Running late again this week - the weather has been bleak and bleary, and I've been feeling a little off the last couple of days. Nothing serious, just a bit less than 100% ... enough to sap my energy levels a bit further than the weather normally does at this time of year. Might just be my first cold for a while ... yuck.

We had a surprisingly busy week last week with Andy away - an anniversary doo for Nick and Tina on Sunday night, crochet guild on Monday night , latte at Tubi's place on Tuesday and back for dinner with Tubi and Rob on Thursday night. Phew! Isobel is getting a little more shy when we go out - usually has a bit of a cry initially seeing some different faces and going into a noisier environment, but after a bit she chirps up again and starts smiling and giggling. At this point she's normally OK to sit with someone else for a little while, and there's usually someone who'll offer to hold a smiling baby for me! People are still amazed at how easy going she is, which makes me pretty grateful - we obviously got one on the 'happy' end of the scale.

I had Isobel sitting quietly on my lap while I took the meeting minutes on Monday night, but Char offered to take over so I could do a few rows of the stitch pattern we were learning that night. By the time we got home she was pretty tired, so I was able to whip up a quick lemon cake loaf for latte on Tuesday (yep, I actually cooked something!!). Latte on Tuesday was another cheery gathering - it's great to catch up with everyone every couple of weeks, and just chat about anything and everything for an hour or two.

Tubi also invited us around for dinner on Thursday, with Andy away. Her two daughters had fun bringing out some toys for Isobel to play with (read: chew on), and Isobel got to sit in their high chair to observe dinner after Rob got back from work. Their youngest daughter is a year older than Isobel, so it was interesting to watch her chat away and play - and think that's what Isobel will be doing this time next year!

We collected Andy from the airport on Saturday - his luggage bad luck continued due to a late arrival into LAX, so their bags didn't make the connecting flight to Seattle. They arrived on Sunday night, so Andy was able to collect them from work on Monday - finally! After so many flights over the last four years, it's probably just the law of averages catching up. Aunty Jo sent back a lovely cross stitch sampler for Isobel's room, so we'll have to decide on a spot in her room to hang it up. Andy also brought back a couple of Australian t-shirts for Isobel - a bit big at the moment, so she can grow into them - and some little perfumes for me. Awwwww .... .

On Sunday we popped down to Southcenter and picked up a high chair for Isobel, in anticipation of starting her on solids now Andy's home again. The high chair now has pride of place at the head of the table, and she loves watching dinner being prepared (and consumed). Our attempts at introducing solids are not exactly a resounding success - she loves the little spoon, and keeps trying to grab it from Andy's hand ... but she's not really impressed with the cereal on the spoon yet. We've given it a few shots so far, but we might have to give it a week and try again later.

I'm confined to quarters with Isobel this week, as Andy's back at work and we sold the Jeep ... a bit of work to do to get the exhaust system finished off, then hopefully I'll get my wheels back. I managed to finish off my first pair of socks - they ended up a little big, but I might be able to fix that with a hot cycle in the washing machine. My second sock was much better - tension was more consistent, and I was able to fix some of the ladders where the needles swap over. I might be hooked - they're pretty quick to do, and I can check out so many great yarns I've never had an excuse to try before!! Now to try a bit more of a pattern ...

Isobel and I are home alone at the moment, after Andy flew back to Australia for a week in Adelaide. We dropped him at the airport on Friday afternoon, and found out later his flight was delayed - he ended up with an upgrade to first class for the inconvenience!! His bags were less fortunate, however, and are still MIA - hopefully they'll turn up soon, otherwise they'll miss him completely before he flies back again.

We had a wonderful time on Tuesday at the farewell function for John and Anne - the food was great, but the room was a bit small which made it difficult to walk around and catch up with everyone. I was nervous leaving Isobel with the babysitter again after the last couple of weeks with her sleep schedule being so unpredictable, but Laura worked her magic - we got home just before 11pm, and were told that Isobel had been asleep since about 8pm. She slept right through the night until about 9am on Wednesday ... wow. Wish we could get her to do that ourselves .

We handed over the Jeep on Friday, after I cleaned it up a bit during the week. The insides were easy enough to do from home, but I took it down to the local service station for a car wash - Isobel HATED it!! Must have been something about the soapy brushes on the windows ... or the dark tunnel ... or the noise??!! Might be a while before I take her to get the Durango washed then .

Isobel is still very chatty, and is learning new sounds - we thought she was blowing raspberries for a couple of days, but she's learned something that sounds like "tap tap tap" ... very close to "da da da", perhaps? She looks so serious when she talks, and often chats away to her mobile in her crib before dropping off to sleep (when we can get her to sleep!). The little bald patch on the back of her head is growing over, but her hair is still very fine and downy.

I've also bowed to knitting pressure after 20+ years of crochet, and decided to finally teach myself how to knit socks. My favourite yarn shops here are full of gorgeous sock yarns, so it was only a matter of time. I did a practice run yesterday using worsted weight yarn just to get the hang of things - feels very strange to start with, but after a few rows the needles seem to sit a little easier and it just whips along. I cast on my first 'real' sock yesterday, and I've done about three inches so far - it's fun seeing the colours develop, and it's a bit more portable than the bedspread size afghans I've been doing lately!! Hopefully I can stay this enthused to actually finish the second sock and get to wear them ...

Running a little late for this week's entry - we had a busy week and a mad weekend with Andy's chaps over from Adelaide for a fortnight. He's playing chauffeur this week for a couple of the new guys at work who are still sans vehicles, but we've managed to convince one of them to take the Jeep off our hands - should suit him down to the ground, he'll be able to throw all his sports gear in the back and it's been pretty reliable for us over the last nearly two years.

Isobel has had a few outings again this week - Latte with the Aussie wives last Tuesday, everyone loved her little purple runners and she received a round of applause for rolling over for everyone. Guest appearance from a couple of the Embassy people we deal with regularly, so many of us were able to ask a couple of questions - particularly relating to what we're going to have to do at the end of the year to move home again.

We had a play date with Jan, Tubi and Julieanne on Friday afternoon - I made it eventually after my little navi-juber decided to take me on the scenic route, through every side street, redlight and roadworks between here and Jan's place. Isobel's still a bit young to participate, but it's an opportunity for her to get used to other youngsters being around - she did very well with four other little kiddies running around and generally being boisterous.

We had dinner with our friends Rob and Sharon on Saturday night ... lasagna, yummy! We tried to encourage Isobel to take a powernap before we left, but she wanted none of it - I think she knew we were off somewhere and wanted to be involved! She was really well behaved again, with lots of big smiles for Rob and Sharon, but she started getting stroppy after a couple of hours. Still took a while to get her to sleep - she used to drop right off in her crib, but since she learned to roll over it's been a real challenge sometimes to get her to sleep at night.

Steve and Di invited us up for coffee and donuts on Sunday morning - they've moved into a new house in Issaquah after the lease ran out on their old place. The new house is very nice, with a little cluster of shops within walking distance for them. We then did a bit of outlet shopping in North Bend - mainly to get some clothes to fit Isobel now she's grown out of nearly everything! Andy had a win and found a stunning Eddie Bauer leather jacket marked down 60% - the only one left, and it was his size. Score!! We also had Mark and Ash over for dinner on Sunday evening - Ash had the magic touch with Isobel, and soon had her giggling hysterically ... must learn that trick!!

We're off to a farewell in Bellevue tonight for the office team lead, heading back to Australia after over four years in the job. We've managed to get the same babysitter we had last November, will be interesting to see if Isobel is as well behaved this time!! So much to do to get organised - hang up all Isobel's new clothes we bought on the weekend, write out a cheat sheet for the babysitter with all our contact details, organise bottles so Isobel can eat while we're out ... and generally make the place presentable for company again! Gone are the days when we can just duck out the door in half an hour ...

Isobel is almost back to her old self - after a bit of poking around on the internet, we think she may also have hit a growth spurt in the last week. May go some way to explaining why she's been so unsettled and wanting to feed every hour or so while she's been awake. We're still battling with naps, and getting her to re-learn how to fall asleep on her own again. There has been lots of crying and a couple of night wakings, but on the whole she's greatly improved from last week. There is light at the end of the tunnel again - the morning naps are almost back to normal, but the afternoon naps and bedtimes are stil a bit of an ordeal.

Hard to believe she's now five months old - she has such a great little personality, and loves smiling at her reflection in the mirror. She's always been a pretty easy-going kid, but very persistent (bordering on stubborn - doesn't sound like a child of ours, does it??!!). She's much chirpier again now, and has started up her babbling again - it seemed to drop off for a couple of weeks, perhaps concentrating on that rolling-over thing first?

- Happiness is a huge smile when she wakes up, and recognises us peering over the crib at her,
- Peace is listening to the snuffles of a sleeping baby on the monitor downstairs, and
- Stress is the hour or so you spend beforehand rocking and shushing a crying baby to try and get her to calm down!!

So we've had everything in the spectrum recently. Andy has put links up to a couple of quick videos from earlier this morning, in the entry below this one.

Andy's got a couple of his folks from Adelaide visiting for work for the next couple of weeks, before he heads back to Adelaide for a week towards the end of the month. (They had a bit of fun on the aircraft out of Sydney which delayed them a bit, but they've made it over in time for SuperBowl tomorrow!) I think back to how nervous I felt in October when Andy went back to work for the first time after Isobel was born, and I feel so much more confident now that I can survive on my own ... as long as she doesn't throw me another curve-ball, like learning how to crawl or something ...

I have about 15 of the 19 hexagons worth of motifs done for the latest afghan. My little ballwinder from Christmas 2005 is getting quite a workout - can't think how I managed without centre-pull balls before now! I will be thoroughly sick of little rings by the end of this one ... The bargello afghan is still sitting in the front room after I finished weaving all those little ends in, waiting for me to find an old sheet and lace up the sides with blocking wires. It's too big for my bit of BBQ cardboard I've used for blocking all my other afghans! I hope it's enough to cure the curling at either end, otherwise it won't pass muster at the Fair this year. I have enough yarn left over to make a couple of matching cushions or pillow covers, but that's definitely a job for later ... way too many projects waiting in the wings before I can start those (even some knitting)!

I'm also hoping to get a spot on a knitting/crochet retreat on Whidbey Island at the end of September - it's run by one of the yarn shops in Mukilteo, and a couple of my guild friends went up and did it last year. Sounded like so much fun, and Andy has said I can go this year - just have to hope there are still places left by the time I can post off my registration form!

Two new videos of Isobel....

Rolling Over (5.5MB)

On her tummy (2.7MB)