Last night I took some pictures of our bedtime rituals with Davey.  Every night after we get Davey ready for bed,  we crawl into bed with him for bedtime books.   Last night we were reading a book about a Cookie Baker!  Right up Davey’s alley especially since we’d just baked cookies together.

So Daddy was being silly as he read, and he was making Davey laugh.

Then they pretended to eat all the cookies on the page, and Daddy ate too many so… (I may get in trouble for including this photo)

Davey found that hilarious and made Daddy repeat his fake vomiting about 10 times.

We all love story time.

Once story time is over, we turn the lights out.  Lately though, Davey doesn’t slow down much.  He keeps talking and talking and talki…. (and he does gradually slow down…) and then he is out mid-sentence.

And I finally got back to work on my second Breakfast sock last night.  I’ve made some progress!

This afternoon Davey and I made cookies.

Seated and ready to mix!

We were working with a mix, so I set out the other two ingredients for him to add.  He couldn’t wait to start stirring.

The butter was melted and still warm so I helped him with that.  I love all his very earnest expressions.

He stirred and stirred and stirred.

He did not want any assistance.  “I want to stir it all by myself!”

Finally it was time to put the cookies on the cookie sheet.  I love his first attempts at cookie formation.

He worked hard to try to form cookies and not little cookie niblets.  Total concentration here!

Ahhh.  Cookie formation success.

Of course there was eating when they were done baking.  He decided that he made some delicious cookies.  David and I agreed.

And tonight, my Sock #2 is coming back out.  I am ready to get back to work on it!  I am already looking forward to the next pair of socks!  It’s just not time to start thinking about them yet though.

I am back to bedtime blogging.   There just was no time to post earlier today.  Davey and I had a good day.  We went to story hour this morning.  He had a great time.  One of the songs they sing ends with hugging someone if they want to.  (Or they can just hug themselves.) They sang the song twice.  The first time, he hugged the little girl  he’d hugged last week.  It was precious to watch.  She stood straight and still, and his hug was more of his arms forming a circle around her.  The second time through the song, he hugged the little boy next to him.  The little boy did not resist, but he was saying “hey what’s going on here?  Hey!”

At story hour, I am happy to sit back and watch.  I even had my knitting with me today.  However, Davey doesn’t like that much.  When it’s time to stand up for a song, he calls to me, “Mommy!  Stand up!  Mommy, you can do that better standing up!”  He wants full active participation.  It’s a great story hour.  The librarian is so energetic and fun.

We also played at the “magic act” tree again.  Then we had a snack at the picnic table.  David got home in time for that.  There’s a concrete basketball court next to the table, and after we saw a squirrel and a big black bird, Davey got the idea that he’d put his cookie out for the animals.  So he ran to the exact center of the court – right at the half court line – and he put down his cookie.  Then he ran as fast as he could back to me.  A few minutes later, he charged back to the court yelling, “ANIMALS!  Where are you?? Come eat this COOKIE!”   Unfortunately no animals responded while we were there.

I am not knitting much.  I am building up a knitting deficit.  I have not gotten to sit down and just knit for several hours since I left my friends at Knit Unto Others.  I am going to have to make some time for uninterrupted knitting this weekend!   I did finish Davey’s hat last night.  He likes it.

I just love this hat pattern:  Boyfriend Hat.

I also have about 30 papers that I need to grade before I should think about knitting.  But I wouldn’t do them justice tonight, so I think I’ll go watch Castle  and knit a little before bed.

Busy Monday that began at 6:15.  Davey woke up early this morning.  I had to get up at 6:30 anyway, but still…early!

Today I wore some of my own socks for the first time.  I’ve made all these wool socks and it is still too warm to wear them.  So I wore my purple cotton bobble socks.

Of course nobody knew it but me:

Who knew that under that black shoe was a fun and comfortable sock?

I want to make more cotton socks.  They fit well.  I’d been afraid that they’d stretch too much, but they didn’t.

This afternoon was warm but still comfortable and beautiful.  David had class, so Davey and I played outside.  His imagination is just going crazy.  I love to listen to him.

First, he was preparing his magic show.  Here he is with his magic wand.

Next, he was searching for the kangaroo.  The kangaroo was apparently a very important part of the magic act.  Here Davey is yelling, “KANGAROO!!!!  Where are you?”

Next, he found a small knothole filled with muddy water, so he began painting.

Then it was time for a drink:

Next, I convinced him to try on the hat that I am knitting for him.  I was knitting while watching him.  I think he looks exactly like David in this photo!

He was very nice about it for a moment.  Then he wanted the hat gone!

And it was back to playing.  Now it was a peek-a-boo around the trees.

And again!

And one more.  I had a lot of fun taking pictures today as you can see.

Finally, he began to wind down.

It was time to come back inside.  Davey, his imaginary purple dog named Lucy, and me.  The kangaroo never did show up.

Davey will sometimes say “It’s a lovely day” just out of the blue.  He may have learned it from Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, but I still like when he says it.

Today has been a lovely day.  We had a picnic at the park.  (David had to run to school and he brought us back a pizza.)  Then Davey and David played at the playground.

I like this picture because even though you can’t see it too well,  David is laughing here about something.

I knitted on Davey’s hat while they played.  It was hot here today, but it still felt ok in the shade.  This is a red hat, but it really looks red in this photo.  I am getting close to decreasing and finishing it up.

After we left the park, we decided we’d go to the Denver Aquarium.  I am so glad we did.  What a fun place.

Davey was excited.

Once we got in though, he alternated between enthralled as shown here –

and somewhat terrified –

When he was somewhat terrified, he wanted one of us to hold him.  David did most of the carrying.  When Davey was somewhat terrified, he also made very funny expressions and squeezed our necks really hard.  This is why I say he was only somewhat terrified as he kind of enjoyed being “scared”.  There were a couple of times though when he did get a little worried.  The big sharks were a little scary.  And the tigers did kind of freak him out.  Tigers at an aquarium?  Yes, a very awesome exhibit.  Three tigers in a jungle settling.  Then to make things more exciting, one of the aquarium staff was carrying this around:

A tiger skin (pelt?)  She carried it outside where we were, and one of the tigers was just going nuts.  He ran back and forth and jumped up on the glass at this thing.  Kids were running back and forth to see this.  It was chaotic, and it could not have been good for the tiger?  I don’t know, but it was incredible to see him move.   Powerful is not enough of a word.  David said the tiger viewed us all as a nice snack.  He was beautiful though.  Davey liked the tigers but at the same time was telling David, “Don’t get too close Daddy!”

So the aquarium was well worth the trip.  They simulated a flash flood in a canyon in one part of the aquarium.  It stormed and got dark, and then here came the water.  Spooky but fascinating.   Davey only found it to be spooky.  He asked David to move move move out of there.

As we left we took pictures with shark statue guy.  David got into this more than Davey did.

On the way home, we stopped for Dairy Queen.  A lovely day!

Today’s been a fun day with Davey.  David had an all day meeting.  So Davey and I went shopping and exploring.

First, I finished my sock.  I have been mildly irritated with this sock.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it.  Now that I finished it though, and put it on, I like it very much!  I am still not a big fan of twining, and there will be less twining on the second one.  I also made one other change.  I didn’t decrease the toe down as far as the pattern called for.  The pattern called for pulling the yarn through the stitches to draw the toe together at the end.  I really prefer kitchener stitch and not such a pointy toe, so I decreased to 28 stitches and grafted.

It’s such a crazy combination of colors and patterns, but I like it.  I took a picture with Davey too.  His feet look just about the same size as mine here:

One down, one to go!

So Davey and I went to Kohl’s today.  We went to Hobby Lobby.  We went to Chick Fil A where he ate great, and he saw the big Chick Fil A cow guy.  The guy was very large in his costume, so Davey didn’t want to get too close.  He waved from afar.  He also asked me how the cow guy was able to drive because his feet would be too big to drive a car.

Then we went to Target.  After that, I thought I’d figure out where the nearest yarn shop was.  Because I have not joined the 21st century with some kind of web access on my phone, I borrowed some yellow pages at the Target service desk. I had not used yellow pages in quite some time.  The nearest shop was in downtown Littleton, so Davey and I headed there.  It was a beautiful shop.  They have lots of great yarn, but the entire time we were there, Davey was saying mournfully,  “I miss Ms. Claire.  I miss Ms. Claire”.  (the owner and our friend from the Arkadelphia knit shop.)  I told him I miss her too!

He was really patient with me though.  We strolled around there for abit and then went to a little bakery/tea shop a few doors down.  It was the cutest little shop.  Davey and I sat down and he had a cookie and apple juice, and I had a blackberry scone (really good) and a chai tea latte.  While I was enjoying my tea, Davey was blowing bubbles in his apple juice.  He insisted that he was making music.  So he serenaded me while I had my scone and tea.  It was a nice time having tea with Davey.

I am making progress on my sock.  I am well on my way down the foot now.   Here you can see the two birds slowly emerging.

The birds are on the top of the foot, and underneath the foot is more twining.   The twining looks different in the round then when done back and forth on the heel flap.  When I knit in the round, I was able to do a more normal looking stockinette.   Maybe if I practiced more, I’d get a more normal look on the back and forth twined knitting. That is, if I practiced more.  I love the way twining looks.  I love how it is stretchy.  I am not particularly liking the process though.  It’s ok, the twisted yarn just makes me nuts.  I am glad to have learned how to do it, but I don’t really want to do it again.  Unless, however, another pattern in this book calls for it.

Here’s how it looks on the underside.  And I do like this look!

Here’s a rough look at how the sock is coming along:

I really hope to finish sock #1 this weekend.  Then I will start sock #2.  Holy Twining.  Yikes.

Yesterday we went on a short hike on Triceratops Trail in Golden.

It was just about 1/2 mile long which was perfect for Davey.  Actually the 1/2 mile was perfect, but the trail was out and back so in total it was 1 mile.  Here was Davey on the “walk” back:

He settled in and got quite comfortable.  (Davey that is.)

But at first he walked along great.  We walked down into a ravine to look at some T-rex tracks:

He was very interested in all the fossils.  See?

Or maybe he was just looking at this:

Davey acquired minor injuries as a result of being so close to the fence.  Here David is removing splinters.  I really like this picture despite the reason for its being taken.

And here’s our usual family shot as taken by David!

We drove up Lookout Mountain Road after that.  We only did part of the drive.   It was a good road, but it was very curvy and switchbacky and steep.  Davey started saying that he wanted to turn around.  “Now Daddy!”

We stopped for a moment and I took a few pictures.  Davey and I said we could see all the way to Oklahoma!  He saw Nanny and Pa’s house and Oma and Opa’s too!

See?

The other day Davey and I met a new friend.

Here’s how it came about.  When I started blogging regularly, I began reading more blogs.  Knitting blogs are my favorite to find.  I am not sure how I found Susan’s blog.  I think it was one of those times when I sat down and wandered from blog to blog.  I’d read a blog, see what blogs they read, go to one of those and so on.  Somehow I ran into her blog.  So then maybe I commented on her blog, and then she came to check my blog out and we started chatting between blogs.

So then we recently moved to Colorado.  Well it turns out that Susan lives in Colorado.  I thought, “that’s neat.  Maybe we’ll meet sometime.”  But the other day, I posted about the cinnamon ice cream and she wanted to know where I’d gotten it.  Turns out she was also very close to this grocery store where I got it.  So she lives about 3 miles from us.  Isn’t that nutty?  I met her out of the blue in blog world.

She met us at Chick Fil A the other day, and we had a nice lunch.  She knits a lot too, so we are going to knit together soon.  I forgot to tell her that I want her to teach me how to knit 2 socks at a time.

She’d also mentioned that she has a friend whose daughter goes to the school where I teach.  Turns out the friend’s daughter is in one of my classes.  Isn’t that crazy!

So that is the story of how I met my blogging friend.

Ok well no real dining here, but it was one of those titles that I couldn’t resist.  Although, we did dine at Johnny’s Pizza tonight.  It’s a New York style pizza place.  We really like it.  Davey eats their cheese pizza really well.  He ate almost a whole piece tonight.  His appetite is starting to return as he recovers from this nasty cold.  At Johnny’s, (and he always wants to associate the place with his Uncle Johnny) they give the kids a coloring sheet.  Once the sheet is colored, they hang the sheet on the wall or the front of the counter area where they make the pizzas.

Davey loves this.  He colors his sheet as quickly as possible and then starts asking, “Is she coming back?  Where’s the lady?”  Then he silently and bashfully (he’s been extra shy lately) hands over the sheet and then watches very intently to see where she tapes up his coloring sheet.  He LOVES it!

So I guess I did talk about dining.  Now about twining.  I am working on the heel of my sock.  It has a “twined” heel.  What you do is knit with two colors and alternate colors every stitch.  As you alternate, you drop the yarn straight down and bring the other yarn across so that it gets this woven look on the back.  It also twists the heck out of the two strands.  There is no avoiding it.  To do this right, you really need to hold them both in the right hand, so that makes it kind of slow going.  Every row, I have a twisted up mess.  There are even videos on youtube to show how to more easily untwist your yarn after twining.  I had something better than a video though.  I had a Davey solution.   First, though I want to put up some photos to show how nice the twining looks.  It makes for a stretchy more durable heel.  It’s really pretty neat.

So this is what the back looks like.  It has a braided look to it:

Now the right side looks kind of like regular stockinette, but because of the twist you get going with the yarns, one side of the knit “v” tends to stick out more, making it have a little different look to it.  At first, I thought I was not doing it right, but I think I am.  Others have had this result, and then I read in another place how people use or spin the yarn so that it has a certain kind of twist that works well with twining I think?  I get kind of glazed over when I start reading about the z twist or whatever the heck the different twists are called.  I am not ready for that amount of detail yet.  Maybe one day.  Kind of like you might not be ready for the amount of twining detail I am providing.  Anyway, here’s the right side.  It almost has a zig-zag look to it:

So I was talking to Davey about my twisting dilemma.  He watched me untwist my 2 strands of yarn, and he decided he had a solution for me.  So off he went to get his tools.  Here’s what he came back with.

A drumstick through each skein. He was so proud.  And rightly so.  They didn’t work, but that didn’t matter abit.  I loved his invention.

So the twining is slow going, but really pretty darn neat.  Maybe I can finish the heel tonight.  I am not quite ready for tomorrow’s classes yet though so maybe not.  I’ll get there.