Simsek Strikes

Artist in Training

With all the busyness of the school year upon us, there has been precious little time for the creative pursuits we have all enjoyed during quieter times.  But as the weather warms, the sun reappears, and the days lengthen the children as I are all feeling the urge to make something.             

In spite of the hectic schedule of our days, I keep looking at the chairs in both our dining room and kitchen and thinking that I should make some interesting cushions.  This feeling was only intensified by Amanda's recent post, and now that I've floated my idea to my mother it has an even greater chance of coming to pass.  Maybe a trip to the fabric store is in my future.

Lexi has also been begging to make and do.  She's perpetually cutting, coloring, gluing and taping things together.  We're going through reams of paper around here, and the paints are out almost daily.  Of course, seeing Lexi and Spencer paint makes Ellie want to paint, too.  And while she is mildly interested in the mess-free Color Wonder finger paints, her real passion is water color--both with brush and fingers.   It's been too long, and she was thrilled to dip her fingers in color yet again this week.

The Week in Pictures

Our quarantine has officially ended, but here's a brief look back at the last week of itchy spots and at-home activities.

From the land of itchy spots, strange potions, and big tents:  hope your weekend is full of good health and big smiles!

Random Bits of News

Potty Trained at Last!

At risk of jinxing the whole thing, I am cautiously announcing that we are finally down to only one in diapers.  Apparently, learning he had control of the poop was the only real impediment to Spencer's success.  It seems almost obvious now that until recently he didn't believe himself capable of pooping on the pot, and therefore couldn't see any good reason to bother with the rest.  I can see his point.  And now it's as though he's been potty trained forever. Since the first, triumphant poop he has had exactly one two accidents.  Still, it's a beautiful thing, world.  A beautiful thing.

Lexi is thrilled, of course, because this has meant finally dipping into the poop-rewards toy stash that Daddy brought home weeks ago.  One of the items was a Backyardigans circus train.  This seems like a great choice since Spencer is a big fan of the Backyardigans, but there was some disappointment, too.  The train does all sorts of fun things, but it only comes with one character.  "Where are the rest?"  they both wanted to know.  I explained as clearly as possible that the other characters were sold separately, not with the train.  No, this doesn't seem to make sense, but that way the people who made the toy could get people to buy more stuff and make more money.  Lexi nodded her head knowingly.  Ah, Marketing 101 for preschoolers.

A few days later I overheard Lexi explaining this to friends we had at the house:  "...No, Pablo's the only one that came with the train.  It's like this:  Do you know about 'Each Sold Separately'?'"

Knit News

I'm a bad, bad blogger because I am too tired to take pictures and post them at the moment, but I finally finished the hat after several false starts.  I did abandon the spiral pattern for now.  I may return to it when I'm feeling a little braver, but after failing to make it work even with stitch markers (I have since figured out the problem, I think) I turned to a simpler pattern:  The Brangelina Hat pattern by Crazy Aunt Purl.   It was quick and easy to work, and best of all it FITS!  Well, that and Crazy Aunt Purl cracks me up regularly.

I'm almost done the first of Spencer's socks and now that Lexi happily wears her mom-made pair, he's ready to try his too.  Like now.  If not sooner, thank you.  His are a variegated blue/grey/black version of the same self-striping sock yarn that I've used for both the other pairs and frankly, I'm not sure I'll get them done before the cold weather passes.  I'll have to hope that his feet don't grow too much between now and next winter!

And finally, I've finished off Spencer's blanket and begun one for Ellie.  To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with Spencer's.  Once I got into it I decided I didn't really like working with the boucle and the large needles were cumbersome and awkward.  I still love the colors, but I know it would be years before I finished it at the rate I was going.  I offered him the choice:  he could help me unravel it (always a big hit) and I'd start over with a new pattern, or I could cast-off where I was and he could have it right away.  He wanted it NOW and has been carrying it all over the house ever since.  I may not be thrilled, but he loves it and I guess that's what's important.

I am really enjoying starting Ellie's blanket, though.  I got the (free!) Ten Stitch Blanket pattern from Ravelry, and it's SO simple and fun.  It took me a few practice turns to figure out how to do the corners, but once I figured it out the rest was cake.  I was eying some beautiful self-striping Noro on line that I would have loved to have used, but several balls of that was decidedly not in the budget (apparently I have expensive tastes in yarn, too), so I picked up a few balls of Wool-Ease at Michael's and got started.  I am enjoying the spiraling pattern already:  just enough challenge without being so complicated that I get lost and have to keep running back to the pattern.  I can tell that this one will keep me addicted for a bit:  a good thing if I'm ever to finish yet another blanket!

Chicken Pox, Anyone?

Is it possible to have natural immunity to the chicken pox--like from birth? 

As Lexi sailed effortlessly through her week of spots we kept a close eye on Spencer, watching and waiting.  As always, they squabbled, wrestled, cuddled, and basically shared everything for the entire contagious period.  Surely he would be spotted soon. 

The days passed.  We played games and camped out inside and built forts.  We counted Lexi's spots.  Spencer's boundless energy never flagged.  His temperature never fluctuated.  His head and belly felt "just fine".  His skin stayed clear.

Lexi's spots are all but gone now.  One or two hints of blemish can be found, but looking at her you'd never guess she'd recently had the chicken pox.   And Ellie and Spencer?  Not a hint of poxiness.  A chest cold?  Yes, Ellie's got that.  But chicken pox seems to have skipped them entirely.  We're not vaccinated against it or anything so I'm starting to wonder:  what do you have to do to give a kid chicken pox around here?

A Little Fishy

Well, we may soon have a 21 gallon freshwater rock display.  The disease that Ruby brought into our tank not only hastened her demise, but it is slowly consuming Nemo, too.  After almost 5 years it looks like the big guy might not be long for this world.

I'm not sure what it is that's eating him from the inside out, but it seems to be winning.  I've treated him for every kind of ailment that I can think of from parasites to bacterial infections and nothing has worked.  The lovely people on the goldfish boards are stumped. 

Now, fish aren't exactly the pet I'd imagined we'd have, but we've grown a bit attached to the big guy just the same. He's outlived all his tankmates, and we'd begun to think him invincible.  All of the kids have enjoyed watching him swim about, and they were so relieved when he survived the super cold temps of the power outage.  So it's a little sad to contemplate losing him after all this time, but honestly, it doesn't look good for him.

The lesson here?  Don't buy fish from PetCo--especially if any of the guys in the tank look sick! 

The Home School Question Answered, at Least for Now

I am officially preparing to home school Lexi next year.  It's a bit daunting, I'll admit, but the more I've looked and talked and read the better I feel about it.  It feels like a fit for us academically, financially, and personally. 

There are hundreds and hundreds of curricula out there from which to choose, so finding a fit that way was a little more complicated.  Sure, there are recommendations and reviews galore, but they certainly don't form a consensus.  What works for one family or child may not work for another.  The range of educational philosophies is broad and of course there are no cut-and-dried 'right' approaches. 

Having never done this before, I wanted to find a program that provided some structure and support with a scope and sequence that covered all the bases.  From there, we can build and adapt as necessary.  I settled on the Kolbe Academy Home School Program, a Catholic program with a reputation for solid academics and a flexible approach which defers to the parent to make the final decisions.  

We recently visited a family locally who've been using the Kolbe program to school their four girls, and it was a great experience.  The girls were happy, well-adjusted, and eloquent.  They spoke enthusiastically about their learning experiences from science and math to classic literature and languages.  They eagerly ran to get their microscope when they discovered some crystallization in their play-doh, and talked excitedly about the things they were reading.  The most impressive thing, though, wasn't that they'd been studying Latin since the early grades, or their eagerness to read the Greek classics, but the enthusiasm they still had for learning in general.  I want that  for my own family.  I want the thrill of learning that my children have now to stay alive and thrive as they grow. 

I'm sure that, like all of parenting, this will bring challenges I can't begin to imagine at this point, but I'm getting excited to try just the same!

Lexi 's Art Evolution

Is wasn't so long ago that Lexi's drawings were basically color studies.  As late as age four-and-a-half she wasn't particularly interested in making her art representational.  Oh, sure, there'd be an occasional balloon-head character with facial features, but more often than not it was arrangements of color.  Friends and relatives were always reviewing her art with the typical questions:  Oh, Lexi, that's nice...What is it?  

As much as possible I tried to avoid directing her creations.  I knew that there are certain things to look for in children's art:  how many details did they include in their depiction of a face or a person, for example.  But I rather liked her bold and unique fields of color and I wasn't in a particular rush to see them end. Yes, when she invited me to draw with her I would sketch something from the room or from a book, but this seemed to have little impact on her art.  It wasn't until she went to preschool and watched other children drawing houses and people and trees that she decided to try her hand at representational art. 

Since then she hasn't looked back.  She's tackled colored pencils, acrylics, watercolor, markers, chalk and tempra, with equal enthusiasm.  She's designed her own collages and mosaics with paper, card stock, fabric, and random found objects.  And with each new creation she's depicting something familiar and important to her:  most often the subjects are family, friends, home, and favorite animals.

But she branches out and surprises me, too.  Some of her creations are begging for frames and once we are free from quarantine I need to address that need.  She's painted a row of houses in watercolor that I adore.  We  recently visited my brother at work where Lexi did a fantastic sketch one of the planes in pen and ink.  She's begun to take out our nature books to practice reproducing pictures of birds, shells, and animals--and not just in drawings.  She's taken to cutting out colored paper bits and assembling them to make birds, too, all on her own. 

She often surprises me with the degree of planning she brings to these projects.  A typical project request will go something like this:

Mommy, I can I please do an art project now?

Sure, Lexi, what do you want to do?

Well, this project will require construction paper, glue, colored pencils, some of this box, and some paint.      I'll need your help with the box, though:  can you cut out these triangles for me?

And she'll be off.  Often she will want the final product to be a surprise so she'll sequester herself in the dining room behind the child gate and remind anyone who walks by not to look until she's done. 

The only problem is where do I put all the art?  This is a serious question.  I have so much 'keeper' art from this child that I don't know what to do with it all.  I have a portfolio full in the basement, a file cabinet drawer full in at the desk, a drawer full in her room, a display wire in the play room (for all the kids' art) and I still have piles around the house without homes.  I love all the creating, but I'm beginning to feel as though we need a gallery wing on the house!

What I'm Loving:: Lexi Knits

"Mommy, will you teach me to knit like you do?"

I've heard this request before, and each time we have tried. I pull out a hopeful ball of yarn and some needles, and cast on a handful of stitches.  Lexi watches intently and tries to get her fingers to do her bidding.  The yarn slips, her fingers get tangled, the needles don't cooperate, she can't remember what goes where.  Each time she winds up in my lap, her hands and mine holding the needles together while I guide the yarn and needles and she studies.  And after a while she gives up and forgets about knitting for a few more weeks.

Then, last month, we picked up knitting tower at Michael's.   Unlike the one in that link, this was a little plastic device with a revolving top, but it works in the same manner.  The yard is threaded over the fingers on the top and worked around in a circle to knit cords.  Lexi was enthralled.  She sat down that afternoon and knit a cord that stretched across the room.  She wanted to decorate next year's Christmas tree with it.  She was in love.

So it was only a matter of time before she asked to try straight needles again.  Again we pulled out my size 10 straight needles, some worsted weight yarn, and cast on a handful of stitches.  Again I sat her in my lap and walked slowly through the motions while she watched carefully.  Then we wrapped the yarn around her index finger and put the needles in her hands.  Carefully and with great concentration she wrapped and threaded the yarn around the back and pulled it "through the door".  Her first independent stitch appeared and she pulled the end off the left needle to start again.  Over and over with decreasing amounts of help, Lexi knit one stitch after another until she'd completed her first row. She was thrilled!

I purled back (one stitch type at a time here) and she did it again.  Now she wants to knit whenever she has free time.  It still requires some guidance from me and some occasional repairs, but she's getting better each time.  I still can't quite believe she's mastering the coordination, but she is.  It won't be long before she's ready to learn the purl stitch too and then we can sit and knit together!

Now she wants to knit a blanket.  How's that for ambition?  Given how tenacious she can be I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled it off!  For now, though, we're both just happy to see each little row materialize on her needles as the swatch she began grows ever larger.

  

What I'm Loving: My New Needles

My hat has had several false starts, but it's underway again thanks to the wonderful new needles Paulo gave me for my birthday.  The set is exactly what I needed to save me several trips out to the store for the right size, and it's made finding patterns to use with my existing stash easier since I've have so many more sizes available to make gauge! And did I mention that they're as lovely to look at as they are to work with? 

Here's hoping that I complete this hat before the season's out!

That Hat!

Oh, the saga of my hat continues! My first attempt was a simple ribbed hat.  The ribbing went just fine, but I was guessing on how deep to make it before beginning my decreases, and I was off.  A lot.  It was a beanie for Lexi's little head. Almost.  I unraveled it.

Searching for more hat ideas, I joined Ravelry, where I found this wonderful pattern. It seemed just perfect:  not too complicated, but something new and slightly challenging.  Uh-huh.  So, I cast on and ribbed the bottom and began (I thought) the spiral pattern.  Well, it seems that I wasn't too good at identifying the yarn-overs at first.  Well, I got it figured out after a few rows and I thought that maybe, with the bulky lumpy-ish yarn, it would be forgiving of my early mistakes.

Nope!

After a few inches it was clear that I'd screwed up early on.  Back to the beginning.  I unraveled it again, this time down to the ribbing, and put it on my circular needles instead of the DPNs.  This time, I'm marking all my yarn-overs and knitted yarn-overs so that I don't mess up the pattern.  It's mostly working.  I did miss a K2tog on one row, but I caught it quickly.  I can't help hoping that, as Julia so succinctly put it, I "don't screw up more"!

A Bit of Making...

It's been a busy week!  But instead of detailing all the things we've done, I wanted to show you a couple of the projects going on here. 

First, I finally completed the socks I've been trying to make for Lexi since the fall.  I had some great help from Ronke, who pointed me towards a free child's sock pattern on line, and Kim, who sent me a sock-knitting pattern book from which I learned a lot (like don't bother trying to make socks with cotton yarn).  Together with the pattern I used to make my socks, I was able to finally make Lexi a pair of socks that actually FIT!  It tasted like victory, it really did, to finally graft the second toe and hand my daughter her first pair of mom-made socks.  She grinned with delight and promptly sat down to put them on.  Thrilled, I asked her to pull up her pants' legs so that I could photograph the end product. 

The joy lasted approximately 2.5 minutes.

"Mom?"
 "Yes, sweetie?"
"My feet itch in these!  Oooooh, they really itch! Oooh, oooh, ooooh!!!!"

And with that the socks came back off and her two bare feet ran off.  Unfortunately, I have another pair to make because Spencer wants his own.  I suggested that Lex might give hers to Spencer since they itched, but she would not hear of it.  I'm pretty sure that Spencer will be about as thrilled with the feel of the wool as Lexi, but he is adamant that it's not fair and he should have his own.

For myself, I've cast on a hat (I hope) in the creamiest, softest bulky bamboo blend.  It is just buttery soft in my hands and lovely to work with.  I'm not sure how the hat itself will turn out:  I really just fell in love with the yarn and have been unable to find a suitable pattern so I'm winging it a bit with help from several sources.  Sound familiar?  But oh, look how yummy:

And the kids have been doing some making as well. Thanks to the wonderful book my mom bought for us this week, we decided to dive into some fish.  The illustrations from the book were really fancy, but the execution was a little trickier than I'd anticipated.  Still, we learned quite a bit and are eager to try again soon.  Maybe next time we'll try snakes or lizards!

Note to Self: Tinfoil tears easily.  Permanent marker is, um, permanent. Next time, set this project up someplace OTHER than your hardwood floor. (See middle of kitchen floor if you need a reminder.)

What We've Been Up To

There's been sock-knitting (me--more on that soon) and cord-knitting, (Lexi has been learning on a knitting tower--but that's for another post), painting, games, and lots of reading of course.  There have also been collages, drawing, coloring, playing in the snow, playing at the YMCA, finger-puppet theater, and a little dreaming about warmer climes.  Ellie's ready for the beach already!

Spencer Shoots Christmas

So we decided that Spencer was ready for a 'real' camera this year.  If this seems hasty, keep in mind that he has been shooting pictures with my camera for the last year, and some of them have been really decent shots.  Of course, that didn't convince the electronics clerk at Target when we told him we were looking for a real digital camera for our 3 year old! You can imagine the look.  In fact, you may have that same look on your face right now reading this.  Check in the mirror.  If you're like me it could be completely involuntary!

Funny looks aside, we got Spencer the cheapest little digital camera available without cartoons printed on it:  a Polaroid a530.  It weighs only slightly more than a credit card and has no extra memory, but Spencer doesn't care.  It's the real thing and he knows how to use it.  His little fingers got right to work figuring out how to take pictures, and how to review them.  And to his credit, he got some of the only pictures of me or Paulo taken on Christmas.  With his own Spencer flair, of course.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

Out of respect for his work I have done nothing to them other than occasionally fixing some red-eye.  He hasn't quite figured out how to turn off the flash.