Happy Holidays

Well, Thanksgiving has past and Sam is so excited to see all the Christmas lights going up in nearby houses and shops. At school, his friends are all talking about Christmas and Hanukkah plans. And at home, we are waiting impatiently for Hanukkah while planning a Christmas Day trip to Ohio. This weekend, Sam decorated our house with a "Christmas tree" that he made out of animals.

Happy holidays to everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for my sweet Sam.

It's Squishy!

On a drive across the city the other day, Sam requested the chapstick I keep in the car. This is not an uncommon occurrence, though I usually just give him the chapstick and keep the lid for a quick return. Sam wanted the top this time and claimed he would return the chapstick with the lid already on for me. Some time later, here is what we heard:

Sam: Daddy!

Ari: What, Sam?

...

Sam: It's too squishy!

And then, this is what we saw:

Football Season

We had took advantage of some nice weather on Saturday to play in our local park. Volunteer Park is a beautiful park several blocks from our house, with lots of ginormous, old trees... ...perfect for climbing monkeys.And the park is 48 acres which include a lot of open space for football tag... ...and a nice playground for happy swinging and such.

Happy Birthday to Me

Sunday was my birthday and we had a relaxing, but fun day just hanging around Ballard, visiting the farmer's market, the library, the park, and a yummy pub for lunch.

Here are a couple of shots of Sam at the park...

...and with the cake we had for dinner.

Some Shots of Sam

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging lately. We've had some things going on that have taken my attention away, but I thought I'd give you all a little dose of Sam to tide you over until I get back on track.

Here are some pictures of a recent trip to the Pacific Science Center. We went to see the Lucy exhibit, but played around in the kids' area too.

That day we also spent some time down on the waterfront and Sam got to visit one of his favorite sculptures.

Well there's some sweet Sam...until next time.

Scarfalicious

Since this blog purports to be somewhat knitting related, I thought I'd post a bit of knitting. How innovative, I know. I've been going scarf crazy pretty much since I learned to knit just over a year ago now, but particularly so since the end of summer, when I could see the cooler weather approaching. I love colorful accessories (to go with my drab clothes) and so far I have shied away from knitting garments, so scarves suit me just fine. Here is the latest one I finished.

You can see it works well with my beloved Seattle rain jacket.

The pattern I used was the Noro Scarf by brooklyntweed. I knit it in Noro Silk Garden yarn, colorway 226. I probably used about 3 skeins, though I can't be sure because I frogged a round poncho that I was unhappy with to get the yarn. It ended up a bit longer than 5 feet and is nice and squishy warm.
Good-bye, ugly round poncho.

Happy Halloween

Here's a behind the scenes look at Halloween decorating by Sam. He didn't want to get his hands dirty with the "gross stuff" in the pumpkin, so he taught me all about the different parts of a pumpkin (learned at school), designed the jack-o-lantern and then supervised the execution. He was a bit of a micro-manager, but overall his Project Management skills were superb. Besides the jack-o-lantern request for decorating the house, Sam also suggested we hang his pirate flag up on the house since, "it will be spooky for people if they think that pirates really live here."
Superman Sam really lucked out. He apparently lives in the Halloween Capitol of Seattle. Just a couple of blocks from our house are the streets that literally hundreds, if not thousands flock to for Halloween treats and tricks. It was something to behold.
Superman also ran into his friend, Obi-wan and they spent about 2 hours collecting quite a bounty. Sam is really lucky that his Dad took him out and not his lame-o mom who probably would have taken him to about 5 houses. Oh well, they had a lot of fun.
And Sam is the sweetest, most generous boy ever. For every piece of candy he eats, he lets Ari and I choose one too. Anything that there is 2 or more of, gets offered up to share. Even the favorite chocolates. Now that is really something to behold!Mmmm, chocolate and caramel!

Go Terps!

It says, "Maryland. M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D." Yay, Terps! Thanks, Auntie Betsy!

Still Tired

After a week of illness, Sam finally made it back to school for a short day on Friday. He seemed to do well, so we were hopeful for a family trip to the zoo on Saturday. Though Sam's symptoms have mostly disappeared, he's apparently still a bit on the lethargic side.

We managed to see the jaguar and the sun bears enjoying their pumpkin treats, but it may have been our quickest trip to the zoo ever. Sam was certainly interested in the new research tent on display in the jaguar area. He liked learning about the conservation work they're doing, but he seemed even more interested in trying out the camping chair and the sleeping cot with mosquito netting.

Even a ride from Daddy couldn't perk up our boy, so the rest of the weekend was spent with everyone laid out in front of the fireplace at home. No complaints here.

Recovery time

For the past few days, Sam has been pretty sick. Between Sunday night and Tuesday night, we did not have our happy, non-stop action boy. Instead we had a sickly, but snuggly miserable boy. It was heartbreaking to behold. Of course, even at his sickest, he was happy to ham it up in his new monster shirt from Auntie Betsy. "It has eight eyeballs. Isn't that silly?"
Today, he's finally seemed to turn the corner. Fever's down and pain seems to come less often. So, we have a recovery day at home. But as opposed to Monday and Tuesday, we do need a little entertainment. Sam has preferred to draw in his workbooks all day. As he puts it, "I love to color so much." His favorite type of workbooks are the math ones, but he's not kidding about the coloring. Here are some of the pages he colored on the flight back from Philadelphia last Tuesday.

Today, it's mostly numbers, and in spite of a minor injury* we've made it through half of the workbook in one continuous sitting. It's a bit much (for me), but I'm happy to have my sweet, (mostly cheery) beautiful boy back.*And that minor injury I mentioned? "Mommy, a crayon poked me in the eye. For real, Mommy."

Golden Afternoon

Today we took a drive over to Golden Garden Park in Ballard. It may have been the last of the main urban hiking parks we had left to visit in Seattle. It's a beautiful beach on the Sound and had some hiking trails through the woods that run parallel to the beach. We packed a picnic lunch and spread out a blanket to enjoy some much-appreciated afternoon autumn sun. There were a couple of beach volleyball games ongoing which captivated Sam's attention. On our walk, we found a few huge leaves. Sam collected a lovely bouquet of yellow ones as he walked quietly in order to "not disturb the dinosaurs."
Sam preferred the spectacle of a few home-made rocket launches, but we all enjoyed a lovely view from the dunes.

Happy New Year

The past couple of days we have been celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the first in a string of Jewish holidays that Sam gets off of school: 7 days in four weeks. This is a bit of a stress to manage with 2 full-time-job parents, but a good time of year to remember family traditions, start new ones, and reflect on the past and coming year. Ari began work about a year ago at the new paper and I have since started my work for the hospital. Sam stayed at the same school this year, but they moved to a new location last year and he's now moved up into the pre-K classroom. In June, we bought and moved into a new house in a new neighborhood. To celebrate the new year that has been one of transitions, we spent some time preparing some family favorite traditional recipes: tzimmes, coleslaw, and kasha varnishkes. Ari followed Harriet's instructions to make "Grandma's Meat" and Sam and I made a newer family favorite from 1,000 Jewish Recipes: Rugelach. Rugelach is a delicious stuffed cookie dough cookie and we prepared 2 versions, one with chocolate and pecans and the other with cinnamon, sugar, and walnuts--which Sam referred to as "the plain kind."

Everything was delicious. The first night we were on our own, and the second night we were joined by our cousins and switched things up just a bit for a vegan version. Thankfully Sam and Ari managed to scarf down all the meat within a day! That first night, Sam professed, "my meat is the yummiest thing on my dinner plate" even though he was a bit confused by our departure from vegetarianism and kept calling it tofu. He did seem to equally enjoy the veggie nut loaf on Tuesday night. And challah and apples tied in the "yummiest thing to dip in honey taste test contest vote." (By the by, that is only grape juice in Sam's wine glass above.)

All-in-all we had a nice holiday and Sam really enjoyed helping make all the special dishes and cookies. Here he is in his "helper costume" complete with footed Spider Man pajamas and fire chief boots.
...and his "helper apron."

Happy New Year!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Yesterday we watched the Mariner's win their last game of the season. They've lost 101 games, but rallied to beat the A's 4-3. The first inning did not look so good, but after that, you wouldn't know that the Mariner's were the worst team in baseball. And being their last game, and Kids' Appreciation Day, the crowd was pretty decent. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Our seats were high, but right behind home plate, and we loved every minute of it.

For the first time, Sam was able to make it through the whole game, if you include the break to run his own home runs on the eating area deck. He was Ichiro and he scored every time!

This trip to the ballpark was our family gift to Ari for his birthday a couple of weeks ago. With very little coaching, it was Sam's idea. Sam's job was to think of something that Ari likes a lot but that would be particularly special coming from his family. Sam came up with the baseball game and planned the special delivery of the surprise. Sam devised a card to give Ari a clue to guess the present. Here it is.

The front shows a hand holding a bat hitting a ball. Sam has written the word "bat" just in case it's not clear.

The inside shows a catcher's mitt (was much clearer before colored) and a baseball with the note to Ari that Sam dictated to me. The backside shows the 3 of us enjoying a baseball game together......and we truly did!

And Now Back to...KNITTING

I haven't been posting a lot about my knitting. Unfortunately, I haven't even been knitting much. I've had a flare up carpal tunnel syndrome or some such annoying hand/wrist/arm pain. But after religiously wearing the immobilizing brace at night for a week or so, I'm back in it. Last night I finished this scarf I have been working on for a while. I think I will block it, but it looks pretty good even without it and I wore it to work today.

I designed this simple pattern myself. I used some amazing sock yarn that I bought at Stitch-n-Pitch a few months ago. But, I'm not much of a sock knitter and I couldn't bear to hide this soft and lovely fiber on my feet. It's Pagewood Farm's Alyeska, a sock blend of merino superwash, cashmere and nylon (80/10/10).

I also have finished the other scarf I designed, so I'll be posting those 2 patterns soon. The pink zig-zag scarf turned out cute, but really too scratchy for wearing against bare skin. I will have to try my first-ever design with another yarn sometime soon.

I'm also working on a prayer shawl that I am trying desperately to get off the needles. I'm so close, but every row is longer and longer and it is getting harder and harder to work on it in the tiny bits of time that I manage to find for knitting. The pattern is nice, but the yarn is boucle and not fun to work with. I will be happy when it's done.And tonight, I wound up this lovely ball of Noro Iro. I wonder what's next?