet a pig, a donkey, and some goats in a pen. Every time we saw a horse walking around, which was often, she would point and say “Neigh! Neigh!” We were at the stock show, just walking around and seeing stuff, for nearly three hours. That is probably a record for Evelyn.

It was so fun to see Evelyn having so much fun. She just LOOOOOVED the animals. She was thrilled by every single horse sighting or cow moo. I would love to go during one of the rodeo events, maybe some mutton bustin’ or a dog agility competition, but we didn’t plan for that this weekend. Maybe next weekend, when my step-mom and sister Olivia come to town. I’m sure Evelyn would love a second round at the Stock Show.

(Jon took some pictures but they are, of course, on film, so we won't see them for a week or so. If any turned out, I'll post then.)

Recent FOs

Knitting is a wonderful hobby. I like the repetition, the beautiful yarns, the creating something from nothing, the finished products. However, despite all this wonderfulness, knitting is also labor and time intensive. That isn't always a bad thing, of course; sometimes the time you put into a project is half the joy in making it for someone else. Here is my time, my aching fingers, my skill...enjoy. But sometimes, the time it takes to make something is made much more annoying when the recipient does not like the gift.

Like Evelyn. I designed this little dress, knit it to fit her, and she doesn't like it. Pulls at it like it is killing her every time I put in on. So sad. I've tried it with an undershirt and all by itself. All I can do is try again, maybe force her to wear it for a half hour or so, and see if she gets used to it. *sigh* (Terrible pictures below.)


See these? Hard to tell from my crappy phone camera, but these are little owls with bead eyes. The yellow bands in the middle are pockets.


On the flip side, knitting is awesome and totally worth the time when you give a gift with love and the person actually likes it! Hooray! Like this Hemlock Ring blanket designed by my knit-crush Jared Flood. I gave it to my mom and step-dad for Christmas.

Here is the center, while it was all pinned out for blocking...
Here is the whole thing, laying over the double-bed in the guest room so you can gauge the size. Also all pinned out for blocking.


Now THAT was a fun knit! I might make another. Someday. Maybe for next Christmas.

This year I want to branch out into the sweater-making world. I have my eye on something for Jon. Either the Biker Boy cardigan


the Cambridge Cardigan



or the Retropolitan Cardigan.




In sadder knitting news, I may have to frog (i.e. rip out and unravel) this brutal project.



The yarn is too lovely to sit in knitting purgatory for so long. I started this scarf before Evelyn was born and it is only about 2/3 completed. It is a really cool design, I just HATE the method used to knit it. Double knitting = hell. Now you know.

Week one...

Week one in the new year and I can say "huzzah!" to doing well on my resolution. This week I:

• Did not buy breakfast even once.
• Bought lunch only once.
  
• Cooked dinners! In my kitchen!
  
• Exercised once (so far... it was EA Sports Active on the Wii...not a super hard workout, but my legs did get sore and I think it gets progressively harder as you get more fit.)
• Designed, began, and nearly finished a knitted dress for Evelyn. I'll be done very soon (I need beads for the eyes...yes, eyes!) and will post pictures. Hopefully my measurements were right and it fits my growing girl!
• Had a date night with my husband

Wow! That is a lot!

So every week won't be so productive, but I feel good about starting out well. What do experts say about setting new habits? You have to do something every day for two weeks? A month? I'm not sure, but I know I'm on the right path.

How was your week??

Bones Restaurant in Denver

There are a few things you might not know about me. Well, depending on who you are, there are a LOT of things you don't know about me. One of those things is...

I love with a love so deep that it could conquer the world (especially if I was the star of some romantic comedy) a steamed pork bun. Which brings me to the point of my post: Bones.

For our now bi-monthly date night, Jon and I ventured to a new Denver restaurant that has been getting a lot of great press. Tucked into a former deli, it is a very small Japanese-inspired noodle house called Bones. The name is weird, but the food was amazing. We started with the steamed pork buns, which were really more like pork tacos. Really, they were like some frakking delicious duck tacos we had in Queens last fall. But I digress. The people sitting next to us ordered some of the other appetizers that looked delicious. Potatoes three ways. Bone marrow. Thai spring rolls. I think I could make a meal out of just the appetizers.

After the appetizers came the real deal: the noodle bowls. The menu is small, only one dish of each noodle per night, but varied. I ordered the lobster ramen in a lobster-miso brother, and Jon ordered the pulled pork shoulder udon in a ginger-soy broth. Both were outstanding. We actually switched dishes early in the meal because Jon loved my dish and I loved his. The pork shoulder was tender, the udon was fresh and pillowy and soft, the ginger wasn't overpowering and the whole dish melted together. The ramen was fresh and soft, too, and Jon thought the lobster broth was rich and buttery.

We finished dinner with a dish of house-made soft serve ice cream, a twist between peanut butter and Ovaltine chocolate. Also delicious! Not icy and grainy like most soft serve, this stuff was smooth and creamy.

You could tell everything at Bones is made in-house or very fresh. The noodles were the best noodles I've had outside of Japan. The broths were subtle and rich with amazing depth. I know I sound like some kind of absurd food critic, but the food was really that great. GREAT.

We will go back. Probably on a Monday when they do their Peking duck specials. Oh my.

Farewell stupid 2009, hello promising 2010!

Every blogger seems to be doing a 2009 recap, and almost all of them echo the following theme: "Last year sucked, so here's hoping this year is better!" Um...ditto.

Last year felt like a lost year. If 2009 was a food, it would be a box of stale cookies that you eat for no reason and then can't remember 10 minutes later. If 2009 was a date, it would be a guy you meet for lunch and then never hear from again, thankfully. If 2009 was a year, it would be the year that nothing really happened and yet it still felt like it sucked. Probably because nothing happened.

The only real highlight of 2009 was watching Evelyn go from a wee eensy baby to a big, giant toddler. That will be the greatest memory I have of last year, or maybe any year, because it was such a delight. I can't even describe how amazing it is to think back 12 months and recall how completely helpless and little our baby once was. Now she is loud, mobile, curious, smart, funny, and really quite opinionated. I told Jon last night that we need to start working on creating photo albums because I know we will forget these little moments. I'm so glad I started this blog if for no reason other than writing down the little things that Evelyn has done that I would have otherwise forgotten.

And so let us say farewell stupid 2009, hello promising 2010!

My new year's resolution is to take better care of myself. Mentally, physically, emotionally...it all needs to get attention. Last year I really let myself go. I look bad and I feel bad. I lost myself in a tornado of full-time employment, complicated marriage, financial stress, and baby raising. That last one has been my excuse for everything. I can't exercise because I'm watching the baby. I can't cook dinner because Evelyn is so time-consuming. I can't do anything because I am a mother. Well that is poppycock. There are people out there who do it all with aplomb and fabulous shoes. (Maybe just in my mind, but I like to pretend.) I know I can't "do it all," but I can do MORE. I can cook meals, even if it is just a frozen lasagna and side salad. I can exercise more, even if it is just chasing Evelyn around the living room. I can take 20 minutes out of my day to relax and meditate or stretch or do something to feel good.

There are two big things holding me back:

1. Television -- my, oh my, how I love television.
2. The laziness.

Jon and I joke a lot about how lazy we are. How tired we are. How nothing gets done because we are lazy and tired. How Evelyn is so exhausting, and so we don't get anything done because of the laziness and the tiredness. It is all a big circle of excuses. OK, yes, we are tired. Everyone is tired. But I think we are more tired because we are so lazy. We are more tired because we are eating so badly. We are more tired because we aren't exercising. All of that is the lazy. The lazy has got to go.

The television, well, I'll have to think about that one. Baby steps...

And so my resolution, such as it is, does not involve specific goals or specific to-dos. It is more about growing up. About realizing that I am thirty years old, I am a mother, I have a child and a husband, and none of that is going to change. If I keep eating and acting like I am a child, I will continue to look and feel terrible. I need to eat balanced meals, meals I have prepared, every single day. I need to stop going to fast food restaurants for lunch, driving through because it is on the way. I need to realize that since I'm not out hunting and gathering for my very existence, I need to incorporate exercise into my life. Does that mean I have to spend an hour in the kitchen fixing dinner and then join a fancy gym to burn the calories? No. It means I need to plan ahead just a little bit, and then get off the couch just a little more. NOT HARD. Just...hard. You know what I mean. Change is difficult. Cookies are delicious. Television is so intoxicating.

I think about Evelyn and how she copies everything we do. She has her mother's sweet tooth already. She likes her cartoons and thinks remote controls are the greatest toy ever. I don't want her to remember me mostly on the couch watching TV, grouchy and slovenly and embarrassing. I want her to remember me playing with her, teaching her to cook, running around outside, having fun. I want so much for her that I don't want to hold her back in even the tiniest way.

Evelyn is my joy; I need to stop using her as an excuse.

Here's to a much better 2010.