“So Honor, it’s your birthday so I think we should have a special dessert. What would you like for your special dessert?”

“Um… I think I want coffee, yeah, coffee.”

(Disclaimer: no children consumed caffeine in the context of this post.)

Today Honor turns 3 years old. I really can’t believe how big he is. His turning three brings some great relief. I’ve spent the last three years wishing he would get easier and now here he is bigger, easier and he will never be that tiny toilet playing boy again. Changes like these are bitter sweet.

He woke up this morning slightly grumpy until I tempted him out from under his blankets with the offer of a juice box. Juice boxes are revered treats in our house, never mind that they get them almost every day. After I tempted him with his juice box, I took him to the living room to show him his pile of presents. That cheered him up right away and it was perfect timing because his dad just walked in the door from an early meeting.

This morning he opened up something that he has been wanting SO badly – a Batman Sword. I could tell he was very happy with his present because he kept coming up to me between swings and jabs to tell me, “I love you very much, mom.” He’s sweet that way.

I was thinking about how much he has changed in the last year. It has wizzed by. He talks really well; it’s a rare occasion that we don’t understand him. When that happens, he speaks very loudly as if the shear volume of his voice will cause us to understand. He is an amazingly good eater, often he will eat as much as I do at one meal. It doesn’t seem to affect his waistline, every pair of pants he owns still fall down. He gets his butt from his dad. Ooops! I said the “B” word. Every time he goes poop on the potty, he still asks if he can say the “B” word… one time.

Everything done wrong is “just a wittle accident.” Oops, I hit my sister, “It was just a wittle accident.” He intentionally splatters soup all over the floor, “It was just a wittle accident.” This works out especially well for potty training. He told me yesterday, ” I won’t pee in my pants, because that would be just a wittle accident.” No big deal!

He loves bugs and dinosaurs and lizzards and pirates and batman and tools. When Honor was born, the hospital gave him a soft little bear with their logo emblazoned across its chest. This has become Honor’s favorite over the past few months. His name is Tootie Bear and, yes, it is because he toots. A lot. Tootie Bear has tooted on everything you could imagine. The other day Tootie Bear disappeared. I checked with everyone whose house we had been at recently, tore our own house apart and still couldn’t find Tootie Bear. A few days later he magically appeared. This further convinces me that Honor has a secret hiding place for his most beloved items because I frequently search the house for special toys to no avail only to have Honor find them days later. The presence of a secret hiding place is not surprising to me at all.

I planned to post photos of Honor over the past three years today, but having spent the last hour searching through iPhoto, I’ve discovered that there was no way I could pair it down to anything manageable. Click the photo below of Honor today in his special “pirate” birthday shirt to see the whole set of Mr. Honor aka Destruct-o-con aka Spuddy Buddy aka Stinky Pants.

well… one more just for good measure.

Something amazing that I discovered yesterday: You can track packages with Bloglines. Now I can obsess over my packages arrival without even visiting an ugly brown website.

Today I had the rare opportunity to go have sushi with my husband for lunch. With keeping the store open all the time, it’s difficult to get away. Jim splattered a little bit of soy sauce on his shirt and asked, “Where’s my Tide Pen when I need it?”. It was pretty funny to see his jaw drop when I pulled a Tide Pen out of my purse. Much to his surprise it really worked.

The Noni Carpet Bag before felting. It just seems like there’s always laundry to do instead of tying up the machine with felting! But I need to get it done.

There were a few problems with the pattern. Not huge mistakes other than the missing word, but it could have been written a little easier. If you make it, start off with a purl row and make sure you use a different color marker to indicate the beginning of the row. I think extra little tips like these make an ok pattern into a great pattern.

I just finished up these socks. They’re a model for my beginning socks on magic loop class. Here they sit next to some the killer socks made from Yarn Pirate Yarn. Yarn Pirate is really amazing, and there is some more on it’s way really soon!

And my Cable Eight Top. I’m almost finished with the back. This has been a really easy knit. I’m slowly learning to always check for pattern corrections before I start knitting something. This one had a mistake in the cable – I’m glad I checked first. I’m thinking that I’m going to try to go with a more scooped neck for the front.

Other things I have in progress:
My hourglass sweater. I’m on pause with that one because I’m waiting for the 40″ Addi Turbo to come. Knitting the two sleeves at once on 32’s is a little tight. It works great for socks, but these sleeves are a lot larger.

The second half of my mittens two ways. I made these from the Bulky Malabrigo and made one fingerless mitten and one regular mitten. I need to make their mates.

And it’s taken all day to write this and it’s time to go home. I’m trying to be a good blogger, I promise!! It’s just not working very well!

I’ve been trying to get this house organized. It’s been really hard with the kids, they can make a mess much faster than I can clean it. And it’s been especially difficult to keep all their toys organized. Some time ago I went through and separated all the coordinating toys into big lidded bins. But since I’m not here all the time, Other People that I may be married to let them get more than one toy out of the closet at a time. And while it’s been really great that Other People help pick up the play room, Other People don’t sort through the toys and put them back into the bins they belong in. You see my dilemma?

As the weather has been getting colder, I’ve been sorting through the kids clothes that don’t fit anymore or that won’t fit next year. They’ve ended up in a big pile in the hallway. One pile for clothes that I want to keep in case we have another baby or for my sisters future children and one pile of clothes that I want to pass on to someone else. Needless to say, the hallway has been a mess for some time now. That is until I found the most wonderful invention, Giant Ziploc bags. I’d seen them advertised on t.v., but I didn’t realize how great they were. I fit SO much into one, it’s made from strong plastic, the zip seems really sturdy and… it fit SO much!

Now the kids clothes are all stored away and I packed away my summer clothes and stored them under the bed. I’ve still got a ways to go on getting the whole house organized (I have to say, I wish we had an Ikea SO MUCH) but it’s nice to be making a dent.

This weeks recipes are from Everyday Food issues 26 and 36.

Monday
Chicken Stir fry lettuce wraps

Tuesday
Beef Stew

Wednesday
Roasted fall vegetable soup

Thursday Honor’s Birthday
Chicken with tomatoes and mushrooms

Friday
Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce

Saturday
Pizza

Sunday
leftovers

It is soooo cold here! Usually around this time of year it’s around 70º to even 80º but today it’s 42º. This has been such strange weather, it’s rained SO much over the past few weeks. The poor dog today was sopping wet, so he gets to spend the day in the house.

I got the heat running here at the yarn store and I’ve spent much of my day standing on the heating vent. I remember when I was little, taking my blanket and making a little tent over the heating vent in the cold mornings before school. It’s funny the things we still do.

What funny little habit do you still have from childhood?

•I got the newsletter out and it’s up on the website to download (PDF). What a relief to have that all planned and done!

•Today I put in a new order of Misti Alpaca, I’m really excited to start carrying it in the store. It’s SO amazingly soft! And the colors… ahhh…

•Tonight is the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy. I feel silly saying how much of a Grey’s Anatomy addict I am. I’m not much of a crier, but I have to say, the season finale, I sobbed! I am a little too excited to be watching it tonight. And I can’t say how happy it made me that the girls of Grey’s were knitting!

•I’m here at the store now with one of my teachers, Guin (hi Guin!), and we’re working on figuring out the pattern for that amazing cabled bag I posted a picture of a few days back. I’ve already got a color of the misti alpaca picked out that is going to be so beautiful. So back to it…

I’ve been frantically working on getting my next newsletter for the yarn store mailed out. This time I’ve come upon hurdle after hurdle. Read about Jim’s problems with the printing company here. His account isn’t even half of what he’s gone through with them.

Thursday we paid $100 for overnight shipping, because the newsletter was taking so long. The came Monday afternoon. Um, yeah, sure, that’s overnight…

Now they’re here and folded and I’m determined that NOTHING will stand in my way (not even this stupid cold I’m fighting) of me getting the newsletters in the mail!!!

Wish me luck.