some purchases, not so much guilt

1. Yarn from KnitPicks.
I've come to terms with the fact that for most of the year, my uniform is skirt/jeans plus camisole/tee plus cardigan. The only problem is the shortage of cute-but-not-precious cardigans in my closet. I decided to make this sweater using the tan cotton in the photo above, six skeins of which cost less than $15. This feels like one of those rare moments when making your own clothing actually dose save money. We'll see how wearable the finished product is, but meanwhile I'm not feeling too bad about the purchase. The lurid pink yarn ($2!) in the photo is because I'm knitting some play sushi and I needed some pink to be the salmon and ginger. All the yarn is insanely soft and I'm dying to cast on.

2. Make up from Everyday Minerals.
I love this company: free samples, great prices, no nasty ingredients. Every now and then I stray (benefit, I'm looking at you) but I always come back. I ordered two huge containers of mineral foundation (one pressed, one loose), one sample of a shade that might suit me for summer, and some lipstick, all for under $30. Again, I feel super-smart about this.

I also bought some new bras at Target ($7.99!!) but I'm not showing pictures, for obvious reasons.

words

Much to my relief, Joseph now has new words every day.  This week's best new words are tea, cook and naan*.  That really tells you all you need to know about our family.  Some 21 month olds might be toilet trained, have vocabularies of 400 words, and understand that hands are not for hitting, but my little boy requests tea in his sippy cup and likes nothing more than to help his mama cook.  I could not ask for better company.

Did I mention that he likes to cuddle?  

*Well...I tried to make naan but it turned out more like lavash or pita.  Good lavash/pita, but still not naan. 

lovely mail

A few months ago I participated in Bird and Little Bird's Celebrating Handmade Swap.  Probably because of some oversight or shipping error, I didn't get anything, but Annie of Bird & Little Bird hooked me up with the fabulous Lisa who sent us a box jammed full of goodies:

*These felt cookies and bonbons: 

 

She also sent boxes of the real deal (Jammie Dodgers and French Fancies) since they aren't available in the US.  I do not need to tell you how well these were received in my house. 

*This bag for Joseph to tote his goodies around in:

*And these little colored pencils which I'm jealously guarding and not letting any little fingers get near:

 

 

There were also a bunch of other treats in the box, not least of which is a sewing magazine which has filled me with all kinds of fabric-related schemes.

Needless to say, I'm dying to do another swap. 

in praise of white paint

Whenever my father comes to visit he paints things for us.  This is incredibly helpful because painting is just not something I have figured out how to do with a toddler on the premises.  This winter my dad painted all our nasty cheap-looking oak kitchen cabinets (photos forthcoming), and this spring he painted a rocking horse I found at a garage sale for $10.

 

Joseph loves it.  Having mastered riding it, he now prefers standing on it. 

It wasn't too terrible in its "before" state, just tired and ratty looking.  But now with its slick coat of paint it matches all the other white-painted thrift/garbage/garage sale finds in our house.

Case in point:

 

This chair was discovered by friends in their neighbors' trash. Here's my boy in his chair a year ago, right after I painted it:

 

Tiny and bald. I keep wondering whether the new baby will have hair. 

amateur endocrinology

I am too scattered to even think about a coherent post. I blame hormones. So here's a bullet-pointed list of semi-related items.

• I am now an endocrinologist. Yesterday my doctor (my regular GP, not the midwife) almost gave me a heart attack after some routine bloodwork showed that my thyroid is overactive. She scolded me for not receiving "medical care" during my pregnancy and was overall pretty dismissive and sniffy. When I got home, me and my crack research team (the dogs) hit the internet and we are now experts on thyroid function and the vagaries of thyroid test results. We found a recent article in a reputable medical journal finding that pregnant women with thyroid levels like I have but who are symptomless should not have any interventions during pregnancy or birth. Not that I expect the doctors here in the backwoods to give this much credit. Which brings me to...
  
• I am having the baby in the yard. I'm sure that my thyroid non-condition is going to risk me out of my midwife's practice, and since there's no freaking way I'm having this baby in the hospital, that pretty much leaves me with giving birth in the backyard. I'm thinking we can turn it into a barbecue.
• I don't really hate medicine. I'd be dead multiple times over if it weren't for a very good doctor who figured out how to treat a very bad kidney infection I had a few years back. I'm very grateful for that doctor and some very expensive antibiotics. I just don't think that being a doctor makes the sun shine out of your ass. If I'm fine, keep your hands off me.
• I am a fertility goddess. When I was pregnant with Joseph I felt like a fertility goddess. After the first trimester, I was happy and well-rested and I had gorgeous skin (for the first time in 20 years). I felt like the first person in the world to ever become pregnant. This time around I have felt like a fat vomity slob, but for the past week I've almost felt good. I've made dinner every night for the past week, which, after the past two months of frozen entrees and exorbitant grocery bills, is making several people in this house very happy. Also, at 13 weeks, I'm starting to look pregnant instead of bloated, so this is doing good things for my ego.
• My boy is going through an especially cute phase. Witness the photo at the top of the post. Irresistable, no? He's talking much more, if talking includes animal noises and sounds like "whee!" "boo" and "uh-oh."
  

The Idle Parent

I thought I'd stop puking/napping/complaining in order to mention how much I love the idea of this book I read about on ohdeedoh.  Given my current state of mind (and body) I'm especially drawn to his manifesto, which includes such pearls of wisdom as "we reject the idea that parenting requires hard work," "we reject rampant consumerism," and "happy mess is better than miserable tidiness." 

In an excerpt, the author describes the joys of staying home (as opposed to schlepping all over in the name of entertainment):

People are scared to stay at home all day because they think the kids will get bored. But things happen of their own accord. You don't need to leave the house...At home you can play Scrabble, you can eat on the floor, the kids can make dens. You can learn how to play together, or you can get on with your own jobs and pleasures and let the children exist around you.

When your days are spent alternating between the sink (for throwing up), the couch (for lounging), and the computer (for google searches like "can morning sickness kill you" and "anemia symptoms"), this kind of perspective is very reassuring.

a few things

• Yes, I am being a loser about posting.  This is mainly because I am 1) exhausted and 2) not particularly creative right now.  However, this afternoon I started getting a pattern ready to make Joseph a romper, so perhaps I will have something post-worthy soon.
  
• Tonight, Joseph--naked after his bath--pooped behind the chair in his room.  I was chatting with my mom and somehow we both failed to notice that he had pooped, stepped in it, and smeared it on his belly.  Emergency bed-time carpet cleaning and baby washing is definitely a job for two people, so I was very glad my mom was around.  
• Joseph and I have managed to eat about a dozen bagels and a quart of cream cheese over the past few days.  I've scarcely had any bagels since leaving New York (five years ago this month!), and while it goes without saying that the bagels from the freezer section at Whole Foods don't hold a candle to even the worst NYC bagel, they're still making me pretty happy.