I keep hoping that one of these days Sari will post a How to Make Sock Monkeys tutorial. With pictures. And that it will seem so crazy easy that I actually try it. (Because how cute is this? Or this? Or this other one?)

Because everybody loves chain letters Raymond memes, we’re doing two for the price of one. Which also happens to be two for the price of two, since every single post is free. But I digress.

Diana bestowed upon me the Kreativ Blogger award. (Is this a mocking sort of award? Am I “kreativ” because I’m not actually creative?) Verbosity tagged me with the commenter meme, so we’re going to break all the rules and combine the two in some horribly messy way. If you want to meme on your own blog, well: TAG! You’re it. The rules are the usual: link back to who tagged you, do the meme, tag some more unsuspecting bloggers. Go!

Six things that make me (kreativly?) happy: 1. Sleep. 2. Swing music. 3. Tea and chocolate, preferably together. Or hot chocolate substituted for tea, but still with chocolate on the side. Or I guess baked goods. Baked goods could be on the side. Tea or hot chocolate with chocolate and/or baked goods. 4. Jane Austen adaptations on DVD.

5. New fabric. Or other art or craft supply. It’s like a neatly folded stack of possibility.

6. Husband. Kids. Husband and kids. (Only my own. Yours are nice, but you can keep them. Thanks.)

——–

My last five commenters (yes it’s supposed to be ten but I’m lazy):
Coordinated Chaos
The Geek Inside
Tropical Fruit
Miscellaneous Title X
Mom, According to Plan

And some questions about them:

1: What is your favorite post from number 3’s blog?
Her Wordless Wednesday cracks me up this week.

2. Has number 10 taken any pictures that have moved you?
Sorry, I only did 5.

3. Does number 6 reply to comments on their blog?
Again, only 5.

4. Which part of blogland is number 2 from?
Is blogland a place? I’m not even sure what this question is asking. Sari lives in the southwestern United States.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to number 7 what would it be?
Number 7, you are very angular. Consider eating more ice cream to add curves. But not too many curves—you don’t want to be mistaken for number 8.

6. Have you ever tried something from number 9’s blog?
Once again, only 5.

7. Has number 1 blogged something that inspired you?
I keep thinking about the teapot museum. What did they spend all that money on? If you were building a teapot museum, wouldn’t you stick a few teapots on side tables in an old house and call it a day? Maybe put in a nice tea shop. But still. How much could that really cost?

8. How often do you comment on number 4’s blog?
Sometimes. Either more or less often than she would like, probably. Maybe half the time?

9. Do you wait for number 8 to post excitedly?
Okay, sure.

10. How did number 5’s blog change your life?
What the—now blogs are supposed to change my life? That’s a pretty tall order, don’t you think?

11. Do you know any of the 10 bloggers in person?
Yes, but I can’t tell you who. Need to protect their anonymity and all.

12. Do any of your 10 bloggers know each other in person?
Uh… I have no idea. I would guess not.

13. Out of the 10, which updates more frequently?
Several of them are posting every day in November.

14. Which of the 10 keep you laughing?
(See below.)

15. Which of the 10 has made you cry (good or bad tears)?
Laughing, crying, whenever appropriate. None of your blogs make me cry regularly, and all of them make me laugh regularly, both of which are good things.

What I am glad about: Sadie does not spend her every waking toddler moment trying to dive into the toilet. Or the trash can.

Why I have to remind myself to be glad: She is drawn instead—inexorably—to the pile of crumbs/sand/dirt/paper scraps/feathers*/stray noodles that I sweep up every day. Several times a day.

Leave the dust pile alone, sweet baby!

*We do not have birds, but we do have feather boas. Which shed.

Did you know that carrying a baby around burns over 200 calories per hour? I had no idea. I’ve been carrying a baby or toddler around for most of every day for the past eight and a half years… I should pretty much weigh less than air right now, no? Or I guess maybe that extra daily pint of ice cream negates the carrying? Hmm…

[Via Adventures in Babywearing.]

I may need to learn to crochet, because Abigail and Owen would both totally dig hats like this. (Audrey would probably wear one if Abigail and Owen were already wearing theirs. Sadie… I don’t think there’s anything that could make Sadie keep a hat on her head. Yesterday she wore a hat to the park long enough to make me think she was going to keep it on her head, then threw it in the gutter when I wasn’t looking. Unfortunately for her, she has big sisters who notice things like hat-throwing.) Lucky for me, A.D. wrote a handy learn-to-crochet tutorial. With pictures! Nice. I really might try…

It’s International Babywearing Week, which seemed like an excellent excuse for a photo post! (Plus, Steph at Adventures in Babywearing is having a contest. So there’s that.)

Don’t you love little newborn toes? The ones in the picture are Audrey’s, and are now not nearly so tiny.

Says Owen: “Mom? Dad? Sometime, instead of a minivan, could we get a monster truck?”

Oh, the meme tags, they pile up during nablopomo. (And hey! By the way! If you’re doing National Blog Posting Month and you’re in any way local, you should join the SoCal Parent Bloggers group. Why? Well, why not?)

I am terrible at memes—I mean to do them and then forget and then feel guilty about not having done them, etc, etc. And I’m not even going to alleviate my own guilt by doing one right now, because all the kids are finally asleep and Dane and I are going to watch the Spiderwick Chronicles movie.

I haven’t read the Spiderwick Chronicles books. All I know is that the story is about a book and fairies and bad guys (or maybe the fairies are the bad guys? Not sure about that). Yes, they’re kids’ books. No, the kids aren’t watching with us. But you know what IS going to be with us? A large bowlful of blackberry ice cream. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Sadie has a new word today: Down. It sounds a bit like her “no”—which itself sounds a bit like “now”—but it’s definitely “down.”

As in: “Put me down, I don’t want a nap right now. Or ever.”
Or: “Why are you still trying to encourage me to nap? Are you not listening? I’m getting down.”
And: “What? You really think I should lie here a minute? Wait, are my eyes closing? I guess maybe I could just rest for a minute… I can always get down later… zzzzz…”

Except she only says the “down” part. The rest is implied.

Dear Daylight Savings Time,

You still suck. My children (all four of them!) have woken up earlier and earlier every day since the time change. And then they nap at odd hours, or don’t nap at all, or do nap when they shouldn’t, which means bedtimes are off in all directions.

By the time they finally get to sleep at night, I barely have time or energy to wash my hair before falling into bed myself, and thus have I gone to bed with wet hair and woken up with weird poufs and frizz several days in the last week. Apparently Daylight Savings is not content simply to mess with my sleep patterns, but must also leave me with weird hair.

All this being so, I do hereby petition that in future, families with small children ought to be exempt from any and all time changes.

Yours annoyedly,

Melissa