Tricksy Knitter.com apparently has a chart designer, which I'll try out later now that I have a working log in. Unfortunately it won't save charts unless you're logged in, so I just lost an knit-purl chart that was intended to let me do a cornered edge for a blanket I'm trying to make, but I'll just re-do it later. It should be a pretty cool tool though.

Tired again

So... yeah. We had another crazy night. Mini Monster apparently decided to have some kind of stomach problem, and needed two diaper changes for really poopy very uncomfortable diapers during the night, and would not sleep in his own crib. Every time we tried to put him down, he'd wake up crying, no matter how soundly he'd just been asleep with us. It was extremely frustrating for all parties, since we were all incredibly tired. I gave up after about three rounds early in the night, including the diaper change. ((If anyone thought they heard loud, furious screeching, that would have been MiniMonster howling his righteous fury about having his butt wiped.Of course I probably would have been mad too, since...

  You get the idea.

 He wasn't too impressed to have cream applied either, but that did help him once he decided to get over the indignation.

 After that I gave up and brought him to bed with us, where he set up another yowl until he found Tilmani with his reaching, grabbed on, and snuggled up to his dad.

 We got a couple hours of sleep after that, before he woke up needing another change, ((This time Tilmani took care of it)) and something like four rounds and a bottle ((At two in the morning)) later, we finally convinced him to sleep in his own bed.

 Of course by that point we were pretty much guaranteed to be total zombies... and we even slept in by half an hour and didn't realize it. OOF.

 Here's hoping things settle down.

 Oh, I've also changed the archiving on the blog: Any thoughts? Does everyone like daily archiving better? Or weekly? Trying to be convenient but also friendly to those people out there who still have slower net.

Who Needs Sleep

Today was an "Who Needs Sleep" day. MiniMonster woke up at one, apparently he had a nightmare, and it took him a while to get back to sleep. Me, I didn't really -get- back to sleep. I just kind of did an off and on doze, and crawled out of bed at six.

I got running on a cup of coffee and a can of Red Bull ((otherwise known as my "Ultra Emergency Stash". I try and avoid the stuff unless I'm pretty sure that there's no way I'll function at a human level.

I started off feeling pretty Jeckel and Hyde, and just generally crabby, but fortunately the caffeine kicked in after a couple hours, and I mellowed out. As a second blessing, apparently the Monster somehow keyed in to the idea that Mommy was dead tired, and was very sweet today.

Haven't repaired his mitten yet, but I did cast on for a new hat for him. It's a little beret in sock yarn. I got some really nice hand died merino from "Creature Comforts" on Etsy, the owner of which I've actually talked to on GaiaOnline. The color is called "Iago" after the character in Shakesphere, and is shades of green, black, and white. I think it'll be really cute.

Creamy Onion-Potato Soup, Bedroom Gear, and Growing

So those of you who have been hanging on for the updates about the MiniMonster, you'll be interested to know that he's grown a full two inches since last month. He's got some new winter coats, some little boots, and -had- some nice mittens, but he destroyed one of them in his first time out wearing them, demonstrating that I still need some work on strengthening my end seams to resist his exploring little fingers.

We also had to go get a new set of sheets for our room, since apparently the Laundry Gremlins ((Those little Gremlins who mysteriously make random articles from the laundry vanish from the earth, regardless of where you're sure you left them)) ate one of our fitted sheets.

I got two sets, one in what's called "Willow Green" and another in "Fox Tail Orange", which reminds me less of a fox and more of a rich spice, like Paprika. It's actually a pretty color, and looks pretty good with our green and brown comforter. I think it'll also look good with my white and red-pink quilt. It's white with a pattern of crown vetch on it, so it's a bit girly for Tilmani's taste, but I put it out occasionally anyway.

We also ordered MiniMonster a book case. He'll be one pretty soon, and probably walking, so we got an book shelf with a magazine rack styled shelf set up on one side and some plastic bins in red, blue and yellow for him to easily put toys into and out of. ((Probably mostly out of)).

We've also got Thanksgiving and Tilmani's birthday coming up in rapid succession, so planning is underway to try and make sure he gets his own special day in spite of how close it is to Thanksgiving. Wish us luck!

Lastly, we have a recipe to share with everyone!
For lack of a better name: Creamy Onion-Potato Soup!

Onion Soup:

3 onions cut into strips/slivers

3/12 cups chicken Broth

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

2-3 cups cheddar cheese

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

½ cup mashed potato mix.<-- you may wish to add more potato flakes to make it nice, thick and smooth.

2 tbs butter

Slices of Pepperjack

Saute’ the onions in the butter, add the chicken broth and spices, boil, lower temperature and simmer for 20 min. Mix milk and flour, add to soup, add potato mix, cheese, stir until smooth and thickened.

Serve with a slice of pepperjack melting on top.

This soup comes out nice and thick, almost a little more like stew, and would be -fantastic- with a bread-bowl. The pepper amount can be adjusted to taste, since Tilmani and I like it a little spicy.