My online store opened today!  You can find it here.  Take a look around, and if you like it, the best/most amazing thing you can do for me is to tell as many people as you can!
With the opening of the store, I’ve decided to move this blog to a different one – to connect it to the store and have some cohesiveness… so, move on over to thefuzzyrobot.wordpress.com to catch this week’s edition of Project 365.

Nick let me spend a lot of money on yarn.  A lot.  Most of it is to help get things rolling on the store, some of it is for a few gifts, a little is for me to make a scarf.  I loved going to The Yarn Shop here in Lincoln, walking all through their yummy yarn and getting to pick pretty much whatever I wanted (well… not the $40/skein luscious yarn, but a girl can dream right?).  I did find it hard to pick colors for the store – second guessed myself a lot, but I feel like I have a good selection so far.  All of this yarn will certainly last me quite a while!  The Yarn Shop has expanded since the last time I was there – now it has a little cafe inside, multiple couches and workspaces for you to hang out, knit, and get help if you want it.  If you are a knitter, crocheter, or would like to get started, this is a great place to go.

Lily finally got a haircut!  It is so expensive so we don’t get her one very often, and this time was probably the longest we had gone.  She. Was. Shaggy!  Ridiculously so.  It’s crazy how skinny she looks when she does get it cut – looks like she lost 15 pounds!

Jack has an obsession with being on the couch.  Not just to sit quietly to watch tv, but to climb, fall, terrorize the dog, etc. etc.  He has become all boy.  He is not far from being able to get on the couch on his own, and when that day comes, I’m going to have a heart attack.  He has no fear and would gladly walk straight off of it if I didn’t stop him.  I need to figure out a way to get it through to him that he is not superman and has to sit down in order to get down.  Oiy.

Another morning at the children’s museum.  It’s really fun to be able to go anytime we want now (instead of shelling out $12 a shot).  Jack loved dogs, so the veterinary exhibit is fun for him.  He also loves the grocery store too – he would push a cart around the entire place if I let him.

Finally a nice day!  Jack, Lily and I went for a two mile walk in the morning – with a quick stop at the park.  This is a typical view on the trail.  I’ve missed these walks and really look forward to more days like this.  God, however, has a strange sense of humor, because the very next day we got 2 inches of snow.  Really, God?  Really?

Another fun evening in the tub.  This one involved many, many, many bubbles.  Jack, obviously, was in heaven.  And so was Nick .

Jack reeeeaaallly likes drinking from a cup.  A real cup.  Not a sippy-won’t-spill-much kind of cup.  Here he is “practicing” with an emply plastic one… I’m not quite ready for him to try it with actual liquid in it just yet.  I think our apartment management is probably glad for that – our carpet is already horribly splattered with thrown food and the like.

We got in the car and drove to York to surprise Nick’s mom, sister, and dad (though didn’t really surprise Phil – he was the one who set it all up).  Rose had no idea we were meeting them for lunch – they thought they were just going to York to look at a car, then stop in GI to do some shopping.  It was a fun time, and Jack really loved being the center of attention .

Fun visit to the library not far from our house.  They have fun toys and it’s small enough for Jack to run around freely.  He liked watching this little boy (probably around 3) play and followed him all over the place.  Jack squealed and laughed as he chased after him, and once the kid lost him, he came up to me and asked “where did that laughing boy go?”.  Adorable.

Nick was on a business trip all this week in Texas, and because I was lucky enough not to have to work, we spent the majority of the week at my parent’s house in Columbus.  We got there on Tuesday – to celebrate my mom’s birthday!  We got to spend the day with her last year as well, so it’s fun that it happened again.

Plans for my online store have been moving right along.  I’ve been knitting up a storm and have decided on a name – The Fuzzy Robot (thanks to Kelley Hascall’s suggestion).  This week my mom helped me brainstorm some ideas, and make up these great tags for each hat.

Jack got to play with his second cousin Braeden this week as well.  Braeden is 3 and full of energy.  Though he likes Jack, he wasn’t too sure of him playing with his toys – but eventually let Jack play with his cars.  Jack just spent every moment studying Braeden – getting the chance to hang out with older kids is sometimes rare.

Nick made it home fairly early in the afternoon on Friday.  It’s always wonderful when he makes it back and we can all be together again.  As Jack gets older he is more vocal about his love for his dad – often exclaiming “dada!” when seeing him, and giggling like crazy when I mention something about daddy.  So sweet.

We were able to get a year membership to the Lincoln Children’s Museum, and we met up with our friends Tyler, Amber, and Ben for a morning of playing and having lunch.  Jack was pretty enthralled with this drawbridge that spans part of the museum – and the fact that he could walk across it all by himself.  We went back later this week and he walked across that bridge probably 15 times!

I love Sunday mornings with my boys.  We have fun relaxing in our pjs, drinking coffee (at least those taller than two feet), & watching cartoons.  Jack really loves to get on the couch with us to play and snuggle.  I’m really loving Jack at this age – giggly and fun, full of wonder and learning so much each day.  It’s a joy to watch.

Finally!  We get to go for a walk!  It was above freezing, and the sun was warm enough, so we headed out for some fresh air.  It was glorious!  We were only able to walk a mile, when we had been so used to walking two each morning during the summer and fall, but we’ll take it.  I’m hoping the weather starts getting better so more of these days can occur.

Grocery shopping day!  We have a lot of fun zipping through aisles, pointing at things, squealing, naming item after item… I’m sure we get a lot of funny looks, and by we I mean me, but I don’t care.  And Jack is turning into quite the flirt, so these journeys are only sharpening those skills.

This was my view from the couch while I was sick on Wednesday with some kind of stomach bug.  I was so glad Nick was able to stay home to take care of Jack while I recuperated.

Another fun day outside.  We decided to get out of the house for a bit, so we headed to Barnes & Noble to play in the children’s section, then headed to the pet store to look at puppies, and stopped at the park on the way home.  Jack was in toddler heaven!  I also took the opportunity to get a few pictures of one of my new hats that I’m hoping to sell in a new Etsy shop.  I’m falling in love with this quirky robot and think it will look cute on any child’s noggin (and adults too!).  I’m excited to see how all of this plays out.

Nick’s friend had her baby on Thursday, so we went to visit the new lil guy.  Meet Gavin Alexander – such a cute guy and soooo little!  I forgot how little newborns are!  Jack was less than impressed and spent the whole time playing with Gavin’s balloons and Amanda’s fuzzy slippers.

Admittedly, this was not taken on Saturday, but a few weeks ago.  I spent the majority of Saturday at work which was crazily busy because of Girls’ State Basketball… so I came home very worn out and completely forgot to get a picture.  So, here’s our Lily cuddling with one of her toys.  She’s cute.  We like her.  Most days.

1. Why are you making those strange noises?
2. I want you to take out the trash (just kidding honey, I got it!).
3. If I can focus and get organized, then it will be on my terms.
4. Let’s just wait and see what happens.
5. I could use a pair of black work pants… why is pant shopping so difficult???
6. Nap and then go for a walk.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to snuggling with the hubby, tomorrow my plans include working all day… bleh and Sunday, I want to enjoy the beautiful weather with my boys!

My parents came to town to take me and the boys out to lunch to celebrate my birthday.  Mom made some super scrumptious chocolate cupcakes with peanut better inside – my favorite combination!  Jack could not get enough – moving from person to person for as many bites as we would give him.

While in Texas, my parents picked up a toy organizer at Ikea for Jack’s room – being able to sort and organize all of the toys and have a clean, “adult” living room has been fantastic.  Now, we just have to be consistent with putting the toys back in their place at the end of each day!

Nick is, most of the time, in charge of bath time.  He loves the one-on-one time with Jack and they have so much fun together.  It makes me smile to hear them giggling together in the bathroom.

Jack found out he can sit on the toy bins when they are upside down.  He loved eating his afternoon snack sitting on the bin… he kept kicking his legs happily while watching Yo Gabba Gabba.

Birthday dinner at Red Robin!  Nothing beats a Royal Burger and chocolate shake… though I could have done without being sung to loudly by all of the Red Robin staff.  I turned a shade of bright red.

I’m not exactly sure what was going on this day, or when I took this picture, but this is a classic photo of my sweet boy.  It’s been difficult to get many pics of him these days as he is constantly on the go with his new found walking ability.  Very fun to watch.

After a horrible morning at work, I came home to a fun dinner with friends at our place.  It was nice to relax and unwind with them, plan for our future 20 mile bike ride, and eat some delicious bbq pork that Nick made that day.  Jack ate up the extra attention, and spent some time snuggling with Uncle Bobby on the couch.

i have a love.  a passion.  more like an obsession.  i can not stop knitting.  i love creating a fabric with two needles and some yarn.  i love how many different textures you can create with just these simple ingredients.  beautiful things.  and add into that all the different types of yarns and colors – the same thing knitted with different elements of these things make the same product look entirely different.  it’s amazing to me.

i have knit a lot of things for others.  not so much for my hubby, cause he refuses to wear sweaters (she says as she mentally glares at said husband), and a few things for me.  i never know if said others like these things i’ve made, or if they just tolerate it.  i’m realizing that maybe, just maybe, there are those out there that would like to have something i’ve made… and perhaps i could help my family by supplementing some income by selling such wares.

a few years ago i tried to put my hand to selling knit items online.  it didn’t go so well.  i sold one thing.  looking back, i see that i just kind of jumped in before researching what could help make such a venture profitable… where to put my focus… how to create something that was truly mine (not just from someone else’s pattern… which i realize now is probably not the best thing)… how to brand a store… etc. etc.

despite past failure, i’m going to begin again and try to make it work this time.  why can’t something i love, and something i do often, bring about success?  i just need to take a deep breath, push away insecurities, take the time and effort, and do it right.  so… here’s the start.  i have a good book to help direct my wandering thoughts, and i’ve started writing my own designs – which i’ve come to realize takes a ton of time and energy and knitting/frogging/reknitting to make work.  but i’m having fun.  that counts for something, right?

Here is the month of January:

In one week, Jack is having his 1st birthday party.  I know it’s early, but with his actual birthday being on Thanksgiving this year, we decided to celebrate early so everyone could take part.  Amazing that it’s already here.  Amazing that the year felt like a blink of the eye and also a million years squished into one.

Of course there has been a lot of reminiscing in our household as we’ve planned this party and watched our little baby turn into a drunken sailor toddler.  Some things seem to be changing over night.  He is learning more things, becoming more independent.  He no longer needs us like he did when he was a newborn.  He can get around on his own (in his goofy army crawl kind of way/few wobbly steps before a face first dive into the carpet).  He can feed himself (and the dog).  He’s growing up.

With this growing up, I’ve decided to transition him from being a beastfed baby to a milk-drinking toddler.  When the journey of breastfeeding began, it was a rough start.  First, the nurses all told me that he was a champ and was attaching correctly.  Three days later after my milk still had not come in and he was demanding my boob what seemed like every five minutes/24 hours a day, I was exhausted and sore and tender and wanted to scream every time he came anywhere near that area.  I so desperately wanted to give this gift to my baby, but it was just not going well and was so difficult.  But after my milk finally came in, and after some encouragement from a dear friend and my husband to seek professional help, I went for a consultation with the ladies at Milkworks here in Lincoln.  Amazing how someone sitting with me for over an hour explaining the process of breastfeeding and observing Jack and I to see what was going wrong could do- instead of having a busy hospital lactation consultant pop in for five minutes and assume I knew what the heck I was doing.  It was refreshing to hear someone acknowledge that breastfeeding is, in fact, not as natural as everyone assumes it to be – it is, in fact, something learned – both by baby and mother.  God bless the ladies at that organization who not only helped us get on track, but also waived the fee for this very poor new mother who didn’t exactly know where the money was going to come from for our daily needs not to mention a pretty expensive consultaion with a lactation nurse.

I’m not going to lie – it was not all peaches and cream from that point on.  We got the hang of the nursing thing, but I struggled with feelings of resentment for this little being who constantly needed me and no one else.  My body was no longer my own.  I was not free.  It felt a bit like bondage.  Those first few months were tough in so many ways.  But after Jack started eating less frequently, I started to enjoy it more.  The closeness… the miracle that my body was giving him sustenance, keeping him alive.  The occasional night out with the hubby also helped – just getting away and not having to worry about being back within two hours so I could nurse Jack.

Then we experienced a nursing strike… and my heart felt like it was being stabbed.  My baby, who had relied on me so much, was refusing to take the sustenance I was offering.  Strange how personal it became.  I felt defeated… I felt unloved… I felt like a bad mother.  “Isn’t mommy guilt great?”, she said with great sarcasm.  But with all things, this was only for a time.

Now I am consciously making the decision to wean him – twelve months later.  I know there are mothers out there who happily nurse their children well into toddler-hood, but I am just not one of them.  One year has been quite enough.  I’m so glad to have been able to nurse him this long.  I’m not going to lie and say that I have loved every minute of it, but I am going to miss the time we’ve had.  It is true that you get a special bond.  And there was a stab of regret as I gave him his first sippy full of milk instead of sitting with him on the rocking chair in his room and nursing him as I have for so long.  Not regret for the decision that I made, but regret that the time snuggling with him in that intimate way is coming to a close.  There have been unexpected tears – a lot of them.  I have been taken aback by how emotional this has been for me, but he seems to be adjusting very well.  And I am slowly adjusting.  I am embracing this newfound freedom, and enjoying watching Jack have that freedom as well.  My baby is growing up.  I’m so sad and so proud all at once.

I can’t believe this year is almost over.  My baby is going to be 1!