Farewell Dinner

Hooray! We have finally been released from the hospital and had a good night sleep at home. Now to assess what needs to be done after the hospital erased two weeks of our life.

In the last post I mentioned a going away dinner for 70 people that we somehow managed to hold a few days after Theo was admitted. I am still not sure how we managed it, but we did and it was a success. I was mostly in charge of cooking (with the help of a couple of other awesome people who volunteered), Dustin and his mom decorated, and Dustin made an interesting presentation about Japan of which I admit that I was only able to watch about 30 seconds. Maybe he will give me a repeat performance sometime. I grabbed a few pictures off of my father-in-law's camera to show what it was like.

The basement before guests arrived

Everyone digging in

House of the Rising Sun

The sun has been rising earlier and setting later by the day. The long days have been really bothering my sleep lately. At the best of times I have always been very sensitive to light when trying to sleep, but now every time I wake up with the baby and see daylight I find it difficult to go back to sleep.

Theo has been very confused, waking up super early and trying to avoid going to sleep at night on the grounds of "but the sun hasn't even gone to sleep yet!". This morning he woke up at the break of dawn, burst into our room, and energetically bounded over to wake up William. Luckily, Dustin was able to grab him and steer him out of the room before the baby was actually bothered. This was at 4:45 am. I know this evening he will be in his room, refusing to fall asleep well past 10:30 because there is still sunlight streaming through the windows. You would think that the thick, dark curtains we have on the bedroom windows would help, but it seems that Theo has inherited my inability to sleep well unless he is in a cave.

It will only get worse for the next week and a bit, so we will all be bleary eyed, sleep deprived zombies for a while.

Enjoying a cuddle with Grandma

On another note, my mom is returning to Vermont tomorrow after 6 wonderful weeks of having her here. I am really going to miss having adult conversations during the day and all of her help with the children.

Knitting Needles of Doom

Years ago, my brother and I realized that we had very different views about gardening. I love plants and watching them grow, but the edibility of the plant has very little bearing on whether I like it or not. In my opinion, beautiful flowers, interesting leaves, and fruit are all an equally good reason to grow a certain plant. However, my brother couldn't be bothered if the plant doesn't produce something he can't eat or use. If it doesn't put out for him, he won't put out for it.

I have been a bit reminded of this discrepancy since my mom has been up north visiting us. She has been more or less knitting constantly since arriving. She has started, stopped, finished, and changed countless projects sometimes all in the course of a day. Usually the projects are leaning into the bizarre realm, like the Wizard of Oz themed blanket(?) that she is making at the moment.

Possibly I don't get the joy of creative knitting; to me it should be strictly functional. You make a sweater, pair of slippers, or hat. You do not knit the whole royal wedding. Maybe one day, 35 years from now, I will pick up knitting and realize that I only have the desire to knit little fluffy Cthulhu dolls, wooly parasites, or internal organs, but for now I wonder what it will take to get my mom to make me a simple cable knit sweater.

On the other hand, Theo has been loving the weird knitting. He has been enjoying his dozen doughnuts, little flying pig, and rat. I must admit that I do like my TARDIS Kindle cover and Dustin has been pushing for a little felted Yoda hat for William. However, I think I might start hiding her knitting needles if she starts knitting things like this: