Crafty Snargle

OK, by popular demand, we took a few more Raley videos last night once we had mostly finished dinner (hence the messy face).  Here are our two favorites:

First, I think this video pretty much sums up Raley’s personality.  In 12 seconds.

People always comment on how happy Raley is, and the fact is that in public she is usually very happy. She loves people, she loves activity, and she is most content when there’s a lot going on for her to observe, and sometimes participate in.  We usually reply to those people, yes, she’s a very happy baby, except when she’s not… basically, she has two moods: happy and irate.   And it changes so quickly!  In case you were wondering what provoked that mood change, the answer is absolutely nothing.  That’s just how she rolls.  After I stopped filming, she actually continued crying for about 15 seconds, and then went back to waving her hands, and then happy again.  You just never know!

And here’s a longer one (in happy mood) for your enjoyment.

Dan and I often comment about what a beautiful language RaleySpeak is - you can hear some of it at the beginning of the movie.  It’s a lot of g’s and l’s and many words along the lines of glihglihgleegihl.  Too bad there’s only one fluent speaker, and she can’t yet translate for us, so we have very little idea what most things mean.  No mamamama or dadada for this girl!   She does have a few words so far, most of which revolve around animals: kitty (pronounced ga-gih), piggy (there’s a guinea pig at daycare; this one sounds almost like piggy), cat (gah), woof woof (ooh ooh when she sees a doggie) and sometimes doggie.  She said “airplane” once but mostly just makes a sign (we live under a runway, so she gets lots of opportunity!).  She has additional signs for “want” and “up.”  She steadfastly refuses to say “mama” or “dada” or anything similar, although she definitely knows who they mean!

Well, hello, friends! How’s it going? Life is good chez Snargle. Busy (as usual). Lots less computer time these days, mostly because of my “helper”:

Hey mom, what does this button do?

Raley is fascinated with the laptop (as with other electronic devices like the remotes and the camera). She wants to pull on the screen, push all the buttons, pull out the cables, and, oh yes, chew on anything she can get her mouth around. Does not make for very good blogging - or blog reading (sorry if you haven’t heard from me in your comments in a while!) - while she’s awake, which is typically until 8:30 or 9. But the time I’m not spending on the computer has been put to good use. I have been reading a lot of (library) books these days - mostly fluff, and checking out some of the recent books of one of my favorite authors that I had missed when they came out.

And I have been knitting. As I mentioned last month, I pulled out the Cabled Zipped Jacket (Schoeller + Stahl #10, ravelry link here) again. And I made a lot of progress, finishing the other front and even making a good start on both sleeves at the same time:

Two fronts, and two cuffs

And then I got stranded on Sleeve Island and got bored and…
Cast on something else. But, but, but! Using stash yarn (hooray!). This is the February Lady Sweater (pdf) from my Tess Superwash Merino, purchased at Maryland Sheep & Wool, May 2008. OK, I have older (much older) yarns in stash, but this is one that I really wanted to use, and this pattern calls for a slightly shaded semi-solid color, and it was on top meaning I didn’t have to move stuff around very much, and I wub it.

Yokey goodness!

Thanks to a cross-country plane flight this past week (work meeting), I’m now past the third buttonhole and almost to separating the arms. This is one sweater I’m definitely knitting for the product rather than the process - I can’t wait to be done!

The Jacket picture up there was a sneak peek of one of our major home projects recently. Taking advantage of a visit by my in-laws to provide baby-wrangling services (thanks Peter and Judy!) we painted the living room. You may remember that this room had a giant unpainted patch on the wall where the previous owners didn’t see fit to move a piece of furniture and paint behind it, so it was definitely at the top of our priority list. Also, it was missing a mantel for the fireplace. In all of the real estate documents the owners had said they were taking the decorative mantel with them, so that was cool. But I guess Dan and I had assumed that there was something un-decorative (plain) underneath it that would be left behind. Um, nope.

Lack of Mantel

They did actually leave us with a piece of a new mantel, but it was just one piece and we would have still had to buy the rest. Instead, we found a full real wood hand-carved (in China of course) mantel kit at (of all places) Costco.
Then we chose an awesome green paint color (Bullfrog) in a no-VOC paint, and got to work.
Here’s Raley and Linus enjoying the results (while Judy supervises):

It’s a new room!

Much better! And now Dan and I are just enjoying the fact that there’s not very much else in our house that we feel like we NEED to get done. Oh, there’s plenty of projects that we want to do and that we will do, just not at a breakneck speed. We can take our time and do things here and there and really enjoy the process.

And for those of you who’ve made it through the whole post, here is some gratuitous Raley.

She had quite the cold last week, including her first (diagnosed at least) ear infection. And a double one at that. Plus a runny nose and deep cough made her an unhappy Buggle. This is how she was spending a lot of her evenings:

Poor sickie!

After a doctor’s visit and three prescriptions (antibiotic for the ear infection, albuterol inhaler and prednisone for the lungs), she’s now back to her normal self. Although she seems to have given up her bottles of formula. She used to take approximately 24 oz of formula a day and now she’s refusing it completely (although they can sometimes get up to 4 oz/day down her at day care, she won’t take it at home at all). She has been drinking juice today, and she’s still eating plenty of fruit and other foods, so I don’t think she’s too dehydrated. But we do have a follow-up doctor’s appointment on Monday (for the cold/virus) so I can ask him.

And here’s a few fun videos of the Buggle demonstrating her Mad Skillz:

Thanks, and I’ll try not to be such a stranger.

P.S. Oh yeah, Congrats to all of us from the Blog Class of 2005! (link found via Cara) I’m so happy to be part of such an amazing group. My blogging may be sporadic these days, but I have no plans to give it up, so here’s to at least 4 more years!
Oh yeah, and for anyone who’s clicking off the link there, FYI my rss feed changed last year when I upgraded the software, so if you’re reading me through a reader, you need to subscribe to this link instead:
http://snargle.org/crafty/?feed=rss2
Thanks!

Alright, I’m working on a longer post, but for tonight this video is going to have to do it. For those who worry that we’re not keeping Raley occupied, here’s proof that she can entertain herself just fine. All she needs is an empty DVD case and her head. What fun!

Note the laughter… Oh, my daughter. What are we going to do with you???