The mother lode

On Saturday Jordan and I had a lovely day yard-saling. We got 40 bucks from the bank and started driving, with no newspaper to confuse us. We picked up a few things here and there, and then saw a sign for an estate sale. "It's probably picked over now," Jordan said. It was past 9 am and professional pillagers generally line up beginning at 6:30. "Well, let's go anyway," I said. "You never know."

The place had a bunch of fabric, lace, and assorted craft notions such as yarn. Once I got past the initial estate sale weirdness (rummaging through someone's home, which still has toiletries and clothing) I began sorting through the craft stuff and making myself a pile. Jordan and Suzi anxiously waited (Suzi was beginning to whine), so I sadly asked one of the owners to come over and give me a total. I ended up with three or four bags of stuff and paid $8.50 for it. Some of it was brand new in the packaging and even had receipts (one bunch of stuff was purchased at Piece Goods, which has since shut down, in '97). I had a great time going through all my new stuff and can't wait to figure out what I'm going to make with it all! Here's what I'm doing so far with the yarn:

It's nothing fancy, but it's going to be a blanket for Suzi. She already likes to hold it in her little fingers. I mostly wanted something to practice my double crochet on, and next I'm going to work on single crochet. My mom is going to help me make some kind of a border for it.

I do love a good yard sale, or consignment sale, or estate sale. Anyone can go to a retail establishment and get what they need, but that's no fun. If you shop the yard sales you get such good deals, and you never know what you're going to find! My brother Paul started taking me to yard sales when I was in college, and I loved it. When I first took Jordan to one he thought it was gross--until he started finding computers and video games, and now he enjoys them. Do you yard sale?

Here's an update on Suzi and her milestones:

She can clap her hands! She's been doing this about two weeks and it's cute, especially when she claps along to music. It doesn't usually make much noise but when it does it's a nice surprise for her.

She loves to climb the stairs (with one of us spotting her, of course). It's been about a month. My big girl can climb all the way to the top! This morning she climbed upstairs to find her daddy.

Teething... ugh. We keep thinking she must be teething, since she's had low-grade fevers, chewing, and overall crankiness, but so far--no teeth! Just the two bottom ones she's had for months.

And no walking yet. She can stand with just a little support (one hand on a table), and she cruises easily along the furniture, but shows little if any interest in walking independently. I think it's because she can crawl so fast!

She still looks just like Daddy!


The other day she was whining and wanted to chew on something, so I gave her a big hunk of raw carrot. She liked it even though she was only able to eat what she could shave off with those bottom two teeth.

A nice little round head looks good in hats

I've recently taken up crocheting, which is way easier for me than knitting. All I can make is hats so far. Here's my first one, which is a hat "for a hero." (Read more about it on my mom's blog here.) This hat fits an adult, but I thought it'd be cute to let Suzi wear it and take her picture.


And here's the hat I made for Suzi. I used variegated yarn, and I loved watching one color after another come across the hook. I usually get tired of working with the same old colors, but that didn't happen on this hat. I'm a little proud of it. I know it's only a simple little hat--just let me have my moment.


I'm pleased that hats look good on Suzi. I don't have a head for hats, but Jordan has a nice little round head and Suzi took after him. We knew she was going to have his head shape after the first ultrasound when I was ten weeks pregnant.