I have nearly finished the first little cardigan in the 'layette' - I think that's what the word is. Bunch of baby stuff, anyway, lol, that I am planning to knit. This one is in pale lemon cotton. I don't usually like knitting with cotton but this stuff was allright. I love the texture that cotton gives.

I added some lace in to test out my new skills and guess what, its off a chart! I chose the pattern and then looked for the written instructions but there were none, grrr. So I ummed and aahed and looked for another one but couldn't find one I liked as much, so I had to bite the bullet and knit from the chart.

Only made one mistake, right at the start, but that's allright, thats where you are allowed to make mistakes right?

In other news, I am extremely tired, I long for a full night's sleep. I wish for it every night but every night it eludes me.

I am not sure what is happening with my job either. My boss is never there and it makes it very difficult at times. I have been building the website and learning a lot of new skills, but unfortunately he isn't very computer savvy and didn't even look at it for two weeks. I suspect that he still hasn't actually looked at it but just glanced at ONE page that I happened to print out. It's a bit sad really. I guess I will just have to wait and see what the universe has in store for me. I feel a bit depressed about it actually. I have worked really hard but most of it goes unacknowledged I think.

It's a shame because I really love the job. If it doesn't work out then I have asked the universe to make my choices really obvious. I am a bit thick sometimes so that's why I asked for that, lol. I feel like I keep being shown what I am not supposed to be doing, but I can't quite pick up on what I am supposed to be doing.

I have been continuing to learn lace and getting okay at it but still can't follow a chart. I have to have written instructions, which I follow like an obedient robot. The charts are too confusing because I keep getting mixed up on which direction to read them since I knit in a right to left direction but read in a left to right direction so I get very confused because I keep wanting to read the chart from left to right. Anyway, hard to explain but harder for me to do obviously, lol. I think I am overanalysing it but I can't help it.

Bubby is getting cuter by the minute, he is starting to talk a lot. He says thank you very much but it comes out as sanku-munch. I have started to try and give him a bottle of formula as a distraction and to start the weaning process. I have to put two extra scoops in it otherwise he won't go near it. That's probably bad, but oh well, its for a good cause. He only likes the "forminna" (formula) quite hot so I have to keep reheating it as well. That's probably bad too. Oh well again, lol. At least he is actually giving it the time of day now. I have tried before and he wouldn't have a bar of it.

He has been in the wars lately and has a bit of bark off in various places including chin, nose, elbow, ankle and toe. He has an obsession with bandaids so he doesn't get too upset when he hurts himself because he knows it means he will get a bandaid. He has tried to get one for other reasons as well, with varying success. Sometimes I just can't be bothered arguing so I get him a bandaid and he picks a spot where he wants it! I have photos of myself at the same age with bandaids on and I know there is no owie underneath it.

I have narrowed down some options for my project for the Easter show. I have also started to knit a few little things for my next baby, even though we aren't even trying yet, I love to knit baby things, they are so quick to finish, and last time I didn't really have many things for Baden because I wasn't good enough at knitting yet.

I have spent part of today trying to learn how to knit lace. There is a pair of socks I want to knit but I have to learn to knit lace a bit better first.

I have the sock yarn and everything ready to go.

Nervous.

Geez its expensive, it cost about fourteen bucks for one ball of wool. What a rip.

This will be my second attempt at sock knitting, (when I get started). The first attempt didn't take for some reason.

I have heard it's quite addictive. Just what I need, a new addiction, lol.

Things to Do Before becoming Pregnant:

Go to the Dentist:
I did this today, to get a check up. grr, now I have to go back and get a couple of fillings! The quote was $560 thank you very much. So I will go back in a couple of weeks and get that done, what fun, not. I can think of far more exciting ways to spend five hundred bucks but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Wean the Child:
No idea on how this will happen even though I have a book on the subject bought at a Baby Expo about two years ago. I don't know who has the most problem with this, me or Baden. A bit of both I suspect. He is quite attached to the concept and I am having trouble letting go of his babyhood.

So anyway, we will see what happens. I don't want to think about it because it makes me feel bad. Last time I decided to wean him it lasted about eight hours, lol. I am still not ready, I wish it would just happen by magic so I wouldn't have to think about it.

Lose Weight:
I would like to have a glamorous pregnancy next time. You know, those ones where its two tanned stick-like legs below a neat little bump in a flowing summery type frock? yeah, one of those. I don't like my chances of that but I would probably be happy with a pregnancy where I don't start off like a whale. I am already lighter than I was last time so its a good start. I haven't worn a flowing summery type frock for about eight years though so its not looking hopeful.

Take Folate:
Yep. Doing that already thanks to breakfast cereal. Boring but important.

Start keeping receipts:
Apparently if you spend over $1500 in a year on health related stuff then you can claim some of it back at tax time or something. Since we are already going to be five hundred bucks down from the dentist then we might as well start keeping receipts. The midwife is going to cost $4,000 unless by some miracle the government gets a grip before then and gives independent midwives a medicare number, so it will be nice to claw some of that back.

hmm. I am sure there are some other things but that's the list for the moment.

Making plans, getting the house in order, building a nest. Already!!! I do like to be organised.

I went to Morons Anonymous Web Design course today and there is nothing unusual to report about the moron of the class but I have given up worrying about that now and have been doing quite a bit of study in my own time. Today the teacher spent a lot of time going over what we learned in WEEK ONE with this person but I was busy anyway so who cares.

I have the work website up and running which is rather exciting. The boss is never in at work but he will be there tomorrow, which is my day off, but he will have a look at the website for the first time tomorrow. I am quite proud of it, its only in its infancy of course, but it looks pretty good.

I am really enjoying designing it. Its a bit creative, a bit organised and a bit methodical, plus a little bit challenging. I love to learn new things so this is really keeping me interested and motivated in my job. I am really enjoying this job.

I am meeting my friend for lunch tomorrow. She is newly pregnant so there will be a new baby around soon, which is quite exciting. I also heard news that one of my cousins is pregnant but I don't know when she is due or anything.

Steve and I have decided to try for a baby next year, maybe starting around February. He has been wanting another child for quite a while but I wasn't ready, but I think if we have another baby late next year then a three year gap will be good. I don't even know if I will get pregnant at my age, I will be 40 before the baby is born, but we will just take whatever life has in store for us. I am very grateful for the child we have and anyone else is a welcome bonus.

Baden has settled into daycare, I still feel quite guilty about him going but he does look happy when he is there, I just don't know how I feel about it. I don't really have to work, I work because I want to, I can't explain it but if I don't contribute I don't feel like an equal partner, and that is nothing to do with Steve and everything to do with me and my own sense of pride I suppose. Maybe it would have been different if we had met when we were younger or before I was able to get such interesting kinds of jobs. I dunno.

Baden goes three days a week and he has started to talk alot, he knows most of his colours and nearly every animal and lots of other cute words and nursery rhymes and things. He is not advanced and he is not behind he is just absolutely perfect and bang-on track in every possible way. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect child for me. I know the ladies at daycare like him and think he is cute. And he is a very well behaved little boy, I know I say that alot but its honestly true, he is just such an easy child to get along with. We are great friends, my son and I. He is a Leo, same as me, and I always seem to get along well with other Leos, I always have.

I am enjoying my job, I hardly ever see my boss but I have a list of projects so I just get on with it and do them. Sometimes I ring the boss up to say hello and ask him a question or two, but apart from that, he is never there.

It has recently occurred to me that I am not as bitchy as some people. Now, I know this sounds a bit strange, but hear me out. I was brought up in a very critical household and part of my self-perception was that I was a bit of a bitch.

But its becoming obvious that this isn't exactly true. I think the person saying it has a lot of answer for actually.

I notice that quite a few people have a habit of backstabbing other people, it's just a habit, its what they do, as regularly and naturally as eating breakfast or breathing. They just do it as a matter of course. And its not even about people who they don't like, its just about everyone they come into contact with.

I don't do this. I am not really a backstabber at all. I always say its because I can't be bothered or because I am more interested in talking about myself, but that's not exactly true either. (That's just me being self deprecating). I just don't do it because its not a very nice thing to do, and I don't really understand why other people do it. Unless its someone who they don't like and who they are horrible to face to face. I understand that, I do that!

But I never do it to people who are supposed to be my friends. If you are friends with me I don't backstab you. You can take that to the bank. It doesn't happen.I don't think I could do that, because then I would feel so dishonest when we met up again and I had to look you in the eye. I am way too honest for that. I probably talk about you, I probably talk about you a lot, and tell people funny or interesting or amazing things you have said or done. I chat about your family and your hobbies and your life. But I mean in a good way. I say nice things about you. Because if you are someone I call 'friend' its because I am proud to know you and I want other people to know you and like you too!

Yesterday I was sitting next to a couple of people who basically made derogatory comments about what someone else was saying at the other end of the table. Every time this poor woman said something these people would answer so sweetly and then mutter mutter mutter, derogatory and ridiculing statements.

Why do people do this? I don't understand it at all? Don't they feel .... yuck?

I would.

Its awful when you know that people do it too. You know that as soon as you walk away they are going to start on you. Ick. I hate that. It's such an uncomfortable feeling.

Everyone's different I suppose. I am not perfect, I have heaps of faults, but I am so glad that I can honestly say that being two-faced isn't one of them.

Been busily knitting lately, despite coming into summer. I have a couple of projects still on the needles that won't be worn till next winter, and after that I am going to start a project in cotton.

Here a couple of the latest achievements, a green cabled jacket for bubby which is quite big on purpose because I started it when the weather was heating up. I love the colour of this wool and the price was even better at $1.49 a ball in the summer sales. So this little jacket cost less than ten dollars. Probably $7 or something.

I recently learned the provisional cast on and I will be using that for all of his jumpers from now on, so I can add to the length of them later. He only grows upwards, he doesn't seem to grow outwards at all, so if I do this I can just unpick the ribbing and put it lower or just unpick the cast on and add more ribbing or whatever to the bottom.

The other one - the little purple cardi is called 'Boheme' and it is a gift for a little girl who is due to be born in a few weeks. I don't know if her mum even reads my blog, but anyway, the lace part of it was the first time I have attempted lace and I am really pleased with it. It wasn't easy, I had to concentrate like crazy and bubby kept interrupting me and I would lose my place. I unpicked nearly every row of this and knit it twice but thats all part of the learning curve and now I feel a lot more confident. I can see why lace knitters get bored with straight stocking stitch now. I can really see their point. Sometimes its nice to have just mindless knitting and sometimes you want something with a bit more oomph. With a toddler I need something I can pick up and put down without getting lost, but once he is in bed I want something more interesting.

I also knitted my friend's baby a little pumpkin hat of my own design but forgot to take a photo! d'oh. Will have to get a photo when its finally on her sweet little head!

I am quietly thinking of entering something in knitting competition at the Easter Show next year, what a granny!! I won't win anything but I would get a real kick out of seeing something I have made on display!! We are thinking of going to the Show next year anyway, after a few years break from it. So even more reason to do so.

I think the category I will enter is the Adult's sleeveless garment. But maybe I will enter the Child's Jumper category as well. I am still deciding. I am improving all the time, hard to believe that when I was pregnant I was struggling to finish a baby hat, knitted flat in stocking stitch!! OMG. I would never knit a hat on straight needles anymore!! gawd, the very thought of it. I also struggled through knitting a baby jumper, but put it down again in frustration and never finished it at all. I started it when I was first pregnant and finally gave up just before I had him (and went on to knit the hat instead). Now it would probably take me two days!! For the hat AND the jumper, lol. Its great to see how I have progressed.

In other news, I won the sweepstake at work for the Melbourne Cup. I won $22 which is just enough to replace the $20 to win bet I put on Zipping, which is probably still running...