Now that the weather is warm, Margaret’s ability to open the front door by herself presents certain issues. Over the past month or so I’ve gone through a couple of renditions of what I expect to be the first of many serious conversations. I have begun explaining about the bad people.

There are bad people in this world, bad people who sometimes steal little kids and hurt them. I worry about that and I don’t want that happening to my babies, so you must not go out into the front yard without me or Hongmei or Daddy. You need to stay where I can see you so that I can keep you safe.

When I delivered the talk again yesterday she seemed to be getting it. “I could get a bad boo-boo?” I agreed, that yes she could get a very bad boo-boo, and declined to muddy the issue by explaining that a boo-boo was the very least of my worries. I don’t want to scare her, or come off like I’m worrying over nothing. I just want to explain the truth to her in simple terms that a not-quite-four-year-old can understand, because while I like to believe that most people in the world are basically good or at least well-intentioned, there are some very bad people out there who if given the opportunity might very well snatch a wandering child off the street and do unspeakable things. I don’t want to waste too much energy worrying about it, but it is my job to keep my kids safe so it must always be in the back of my mind, and so help me if any bad people try to hurt my kids a bad boo-boo will be the very least of their worries.

Hand-knit wool socks really are quite nice on a rainy, chilly morning.

I haven’t done a yarn post in ages. I was doing them monthly, but then last spring I lost my knitting/crocheting mojo for a little while, and while the mojo came back, the monthly yarn updates didn’t. Now I feel like posting a yarn update, leading with socks of all things.

I’m not really a sock knitter. In fact, until I was pregnant with Margaret the closest I came to making socks was doing some felted booties as a means to turn leftover scraps of bulky or aran weight wool into gift items. It’s not that I don’t like socks, I just don’t wear them much at all. My wardrobe consists nearly entirely of skirts and dresses, so I wear tights. At least I wear tights when I can.

When I was pregnant with Margaret I started to learn the many betrayals of maternity tights. Since I am a dress wearer, maternity dresses seemed the way to go, except that left me in need of tights that fit. I quickly found that maternity tights are insanely expensive, and that they do not work well. The opaque variety just aren’t stretchy enough up top and by sixteen weeks in they seem no different than regular tights. The sheer variety just don’t survive for more than one wearing. I’m used to getting a few dozen uses out of a pair of sheer tights that costs me about a quarter of what maternity sheers do. I learned that buying plus sized tights will work through the second trimester so long and I don’t mind the waistband of the tights ending around my lower ribcage, but for the third trimester I needed another solution, and that was when I knit a few pairs of socks.

My first pair of socks taught me an important lesson: the standard hand-knit sock cuff length does not work with my calf shape. I need to have either socks that end somewhere around my ankle, or I need knee socks with lots of calf shaping. I quickly knit up two pairs of socks in a pretty little anklet pattern, and these served me well during the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Margaret. They also got some wear during winters when wearing wool socks over my tights was a good way to keep warm, and of course when I was pregnant with Duncan they got worn with some sock-yarn leg warmers that I’d made previously. Sadly, both these pairs of socks have developed huge holes in the heels and I had to throw them out. I do have two pairs of stranded color-work knee socks that I’ve made, but those were made for wearing over tights on sub-zero winter days and aren’t what I want for wearing while heavily pregnant during the summer. Now I need to replace the anklets, with a few extra for good measure.

I completed my first pair or replacement pregnancy anklets just over a week ago, and I’m enjoying them for the second wearing today.



These are made from Socks that Rock Heavyweight in Green-Eyed Monster that I had left over from a sweater I knit for Duncan. The pattern is the Thuja pattern from the Knitty archive, converted to an anklet by just knitting less leg. I chose the pattern based on the yarn I had, with the help of a ravelry search to find sock patterns that other users found worked well for the STR HW. I have three more skeins of STR HW on order to make more socks, either with the same pattern or one of the other popular free patterns for this yarn. I’m sticking with the same yarn (in different colors) because socks knit up really quickly in the heavier yarn, it is very suitable for their expected post-pregnancy usage as an extra layer of warmth, and because I have a long, ongoing project for STR HW is assorted colors.



Hexapuffs are a craze that is sweeping ravelry. The official pattern name is the Beekeeper’s Quilt. The pattern calls for leftover sock yarn. Technically, I am using sock yarn, since Socks that Rock Heavyweight is meant for socks, but most sock yarn is classified as fingering or sport weight, and the STR HW is a noticeably heavier DK weight. I just happened to have a lot of STR HW leftovers at the time the craze hit, and it’s a blanket so gage shouldn’t matter. Warren noticed the box of hexapuffs sitting on the floor the other day and asked what they were for. I explained, and he took another look at the thick, polyfill-stuffed hexagon he was holding and observed that it would be a very warm quilt. “It’s for Duncan,” I replied. That was all I needed to say.

I’ve only just started knitting for this baby. I wanted to be sure he was healthy first. It’s late to be getting started, but I’m pretty sure I can get his blanket, a couple of sweaters and a hat or two done in time. I’m about halfway done with a sweater now. I need to get started on the seed stitch blanket of doom soon. I took one of those to the hospital for Margaret and for Duncan, and it’s become important to me that each of my babies have their own.

As most of the local folks will have noticed, we continue to have spurts of unseasonably warm weather, which the kids are enjoying. The water in the official water feature at our local park is still turned off, but the water in the drinking fountain is on, so clever children can still make mud. The season of park trips that routinely end in a bath is upon us.

( It's a pictures post... )

I would like to note that I can still carry all my children at once, for short distances anyway. I keep expecting this to change. The big question is will I run out of strength before I run out of arms?

Does anyone know where I can get a third arm installed? Also, a second head may be useful. Not only could I really rock the Zaphod Beeblebrox look, but with two kids one head is barely up to the task or keeping track of them.

I had Friday off from work, and since nailing people to large wooden objects isn’t my thing I took the kids out for a day of outings and errands.

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The chromosomes say I'm carrying a healthy boy. Yay! Chances are good I'll have a take-home baby sometime in late August.

A month or so ago Warren linked to an article about an incident where a monitor in a cafeteria decided that the bagged lunch a child’s mother had packed for her didn’t meet the state’s requirements (even though it actually did), and forced the kid to get a cafeteria lunch instead and charged the parent for said lunch. It may seem like an isolated incident, and in this case there was some overreaching, but if things continue as they are I worry that it is more a sign of things to come.

It may interest you to know that the lunches I packed for Margaret to eat at preschool last week would not have measured up to the standards of the school in the article. I would have been in violation. What did I pack for Margaret? Last week both lunches contained a baby back rib (leftover from a Red Bones order), a generous handful of baby spinach leaves, 5 or 6 baby carrots, a clementine orange, a strawberry, and an 8 ounce bottle of water. I’m hoping that right about now you are wondering what the heck was wrong with those lunches. Obviously since I packed them I think they were just fine, and given that Margaret ate everything except the strawberry (which she shared with Duncan at home) and some of the spinach I’m guessing she was satisfied with her lunch. The “problem” with the lunches I packed for Margaret last week was that they contained neither a grain nor a dairy item. Would Margaret’s lunch have been healthier if I’d omitted some of the fruit and vegetable items and instead added in a handful of pretzels and a piece of cheese? I don’t think so, but that would have made it comply with the standards of the school in the article. Luckily for me the only constraint Margaret’s preschool puts on lunches is that they not contain anything that is allergenic to any of her classmates. It’s a bit of a pain that I can’t give her some things she loves (walnuts, cashews, grapes), but at least they’re not micro-managing what I do pack.

I know there are some bad parents out there. I know that there are some parents who no doubt send their kids off to school with a bag of chips, a can of soda, and a sandwich containing some heavily processes meat, and they consider that OK. I know that there are more and more overweight and obese children out there. I know that people want to do something when they see bad parenting. The problem is, what constitutes bad parenting is often not clear cut. If I had a child who was both lactose and gluten intolerant, being forced to include both a grain and a dairy item in each and every lunch would be bad for them in a way that most people I know can understand. I also imagine that my vegan friends would be horrified if they were required to provide their kids with both a meat and a dairy item in each and every lunch. Most of the parents I know care about what foods they give their child. Having specific regulations on what must be in a school lunch is intrusive and an unnecessary burden on the majority of parents who know their child better than anyone else and who do their best to give their child food that is reasonably nutritious and something their child is willing to eat.

While we haven’t personally had any issues with food, we have been affected by how heavily preschools are regulated in this state. Margaret’s preschool has a mandatory nap period right after lunch. This is due to state regulations for kids her age. The thing is, Margaret stopped napping on a daily basis over a year ago, and she’s down to napping maybe once a week these days. Some kids just need less sleep than other kids the same age. Duncan has consistently needed more sleep than Margaret did at a similar age, so I don't think my parenting is the only factor in how little Margaret sleeps. When Duncan’s three and a half he may well benefit from a daily nap, but right now it’s wasted time for Margaret who is bored during this time and does not want to stay on her mat. I’m assuming that since Margaret’s school is a Montessori school that if it were up to them they’d try to find some solution that met the individual needs of each child if it were not for the state regulations. State regulations are also keeping Duncan out of the preschool next year. The preschool is licensed for kids who are 2.75 years old and older. Duncan will be a few weeks shy of this in September. In theory we could ask the school to try to get a waiver and take him, but when I asked about this the director said that her inspector had previously told her that he would not give her a waiver for any child, and the child she’d been asking about then was only three weeks shy of the cut-off. Why? They’re worried about evacuating the building in case of a fire, and “toddlers” need more help walking than “preschoolers”. I’ve no idea what sort of magic they expect to happen between 2.6 years old and 2.75 years old in terms of walking. I’d also note that Duncan has been walking on his own since before he was 10 months old and currently runs, jumps, climbs ladders twice his height, and can follow instructions. I understand that having some regulations on preschools is a good thing, but there needs to be some recognition that kids are individuals who do not have uniform needs. In other word's, I'd be a lot happier with a system where the people who know and interact with the individual children have some leeway to use their judgement.

My big worry is where does this stop? It seems that the lives of kids are getting more and more regulated, and I don’t think it’s a good thing. Kids are individuals, and sweeping regulations meant to cover everyone are just going to get in the way of taking care of each individual child. We're not raising an army of clones, or at least I don't think we should be trying to.

I got some preliminary results from my amnio this morning. The final results which will be more accurate and which will test for mosaicism won't be available for another week or more, but so far so good. The quick and dirty test showed normal karyotypes, and also indicated that the fetus had both an X and a Y chromosomes. I'll wait for the full results before breathing a sigh of relief and knitting anything, but its a promising sign.

It's too bad it looks like Margaret will be the only girl in her generation (my sister has two boys, Warren's brother has three boys), but I expect that she will make the most of it.

It'll be another two weeks before I expect to have the results of the amnio, but what the ultrasound showed was encouraging. There was a nice four-chambered heart, attached to an aorta. There were kidneys and a bladder. There was a stomach. There was a nasal bone. The spine, arm bones, leg bones, etc. all looked good. In other words there weren't any obvious worrying defects. It's not definitive, but it's a good sign. There was also a brief glimpse of what looked like boy parts, but again we should have definitive word on that when the amnio results are available.

The procedure itself was less uncomfortable than last time. Part of that was that the person wielding the needle this time looked like she had a good three decades on the woman who did it last time. It was also good that I several solid hours of relaxation afterwards. I had a few practice contractions one the way home, but I drank my water and spent some quality time in bed, and all was well. Logistics were not as smooth for those around me, alas. I tried to be quiet, but Margaret woke up just as I was getting ready to leave and proceeded to freak out in spite of my best attempts to calm her down. I had to give up and just go to make it to the appointment on time, and just as I was leaving I heard that she woke Duncan up as well, so there was Warren stuck with two screaming kids at 6:30 AM. (Warren is really not a morning person.) Duncan apparently gave up on Daddy altogether and with Mommy AWOL he went downstairs on his own to find Hongmei around 6:45. Margaret gave her gracious afternoon chauffeur the cold shoulder. (Thanks Meg!) In short, the amnio was a much better experience for me than last time, but at the cost of collateral damage to the people around me.

Of course the real test of how well it went is what the results are. Obviously I'm anxiously awaiting those. In the mean time, I have my first ever 3-D ultrasound pic to console myself with.

My amnio is the day after tomorrow. I won’t get the actual results until two weeks later, but since they’re going to be doing the anatomy survey at the same time, I’ll at least get an indication as to whether or not there is any obvious, visible problem. I’m looking forward to it because I really want the data, but I’m not exactly looking forward to the procedure itself.

I think it’s fair to say that I have extensive experience when it comes to medical procedures relating to the female reproductive system. (That would be one hsg, one laproscopy to remove endo, two hystasonograms, 5 egg retrivals, one prior amnio, and a D&E.) From a physical point of view, the amnio is the procedure I find the most difficult. Yes, strangely enough, just sticking a needle into me and grabbing a bit of amniotic fluid was more uncomfortable than having my dead baby vacuumed out through my cervix. Keep in mind here that I do not have any issues about being stuck with needles, which is good considering all the progesterone in oil I’ve been injected with. Last time around I figured it would be no big deal, and then I had enough Braxton-hicks contractions afterwards to make me really nervous. This time around I’m taking the day off with the plan of coming home and downing a gallon of water and going to bed. I’ll have to go fetch Margaret from preschool, but other than that I should get plenty of rest, which is the best thing I can think of to ward off contractions. I kind of like to have this iron-woman self-image when it comes to all the medical stuff, and I generally don’t take time off unless it’s essentially mandatory because of sedation, but this is one time when I am overriding that inclination because I know that keeping this baby safely inside me is more important than my ego. I just hope everything goes well and the results show a healthy fetus.