Kids vs. Golden Retriever

10 reasons I think my kids should be more like my dog:

1. My dog always is excited to see me when I get home, bringing me gifts at the door (usually a smelly shoe, but she thinks it's valuable). My kids, grunt and raise an eyebrow, barely glancing up from their TV show, Nintendo or book depending on the day.
2. When my dog wants my attention she looks at me, dances around and tries to show me how much fun it would be to play. When my kids want my attention, they pick a fight with each other.
3. When I want to go for a run, my dog is always a willing participant, dropping whatever she is doing and running for the door. This is also always the moment my kids suddenly notice I am home and need a snack, a permission slip signed, help with their homework, clean socks etc.
4. My dog devours healthy, homemade food like it is chocolate. My kids prefer KD.
5. My dog thinks a good tummy rub is a gift from the gods and looks at me like I descended from the heavens when she gets one. My kids are holding out for a PS3.
6. When I trim her nails, my dog sits still. My kids think it's a form of torture.
7. My dog doesn't need braces.
8. When I want to go on vacation, I can kennel my dog. As far as I know, it is illegal to kennel kids but I haven't tested my theory, yet.
9. My dog doesn't have a hockey game at 8:00 am on a Saturday morning.
10. When my dog pees outside, the neighbours don't complain.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

This is Amber. She loves to run, chase balls, steal shoes, eat and sleep in the sun. Isn't she pretty? She's not really dead, she just looks that way. I saw her eat an ant today. Really I did. Ick. I am considering getting her a friend. Try as she might, she just can't convince the cat to play.

And this is my Patchwork Baby Blanket Work-In-Progress. Every stage of this blanket is taking forever. First the knitting of the squares (err...rectangles actually because I don't know how to measure). That took MONTHS because to be perfectly honest knitting stocking stitch rectangles completely bored me and I just couldn't get into it. I could knit a rectangle in 20-30 minutes and I needed 25 so 12.5 hours of knitting, right? Wrong! I would knit 3 rows, sigh, get a cup of tea, knit 2 rows, walk the dog, put on a load of laundry...you get the idea. Then, finally, I finished all 25 and I spent another week laying them on the bed and arranging and re-arranging them. I couldn't come up with a pattern I liked. Finally, voila, I came up with checkerboard with alternate border. Then it took FOREVER (2 weeks) to seam all the rectangles into strips, then seam the strips into one big rectangle. Of course the next stage, felting, was easy. Throw it in the wash. Done. Now, I have 2 stages left. I have to whipstitch along all the seams then blanket stitch around the outside edge. And finally, last but not least I will crochet chains and needlefelt designs in a few of the squares. I am planning a heart, a swirl and a moon. I might, might, might add the baby's name and birthdate if he hasn't finished college by the time I get to that stage. As it stands he is now 3 months old. I started it 6 months before his due date. Hope he likes warm, wooley blankets! He is a very sweet baby.

What did I do this weekend?

Well, on Friday we painted shirts:

Then on Saturday we went to the Kwantlen College School of Horticulture Plant Sale. They gave us a tour of their hydroponics tomatoe/eggplant/pepper/cucumber growing places. Very fun. We ate cucumbers and tomatoes right off the vine. Yummy. I bought geraniums, lobelia, some herbs, allysum and a few basket stuffers.

Then I went and watched the ball hockey game where my son's undefeated team faced the only other undefeated team and ended, disappointingly, in a tie. Both still undefeated. (no pictures)

Then we went to Fort Langley to pick up my niece from the Albion Ferry. And we bumbered around Fort Langley for a while, had a coffee (well, I had a coffee and she had a whipped fruity, creamy, blendy thingy). I found a little DIY kit to make my own bathroom. It took us hours of finicky glueing and a lot of laughing at ourselves but we finally finished it! Now I can't say I want my own bathroom. I have one. Awwwww. Isn't it cute. Look closely, there are tiny weeny little japanese wooden slippers sitting on the mat in front of the sink. And we wove the mat ourselves. It was just a piece of straw ribbon before. And see the towel and the viney plant. I made those leaves myself. Isn't it just so great? The shampoo bottles on the shelf are made of shiny, little beads. I love this bathroom! Except it doesn't have a toilet. Strange.

Then I went to bed so I could get up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and ride the skytrain:

(That's the "peace-out sign", not the bird. Look closely.)

Then we walked:

So we could join with 59,172 other people for North America's largest 10km run! This was my 12th (I think) time running the SUN RUN since 1994. I missed a couple of years but I do this almost every year. Even when I was pregnant, I ran (or waddled). And this year for the first time my boys joined me. And my niece and my student came too! The big boy, the student and I did the 10k while my niece and the little one ran the 2.5k mini run.

Almost there buddy! You can do it!

The burrard street bridge was a climb.

It was his first 10 k. He thought it would never end. There was a quiet determination lurking somewhere behind all the complaining. But he did it. The last 100 meters were a blurr as he sprinted to the finish line! Phewf. I was so proud.

What a great weekend. And somehow, in all of that, I found the time to finish seaming my patchwork baby blanket. And I felted it, blocked it and started the whipstitch and blanketstitch edging. I just may finish it. Pictures to come.

One down...

The little one, after much wiggling, some fake-outs and a persistent mom who just can't resist...lost his first tooth. As with the big one, there was much fanfare, excitement and celebration. A photoshoot, a show-and-tell at school and a placement of the tooth into the special pillow where only the tooth fairy knows where to look. However, this smarty pants just took one look at the pillow, and stated, "I know it's you guys who get the tooth". Sigh...when did he stop being little? But I persisted, thinking maybe he just needs a little convincing. Then he says, "If I only get a dollar, I would rather just keep my tooth." (!) Didn't it used to be a dime?

So after he fell asleep I thought I would bulk up the payoff without making it more money (he is only 5 after all). So I put lots of dimes, nickels and quarters in the little pocket and removed the tooth. It was only a dollar, but it looked like more, right? In the morning he was very excited to find the money. Then he came running into my bedroom saying, "Where's my tooth, where's my tooth?" I said, "What do you mean? The tooth fairy took it." And he burst into tears. Threw the money on my bed and started to sob. "I want my tooth. I don't want the money." These were real tears. He was so upset that I picked up the money, put it in his hand and reached to the hiding spot on my dresser and handed him his tooth. "Aha, I knew it was you," he said. Outsmarted by a 5 year old. Boy am I in big trouble.

Central Park Hoodie Swatches

I did a guage swatch! I did two actually. First I did one with a 5mm needles which is what the pattern called for but it gave me 16.5 x 24 instead of 17 x24. So I did it again with 4.5mm needles and I got 17 x 26. So neither one gives me guage but I think stitch guage is more important than row guage. Opinions? My reasoning is that it's easier to add an extra row to get the right length than it is to add extra stitches to the pattern. Right? Or maybe 16.5 is close enough to 17? I find that my 4.5 mm swatch is stiffer than my 5mm swatch. I would prefer a nicely draped sweater so perhaps I should go with the 5 mm needles and just make the smaller pattern. Silk tends to stretch when you wear it though doesn't it. This is the debate going on in my head. This has turned into a blog rather than a note so I think I will post it on my blog instead. I have to confess that I have never actually done a swatch before so I find myself in new territory.

Are you bilingual?

Just had to share this one. I was helping out in the kindergarten class today, corralling kids and other such 5 year old management stuff. And I was switching back and forth between french and english, depending on what the kids were responding to (whatever it took to make them listen). And the substitute teacher (who doesn't speak french) looked at me funny and asked, "Are you bilingual?" and my son piped up, "No, she's a vegetarian." 'Nuf said.

BNL

Yes, BNL. BarenakedLadies were in the little village I live in. And they had a FREE live performance for families. So I got up early. Really early. And got in line and waited and waited and waited.

And after 5 hours I saw this:

And this:

And it was really fun! Apparently the Barenaked Ladies are releasing a children's album in May and this little mini concert was a promotional event for this album. My kids loved them. I can't stop singing If I had a Million Dollars. They were genuinely funny and we had a lot of fun! The little one, of course, was surprised that the band was not barenaked and they were not ladies. How confusing.