Motherhood = No Proofreading.

I just reread my Christmas post and was amazed at my capacity to forget to commit to only one point of view. Quite honestly I suprised myself that I had the attention span to write for longer than 30 seconds right now let alone write coherently.

Shall we move on? Here is proof that not only do I make great baby (with help of course) but I can knit and be a mom as well. I'm particularly proud that I managed to knit something that required any amount of attention. A series of finished projects to end the year:

Witness the gifting of the endpaper mittens. Liz was very excited about finally receiving them.

Some Fetching as modelled by Liz. The perfect stroller pushing accessories. The picture was taken on the fly while riding a two horse open sleigh. Some baby booties made from some left over gifted Socks That Rock. The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's: New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One - Charlie's Seeded Heart Socks. I'm working my way through this book chapter by chapter so as not to miss anything.

Man socks! Big Feet!

Can you see the cables? Sleeves for the Robin Hood Spring cabled jacket for Fenner from this book by Zoe Mellor. CUTE!

Fenner got this party hat from her Grandma Gemmill. Have a happy New Year!!
May the first day of 2006 be spent napping in a basket of kidsilk, wrapped in a handknit blanket being protected by a homemade toy.

Fenner's First Christmas and 2 month birthday

Fenner had her stage debut playing little baby Jesus at a church pageant last week. She howled as though she were being beaten by the angel Gabriel and the second she was on stage she was glorious.

It was the first time that she was crying and I couldn't get at her - the sensation was not unlike peeling my skin off.

We went sleighriding with our whole family and you were the youngest kid *ever* to go. You didn't seem to mind and enjoyed being in your sling napping while we enjoyed horse smells and the great outdoors.

Santa came to our house for to bring lots of loot for you for the first time. It was a quiet Christmas this year and full of love for all of the blessings of the year.

I can't believe how big she's grown already. I'm ready for her to stop and take a breath so that I can soak it all in.
She's laughing now and it is the sound and feel of all that is good in the world.
It is all good.

Scheduling or Only Fools Rush In.

So Fenner slept til 10:00 am this morning. Like a dream. She wakes up during the night to feed but I'm not sure how often as I never truly wake up. We start the dance together and then I check out.

J and I have slipped into a pretty good semi-routine during the work week. Ladies keep your hands off of him. Here it is:

When J gets home from work he gets some happy baby time right before arsenic hour/happy hour sets in. After dinner while Fenner has a nap we do the dishes together - this is the rule that is as definite as we get right now. No one does the dishes by themselves, primarily this gets both of us off the hook after our work days.

Laundry - I'll do a load or two a day just so that we don't have to spend our co-parenting time on the weekend doing it but Jason always puts it away. Cooking - We're still trying to figure out how to cook full meals with a baby. I just can't wrap my head around it - I suspect listening to her cry while I do it may be in the cards. Unappealing - I admit, I am a pansy for the crying.

J does most of the other household tasks ie: mopping and cleaning. My job is to be out of the house with Fenner (stitch and bitch here we come)

Before we figured out this "babies can sleep alone" business (noone said we were smrt). J would take her for a least 30 minutes to an hour so that I could have a hot bath, a glass of wine and a book read every night. This is luxury of epic proportions and is reason alone for me to massage his very large feet every night.

We haven't had a chance to get used to being awake without Fenner yet since it only happened once. Tonight we were the guest parents at a pre-natal class. We told Fenner's birth story to close to a dozen knocked up couples. I'm thinking that this is what is keeping me awake at 4:30, am still processing the epic adventure. The story and ensuing Q and A perios (yeah, that's right a QA period) took almost the whole class.

The midwife introduced us by saying that we were a great example of a birth that was nowhere near our birth plan. It was an interesting exercise in trying to describe the sensation of going off the deep end and coming out of it with an awesome baby...who is just waking up for a snicker snacker.

Car Picnic!

Fenner went on a car picnic with Nan and Granpa Hendriks today. It's a new car and she hadn't seen Granpa in far to long.

She wasn't too impressed with Granpa's theories on why the sky was blue. Granpa was impressed she'd grown enough to have opinions.

In other news she is asleep by herself right this very minute!!! I put her to bed at 8:00 and she's still effing asleep! Am currently exploding with delight which means that this may not occur again or that she may decide to wake up before 9:00 am.

Am in the throes of suspense. Will keep you posted.

I'm eating my words and they taste like mueslix

So week 4 kicked in and true to all the pro-Mommies words....Fenner stopped sleeping all the time. To balance out the shock to my system that all this awake time has caused...Fenner has also started to laugh which is like crack to me. I love it.

Time started to fly at around the same time which my dad reminded me of when he called from the airport last night to remind me that it had been a week and a half since I'd posted.

This post is brought to you by the letter J as in Jason who was out with Fenner on their first independant adventure FOR TWO HOURS. So I got some work done and now can write while she naps...

Fenner had her first playdate with Leo.

She can use her Bumbo (THANKS AL AND MEGS!) I'm a little wary of using it too much just yet but her first trip was a lot of fun for her.

And is swathed in wool as much as possible.