My Super Bulky Newborn Hat - Girlie Version

I was making a few things for a friend, and wanted a girlie newborn hat pattern from a super bulky weight yarn. Um, yeah, couldn't find what I needed. Thankfully, it was really quick to make it over and over until I got the results I was looking for lol! It's not perfect, but it works for me.

So, have at it. I'm not making any promises or guarantees, but am sharing in the hopes that it may help someone else ;o)

Super Bulky Newborn Hat - Girlie Version

Small amount of Wool-Ease Thick and Quick or other super bulky yarn
N (10mm) Crochet hook

I used a magic loop to work my 1st round
Chain one, 5 sc in loop. Sl st in 1st ch to join
R2: ch 1, sc in same st *2 sc in each st* around, sl st to join
R3: ch 1 sc in same st * sc in next st, 2 sc in next* around, sl st to join
R4: ch 2, hdc in same st, *hdc in next 2 st, 2 hdc in in next* around, sl st to join
R5-7: ch 2, *hdc in each st* around, sl st to join
R8: ch 3, *sk 1 st, dc in next st, ch 1* around, sl st in 2nd chain to join.

Weave in ends, run ribbon through spaces between dc's, tie a fluffy little bow, and put it on a sweet little head!




Special thanks to Heather Pulse for the gorgeous photo!

Long time!

This has been one crazy year. We are all doing well, just running around like a bunch of headless chickens ;o)

So, to recap, Adron hurt his back in January. Turns out he ruptured a disk and had to have surgery on in in January. Now, 8 months later, he is much better, but still in a good bit of pain. Poor guy - but he's tough!

Around the same time, I started having some random memory issues. Things like drawing a total blank on whatever was going on 2-3 times a week. I assumed this was due to being on an antidepressant (fairly high dose) for the past 10 years. Over the course of about 6-8 weeks, I weaned myself off of it, and expected to see a gradual improvement in my memory. No such luck. Finally, by about July or so, I was having episodes every day, usually 2-3x/day and they lasted about 30 seconds - 2 minutes. Bigger things, like driving down the road and realizing that the street names sounded vaguely familiar, but I had no idea where I was or where I was going. Or, I would look at my kids and *know* that they were my kids, but have no idea what their names were, how old they were, etc., etc. Colors looked more vivid, I could see so much beauty in people and things around me, but I felt totally confused and disoriented for the minute or two it was going on. My sisters were totally freaking out, and insisted that I go to the doctor, as they were suspecting severe blood sugar problems. LOL! If only! Well, the nurse practitioner checked my iron and sugar levels, as well as my white count, but found nothing abnormal. I was referred to a neurologist, but thought that was kinda silly, so I scheduled an appointment with a regular pcp doctor. Of course, since I've not seen her before, I had the pleasure of scheduling a complete physical, but the first available appointment wasn't for 2 months. I figured I may as well go see the neuro, *just in case* there was something like a tumor going on. Good thing I did - no tumor, but the doctor suspects that I'm having seizures! He started me on a medicine 2 weeks ago, but my symptoms haven't really improved until the past 3-4 days. I think we're on the right track!

Jonah, bless him, is just the sweetest little thing, unless he's teething lol! He is 17 months, and just as amazing and smart and charming a little guy as you could ever hope to meet <3 We had a therapist working with him twice a month, and a speech therapist twice a month, as well, because he wasn't eating or drinking anything that wasn't from the boob lol! He has improved SO much, and we've actually been able to cut down to quarterly on speech, and bimonthly on the other. We are so blessed to have been assigned such incredible ladies who have done so much for sweet Jojo! Right now, we still see some traits that tell us there's something there, but he is pretty much on par with his peers. His walking is still really unsteady, even after he's been walking for 7 months, so he's being referred to a physical therapist for an evaluation, but I'll be surprised if they feel there's much of an issue. Poor little guy constantly has gashes, scratches, and bruises all over!

Audrey is playing soccer now, and is happier than I've seen her in ages. That is such a great thing for a 15 year old girl! Madeline and Ellie are struggling with middle child syndrome, but are doing well in school. Maddie's Girl Scout troop has just started back up, and we're trying to get Ellie into a troop, too. Noah, well, is still 3. Trying me to my core! But he'll be 4 next month, and hopefully there will be an attitude change in the near future. Of course, he and Ellie have been super destructive, and I'm getting tired of having to replace things or deal without them. My recliner has been jumped on to the point where I can barely put up the foot rest, my laptop case is cracked from being stood on, and every can/bottle/jar of personal care products or cleaning products has been dumped out somewhere in the house. And pens/markers/crayons have been used on every surface imaginable! Ah well, while I sometimes feel like spending the next 10 years hiding in my sewing room, I honestly wouldn't give up these years for anything. It's frustrating, but those sweet little hugs, "I love you, Mommy"s, snuggles, and sticky smiles make it all worthwhile <3


I've not been able to do a whole lot of anything lately, particularly in my sewing room. The air conditioner up there just can't compensate for the horrifically hot weather we had this summer. I built a set of shelves with a 4'x6' top as a cutting table for my sewing room, but I still have to finish painting them lol! I have, however, done a fair amount of knitting, and started dabbling in a little digiscrapping again lololol! These seizure (or whatever they are) episodes seriously sap me of my creativity, so I'm hoping that the meds will help me get back on track.

I did open an etsy shop, but only have one thing listed right now. I need to get some more knitting done and to my photographers so I can get some stuff moving in there! If you wanna see the one little thing I've got, feel free to check it out here.

So that's been my year - how have my beautiful blog friends been???? I really have missed you all, and totally appreciate the sweet notes some of you have sent! It's so good to feel loved ;o) HUGS to all of you!!!!!


I plan to come back with a few pics for your viewing pleasure sometime in the very near future, but no promises lol! However, here's one that was taken back in June as a Fathers Day present for Adron:

Renewed appreciation

It is so easy to take things for granted, even when you work really hard not to.

Poor Adron had back surgery last Tuesday, and, bless his heart, he is stuck at home and hurting. I *know* he does a lot to help me out, but I didn't realize just how much easier he makes my life! He normally does the daily grocery store trips, helps with running the kids around town, takes the garbage can up front for trash pickup, and about a bazillion other little things. Whew, let me tell you - I am WORN OUT!!! I am so stressed out and tired, but, ya know, it's kinda nice to have him here to hang out with ;o)

Last night, Jonah didn't sleep well. He normally wakes up just long enough to start nursing, and we all go back to sleep right away. There have only been a handful of nights where he's been restless and/or fussy. Last night was a restless night, so I woke up worn out. But I also woke up with a smile on my face - I have a new favorite saying:

It's far better to have a baby that wakes up when he's not supposed to, than to have a baby that doesn't wake up when he should.

Ahhhhhh, yes, life is GOOD! However much I prefer to have my sweet, snuggly, sleepy litte boy actually *sleeping* at night, I'm good with the nights that he's just a sweet boy lol!

In other Jonah news, the boy has started eating!!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I mean, really, really eating! Baby food, table food, finger food, bugs, leaves, you name it - he is eating it all! I am so incredibly grateful for the wonderful things going on in our lives! He was eating a cranberry chocolate chip oatmeal cookie this morning, and I was holding him on my left leg (with my left hand), so I could eat, too. I noticed he kept leaning down and pushing his mouth against my hand. I looked a little closer and noticed that he had crumbs on his lips, and was trying to wipe them off on the napkin in my hand. I love that!

Jonah's saying a few words, too. "Mama", "Dada", "nee" (nursies), "no", "neh" (yes), "nom nom" when he eats (this is his favorite video), "bah" (bye), and there are a couple others that I've heard him say, but I can't think of them right now. Not too bad for a 10 month old runt lol!



Ooooh - did you see the giveaway on Lila Tueller's blog??? I so wanna win this:

Is it wrong?

Jonah fell asleep in my arms, and I needed to do something, so I laid him on the couch. 15 minutes later, he popped his sweet little head up, looked around, and whimpered until I picked him back up. Now he's asleep in my arms again, and I LOVE it!

Is it wrong to love that Jonah thinks my arms are the best place to sleep??? ::evil grin::

I've been pondering what my issue is with blogging. I finally came to the conclusion that it makes me feel selfish. Yeah, I know. I only read about 50 blogs on a daily basis, and LOVE every minute of hearing about these people's lives! Do I think they are being selfish by blogging? Not a chance! So what's my problem???? I am going to work on getting over that - I do enjoy this outlet lol! I want to thank those of you who actually take the time to read what I have to say, as that really means the world to me =)

Ooooooh! I told you about the card swap - well, here's the DARLING card I got!!! It's so stinkin' CUTE!!!! I just love the FUN little cupcake!!!



Then, yesterday, I got an email saying that I'd won a giveaway!!! Holy cow! The giveaway was on MADE, and it was for this shirt from Small Threads!



In other news, we celebrated Madeline's birthday last week, and she requested a lemon raspberry cake. Sighhhhhhh.... I can make a mean cupcake, but cakes are just not my forte. So, here is the disaster I created lol!





Ah well, at least it was yummy, and Madeline was pleased ;o)

Here's the Valentine's card I did for Ellie - found the idea here (it was *originally* found here):



I've also been busy knitting hats, but don't have any photos of those right now lol!

Card swap, anyone???

Ok, I just signed up for Melly's card swap - and I'm SOOOOOOO excited about it!!!! Any of you want to play along? (And check out her blog whether or not you wanna play - she's awesome!)





I'll come back soon with photos - the kids are growing like weeds, of course, and I've been crazy busy! I've sewn and knitted, and even picked up a little crocheting. I'm about to go upstairs and start getting my sewing room together so I can do some more sewing, too lol!

Today, I received a call from a lovely woman with the early intervention program. She informed me that Jonah has been accepted into the program, and she will be his case manager! I was ecstatic - so happy that I nearly cried!!!

We had an intake person come out to evaluate Jonah a few weeks ago. She was nice, but didn't feel that he was a very good candidate, as he is incredibly sociable, and makes good eye contact. However, she was quite concerned by his refusal to eat solid foods at 8 months. Funny, because that wasn't even a concern, in my book lol! Turns out, that qualified him for further evaluation.

The next lady came out a week or so later, and evaluated him, looking at me like I had lost my mind. She couldn't get over how friendly and happy he was, how he made great eye contact, responded to different stimuli, etc. Yet again, she was concerned about his inability to eat. She said she really didn't think I had anything to worry about, and that she was going to run his information through the computer to see if he qualified. She was rather doubtful about it, though, saying that he might just be laid back and meeting milestones a little slower than average.

I wasn't thrilled about these responses, as I can see that something is certainly different with him. The past two nights, I've been trying to figure out what the next step was going to be. And the more I read the more I recognized traits in Jonah that seem very strong indicators of some form of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Flapping his arms when he's frustrated or excited, opening and closing his hands when he's hungry and upset, not reacting AT ALL when the pyro goes off at a football game, right beside us. Then, of course, his issues with food. It really appears to be a combination of a texture problem, and just not knowing how to move food from the front of his mouth to the back. He almost "nurses" his food, pressing it to the roof of his mouth with his tongue, neither swallowing it, nor spitting it out. So many little nuances that I just chalked up to him being HIM!

Now, if I could just get Adron to realize that this isn't a BAD thing, we'd be ok. I'm afraid he thinks I'm overreacting, or that having a form of autism is a horrible thing, not just something that makes Jonah, well, Jonah lol! While I want nothing more than for my children to have "normal" lives, I think there are many, many blessings to be gained by being gifted with a child with special different needs!

The oddest part, however, is the more I read, and the more videos I watch, the more I see of Ellie in them. Crazy - I honestly thought she was ADHD, but with the arm flapping she has been doing since she was 5 months old, the screaming that started 4 years ago (and hasn't stopped yet), and her funny aversions to touching things, I'm starting to wonder. That kid didn't eat much solid food until she was a year old, either...