Give me some advice

As of late, Sweet Pea has been attempting to escape her crib. There were even nights where she would get halfway out, get stuck, and cry for rescue. This was cutting into my sleep so 2 nights ago we made the time to drop the crib mattress. It's now at the lowest setting, and 2 inches lower than it was before. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

This morning, 5am, I awake to the sounds of Sweet Pea crying. She is calling "mommy, hug! Mommy, hug!" It's 5am. No way am I getting out of bed for a hug. Generally she will go back to sleep in a case like this. This morning, her calling escalated - and then she sounded down right panic-stricken. So I dragged myself out of bed, and went to her room to find her with her foot (once again) stuck on the rail of her crib. Sigh.

So what do you think? Weigh in. Should I convert her crib to a toddler bed?

If I don't, she'll continue trying to escape and there will be more scenes of frightened, frustrated toddler in my future -- never mind the idea that eventually she will be able climb over and may hurt herself climbing out.
If I do I imagine she'll be out of bed constantly. I'm sort of fine with that - as long as she doesn't wake anyone else up. It does mean she'll be tired as they come for a while though.

What should I do??

FEARLESS!

Sweet Pea really enjoyed the glass floor at the CN Tower this weekend!

Where getting up at 6 on a work day gets me.

We've been running late chez nous. Every day.

I've been enjoying sleeping in, Sweet Pea is asleep or quiet until 7:15, Mr. Wonderful has never been great at getting up when the alarm goes off the first time. Or second time. Or fourth time.

I decided to take charge. Late is not good. Chronically late is really not good. Last Thursday night I set my phone alarm for 6 am. When it went off, I got up. Well, after 8 minutes of lounging, but it was worth it. And I was still getting up early!

Sweet Pea started singing and chattering in her room just as I was getting ready to step into the shower. Instead of showering, I nursed her, changed her and got her dressed. Stress free. Then we went to the kitchen, where we did our Joaquin photo shoot - featured earlier - while Wonderful showered. Sweet Pea ate her breakfast, and was ready to play by the time her daddy came downstairs. I showered. Stress free. We put Sweet Pea in her coat and boots and hat and mittens without a fight. We went outside and played 'mommy monster chases Sweet Pea' for a few minutes before we had to put her in her car seat and get moving. I dropped her at the sitters without a meltdown, or a fight, or even an utterance of 'no'.

The drive to work was less stressful.

I got to park INDOORS at the parking garage. All said, it was a really pleasant morning.

I've been getting up early this week too. With varying results - but almost always better than the rushed, yelling, melt-down prone mornings we used to have. I seem to have a new wake-up time.

I've made a monster.

Completed him last night, in fact.

Meet Joaquin. Joaquin is a sock monster. Or rather, he was a sock monster.

You see, this morning, Joaquin was sitting on the table all unassuming. Then suddenly -- this happened!!!

Yup, Sweet Pea caught Joaquin with his hand in the cereal bowl. I don't think he's entirely to blame -- I'm sure I saw Sweet Pea force feeding him Mini Wheats while I got the milk out of the fridge.

But justice was swift, and revenge exacted.

"Don't eat my cereal, Joaquin."

For the record, Joaquin is fine. I brought him to work today - just to make sure he doesn't get any cereal burglary in while the house is empty.

The details:

Pattern: Sock Monster by Heather Sebastian of Joey's House

Yarn: Shibuiknits sock. Really nice yarn. I enjoyed working with it, I love the colour - which I can't seem to capture on the camera -- all around, great!

Needles: 2.25 mm. There is nothing quite like tiny yarn on tiny needles. I love the firm fabric I get.

Eyes: The finishing touch! Ordered from 6060 on Etsy. I foresee more eye orders in my future!

Such a Pretty Thing

On the weekend, I hung out with one of my pals. She was assisting me in pressing the 'reset' button on my crap week of mild to extreme crappiness. It worked.

On Friday last I got to a really weird place. I had nothing on the needles. Nothing. How do I - nonstopknitter - get to this place? I cannot say. Nothing was begging me to be cast on. Or I didn't have the right yarn. Or the right pattern. Saturday this situation was remedied with a trip to Shall We Knit? in New Hamburg. Dudes, we were there for three hours. It was freakin' awesome.

I bought me some yarn. Jenny gifted me some patterns. Sunday, I cast on.

Today, I am in the last 15 rows.

What is it? A cowl. Pretty Thing. It's made with the most luxurious yarn I have touched to my cheek -- qiviut, alpaca, merino, in a perfect split - 33%. When I rub it on Sweet Pea's cheek, she smiles. Sometimes she giggles. Damn, I love that kid!

But my cowl has not been all sunshine and roses. The pattern is 61 rows long. I was on row23 or so when I realized that I had been doing all the k2tog and the ssk in reverse. I had transposed them. I had to frog. I had a sad. Today, I realized that the cowl is looking a mite snug . . . I hope it will fit over my head. If it won't I'll have to give it a stern blocking. This will shorten my life by several months as I stress and fret.

Actual honest knitting content. For realsies.

Believe it or not, I do still knit.

No really, I do!
I get to knit at work, which pretty much rocks - added bonus: it also keeps me sane!

So here's the latest in my knitting life.
For smallest niece's birthday, I was asked for socks, mitts and a sweater coat. Behold:

There were actually 4 pairs of socks - but they all look remarkably similar.
There was also a sweater, but I feel a little lukewarm on that one, so no photo to share.

I had to finish the final details in the car due to this little monster

taking up all my knitting time. I know it doesn't look like much now, but just you wait!!

Other knitting: I also finished these today

yes, I do have a photo of them finished, but I like this one better - shows the colours.

Finishing these mittens puts me in strange territory . . . I currently have nothing on the needles. As such, JennyP and I will be traveling to the LYS tomorrow! (Like I need more yarn.)

Potty talk

As I mentioned previously, Sweet Pea has taken quite an interest in potty training recently. I spoke with her day care provider and learned that she is one of 2, or sometimes 3 kids at day care who is still in diapers. The other one is an 8 month old baby. Why am I not surprised that my daughter is feeling the pressure?

So we went out on the weekend, and we bought 23 tiny pairs of panties. We also bought a potty. I wasn't planning on buying the potty for sure and for certain, but when she saw it, and looked at me with such big, hopeful eyes . . . Add to the that the reverant tone when she said "My Potty?" so hopefully - I didn't stand a chance. We brought home our purchases, showed them off to daddy, and then Sweet Pea requested 'Pin-teeesssss'. And so it began.
There was a lot of peeing of the pants on Saturday. And there was more on Sunday. But she got a drop - one single drop - into her potty on Sunday. I think it was the catalyst for her. The 'ah-ha!' moment. Unfortunately we had to go to a birthday party, so she wore diapers for the rest of the day. Monday morning, my wee girl told me she wanted to sit on the potty while I was changing her diaper. And then -- she pooped! On the toilet!!
There was a repeat performance this morning (bliss!).

We're still sending her to daycare in diapers. Because she's not really trained yet - she may just be playing with it. On weekends I'd like to keep her in panties most of the time. We'll see how that works out.

I can't really believe this is actually happening. She's only 18 months old (for another 3 days, anyway). I worry that she might not be ready. But I think if she wants to try, I'd be crazy not to give her the chance.