Monkey girls

Picture-heavy post with no yarn, and lots of kid pix. Consider yourself warned.

Last year we took Devil trick or treating on Halloween with our neighbors, who also have two small girls approximately the same age as Devil and Boo. Devil and her buddy A rode in the wagon, while A's sister slept comfortably in a stroller (being all of 2 months old at the time, she was not particularly interested in, nor impressed by, Halloween). The girls were a bit underwhelmed by the whole process (why are we going for a walk in the dark?), but the highlights of the night included:

1) Devil and A absentmindedly chewing on their candy without taking the wrappers off, and the realizing that there was chocolate in there! A actually ate an entire Hershey's Kiss with the foil still on. (The foil was rescued before it could be swallowed).

2) Some wonderful soul leaving a cooler outside their front door with a sign saying "Parents Trick or Treat". It was full of beer. Budweiser, but beer nonetheless. Porpoise was quite peeved at being pregnant and therefore the only parental figure not imbibing.

This year, we did it right. There was Devil-assisted costume production,

That sweater is the one I mentioned at the end of this post

Jack o' lantern carving (Boo was more interested in eating newspaper),

and finally, Devil and Boo were properly outfitted to head off to daycare in their matching monkey suits.

They had lots of fun trick-or-treating at Daddy's office.

Big spider!

Last night we headed out with A and T (princess and leopard respectively), and raked in the loot. No more were these girls content to sit in the wagon and be wheeled around. Oh no. "Mama, let's go to that house!", "Mama, let's get more candy!", "Mama, can you open this lollypop for me pleeeeeeease!" Unfortunately, the parental treats were not in evidence, but we got supplied at A and T's house and set off to wander the neighborhood for hours. Or so it seemed...

And at the end of the night, there were lollypops.

Uh oh

Notice: due to the impending arrival of All Hallow's Eve, and the fact that knitting and fiber play have pushed out vital costume construction activities, all fiber-related projects are hereby banned until such time as A) Porpoise has completed one (1) blue monkey costume and one (1) matching purple monkey costume (thankfully in a smaller size), or B) it's Halloween and my kids trick-or-treat nekkid.

Which, given the fact that we are in The South, is maybe not such a bad idea.

PS - Thanks Red Sox!

FO: Silly socks for a silly girl

Just in case you were concerned about the lack of knitting content in this supposed knitting blog, here's a pair of socks for the wee Devil:

Pattern: my own toddler-sized interpretation of Mata Hari (detailed below)

Needles: Susan Bates US1

Yarn: Knit Picks Dancing

Started: on vacation in the UK, around 8/30/07

Finished: 9/25/07

Comments: I just made up the pattern as I went along, after several abortive attempts to get the right size. I ended up casting on 48 stitches, knitting 6 rounds of k2, p2 rib and then started the pattern. Pattern row: knit 6, k2tog, yo. Repeat to end of round. Then knit three rows plain. On the next pattern row, on the first repeat knit 5, k2tog, yo. The other repeats are still k6, k2tog, yo. This shifts the eyelet over one stitch so they end up spiraling around the leg. I worked the leg until the first repeat of the pattern started with a yo (about 8 repeats), and then knit one round before starting the heel. Short row heel - I did short rows down to 6 live stiches, but I'd do fewer short rows next time since the heels are a little narrow and pointy when they're on the feet. Once the heel was do, I knit 2 rounds and started up with the pattern again. Worked the same distance for the foot, knit one round and then began decreases for the toe.

Toe decreases: row 1, k1, ssk, knit to last 3 stitches on far side of toe, k2tog, k1. Repeat on back of toe. Next row: knit all stitches. I repeated these two rows 5 times, then worked row 1 every row until there were 12 stiches total left. Then grafted the toes together and started sock 2!

Devil was very excited to have a new pair of silly socks. They weren't as silly as I had been envisioning since I remembered the yarn looking like this:

Instead of like this:

But so be it. She immediately put them on her hands and started dusting off the coffee table. Clearly not my child!

Gotta get this place cleaned up...

Look! Silly socks!

On the care and feeding of Devils, Part II

So last night I was sitting on the couch nursing Boo and perusing the latest issue of Newsweek. Devil took a break from zooming around the room singing about Old MacDonald's farm (E I E I OOOOOOO) to scramble up next to me.

D: Who dat Mama? (pointing to picture in magazine)

P: (chuckle) That's Homer Simpson.

D: (long pause) Dat's a monkey!

P: No sweetie, that's Homer Simpson. He's a TV character.

D: No Mama, dat's a monkey!

She may be on to something.

I survived

my first weekend with two children as a single parent. IronMan is in the midst of a 10-day trip to South America. While Nana was able to be here all of last week, she had to go home on Friday to entertain some weekend houseguests, so I was on my own with Devil and Boo for the entire weekend.

They were spectacular. I realized that lots of activities were going to be necessary or there would be murder, so we kept busy and they very obligingly napped at the same time both afternoons. Thank goodness - Mama needed her down time! (And needed spinning time!) But all in all, it was a great success.

Now they're back in day care and I'm waiting for the tree trimmers to come. It might be time to clean up the disaster area, I mean the biohazard zone, I mean the house.