leaving the mountains

We have been having computer issues (it was just shutting down of its own accord,) so I've been a bad blogger this week. And now I am heading off with my boys to visit the eastern family for a few weeks. I hope to be able to blog a bit while I am gone, but I'm now sure how much I'll be able to get to it. But there will be much fun to be had (after we live through the busy toddler on the airplane experience...) with visiting of friends and babies and lots of relatives and getting our "city fix."


Ari has been really enjoying being out and about lately, and seems to just love watching what is going on (and running and running and running amidst the busy-ness.) We went to a music festival last weekend and he danced and ran and snuggled every baby in sight until late into the night- three days in a row! He really perfected some fine dance moves, and after watching all those adults up there moving and shakin' it up he has decided that dancing is a very serious and important business. He twirls and squats and bounces and wiggles with determined concentration. It is hard work to not just scoop him up and eat him up in all his adorable deliciousness, but he obviously wants to be taken seriously. We try.

We realized while at the festival, surrounded by a zillion other babies (we've had quite a boom here lately!) that Ari is exceptionally active for his age. He really never stops. While other babes were clinging to their mamas, or circling their parents closely, Ari was covering every inch of the grounds and trying to dance with the crowds of adults and chasing bigger kids and visiting all the people in the benches and finding sticks and falling down (on purpose. This is a new favorite game. Quite entertaining.) This was a good insight to me- of course all toddlers are busy little people, but this guy is especially so. It is good to realize that I am justified in feeling exhausted at the end of the day. Add the fact that he still wakes up every 2-3 hours in the night and you have a mama that is really looking forward to her holiday! Not that he will stop waking or running on our trip, but at least there will be a load of other adults to share the job!

So wish us luck with our busy boy on the airplane and I'll try to post some photos and stories from our adventures. Happy weekend!

good food, good mail

This is a bit of an in between time as far as food goes up here in the north- the gardens are not quite ready to fill our plates, and the root cellars are looking pretty bare. We are just finishing up our root crops from last year, they have held out really well and we've not had to buy carrots or potatoes or beets all winter, and the onions got us part way through the season. It has been too cold and wet to enjoy being outside much the past while, but the gardens are growing fast with all the rain, and we will have lettuce and radishes and spinach any day. And we have enough rhubarb to feed several armies. I think we'll be giving away a few plants next year. And eating lots of rhubarb crisp. A friend sent me a link to this little video on good food that is worth checking out. Choosing local food seems like such a simple, healthy step (though we enjoyed a thai curry tonight, so we are not always local!)


And I am nearly done my second sock! I think I could get hooked on baby sock making, it's something I can do in those little spaces when Ari is playing by himself and I am not too far into other house projects. And perfect timing with the knitting love being sparked again is the arrival of this book and yarn in the mail from Di at Woolly Wanderings- thank you so much Di! What a generous gift to send across the seas- and so many fun projects!

I commented on Di's blog about the pirate she was knitting, since there are some serious pirate fanatics in my family, and the pirate pattern is super cute, but oh, this horse! The little saddle and knobby knees and granny square blanket! I think I'll have to attempt to stretch my rudimentary knitting skills a bit and jump into this project.
And the dolphin is pretty darn sweet too.

We are leaving in just over a week to visit Perry's family in Ontario, and I think I'll be bringing lots of wool with me. With all those relatives to watch the baby I might be able to knit up an animal or two!

one sock on

My first sock! And it even fits that little foot (photographed while it is relatively still, during a morning potty session...) Aside from a bobbly little toe, the sock is relatively mistake free. Not nearly so hard as I thought it would be. There is a woman at our farmers market who sells hand dyed sock wool with detailed patterns, helps you to get just the right amount of yarn for the size of socks you are making (measuring Ari's foot right then and there,) and then offers to help you out if you run into trouble. No major troubles on the first one, but with my issues with finishing projects, getting the second one finished might be the biggest hurdle. I wonder if she offers cheer leading services? "knit mama knit!"

And with all the rain we've been having, it looks like it's going to be a good year for berries. These are some saskatoon bushes at the end of our driveway. mmm.

duck, duck, goose.

Duck :: tub toys
Duck :: trim on newly sewn toddler shorts
Duck :: our neighbourhood pond friend "Fey." Her partner is named "Fen" but has been termed "duck Vader" for the weird hissing sound he makes.



Duck :: straight from the bath in his ducky towel.

Goose! :: my sweet little love whose favorite word is "duck." He is so delighted to see ducks (or swans, geese, or most birds) so he can practice this wonderful word over and over again.

aprons and mayhem

Despite the lack of crafting photos of late, I actually have been making stuff. I just keep giving it away before I remember to take pictures. I remembered (actually I was reminded by my terrific husband, who remembers things when I don't,) to photograph these aprons I made for a double birthday this weekend. Only he reminded me in the car, and so I had to find a place to photograph them once we arrived at the gym where the party was held. So these are hung on a couple of nails on the rather sad exterior of the building.

There was much chaos and fun inside, 25(ish) toddlers running about on the trampolines and springboards and leaping into the giant foam pit. Weeee!

I hope the aprons hold up to toddler play. It was my first time sewing with bias tape and I didn't really have a pattern, but they turned out alright in the end - after a few rounds with the seam ripper. They are a made from a really soft linen that I bought to make pants for Ari, but it turns out you can make 2 pairs of toddler pants and two little aprons with one yard of linen. I'll have to buy some more to make an apron for Ari too. He thinks stirring things in the kitchen is the coolest. Give the boy a wooden spoon and a pot and he'll stir for ages.

tree baby

A few more black and whites of my favorite subject. Watching Ari engage with the world has been so incredible this past month. Learning to walk seemed to trigger something in his little brain and he has just been learning and growing and changing so fast. He loves birds and tree leaves in the wind and the ceiling fan and swimming in the lake. He loves to be outside and to explore in the woods, tromping up hills with those sturdy little legs, falling and getting back up over and over again. He is a joy to spend my days with, a sweet, earnest, joyful, busy little guy.

We hope to spend the rest of the weekend playing with friends and tromping in the woods. A happy weekend to you all.

goatbarn

As promised, shots of barns. This is one of my favorite buildings on the property. We don't have goats, but it was built to house them, and clearly did for many years, its insides are stocked with teeny tiny milking stools and nipple ointment and sliding wooden railings. There is little attic above that has been claimed as kid-space, and I sometimes see the girls secretly clambering up the fence and pulling themselves up inside at dusk, headlamps glinting. I never notice this of course.
It is grey grey grey here, so the grey tones seem appropriate, and although the garden is happy for the rain, the local folks who live near the rivers, are not so pleased. There are lots of roads washed out and the rivers are rising. We live on a hill (in the mountains, really) and so there is no risk of us floating away, but we may head down to help the sandbagging effort. Bring some sandwiches at the least.

greyscale

The rain let up a bit today and we were able to walk through the wet grass and tour the garden that is happy with this warm, wet weather. I've decided to join karah at b i g a n d l i t t l e for her week of black and white photo taking, but I'm feeling pretty rusty. I don't really know how to look through my camera to see what the world will look like in black and white. It is a fun challenge though and I expect I'll be wandering around the farm with my camera a bit, to see what I can find.


And of course Ari's every move will be well documented. I am a pretty snap happy mama. The challenge in the future will be to see if I can keep up the picture taking when I have more than one babe. I was the first child and there are probably twice as many pictures of me toddling about then there are of my sister. And the only pictures there are of my baby brother are ones I took myself. Mostly of things I thought were funny like him with food all over his face or dressed up in my doll's clothes. My brother survived my picture taking and he still likes me, but I still will aim to take my own pictures of my kids in somewhat equal shares. And in the meantime, I'll be taking some pictures of chickens and barns and babyfeet.

rainy day projects

We've had a lovely stretch of weather lately, but today we woke to pouring rain. I realized why there is always such a hype about "rainy day projects" for kids- so their parents don't go nuts inside all day! I pulled out a new toy from the back room that had been waiting for such an occasion, and then when the day stretched on, put a bowl full of soap suds (natural baby soap) on the kitchen floor to keep him occupied for a bit. My project was trying to learn a few embroidery stitches, and though there are a ton of mistakes, I think I am hooked. I love that I can work on it while Ari is motoring around, and there is something soothing about creating the stitches. I think I need to look into better books though. This one I've got is vague and the projects are mostly the not-so-hip kind of 1970's vintage. I like the carrots and beets though. Make me think of those little seedlings working so hard out there in the rain.



During the hot weather I noticed that Ari didn't have any long lightweight pants to keep the sun off without cooking him. So I sewed these last night, the top one from thrifted sheet and the bottom pair from an old curtain. I think I'll scrounge up some material for a few more, these were so fast and fun to make and the bums are holding out so far. I tightened and doubled my stitches (thanks for the tips Sarah and Gillybean!) and I adjusted the pattern to have more room for the bulky cloth diapers and I think they are going to hold out. The last picture reveals Ari's shoe fetish. He totes his shoes around with him everywhere, I find them on the kitchen shelves, in the bathtub, the bed. I don't know where he gets the shoe love from. Ah-hem.