I just made my first bobble on my Movie Socks.  I am so excited.  I was worried because my size 0 needles feel kinda floppy and then the cotton didn’t feel like it would bobble-ize too easily.  But it all worked.  It’s not the best lookin’  bobble in the world, but I love it.

Davey was happy for me too!

Of course this might have been the remnants of a sugar high, as I let him have a lollipop entirely too early in the morning.  I wanted to take a picture of him with his sucker.  He hid it:

Gradually he brought it around from behind his back:

And here it is!

And now he was just being cute:

He’s eating a lollipop while still in his pajamas.  It’s a good day for Davey.

Ok so it’s back to it on the Movie Socks.  Oh – I broke my first dpn last night.  I was sad.  It was one of my pretty little knit picks harmony needles.  Snapped it right in two.  I was joining my picot edge, and it was kind of hard for me at first.  I did eventually get the hang of it though, and it went much better.  It was actually pretty fun by the time I was done.  I just love the look of a picot edge!

These socks have a lace pattern.  I learned a wonderful way to knit lace or at least to follow the pattern.  (Thanks to my friend Ronnie.)  I write out each line of the pattern on a separate index card.  The index cards on a spiral work best, or just a little spiral notebook actually, but I had some index cards to use.  So I write the pattern down, and I arrange the line on my card in rows that kind of make sense to me.  This may just look like a mess but it works well for me:

Ok off to knit.  Davey went to play with his I-E and Papa Russ this afternoon.  He was very excited.  And I just got Season 1 Disk 1 of Castle from Netflix.  I didn’t see the early shows.  So I am going to go knit and watch it.  That may be a risky endeavor though as I will be working on this lace pattern.  Living dangerously!

David made breakfast this morning.  He made flapjacks, bacon and eggs.  David is the best egg cooker in the world.  He makes the perfect fried egg.  Over easy without a trace of runny white.

Of course Davey wanted to help him.  One of our nicknames for Davey is the Little Elf.  This morning he was reminding us of Buddy the Elf.  Just a barrage of questions one after the other:  “Daddy, are you going to make slapjacks?  Do you have all the ingredients?  What are the ingredients?  Where is the recipe Daddy? Can I help?  Can I stir?  Where’s the eggs?  Don’t eggs come from farms?  How do we get them? What happened to the butter?   On and on!  He ate two slapjacks though – we were glad he liked them!

Davey and Daddy measuring ingredients:

Davey carefully transfers the ingredients:

Now he and Daddy stir:

And on another topic, here’s something else that surprised me.  A couple of days ago we took Davey to the doctor.  Before we left, we talked to the doctor about his pacifier.  She kind of explained to him how it would be best to stop using it and that it could affect his teeth.  I don’t know how much impact this had on him, but when we got home, I put all the pacifiers away.  He had been having a paci still at naps and bedtime.  Well we just didn’t give them to him, and we haven’t mentioned them at all.  He hasn’t either!  Not one word at bedtime, or in the middle of the night if he wakes up.  Nothing.  I’d been so worried about this last part of giving up the pacifier.  It made me want to cry thinking of him pining for his paci.   So far so good though.  No pining at all.

And finally, I am on the homestretch with Rock-a-Bye Baby #2.  I am rapidly approaching the toe.  Yay!

Davey and I watered again this morning.   For Davey, watering ideally follows this pattern:  Water the plants a little.  Start playing with hose.  Get soaking wet.  Start watering everything but the plants.  Then begin to think about watering Mommy. (that’s when it is time to head in.)

At first watering is a very intense process.  I don’t know how he squats like that for so long:

Now he’s starting to think about what else he can do with the hose:

But I then prompted him to complete the watering task, and so he got right back in close with the flowers:

But then it was time to start getting wet:

I enjoyed my morning Diet Coke while he played:

This ended with Davey sopping wet and very happy.

My Rock-a-Bye Baby sock is coming along.  It’s a fun knit, but I have a bad case of second sockitis.  I am looking forward to and am kinda scared about the next pair coming up.  Bobbles and lace.  I may be in trouble, and I am anxious to see how it’s going to go!

Yesterday I mentioned Tunisia.  I have been thinking more about how little I know about it.  Seems like I should at least be able to identify its location on a world atlas.

So today we are going to learn a little more about Tunisia.  Davey is going to help me make Tunisian dish called Chakchouka.  It’s a ragout with peppers, onions, and tomatoes.  You cook it  and then make some indentations where you drop a few eggs in to cook.  We are going to have it over rice.   I figure if the Davids and I cook a dish from Tunisian cuisine, then we have at least learned a tiny bit about the country.  Enough maybe so that we can remember that Tunisia is a country located in North Africa bordered by Algeria, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.  (I wrote that yesterday too, so maybe I will really remember it now.)  Tunisia has a population of about 10.3 million, and the capital is Tunis.  A popular dish is Chakchouka.

We’ll take some pictures later of Davey helping me to make it.   Maybe he will take a liking to Tunisian food.  Perhaps this will become a two-part quest:  Learn more about the world while trying to find new foods that Davey likes to eat.

I have been trying to figure out how to pronounce Chakchouka.   I can’t find anything in a google search.  We are going with Chalk Chooooka.  I wonder if it is Chack Chooka.

*update – a friend told me the correct pronunciation – “ShaShouka”  Thanks Susan!

Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa.  It is bordered by Algeria, Libya and the Mediterranean sea.  (I am sorry to say that I had only a very vague idea as to where it might be before I googled it.)  I don’ t know how much tunisian crocheting goes on there.   Tunisian crochet is kind of a cross between knitting and crochet, and I just wanted to get the basics down to see what it was all about. (It has several other names such as Afghan stitch.)

I began with the hook and some cotton.  The plan is a potholder.  Typically, I think the afghan hook is a long straight needle with a hook at one end and a stopper at the other.  I wanted a size J though, and Hobby Lobby only had this circular looking afghan hook in that size.  I like it fine though.   I put the hook and cotton on my marimba to photograph it.  Thought it looked kinda neat:

I found some great youtube demo videos, and I learned that in tunisian crochet you pick up stitches all down the row so that at the end of the row you have many loops over the needle and it looks like knitting.  You never turn the work.  Instead, when you come back down the next row, you work all the stitches back off.  It’s really very simple.  (at least the basic stitch is.)  And it’s pretty fun.  I love the woven look too:

I am back to knitting my sock too.  I am working on the cuff of Rock-a-bye baby.  I hope to finish it over the weekend.

Davey and I are playing library.  He just brought me his library card (a maraca).  He wanted to check out his “books”.   He chose a goat, camel, cow and horse.  (Those small Schleich animals.)

One more picture from the river.  Poor child had to climb up an embankment. Or so we pretended.

It’s about that time.  We are heading to Little Rock to meet Kev.  Davey is very excited.  He enjoys seeing his Uncle Kev, but it’s the prospect of Chuck E Cheese that has him very excited.  Can we go?  Can we go?  Are we ready?   Davey is not going to know what to do without his cousins and aunt here.  He’s had so much fun with them.

Yesterday we went to the river.

Davey stood guard as Karen knitted:

Speaking of Knitting!  Karen finished her very first sock ever!  Yay!

Yesterday they had a parade:

And this morning Jadyn and Davey danced jigs:

Maybe they’d like to move here instead!

Playing continues.  The knitting fiesta continues.  Mikayla and Jadyn got new projects to knit yesterday, and they were hard at work on those last night already.  And this morning too!  I am going to try to finish my photo prop project today, and then I can get back to my socks.

Today we are headed to the river for a little while and then it’s back to the waterpark.   Activities require a water theme around here if there is any hope of staying cool.

Every once in awhile though, there’s a little quiet time – watching tv:

Reading books (and no we didn’t get gel happy with Davey’s hair.  Sweaty and hot kid cooling down here):