Blog Toys!

I love toys and I love blog toys. They call them widgets; I call them fun.

So, here is my latest widget. The Frappr Map.



Go ahead and click on that and see where the readers of Momcast are from.

Take a moment and add yourself.

Most Popular!

When you Google the phrase "Leanne Needs" my blog shows up first in the results! And, let me tell you: a lot of people have been Googling that exact phrase lately. Talk about a popular meme!

Less popular, but still receiving high ranks are assorted naughty phrases asking for pictures of nursing mamas and it's not the warm and fuzzy kind of pictures that end up as covers of Mothering magazine. That's slightly disconcerting.

I'm not giving you the link for that. The world is a better place without it.

I love reading my stats because I can see how people got here (whether they Googled in or maybe followed the Circular Shrug links from Craftster.

I can see where people live, too! That's the best. I get visitors from Spain, Guam, Sweden, Austria, Britain, Hong Kong and on and on! If you are ever feeling lonely, just check out your blog's stats. I guarantee you'll start to feel like the world is a bigger place than your miserable brain.

In a running update: there hasn't been any since the average temperature every day is about -6 Celsius (really frigging cold, if you are American).

In a toilet training update: there hasn't been any since I offered another go at the toilet and Kieran ran out of the room.

In other words, my life is pretty much the way it always is, half stalled.

I do realise how lucky I am to have so many supportive folks hanging around, though. Thanks everyone. Your encouragement is, uh, very encourageing.

I hope all the Americans in the crowd had a great Thanksgiving.

Run, Mamaloo, Run!

beginning runner - Google Search

Ready for some confessions?

I am currently about 260lbs. I don't know the exact amount, because I'm too scared to step on the scale to see. But, I think it's a fairly accurate guesstimation (love that whole making up words thing).

A couple years after Sean and I started living together, I got realtionship fat. You know, where you get comfy in a relationship, and you're always cuddling up together eating something, and you aren't going out dancing so that you can flirt with guys so your ass starts to get fat - itis? Yeah, that happened to me.

By the time I got pregnant with Kieran, I had gained a significant amount of weight. I was never the thinnest girl around, but at 5'10" and very broadly built I could carry 170-180 lbs respectably well. If I weighed 150 lbs, which is about the mid-range recommendation for my height and build, I'd probably look sick. By the time I was about to give birth, I was up to 260lbs.

Dropping a baby made a nice little dip in my weight. For a short while afterward, I continued to lose a little weight. I wasn't keeping track of it, though. I had better things to do with every waking moment of my day. Like nurse my son, go to the bathroom, nurse my son, shower, nurse my son, eat something fast and small and nurse my son.

But, all that nursing kicked my appetite into super-high gear. Gradually, stadily, I began to gain more weight.

I used to be a smoker, too.

Now, this part is totally going to gross some people out, but it's confession time, right? I couldn't quit smoking during my pregnancy. I don't know what I wasn't sufficiently motivated, but I couldn't do it. I did cut down to a couple a day, but still. Bad.

When Kieran was born, it was like I was suddenly freed from the shackles and I took to smoking again, with gusto. I told myself that if I waited until after nursing Kieran, he wasn't really getting much nicotine or anything. I told myself that as long as I only smoked in the kitchen, which is the rearmost room in our flat, and if I kept the window open to vent the smoke, I wasn't causing anyone any harm.

Yeah, I know: totally delusional.

The whole new mother, nursing on demand thing really kicked my ass emotionally. I felt isolated, I was probably dangerously close to a mental breakdown due to chronic lack of sleep, I couldn't stop stuffing my face, I felt sad. Even though I derived great pleasure from being a mom, I felt that I, personally, was very unfulfilled. Work, even before I returned from my year of mat leave, became a nightmare.

Then, Sean's mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died two weeks later. Sean, who had begged, cajoled and ordered me to stop, finally told me that he didn't want to go through what he, his sister and his father had just gone through. He let me have one more month to make peace with quitting and at the end of October, 2004, I quit smoking cold turkey.

And, I started eating everything in sight!

A year later, here I am, weighing as much as I did when I was pregnant.

I still eat compulsively. Though, I think I eat slightly less than a year ago. I've replaced some of my compulsive eating with compulsive tea drinking (sweetner, no milk) and compulsive knitting.

I joked to Sean that when I quit smoking I would probably take up running and be one of those middle aged chicks who does marathons. We laughed, but I can guarantee Sean has been hoping this would be true. To me, it just seems fitting: quit smoking, start running.

So, today, I took my first modest run.

I jogged beside my 2.5yo son for three blocks as he ran to the pharmacy so we could buy detergent.

It's not much, but it's a start.

I've been researching the best method to begin running. It looks like the "30/30 Plan" is what I need: Doing 30 minutes of running every day, walk for 10 minutes, alternated 30 seconds of jogging/running with 30 seconds of walking, walk for 5 minutes. If I did this every day for 30 days, I would improve my fitness beyond the begginner level.

30 minutes seems like a lot of running. I wonder where I'd go?

Yarn-y Goodness!

My not-so-secret pal sent a wonderful package of goodies that arrived a couple of weeks ago. I'd previously told you that she had sent me a gift certificate to kpixie, where I bought myself a luxurious skein of Recycled Sari Silk Yarn.

This time, she got me a number of great prezzies.

First, she found for me two skeins of creamy alpaca. I'm only just starting to get into more interesting and exciting fibres, so this very soft, very warm, natural coloured yarn is a wonderful addition to my stash. I will think long and hard to decide what best way to honour this lovely fibre.

Second, my secret pal gave me a lovely handpainted skein of silk. The colourway is nice and cool and the texture of the yarn is slightly slubby but still very soft. My yarn basket welcomes this exciting addition!

Third, two pairs of bamboo circular needles were hidden under the yarn. I have been wanting to start investing in bamboo needles for some time and now my secret pal has started off my collection. Only one needle is in the picture, because the second needle is off doing duty making christmas prezzies for my family.

Fourth, and last in this spoiling package, were two pink silicone point protectors. Of all the gifts, I think these two little, unassuming workhorses were the most delightful! I love the colour and the feel of them. One is visible in the photo above and one is on my needles keeping the stash busting blanket in check (it's about 20 inches wide now. Another 20 inches or so to go!).

Thank you, secret pal, thank you! I am very lucky to have you.

In other knitting news, I have finished the Pinwheel Blanket for my neighbours.

This blanket is a simple centre out blanket. It's knit in Bernat's Cottontots and has a picot bind off edge.

The pattern required a little fiddling with to get started. Instead of knitting in the round on four needles from the very beginning, I knit back and forth for the first few rows until there were enough stitches on the needles that they didn't collapse in a heap and slip around. In the end, all I had to do was use the cast on tail to sew up the centre and weave in around it for reinforcement. This resulted in a nice garter stitch circle in the centre.

I hated the Cottontots yarn. The colour, Lime Berry, was amazing, but the damn yarn had fluff coming off it constantly. It started pilling before I had even gotton the blanket off the needles! It's definately not well suited to using on kidlets, or anywhere else, for that matter.

Wanting to give the blanket a little something extra in the bind off, I found a picot edging in a British knitting magazine Simply Knitting. They had the edging on a little cotton toque, having you knit the hat and then pick up stitches around the edge to do the picot edge. I simply started binding off. It was easy and interesting and I think you'll agree that it is a nice, simple decoration. Perfect for little baby fingers to play with!

The Start Of A New Era

Periodically, I have asked Kieran if he'd like to try out the toilet. Once, I even sat him on the toilet to give him a feel for it. He went hysterical.

So, I was totally surprised when, last night, Kieran said, "Kieran poo on toilet" when I walked in to brush my hair.

I was game for it, so I stripped off his pants and diaper, got the stool and helped him get up onto the big toilet.

Now, we don't currently have a potty. I actually asked Sean if we could get one last week, but he thought maybe it should go on the christmas list. So, when Kieran sat on the toilet, he was sitting on an adult seat. I had my hand on his back to make sure he didn't fall in.

I thought Kieran would soon grow tired of the game. Or, perhaps, he would feel uncomfortable sitting oddly on that too large seat.

Nope, not my little boy. He probably would've sat there all night if I had let him.

We talked and joked while he sat waiting for something to happen. I answered some of his questions - "what dat?", "why?" - related to toilet procedures and accessories.

Repeatedly he strained, making his face go red, spit flying out of his mouth with effort, lips split in a mad grin in order to force something to happen. After five minutes, we were rewarded with a satisfying pee.

Despite attempts, no poo was forthcoming. I promised Kieran we could get him a potty and that he could go on the toilet whenever he wanted.

He used toilet paper for the first time, closed the toilet lid and flushed the handle, all the while quite proud of himself.

And, me, I was proud too. My baby isn't much of a baby anymore. He's becoming a little boy.

Making His Mama Proud

Kieran is your typical toddler. He is fairly rambunctious; he loves to run and jump on things and play a little on the rough side. He is mercurial; some days he will sit like an angel through anything, anywhere while other days it is a struggle for him to remain composed when its required.

But, in the last couple of days he has made me proud on a number of occaisions.

Working backwards, he came running to the livingroom, where I sat knitting, from his room shouting, "I did it!" He was triumphant! He had just turned the light in his room on all by himself. "It dark in my room. I turn on light all myself!"

More importantly than my being proud at him for learning this new and valuable skill: Kieran was proud of himself. He was excited and beaming about his accomplishment.

Not long before that, while still playing with his trucks on the livingroom floor, I sneezed very loudly. From behind the couch he yelled, "Bless you, Mom!"

I had tears in my eyes!

It's been a favourite game of his lately to pretend to sneeze. So, we've been pretend sneezing and I've been saying "Bless you" after each and every sneeze. He has been so wonderful about saying "thank you" after everything, about apologising when he knows he has done something wrong, that I explained what the whole "bless you" thing was about.

I explained it once, while I was changing his diaper, made his fake sneeze and said "bless you" afterwards a couple of times, you know, to reinforce the little lesson. I only did that once last week, believing that Kieran was probably a little young to get that particular nicety of social interaction.

So, yeah, I had tears in my eyes when I saw the lesson learned and used today.

In another, more frivolous but fun, example of making me proud, Kieran ate his first cheeseburger yesterday.

Normally he and we, on his behalf, orders one of two things when getting burger style take out: hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches. We usually get one or the other and cut it into small pieces to make it easier to eat.

Kieran can make a huge pig out of himself if we're not careful, so I try to cut things like hotdogs into small, single bite pieces. Otherwise he'll mistake dinner for a choking demonstration, shove as much meat into his mouth at once and proceed to start choking.

Yeah, dinner - it's really a thrill a minute experience at our house.

Last night, Sean, like a good husband, went out and procured food for the family. Taking Kieran with him to give me, the moody mama, a little break, the boys went to our favourite fish & chip shop (Hutch's for those in the Hamilton area).

Instead of getting fish, which Kieran does like, or a hotdog, Kieran chose to order a cheeseburger. Yup. My 2 1/2 year old ordered a cheeseburger.

At home, Sean went to cut the burger up for Kieran, thinking he'd prefer to eat his burgers like his hotdogs: no bun, cut into little easily manageable pieces. Kieran had something else in mind. While a choir of red meat loving angels sang just above his head, Kieran picked up his hamburger with two hands and bit into it.

He ate the whole thing. THE WHOLE THING.

I'm so proud of him!

A Little of This, A Little of That...

Hello! Is it your first time here? Well, let me just say Thank You for dropping by.

Perhaps you came here because you saw my name checked in a Blogging Baby post?

Or, did you come here when Mama C-Ta mentioned that I rock? How cool is that?! I rock? Mama C-Ta rocks!

Or, maybe you've searched on Yahoo Search for "Porcupine Balls" or "Russian Grannies" or on MSN Search for "Lonely Grannies" or "Sauerkraut with Noodles". You won't find much about lonely grannies here, not anything you might be interested in erasing from your history after viewing, anyway. I did post a recipe for Porcupine Balls. It seems to have generated at least one new reader a week except for the last two days when five people have ended up visiting Momcast after searching for Porcupine Balls. People really like those things!

Quite a lot of folks have surfed here from one of two Craftster threads on the increasingly popular Circular Shrug. You can find the pattern to the right just under my flickr badge.

However you got here, welcome! Come back again and visit. Sometimes I'm funny. Leave a message in the Comments section - it's like graffiti you can't get arrested for! If you are one of the people from Spain, Finland, Argentina, Brazil, Israel or any of the various EU countries, please don't be afraid to say "Hi" in your native language.

Since a few folks have spread the linky love and sent folks my way, I thought I might send you to a few interesting links that I've been loving lately.

But, first, here is my darling son, Kieran, with his bestest friend, Monkey, to smile at you from your computer screen.

• Because it's fun to laugh at the stupid things people say: Overheard In New York
• Because you can knit ANYTHING: Tit Bits
• Because ink isn't just for criminals anymore: I want this tattoo from this gallery of tattooed knitters, and here is another list of links for knitting tatoos
• Because you NEED to buy this inexpensive, self-published book of patterns for cool toys: Unusual Toys For You To Knit And Enjoy, by Jess Hutch
• Because watching wild African animals in real time is addictive: WildCam (only until December 8-05)
• Because Greg and Lisa are cool: Viva Podcast!
• Because smart women are cool: Pop Goes The Culture!

Let me know when you're done with those...

ETA: How freaky is this. I was just reading through my list of daily blogs and two blogs have new posts with names almost identical to this one. Holy weirdness! Wicked Stitches, Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That.. and Be*mused, A little of this, a little of that.

Freddie and Kuku

Last night, while cuddled up in my bed reading books together and winding down for sleep, Kieran decided he needed a nickname.

Kieran: "Me Freddie!"
Me: "Is that your secret name?"
Kieran: "Ya!"
Me: "Can I have a secret name?"
Kieran: "Ya!"
Me: "What will it be?"
Kieran: "Uh... Shofrawnda?"
Me: "What? Shofrawnda? I don't think I like that name."
Kieran: "Uh... you Kuku!"
Me: "Ya! I'm Kuku!"
Kieran: "Ya! And me Freddie!"
Me: "I love you Freddie"
Kieran: "I wuv you Kuku!"

Stay tuned for the ongoing adventures of Freddie and Kuku!

Mortified at the Play Park

I was "That Mom" at the play park today.

My son, despite showing up with a bucket and a very cool earth mover truck (I don't know what every fricken construction vehicle is, even after a year of daily viewings of Mighty Machines!) had to grab toys out of other kids hands. Later, while playing on the big play structure, some kid wasn't paying sufficient attention to him, so my son smacked him, repeatedly, on the top of the head until the boy started crying and I ran over all freaked out.

Yup. That was my kid. The 2 1/2 year old bully.

I was totally mortified.

I grabbed Kieran, informed him that he now had to leave the park as a result of hitting someone, told him it was unacceptable to hit people and started to leave. On the path to our exit from the park, the boy was near his mum and infant sister at the swings. He was sulky and red-eyed and I wish I could've hugged him, but just as Kieran started to say, "sorry little boy" to him, he ran away from my wee monster.

I told his mum that Kieran apologised and told her that I, too, was very sorry for the behaviour. I let her know that Kieran was receiving consequences and that it was a bit of a problem that I was trying to beat out of him* help him overcome.

She was really very understanding. She and another mum agreed that it was a phase that lots of kids go through and while it's not great to hit, it's not the worst thing that had happened and that mostly it was just an ego that was bruised.

And, this helped me in a way I'm sure that mum didn't anticipate. I bet she wanted me to feel less guilty over something that's mostly developmentally normal - kids sometimes use violence to express the anger, sadness or frustration they don't currently have the words to express.

Even more than that, she made me feel like I was a member of the mom tribe. And, as a painfully self-conscious person of limited means, that meant a lot.

*Joke!

Pet Peeve #327

I hate it when completely able-bodied teens and adults use the wheelchair accessible automatic door opener.

Go ahead and use it for your baby buggy (I do), or if all your hands are carrying shopping bags or are otherwise in use, therefore rendering it near impossible to hold a door open and walk through it in a normal fashion.

But, all things being equal, why is it so difficult to open a damned door!

People would rather walk out of their way to an automatic door, press the button and wait for the door to open than open and walk through a regular door in their path. How lazy do you have to be to be too lazy to open a door?