Baby Whisperer and a surprise review

Yesterday, while I was babysitting Benjamin and Michaela, I came up with a new way to make babies fall asleep:  Talk to them until they are so bored, they have to.  Benjamin was tired and being a little fussy.  He didn't want to play under the gym.  He didn't want to practice rolling over.  He didn't want to look at pictures in books.  But he was tired - droopy eyes and all.

I had recently had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my lunch so I started talking to him about how much I loved peanut butter.  Love pj&j.  Love peanut butter and fluff.  Love peanut butter cups.  My favorite panini ever that I had in Vermont - peanut butter and banana (warm!). Love peanut butter cookies, especially the sandwich kind.  Don't really love peanut butter flavored ice cream or peanut butter bread.  But, love peanut butter sauce on ice cream.  With Resees Pieces.  Benjamin was very intent at first, even smiling.  Then he started yawning and getting more droopy eyed.  I had run out of peanut butter things, so I moved on to pizza, another favorite.  I named all the places that Uncle Paul and I go for pizza and whether or not we like them and why.  And he fell asleep!*  You can just call me the baby whisperer.

*Ok, he only slept for a 1/2 hour and woke up very hungry, earlier than expected.  Why do you think that was?

Here are their finished, so so so cute Christmas presents!:

These are the thumbless mittens, His and Hers Mittens, from 60 Quick Baby Knits.  So fast to knit.  Each mitten took me a little less than an hour and the icord took what felt like 80 hours, but really only about a 1/2 hour each.

And, surprise!, I have another book review!  Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin (see link below)
Loved this book - read it in just a few days. It is about a shy young woman who lives in Ireland (post WWII) with her mother and her sister, but ends up moving to Brooklyn,  in order to have a " better life".  She struggles with homesickness and creating a life for herself in Brooklyn, then with staying in Brooklyn versus Ireland, so her  mother won't be lonely.  The events that happen to Eillis are written such that it seems she does not have control over them, or is just doing what she thinks is expected, and she keeps stumbling along with them.  The reader stumbles along with her, sometimes frustratingly so, wishing you could make the "right" decisions for her, or keep her life from going in a certain direction.  Oh and there's a love story in there too.   A completely engaging book.
Here is the link if you'd like to take a look or purchase:


Busy weekend ahead - teaching the Mobius Cowl class at the yarn shop, then helping customers with finishing projects.  AND, we have our home improvement project that I hope to have completed by the end of the weekend to show you.  And Christmas shopping. And tree decorating.  And hanging lights outside.