My family rocks

It's amazing how many entries I mentally compose, but then never get to put up because I have my hands full with the kids, especially the baby. But I want to get this one in.

I got a package Thursday. phoenixsinger sent a puppet for Maggie and Jamie. Maggie immediately wanted to call and thank her. She wasn't at home, she got her Uncle Patrick, but she'll try again later.

bkseiver sent me a book (selenite, I forgot to show it to you, remind me when you get home!), a cool knitting row marker she made - purple and blue pony beads on a purple cord, yeah, she knows me - and cotton sock yarn, in celebration of my new shoes. And hey, this yarn really looks good up against those shoes, too.

Since I can't work on Alanna's stocking until the needles get here, I was eager to start something new, so I've cast on a sock. I also have a nifty little knitting yarn jar - plastic thingy with a clear jar, and a lid with a hole in it, and a handle, so you can carry your yarn around and it doesn't get tangled or dirty or run away from you. I'm making the socks with a corded rib pattern, I haven't tried that before.

Knitting makes me feel much better. And the row counter thing is just COOL.

baby play gym

Alanna's been fascinated by looking at interesting things, and seemed to want more interesting stuff. So we'd dug out the old play gym thing we had, red/black/white mat with two arches over it that you can hang toys from - except we could only find the keys, and we don't have the links to hang them with anymore. So tonight I went by Babies R Us to look for a new set of links and things to hang.

Didn't find any. Apparently you can't get just that anymore. I hadn't been able to find them online either. (And if you know where, don't bother telling me, too late now, and I'm happier with what we got.)

So we ended up getting her a rainforest music and lights playgym. I just put it together for her and we set her up on/under it. She was FASCINATED. Staring at the little monkey. (As selenite pointed out, it was staring at her.) We put it on the setting where any movement of the butterfly mobile or jiggling of the arches turns the music and lights on, and she did manage to start it on her own once. You can also set it to nature sounds - she's clearly not sure about THAT yet. One of the little toys, a toucan rattle on a plastic ring, I handed to her instead of hanging from the arches, and she was hanging onto it and chewing on it. That's the first toy she's held on to.

You could have filmed her as an advertisement for this thing, it was so clearly getting her attention and interest.

Right now she's in my lap, having nursed to sleep, and the Karina-cat is *under* the playmat, investigating.

We also got her a tummy time mini-boppy with some toys that attach to it, and a little lilypad leaf mat. We'll play with that tomorrow.

After the shopping the family had a nice dinner out at Mimi's. Alanna was asleep in her carseat at the start, off to the back side of the table - when the waitress came back to find her in my arms, she was rather startled - "where did the baby come from?" I suppressed a desire to say "well, when a Mama and a Daddy love each other very much..." She was also commenting on how alert and aware Alanna was - we hear that a lot. I guess not all babies are. She was also impressed with how alert and talkative Maggie was, and said maybe it runs in the family. (We'll pass over how Jamie was mostly asleep next to selenite) Nice dinner, nice split dessert. (Although ooh, I wanna go back soon again for the chocolate pecan pie. fordprfct, you're usually my best source for someone who'll split something with nuts.)