first day of school

"It's not preschool mommy. I'm in Pre-Kindergarten."

bye summer

the world through the eyes of a 4 year old

while hanging out at a local outdoor music festival, i gave him the camera and he had a blast.




what am i going to do with fifty pictures of trashcans?



here we go :)

summer joy

just refreshed my workspace and replaced my mousepad with a picture-frame one, and printed out this picture for it. i'm betting this brings a smile to anyone's face.

aww

drying off after running through the sprinkler

gotta love summer days

another friend moves too far away

"Good friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget."
- G. Randolf

daisies for you

our front step is overgrown with giant daisies. i can think of worse fates.

happy green ... volcano?

last weekend boo was So excited about this "science experiment" with daddy. they made a "volcano" out of flour/salt/water, put an empty yogurt smoothie bottle in the middle with baking soda + a few drops of dish detergent + food coloring, and then poured in the vinegar. he wasn't sure what would happen the first time and refused to stand any closer than 10 feet away. after discovering there was no kaboom like the real thing, he mixed a bunch of different colors for the lava himself. overall, a great way to blow off a little steam. :)

warm weather and warm ears

warming up! family walk/bike around the block, on repeat. he's finally pedalling! it only took 4 years.


finished these ear warmers to fit around boo's bike helmet just as they were heading out the door. they work great!
pattern: bike ear warmers
yarn: cascade 220, leftover from the tractor boots

i've done bike ear warmers before - knit for my dad for christmas 2008 with this pattern out of some alpaca that was spun in charlottesville. my dad rides his bike to work even in the middle of nebraska winters, so he says they have been really useful. the ones i did for boo are a bit different in that they're not only smaller, but they also are attached by a ribbed band at the top to make them less likely to fall down, because there's not as much of a brim to hold them up.

tractor boots

finally finished these a couple of months ago! pattern and all supplies given to me in a lovely kit from my lovely sister-in-law for my birthday last summer.

pattern: Tractor Boots by Pick Up Sticks
yarn: small balls of alpaca (for the windshield/lining) and wool from Pick Up Sticks
+ a large hank of red Cascade 220
size: age 5-6 (just in case). a bit big now but i would be so sad if he could only wear them the one half-season.

here's a picture of them before felting. i should have put them on adam's feet for size comparison. these were really huge. the wheels looked like, well, nipples, but in a feat of geometry i do not comprehend, they flattened out while shrinking in the felting process.

our little preppy pirate

he likes to choose these button-down shirts and vests himself. it's the funniest thing. and so cute on a 4 year old.

things you can do while mommy is on the phone

unpack as much as possible from your art supplies box ...

"it's like sand, only colder!"

happy new year

4 years old
finally wearing the "wonderful wallaby" sweater
that i made him 1-2 years ago
bengali yarn

where the sleeping things are

even though he didn't get the memo about daylight savings time yesterday, tonight was a landmark bedtime. at 6:30 he wanted to go upstairs to get ready for bed, and by 7pm - a full hour and a half before his usual bedtime - for the first time ever, he was asleep by the 2nd song on his cd.


so to celebrate, here is a picture of his slumber. this was actually taken about a week ago after his cousin had a sleepover here. for days after he still wanted to sleep in his sleeping bag.

happy halloween!

good thing i took pictures earlier this month, because this little polar bear has had a fever and didn't want to go trick or treating this year. :(

the hat is somewhat improvised out of a bulky trendsetter yarn that i found at stitches. it's loosely based on this bear hat pattern i found on ravelry, which was made from a much bulkier yarn. i had to knit several more rows in places and i totally improvised the ears with a crochet hook. the outfit is made from white fleece - very simple, which was good considering my skill level at sewing. first time i've ever done sleeves! the trick or treat bag and the paw pads were made out of felt.

here are some pumpkins we made last weekend when my nephew was here for a sleepover. first carved pumpkins for both of them! the bumpy pumpkin in the back looks super cool but was a royal pain to cut because it was much denser/harder than a normal pumpkin.

knock me over with a feather - boo actually walked in the school "parade" and consented to take a picture with them! (the official school picture day last week was a fiasco - he insisted "NO PICTURES!" and would not even be in the class picture, much less his individual photos.)

a wheel good time

as an early birthday gift, boo got this bike! he picked red, because his daddy told him he had a red bike when he was his age. we gave it to him early because who knows how much longer this non-wintry weather will last.

last year we got him the glide-2-ride bike because at that time he evinced no sign at all of wanting to pedal, and only wanted to propel things with his feet. well, i guess it was too wobbly still, because he still doesn't like to ride it. (the 6 year old next door, on the other hand, loves it.) but all of a sudden in the last month or two he's started pedaling. and because franklin (his favorite book character of the moment - he's a turtle ) had a bike with training wheels, so he really wanted one with training wheels.

this one was much more successful - he got right on and started to pedal! with glee, i might add.

slumber

these days boo isn't napping much. when he does, the pattern is that he stays awake for at least an hour taking all of his books off the shelves. then he climbs into the lazyboy chair in his room and falls asleep. in this picture, the window is open and the fading autumn light was lovely.


he also has developed the habit of falling asleep with the lights on. which makes it easier for surreptitious picture taking.

could they be any cuter together

a few weeks ago we visited DH's cousin and family in madison again. kudos to them for being such gracious hosts, even though his wife is working a million hours a day on her doctoral thesis - which she defends later this month. good luck!!

they tailgate in style. 8am and we were almost the last in the parking lot. we're not talking plain old hotdogs. bacon wrapped shrimp, bacon wrapped mushrooms, homemade burgers, and we brought a grilled peach bruschetta that we served with some toasted mini-bagels.

then the boys headed to the game to see the badgers crush poor wofford, and the girls & kids went to the beach. i think we got the better end of the bargain.


i'm going to be a fast runner just like my mommy!

meanwhile, the boys took the kids to the playgrounds in their area. madison really is quite lovely. they have playgrounds in such idyllic settings as this one.

boo had a stunningly good time with his cousin. they are so cute together.


i do believe this is the first time he has held a girl's hand.

we are all going to be so sad when they move to oregon in a couple of months!

do you have any 7s?

boo loves it every time his grandparents visit. here are a few shots from when they were here a few weeks ago.

playing go-fish with grandpa.
"Grandpa, do you have any 7's?"
"Here you go."
"Grandpa, do you have any 7s?"
"No ... do you have any 7s?"
"No. Do you have any 7s?"
"No. Go Fish."
(grandpa takes a turn)
"Grandpa, do you have any 7s?"

some pictures from the botanic garden.

most of my pictures of boo these days are like this: but i was somehow able to cajole one decent one.