Knitting lessons

Cassie's knitting lessons

Once upon a time, before there was Walmart, there was the local yarn store. Some still exist today, and they are wonderful places for a knitter or crocheter to go. They do a lot more than sell yarn. They offer lessons and are a great resource for help or advice with yarn projects. Not only that, but you can often find a congregation of crafty women who dispense advice not only on knitting but on life.
While looking for a pair of hard to find knitting needles, I found a classic local yarn shop. Cassie and I fell in love with the place. Sure they've got tons of gorgeous and inspiring yarns and patterns and supplies. They've also got tables and chairs for you to bring in your knitting work, sit down, and knit with the gals. The shop is normally just full of older ladies who sit and knit while they trade advice, patterns, and gossip.
The shop offered "Learn how to Knit" lessons. While I've knit since I was a kid, but I've had a hard time teaching Cassie. It's something I wanted her to know how to do so I decided to let her take some knitting lessons from the gals at the yarn store.
Best decision ever.
Cassie has been taking knitting lessons for about two weeks now. She thinks the little old ladies at the knit shop are really cool. I think she's learning a lot more than just knitting from those old gals. She especially loves to hear them gossip about other customers. She thinks it is so amusing to hear the old ladies make fun of people.
We had another knitting lesson today. I had to bring Sasha, and I couldn't just let her run amok in the yarn store so that was a challenge. Cassie gave me a big thank you for the lessons, but I'm so glad to see her enjoy them.

Speaking of Cassie, she's so over her ex-boyfriend. She's now got a crush on a new guy, and she actually gave this one her phone number. She missed a call from him yesterday because she forgot her phone was on silent; but she has been checking her cell phone every few minutes today to make sure she doesn't miss his next one. So cute!

You can't make this stuff up

I think the yahoo instant messenger conversation tells the story better than I can.
I was at work, and as usual, my husband was telling me the about this evening with 16 month-old Sasha.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:05:06 PM): damn! little girl decided that potty time wasn't over.. carried her little toilet into the living room by herself
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:05:15 PM): interesting
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:08:35 PM): she's pretty strong sometimes!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:09:46 PM): surprisingly strong
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:01 PM): good balance too
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:04 PM): running around naked, really trying to go potty on her potty

(Previous post, I mentioned how she suddenly likes to take off her clothes and run around?)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:10:12 PM): hah
Jon (1/26/2008 10:10:24 PM): she *knows* the routine, about like making tea
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:12:24 PM): clever girl. so long as we keep it up and she doesn't experience any 'potty trauma' she'll probably be potty trained pretty early

It was quiet for about 16 minutes, when Jon sends me an emoticon of a laughing and crying smily. I asked him what was going on but he stayed silent for another four minutes. Then he began to explain what happened.

Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:24 PM): well.. naked sasha running around, then sitting on her potty, making grunty faces.. managed to poop something out
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:44 PM): ohno!
Jon (1/26/2008 10:30:45 PM): unfortunately, not while she was on the potty...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:30:56 PM): gah! ahaaha
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:03 PM): but don't worry, she caught most of it with her hands...
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:07 PM): uh
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:11 PM): and smeared it all over herself..
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:18 PM): you're joking?
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:20 PM): the rest just hit the carpet
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:24 PM): omg
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:40 PM): then she tried really hard to taste it
Jon (1/26/2008 10:31:46 PM): (failed there)
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:31:47 PM): OMGOMG
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:09 PM): so.. emergency bath, no real fuss from her there
Cindy (1/26/2008 10:32:16 PM): yeah she likes baths
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:38 PM): ..emergency cleanup of carpet (with sasha trying really really hard to help wipe up her mess)
Jon (1/26/2008 10:32:55 PM): aaaand we're back to normal

Follow up exam

We had Sasha's follow up exam on Monday. The exam where we re-weighed her and checked her iron levels for any anemia or nutritional deficiencies.
She gained weight! She's up to 19lbs. She has good iron levels in her blood. She's been given a clean bill of health. If she is skinny, she's just a skinny little girl, but at least she's a healthy skinny girl.
I am relieved.
We are still going to make more effort to push foods on her, although honestly we were doing that all along.

Oh boy...it's THAT phase

Our darling little toddler does not want to keep her clothes on.
Lately, she had been through a phase where she wanted to wear every single clothing item she encountered. Mom's jacket, mom's hat, any of her clothes she came across in her drawers, or ugh, even the dirty laundry. The worst is when I catch her running around with a pair of dirty underwear on her head. Yikes!

But she's got a diaper rash, so we let her 'air dry' a few days ago. Ever since, she's been wanting to be "free"! When it's diaper time, once that diaper is off, she squirms and runs away. Then it's time to chase her. She squeals and runs away to keep us from diapering her. If we say "diaper" she squeaks and runs around for another orbit. She learned how to take off her clothes, so she does that now.

Potty!

Sasha made her first poo in the potty! Yay big girl.
She was grunting and making her potty face so my husband ran her to the bathroom, dropped her pants and diaper, and sat her on the toilet. He said and signed potty to her and she made it clear to him that she understood what he wanted. She then went potty on the potty!

Bop'un!

While I was at work, Sasha went through a bit of crankiness with my husband. She was chanting "Bop'un!" at him repeatedly and pointing into the kitchen. He could tell that she was trying very hard to communicate with him, so he told her to go ahead and show him what she wanted.
She walked into the kitchen, grabbed a big blue bowl (actually a mop bucket) and handed it to him in the living room. She waited expectantly, like he should know what she wanted and said "Bop'un!". He didn't understand, so she took him back into the kitchen. We have a pile of bulk food from Costco. On top is the juice boxes. She took the juice boxes down. Under the juice boxes is some cans of soup. She carefully took each can of soup out and set them aside. Under that is a bulk box of microwave popcorn packets. She took out a packet of popcorn, handed it to my husband, and announced "BOP'UN!".
Popcorn!
Just the day before, we made her some microwave popcorn. We let her watch us do the whole popcorn making process. We taught her the word "popcorn" and I even showed her the word "popcorn" in sign language.
Guess she really did pick up some of that! She was trying to communicate with us but we just weren't getting it. She knew what she wanted though. And when daddy finally understood what it was she was asking for, she got exactly what she wanted. Some Bop'un!

Knit Leggings 2

I made some baby leggings and thought I'd share what I did. This is my second pair of leggings that I've made so far.
I got some nifty new Addi Turbo knitting needles and a book on knitting in the round on 2 circular needles.

Here they are in progress, and then completed.

And here they are on my little model:

How do they know?

This pic is a good example of what I'm talking about. The batteries on a sit-n-spin toy that we borrowed needed to be changed. We went and got the screwdriver, and immediately Sasha grabs the screwdriver and starts poking at the screws with it. How did she know how to do that? She seemed so natural. It seems so uncanny sometimes, how young kids seem to just know how to do stuff. Sasha started walking around with a small cloth bag wrapped around her forearm, sort of carrying it like a purse. I don't carry a purse so it seemed so strange for her to just KNOW how to carry a purse without seeing me do it.

Loves that tricycle

Well I'm glad we got Sasha that Kettler Kettrike Tricycle for Christmas. She loves that thing.
Sometimes she decides to sit in it while it's sitting in the living room. She plays with the seat belt. She's always been fascinated by seat belts. She has all the attention span in the world when it comes to trying to figure them out. She's the same way with the lap belt in her high chair. Usually she sits in the bike backwards and just plays with the belt.
About once a day, I take her for a ride around the apartment complex. Usually it's just to get the mail. She loves it. It gets her out of the house. I don't know if babies get bored of being in the same house day after day like adults do but I think it's good to just give her a change of scenery.
Lately, Cassie has started taking Sasha out for bike rides too. Cassie brings her cell phone with her and talks to her friends on the phone as she wheels Sasha along. Yesterday I had a giggle as I watched them return back home. Sasha had a toy cell phone she was yammering into and Cassie was on her cell phone too. It just looked so funny with both of them talking into cell phones.
Sasha never smiles when she's on that bike. It's all very serious business. When she's going for a ride, she sits on it very well. She puts her hands on the handlebars and safely watches the scenery as it passes by.

First Break-up

Aww Cassie got her heart broken already.
Yesterday, a female friend of her boyfriend (Tyler) came up to her and told her that Tyler is going to break up with her tomorrow. The female friend is notorious for lying and saying bad things to get reactions out of people so Cassie thinks she is lying. But she was still nervous, like what if it's true? She decided to try to talk to Tyler in math class. She was going to say "So, Elizabeth says you're going to dump me. Is that true?". She said she was ready for whatever answer she received and even went to bed early to prepare for the stress. She's got such a good head on her shoulders sometimes for someone so young.
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She asked Tyler in math class if it was true what that girl told her, that he wanted to break up with her. He said "Oh she wasn't supposed to say it like THAT", but it was true. She came home from school with a smile on her face and in a good mood. I asked her what happened and she said he did break up with her all cheerful and matter of fact.

So I took her out for ice cream. Over a sundae, I asked her if she was faking her cheerful manner, and she admitted she was. She cried at her 5th period lunch and her friends gave her a box of tissue and were of comfort to her. She said she realized what good friends she has, so that's good.

She also got a craving for bacon and decided that ice cream is not her break-up comfort food. She had me stop at a store and pick up some bacon for her. She cooked up a whole skillet of that and ate it, lol. I normally would never let her eat like that but just for today. She now says that whenever she goes through future break-ups, she wants bacon.

TOO COOL

Too Cool!
This pic cracks me up so I had to post it again for emphasis. Look at Sasha posing for the camera. The Jeep. The sunglasses. The new haircut. Haha it makes me giggle.

Big sis Cassie took the pic and she's proud of how well the picture lined up for her. She says it took some skill to get the timing right and to get that Jeep in the background.

First Haircut!

Sasha had her first haircut!
There is a place here that specializes in children's haircuts so I decided to take her there. I was very nervous because Sasha can be a bit high strung and easily upset, especially when it comes to strangers. She's fine with strangers if they keep their distance but once they try to get too close to her or touch her, she gets a bad case of stranger anxiety. So when I called and made the appointment I asked them to make sure that the person who does her hair is very patient.
We arrived late because I got lost. Let's not talk about that though. The ladies at the children's salon were very nice, however, and didn't make me cancel my appointment. I brought Cassie along with us so she could take pictures.

They had these neat little seats shaped like cars, with steering wheels and everything. Sasha got a really hot little red Mercedes Benz convertible, and she really liked it. Lately she's loved toy cars. Sasha did not consider the hair stylist to be threatening. She didn't smile for her, but she didn't cry either. She was very neutral, which was still better than I hoped for! I tried to make her feel calm by offering her sips of juice, and the lady offered her a sucker but she didn't care for suckers. The salon had little tv's at each haircut station, with a dvd player. The lady put in a Baby Einstein video, and Sasha was captivated. Once she put the video on, Sasha didn't have a care in the world. She watched the video and we were free to cut away.

We mostly cut her bangs so they don't hang in her face, and straightened the back out. It didn't take long at all.

And the final result. Aww how cute! Just look at those big blue eyes.
Once we were done with the haircut, they saved Sasha's hair in a little bag and made a little "First Haircut" certificate for her. They put a ribbon in her hair and took a polaroid picture to put on the certificate. They gave her a balloon, some suckers, and let her pick a toy from their little toy treasure chest. She picked a mini slinky.
On the way out, Sasha saw a display stand full of sunglasses. Did I mention that glasses are one of her obsessions? She got so excited when she saw all those sunglasses, so we let her look at them. She posed for Cassie and the camera just perfectly, with her new haircut, some sunglasses, and a Jeep.

Isn't it cute? She is just too cool for words!
I had to get the sunglasses :)

Little Copycat

Sasha is finally at that age where we can see her copying us, and it is often very thought provoking to see our actions mirrored back to us by innocent little eyes. I know I'll continue to have many Copycat entries in the future, but here are a few more.

One day last week, my husband told me that Sasha went into our coat closet and got our baby carriers out. This time, she decided that although she wanted my husband to wear her in the carrier, she wanted to figure out how it worked. Eventually she gave the carrier to my husband (insistantly) and had him carry her about the house with it. Again she did it yesterday and I was able to get a picture of her. She tried to affix the carrier around her so she could get into it and couldn't quite get it right.
Today, she was playing with the carrier and I added a little twist. I put it on her like she was the mommy, and I put her glowworm in the baby carrier part of the carrier. She got to 'carry' the glowworm around like a baby, although the carrier is way to big for her so she couldn't really walk around with it. She got a huge kick out of it though.

In Daddy's shoes:


So proud of herself:


Brushing teeth with Daddy:

Personal Trainer

My husband likes to exercise at home to keep himself and his back in shape. Sasha finds the exercise routines to be a lot of fun. She likes to cheer him on, which is great for his morale and keeps him going. He admits he does a few extra sit-ups for her just to see her cheer for him.Trainer's on coffee break. Don't worry, there's no coffee in that coffee cup :)

High Calorie Foods for Toddler Weight Gain

I spent hours doing some research into high calorie foods that can help me out with Sasha's underweight problem. She's finally eating, and I want to make sure that every bite counts.
I'm no expert. Just a desperate mother of a toddler who won't eat and is losing weight instead of gaining. Here's what I found and what I am doing.
First, I had to make sure that she's getting all the vitamins and nutrients she needs. She is now agreeably taking a half of a chewable flintstones vitamin every day so I don't have to worry about those nasty vitamin drops. The flintstone vitamins have more kinds of vitamins in them anyways. However they are lacking in CALCIUM, so I still have to make a special effort to get calcium into her every day.
Second, I needed to know exactly how many calories I should be getting into her every day. For that, I thank this website: http://www.silverscriptwellness.com/topic/calneed
I used it to calculate how many calories Sasha needs each day. She weighed 18lbs 8oz at her last doctor visit, and she is 30 inches long. Therefore her calorie needs were as follows:

She needs at least 595 calories to maintain her current weight and activity level.
Of this, 395 calories are required to meet her body's basic energy needs. That amount (your resting energy expenditure) is what she'd use up if she did nothing but lie in bed all day.
To gain about one pound per week, you'll need to bump up to 1,095 calories per day.

Next I tried to calculate how many calories she was getting. This was hard. After searching around I found this really neat website: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/

It told me the amount of calories in different foods, but I could get the amount of calories in different sizes so it was actually really helpful.
Let's see, she eats about 1/2 cup of brown rice mixed with lentils a day (108 calories), and about 2-3 juice boxes (100 calories each). Plus she nurses about 4-5 times a day (about 60 calories per nursing session). I calculate a total of 548-708 calories a day. Barely enough to maintain her weight. Not enough to gain any weight at all. She needs MORE calories. Much more. But she's not going to take more bites so somehow I have to find ways to pack more calories into the bites she does take.

I spent a few hours trying to find the most calorically dense foods. To do this I made a chart of the amount of calories various foods had per ounce and also per tablespoon. This is what I came up with:
food per oz, per other measurement
tofu 41,
whipping cream 98, 52/tbsp
butter 204, 102/tbsp
half&half 40, 20/tbsp
sour cream 61, 26/tbsp
milk whole 19, 9/tbsp
breastmilk 20,
avocado 45,
brown rice 32, 108/half cup
potato 26, 57 half cup
sweet potato 26, 57 half cup
lard 252, 126 tbsp
flaxseedoil 251, 120 tbsp
oberweis choc ice cream 79, 230 half cup
jelly 71, 50 tbsp
peanut butter 169, 95 tbsp
carnation 103, 130/packet
whipped cream 73, 8/tbsp
Hershey's Ready-To-Drink Milk, Chocolate, 2% Reduced-Fat, 8oz box 200 calories!

Basically it seems that fats are the most calorically dense foods I could think of.
Sasha eats mostly brown rice all day every day now, and chugs down a few juice boxes. I am thinking of doing the following:
1. Replace a juice box or two with higher calorie juice box containers of other stuff than juice, like chocolate milk. It has to come in a juice box or Sasha won't drink it. Hehe!
2. Butter everything.
3. Replace milk with half-and-half, or in some instances, even whipping cream. These are very very high in fat. Babies and toddlers do need fats in their diets, especially skinny little ones. I just have to be careful to make sure she's getting protein and carbohydrates in her diet as well so she's not on an all-fat diet.
4. Offer the occasional spoonful of peanut butter or even jelly/jam if she'll take it.
5. Ice cream and whipped cream! I got a can of that pressurized whipped cream and had my older daughter try to teach my toddler the joys of whipped cream. So far, unsuccessful. She giggles at her older sister with a mouth full of whipped cream but won't eat it herself...yet.
6. Make a super thick high calorie very rich drink with 8oz of half&half and some carnation instant breakfast. If you can get this into your toddler, there's 445 calories in this. Good luck. This tastes like heaven. It tastes like melted ice cream. Sasha wouldn't take more than a few sips of it.

I'm sure there's plenty more ideas but that's all I can think of for now. Basically don't let any bite go into that toddler's mouth that isn't dripping in butter, cream, or an oil of some kind.
These are the desperate measures of a mother of an underweight toddler who is losing weight. Once the weight starts to get closer to a normal range, I'll stop lacing all her foods with fats.

Please, if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions, or anything that has worked for you in a similar situation, please feel free to leave a comment. Or commiserate and share your experiences.

A Walking Stomach

Above: While I was loading up the dishwasher, Sasha decided her legos needed to be washed. I took those things out like 3-4 times and she kept insisting on sneaking them back in.

From one extreme to the other!
The last two days, Sasha has been a walking stomach, consuming everything in her wake. This is in stark contrast to the entire previous week where I was lucky to get a tablespoon of food into her after a whole day of trying. She suddenly decided she was hungry I guess. Now she's been walking around the house and asking for food every few minutes or so. Sort of a constant snacking rather than sitting down for full meals. Today, for example, she was eating from within minutes of getting out of bed. She would run around and play, then she would come up to me with her mouth open saying "ahhhh" and insisting I put food in her mouth. Like a little baby birdy. She decided she loves brown rice. So I keep a bowl of it next to my husband's computer, and throughout the day we give her spoonfuls of it, and eventually she ate the whole thing! Today I made her a bigger bowl of rice with lentils and carrots and a tiny bit of ground beef in it. She ate that just fine, plus she ate some avocado, potato chips, three juice boxes full of juice, some crackers, a few bites of peanut butter toast, some homemade banana pudding. Anything that I tried to eat, she insisted on eating also. I am surprised at all the juice she drank. I refilled her juice box with calcium-enriched orange juice and she didn't seem to mind, although if I try to give her orange juice in a cup she balks at it. I guess it's all in the presentation some times.

She seems to be healthy and in good spirits. She is as affectionate as ever. I swear my virgo toddler is the most affectionate child I've ever known. From the moment I wake up, she is smothering my face in kisses and hugging me. She kisses all her stuffed animals and dolls. Today she was constantly making me laugh. She's a little comedienne and enjoyed making me laugh so she was really putting on a show.

Her language has really been exploding lately. She's learning several new words a day and her vocabulary is building up. Yesterday my husband and I started teaching her about facial features (cheeks, chin, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, etc) and within minutes we were able to quiz her ("Sasha, where is dad's eyebrows?") and she had it down correctly. She even tries to say the words. I also swear she tries to sing the alphabet song along with one of her refridgerator magnet toys.

New Year

Above: Winter Ready! Good because it's been COLD out.

Happy New Year!
I had to work for New Year's, and Cassie is still visiting my parents, but fortunately our family still got to share the new year together, mostly.
Jon and Sasha came to my work at about 11:30pm. We had a barbecue at work so they got to eat some steak! I called Cassie when the time drew closer to midnight, and was fortunate enough to talk to her when the New Year hit. I felt so fortunate to spend the moment with my loved ones.
Sasha likes coming to my work. She runs around like it's a fun playground. I never noticed all the little steps and railings and incline ramps until she ran around here.
Other than some strange colored diapers, she seems to be mostly recovered from whatever it was that ailed her last week. Her appetite is still not very good either. I wish she would eat but I've been trying to give her vitamin drops with iron, vitamins a, c, and d. They taste horrible and stain her skin and teeth black for a while but she wouldn't eat any chewable vitamins I offered her.