Check up

I took Aidan to the pediatrician yesterday for his seven year old check up. He was quite amused that his weight in pounds is almost the same as his height in inches: 48 pounds vs. 47 inches. He is in the 34th percentile for both height and weight, making his body very proportional.

Aidan is such a talker and so interested in what goes on that the nurse, then the doctor, had some difficulty in asking questions of just me. As the doctor and I were talking about how it can be a balancing act trying to get in all the food groups, nutrients, liquids, yada yada yada each day, she noticed Aidan out of the corner of her eye and asked him "What are you doing?" He was standing on one foot with his arms out to the sides. He said "I thought you wanted to see my balancing act!"

He was having a great time until he heard the dreaded word "shot" and then he started his theatrics. He complained and whined about the shot but was still mid-complaint when the nurse pulled the needle out and told him she was done. Then he giggled and agreed that "it wasn't that bad."

All in all, we have a remarkably healthy, average child - always good news to hear.

Paw prints in the pollen

Sounds like a sappy country song, doesn't it? Or the title of a really lightweight mystery book?

It is the scene on our deck this morning. After four days of rain, rain and more rain, the sky cleared yesterday and everything started to dry off and out. And, overnight it seemed, the trees burst out in tiny green leaves and the pollen exploded.

I looked out on the deck this morning and saw these little paw prints in the pollen. The photo doesn't really show the true pollen color of green, but those little prints certainly show up well.


It won't be long before we see giant dust clouds of pollen billowing down the street, every car will temporarily sport the same shade of green and our eyes will feel as though there are boulders in them.

Many parts of the country are still being beat up by snowstorms, but spring has definitely sprung here in Georgia.

Happy birthday, Aidan!

It is oh-so-hard to believe, but our Aidan had his seventh birthday today! I was concerned that he was going to have a bad day at school, given his excitement level, but he either adequately contained his enthusiasm or Mrs. M cut him some slack. I popped in at school during lunch with cookies for his class, which Aidan gleefully handed out. Then I headed home to start making homemade 'sketty and meatballs for dinner, as he requested.

He got off the bus wearing a birthday crown, which he wore on and off the rest of the day:



Tucked inside his backpack was the cutest note from one of his friends:



After putting away an impressive serving of dinner, it was time for cake. Publix makes a fabulous chocalate ganache cake, which is one of Aidan's favorites:



Then started the presents! Aidan received many cards and gifts, and was absolutely delighted with all of them. He was also thrilled to be able to read the birthday cards all by himself:






A very tired but happy seven year old boy fell asleep quickly tonight!

Interview with Aidan

My friends Kelli and Noelle have interviewed their children and I thought it was a cute idea. So here is my interview with Aidan, who is six-almost seven - I have not changed his answers in any way:

1. What is something mommy always says to you? I love you.

2. What makes mommy happy? A hug and a kiss.

3. What makes mommy sad? When I am bad.

4. How does your mommy make you laugh? Definitely by tickling me.

5. What was your mommy like as a little girl? Cute.

6. How old is your mommy? 45.

7. How tall is your mommy? 95 feet tall.

8. What is her favorite thing to do? Knit.

9. What does your mommy do when you're not around? Go shopping for birthday presents for me.

10. If your mommy becomes famous, what will it be for? Knitting.

11. What is your mommy really good at? Cooking.

12. What is your mommy not very good at? Running.

13. What does your mommy do for a job? Works at our house.

14. What is your mommy's favorite food? One of them is pork roast, and also Hoppin’ John.

15. What makes you proud of your mommy? I don’t know.

16. If your mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be? The squirrel on Sponge Bob Square Pants.

17. What do you and your mommy do together? Read.

18. How are you and your mommy the same? We both love each other.

19. How are you and your mommy different? Mommy wears glasses and I do not.

20. How do you know your mommy loves you? Because she says she loves me.

21. What does your mommy like most about you? I don’t really know.

22. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go? I don’t know.

Some of the answers were a bit surprising; I think I am definitely more like Word Girl than the squirrel in SpongeBob! And while he is still too young to grasp some of the more abstract questions, I generally enjoyed his ansers. Noelle intends to interview her daughter at various ages in her life to see how the answers change, which I think is a great idea.

Local yarns

My happiness rating just went up a few ticks because an LYS opened near me! For non-fiber fanatics, an LYS is a Local Yarn Store, not to be confused in any way with a big box craft store, such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby.

Sugarfoot Yarns opened its doors yesterday and today was the not-so-grand opening (official Chamber of Commerce grand opening will happen in May), but it was grand enough for me. Since I started knitting last year, I have not had the opportunity to go to an LYS, since the closest ones are in Atlanta and not convenient to visit.

I was very very good with my spending - since the store is so convenient, I don’t have to buy and hoard. I wandered happily around the store, petting all kinds of lovely yarns. And how wonderful to have knitting expertise at the ready - I told the owner, Cheryl, what I wanted to knit and she made some excellent suggestions!

Here is what I left with:


I bought one skein each of Cascade Fixation and Mission Falls 1824 Cotton (for baby hats) and two skeins of Cascade 220. I want to make a felted clutch bag that calls for bulky weight but I didn’t like any of the colors she had in bulky, so at her suggestion I am going to hold the 220 doubled.

Cheryl also threw in sample cards of yarn, a sample of Soak and a pad of sticky notes with the store name and logo. We had a great chat and I also enjoyed chatting with other knitters in the store.

Yippee! I have an LYS!

Bliss

The March selection for the library's evening book group was The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner. Click on either link if you want to read about the book, because I couldn't possibly do the book justice by telling you about it here.

It was an excellent read, for which I was very thankful given that I suggested the book to the group. Reading about other countries - some happy, some not - was fascinating but I more enjoyed the concepts that are raised and discussed in the book.

In Bhutan, Weiner met a hotel owner who talks about "knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough." Given our current economic mess, the "enough" belief really struck a chord with me. Just because you can buy more, should you? When do you have enough? I am just as guilty as the next consumer of buying goods I want but don't need, but as our budget continues to shrink, perhaps I will learn a much-needed lesson about enough.

I was drawn to Iceland and her people because of their attitudes toward failure: it doesn't bother them and they rather admire it. As one person said "We like people who fail if they fail with the best intentions. Maybe they failed because they weren't ruthless enough, for instance." In the U.S. and many other parts of the world, we view failure as, well, failure. And as someone who in many people's opinion has failed to live up to my potential, I like the concept of failure being okay. I certainly am not ruthless enough to climb the business world ladder nor would I ever want to be; sometimes you have to fail at something in order to find something else that you are good at, so how is that bad?

There were several other points in the book that captured my interest but certainly the concept of place playing a factor in happiness was among the strongest. I am not, overall, an unhappy person but I am not as happy now as I have been at other times in my life, and I feel that place has much to do with it. We don't like living where we do now, and we do not like or trust our neighbors, which factors strongly when considering if you like a place. It doesn't mean that Hooter County Georgia is a bad place, it is just not a good place for us.

I do believe that in some regards, happiness is a choice. And I choose to be happier by finding a place that we will like, with people and neighbors that we like and trust. Now if the economy would just cooperate.

Everybody loves Grandma

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my mother came down from Knoxville to attend Aidan's district Pinewood Derby race. She arrived on Thursday and left to go home this morning.

Both the human boy and the feline boy in our house absolutely adore Grandma, and competed for her lap (and attention):


Just as I saw her car pull into the driveway on Thursday, I heard a loud thump from upstairs as Spenser jumped off the chair on which he had been soundly sleeping - he was so eager to see Grandma that he raced down the stairs and was waiting by the front door before I could even get there!

Derby day

Yesterday was Aidan's district Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts, for which he qualified by coming in second among all Tiger Cubs in his pack. We were fortunate that the district races were hosted this year by his pack, so we only had to drive to his elementary school.

The school cafeteria was abuzz with boys and parents. Each Cub Scout got to make a grand entrance (from the kitchen) into the cafeteria as his name was called:


Each Cub Scout's car ran six heats so that each car raced in each lane of the derby track. Here is Aidan watching his car compete in one of the heats:


Aidan's car Fire Whale (don't ask me - he named it) came in second in one of the heats - it is the blue car with the yellow stripe at the far right of the photo:


Sadly, that second place finish was the best the car did in all six heats. Grandma came from Knoxville for the big event and here she is watching the races with James and Aidan:


Although Fire Whale did not place among the fastest Tiger Cub cars, Aidan (and all of us) had a great time:

March madness

Living in Raleigh, NC for sixteen years made me a college basketball fan. Sure, I grew up in Ohio where college basketball is BIG, but it is nowhere near the HUGE that it is in North Carolina. And it is never as big as it is at this time of year, fondly known as March Madness.

Signs of spring? Daffodils blooming are a sign, trees budding are a sign, thick layers of green pollen are a sign...but the most reliable sign of them all is the ACC basketball tournament. I was flabbergasted when I first moved to Raleigh and saw that people brought televisions to work during the ACC tournament; either that, or they just took the day off. All that hoopla and hysteria finally wore me down and I became a fan of ACC basketball, generally, and the University of North Carolina Tarheels, specifically. I will cheer for just about any ACC team (especially those based in the Triangle area) unless they are playing the Tarheels.

And while I am passionate about Ohio State football, their basketball team takes a backseat to UNC. Unlike football, however, I rarely watch an entire basketball game; the first half usually bores me to tears and there is only so much squeaking of sneakers on the court that I can tolerate.

The ACC tournament starts this evening so I will be watching the seoncd half of as many games as possible. And with the ACC tournament budding and blooming, the NCAA basketball tournament won't be far behind...and the madness will truly begin.

GO TARHEELS!

Bowling for smiles

It was a beautiful day in Hooterville yesterday with sunshine, a light breeze and temps in the mid-70s. So what did we do? We went to a dark bowling alley!

For some reason that apparently can't be explained, Aidan decided that we should go bowling. So we did...

Aidan showed fine form:







Professional bowlers have nothing to fear from us!

Bagels!

Yesterday I crossed an item off my "Things I want to do in 2009" list, which just happened to be a repeat from my "Things I want to do in 2008" list: I made bagels!

You never know just how much you appreciate a good, chewy bagel until you can't get one, and good bagels simply do not exist out here in Hooter County, Georgia. Good bagels can be found in the city of Atlanta, but we aren't going to make the trek in just for bagels - well, we haven't gotten that desperate yet.

I studied Dad's bagel book, The Best Bagels Are Made at Home, and got to work. While I use my bread machine to bake complete loaves of book, what I really appreciate is using it to make dough. I apparently don't have the wrist action nor the patience to knead dough properly. So I fired up the bread machine to make the dough for basic NY-style water bagels.

Making bagels is not all that difficult, it is just time-consuming. You make the dough, then you let it rest. You roll out the dough, then both the dough and I rested. Of course, the dough wasn't doing laundry and really didn't need the rest as much as I did, but I still let it get in on the resting action.

Then you shape the dough into bagels, which is where I did have some difficulty. The book said that I could shape them several different ways: making a ball then poking my finger through, making a rope then joining the ends, or using a bagel cutter. I don't have a bagel cutter so I tried the two different hand methods. I learned that the best shaping method for me is to make a rope then join the ends…only join better than I did yesterday. Most of the bagels did not have a seamless join and one even came apart during the boiling process.

Okay, so I shaped the bagels, then they rested yet again while they rose. I boiled them, then baked them, and ta-da! Bagels!



There is no way that my bagels will be mistaken for those from a good New York deli (or even a mediocre mass-market bagel chain), but they are far better than anything I can get locally and I think I will make them again.

I'm so proud! And hungry, so I think I will eat a bagel.

Box o' love

I always say that one of the reasons that I learned to knit was so that I can make gifts for people. I like to cook, but unless the person lives locally, food gifts aren't particularly practical - 'sketty and meatballs don't travel well through the postal system!

So I really like that I can now knit small gifts. One of my dearest Ravelry pals is facing some scary surgery next week and because she lives in Michigan, I can't exactly pop over to her house and help out with the children or cook comfort food for her. What is the next best thing, perhaps? A care package!

The first item in the package was a beanie for those post-surgery bad hair days:





The pattern is Lavender Lace Beanie by Lorna Miser, from the book 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders. I knit it out of ever-luscious Malabrigo Merino yarn in a gorgeous blue, although the colorway is officially called Emerald. I was concerned that the beanie looked small and had no way of knowing if it would fit the head of someone I have never met in person!

I also included one of the felted heart coasters that I made back in February, a pair of spa socks, and some Reese's peanut butter cups, her favorite candy. I put the items in a small box that I covered in adhesive wrapping paper with a funky flower design, then securely packed it in a shipping box.

Just in case her postal carrier leaves packages at odd doors or tosses them in the yard, I sent her a message that simply said to watch her mailbox mid-week. I sent the box on Monday via USPS Priority Mail and it was delivered to her home yesterday. And...she likes it! And it fits! She sent the kindest, most thoughtful thank you message, taking care to mention each item in the box.

Sigh - a good sigh. Knowing that I made her smile is almost as good as placing a plate of hot 'sketty and meatballs in front of her.

Thank you, Al

The Internet is truly an amazing invention and I had first-hand evidence just last week.

When I arrived at home from getting oh-so-cute axle boots for my car, I discovered that the parking lights would not turn off. In a dark garage, it was easy to see that the parking lights stayed on no matter what I tried. I turned the lights switch off and on several times, and fiddled with the dome light switch, although why I thought that would be involved, I don't know.

Puzzled, I went online and googled "parking lights on lights turned off Legacy" and in many different places on the 'net was the answer: there is a toggle switch on the steering column that allows the parking lights to be turned on without putting the key in. I ran downstairs, found the switch and sure enough, it had inadvertently been flipped while at the dealership. Problem solved, without me having to call the dealership and sounding like an idiot!

Now if Google could only tell me why my neighbors park in the front yard instead of on the driveway.

Roar

It is impossible NOT to mention that March came in like a lion yesterday when balmy Georgia got snow! We were in short sleeve t-shirts on Saturday, then yesterday the temperature dropped and it snowed

And when it snows in a place that does not normally get snow, of course we get out and play in it. And take photos.

I took this photo from inside the house. The cardinal was loudly voicing his thoughts on the weather; since he kept hiding under the chairs and table, my guess is that he heartily disapproved:



I wonder if the flamingo wondered where he made the wrong turn?



Don't ask me about this snow being...James made it:



Aidan does not look particularly thrilled about the white stuff:



But he seems to like it better in this photo:



Can you see the flower on the tulip tree?



And here is my “See Rock City” bird house covered in snow. I don’t know if you can see it or not, but the tree from which it is hanging is already budding: