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Our first Christmas tree
Christmas 2009
Thank you for all your kind comments and messages regarding my recent surgery. I am recovering very well, and will soon be back to "normal". Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope all of you had at least as good a Christmas as I did. On Christmas eve we had dinner with my in-laws. This is the first time my parents are in Sydney for Christmas and so they were invited too. As usual, I made roast pork with crackling.  The recipe is actually very simple. This year I ordered 2kg of boneless pork belly with the skin left on. I left it out in the open to "dry" from about 9 in the morning. Every couple of hours or so, I sprinkled some salt on the skin and wiped off the moisture with a clean paper towel. At about midday, I used a knife to puncture the meat side of the pork belly and rubbed liberally with light soy sauce and Chinese 5-spice powder, and left it to dry further with the skin side up. By about 2 in the afternoon, the skin looked nice and dry. I baked it in the oven for about 2 hours, with the skin side up on a rack in a tray with about 1cm of water. Oh, and the oven (fan-forced) was set to about 180 degrees. I checked on it about 1 hour and 30 minutes into the baking time to see what parts had crackled and what had not. teh parts that did not crackle were gently dried with a clean paper towel and brushed lightly with some lemon juice (you can also use vinegar). The pork was then popped back into the oven for further baking and pulled out just before two hours. if you are not sure whether it is cooked, use a meat thermometer to check. Cutting it to check for pinkness and then re-baking will cause it to dry out. There you have it.. my very simple roast pork with crackling. I also made potato bake, but this year it was a failure. As I am still recovering and did not want to have to do everything in one stretch, I peeled the potatoes early and soaked them in water, ready to be assembled into a tray in the afternoon. Unfortunately they must have absorbed water and released said water during the cooking. My potato bake turned out more watery than usual and definitely not as rich and delicious as it normally is. Very unfortunate! Chris's mother made her very popular coconut prawns dish. Don't ask me for the recipe as I have never made it. I know it has prawns, pumpkin, chokoes, ginger and coconut milk in it and it is very delicious. Unfortunately, I was unable to indulge as prawns in large quantities make me itch. I did eat a little, and it was definitely delicious and rich.  During dinner, Chris's parents pulled out a headband with antlers for Alex. I made the bad bad mistake of calling them ears. Oops. Now he calls them "Rudolph's ears".  As usual, Alex scored the largest number of presents, including a new bike. It came with a helmet and although the bicycle is not yet assembled, Alex has been wearing the helmet daily. He just won't leave it alone! He wears it in the car, falls asleep and then my dad who sits next to him in the car has to try to take it off without waking him!  The other big present he received was from my parents - a bed! Alex now sleeps in a toddler bed. I am very surprised how good he has been. i was expecting to be woken at all hours of the night by a little boy wanting to climb into our bed, but he only comes round in the morning, usually at about six, but soemtiems at seven. When he does come in he is very good and climbs into our bed and snuggles. Sometimes he even goes back to sleep! I think I did better than Alex this year, though. Amongst my many presents, i got a Food safari cookbook and a handmade shawl! I participated in the Christmas exchange on Ravelry and Helen, the person who sent to me, made me a shawl. It is a pattern that she saw was both on her queue and mine. How lovely is that?!  You have probably noticed how shaggy Alex was looking in those Christmas photos. He was long overdue for a haircut. I had grown used to seeing him shaggy and quite liked the look. Today we decided to give him a haircut.  Haircuts are a family affair here.. Alex to sit still, me to hold the scissors and cut, and Chris to take photos!  I much prefer him with long hair. Luckily, it will grow long again before too long. Labels: Alex, Christmas
One tube down...
It was my intention to post after Christmas with photos of knitting and spinning done over Christmas, and news of an impending bundle of joy. However, that was not meant to be. On the Friday that just passed, I had to join the queue in the emergency department of my local hospital with what I thought were terrible gas pains. I am now so relieved I got it checked out, eventhough I did think at the time that I'd really look the fool if they did turn out to be "just gas", as they found that the pregnancy was ectopic and it had ruptured my right fallopian tube. It all went very quickly after they found the ruptured ectopic pregnancy in the ultrasounds. What I did not know when I was at home was that the aches and gas pains I was experiencing was from internal bleeding caused by the rupture. According to the obstetrics registrar on duty that day, if left too long, I could have died! I have never "nearly died" before. I had never, up till that time, had surgery before. I had never been under any sort of general anaesthetic before. It was all quite an experience, and not a very pleasant one. I wanted my "regular" obstetrician to do the surgery and for that I would have had to transfer to the local private hospital which was about 10 minutes away. That would have been doable, but the private hospital did not have room for me. My "regular" was very good about it, though, and recommended an obstetrician in the hospital where I was and assured me I was in good hands. I was indeed. He turned out to be very nice, and in some ways reminded me of my "regular". The surgery was successful and took less than an hour. It was minimally invasive (and that is not to say it was NOT invasive) as it was done via laparoscopy. I am now left with three tiny holes (stitched up, of course) in my belly and just some residual pain. I was lucky they caught it in time and managed to find the ruptured tube easily and removed it and the ectopic pregnancy and cleaned out what they could. Who knows what the outcome could have been had I waited. I was going to wait for Chris to finish work on Friday, and I am now glad I did not. He missed his office Christmas party. Had I waited, I would have been much more sick from the bleeding. In the 3 hours when we waited in the emergency department's waiting room, my blood pressure dove down to about 97/68 (or thereabouts). I started feeling a bit light-headed and a lot more pain. The pain that had started in my tummy had started to spread up my backto my shoulders. By the time they wheeled me into the theatre for the operation, the pain in my shoulder was quite unbearable. This is not the most desirable outcome from a pregnancy. Far from it, in fact, but I am grateful to be alive. The staff at the hospital took great care of me and they were all very gentle and sympathetic. Even the nurse removing my catheter tried to distract me while she was doing it when she found out I had never had one before. It was a scary time for all of us. Something I hope to not have to go through again. I think not enough is said to pregnant women to encourage them to seek medical attention when they have aches and pains during the pregnancy. I have heard others tell me that they have been told, "You're pregnant, what do you expect?" Well, I thought that too. I was pregnant. gas is part of being pregnant, what did I expect? I was lucky, I think, because I have a GP who is vigilant. I had been spotting very lightly for about 2 weeks prior to the ectopic pregnancy being discovered. He was monitoring my HCG levels very closely, and they were going up satisfactorily. In fact, the last test, taken the day before, showed the HCG level to be at about 3700, an acceptable level for someone who was 6 weeks pregnant. I was meant to have another test this week and then a scan, but of course that is probably all unnecessary now. My GP emphsised to me every time he saw me or spoke to me that if I had any pain I needed to go to the emergency department and tell them that I was pregnant, spotting and had pain. It was because of him that I decided not to wait. Better safe than sorry, and this time, it was certainly much better safe as sorry would have been too late. Aside from the recuperation that needs to happen physically, there's probably going to be a lot of emotional baggage that will come along. This pregnancy was never going to be a baby as such since it was ectopic, but for a few weeks, it was the promise of a baby. We were all excited. Alex had placed an order for a sister. In fact he was absolutely convinced it was a sister. When I told him I did not know whether it would be a boy or a girl, he retorted, "YOU don't know, but I know! It is a sister!" None of us have said anything to him about there being no more sister, but he has not mentioned her once since the operation. He knows that I am not feeling very well and I have "owies" on my tummy where he should not press on me, but we have not said anything about the sister being gone. He just seems to know. I wonder how. He has not asked to say goodnight to his sister since I came home from the hospital, but he used to say goodnight to my ytummy every night before that. From now on, if we were to get pregnant again, we'll have to be ever so vigilant. I am sure my GP will be. He always is. I will have to be too. I am sure we will all be very nervous about a repeat of this happening and will probably not be able to rest till we get a scan showing the baby to be in the uterus. Oh, what a lot of stress! On the bright side of things, I am glad it is Christmas and I am able to take the next couple of weeks off from work to rest and to enjoy my family. Merry Christmas everyone! I will be back after Christmas (if not before!) with photos of more completed projects. Labels: Alex, Christmas, ectopic
The long overdue post
A lot has happened in the last couple of months. Where do I start? Chris left his old job, and started a new one. There was a bit of uncertainty while he looked for a new job but he found a new one quickly. He wasn't dismissed. He left, in case you're wondering, because things just weren't so pleasant anymore. I am pleased that he seems much happier to go to work now and comes home a happier man. Happy husband/Daddy makes for happy wife/child. I have been busy. The project I am working on didn't go so well once it was in production and I have been working hard, osmetimes late at night supporting users, testing patches, etc. Pretty much doing the things I normally do, and more. That has now calmed down too. Thank goodness. I was not sure I could handle much more stress. In that time I found a white hair. Oh my! I hope it was just stress and not old age. I am not that old yet, am I? I haven't found another, but to be honest, I am not looking that hard either. If you see one (or two or three), please don't tell me. I don't want to know! As for Alex.. well, as you would probably have guessed from the previous post, he is growing up quickly. He likes painting and drawing, and gluing and folding, but not cutting, apparently. There is something about cutting that frustrates him. He hates it and won't do any craft that requires cutting, or so I am told. He is also slightly obsessed with cutting straight lines and gets frustrated when his little fingers can't manage it. That said, he does have a "thing" for straight lines and orderliness. Hmm.. I am nto so sure that this child is related to me after all. Orderliness is what I am not! Aside from work, I have also been very busy knitting and sewing. I found a kit to make this at my local Salvos shop:  It only cost me $9 and the only thing I had to supply aside from thread was the cotton batting inside. Alex loves it and calls it his duck blanket. It really is Mother Goose, but he thinks it's a duck and who am I to argue with toddler wisdom? It was completed in one day and easier than I expected. Don't look too closely, though. The applique work is really dodgy, despite it all having been cut out for me and all I had to do was sew. It's also not bound at the sides like a "real quilt" normally is. I sewed it all together (inside out) leaving a gap and turned it right side out and then top-stitched it. The layers were then tied together with bits of thread. A bit of a cheat but an effective one! My binding skills are crap, despite having watched dozens of tutorials on youtube. I am now working on a shawl (which can be used as a lap blanket).  I am using some handspun Blue-faced leicester (hand-dyed by me, of course) which I had plied with two strands of commercially produced cashmere/silk. Then.. horror of horrors, I ran out and it was still too small for a shawl. So I had to find another yarn to go with it and finally settled on this:  I am way past that point now, having completed about 10 repeats of the pattern. I am basing it on the Kiri Shawl buy Polly Outhwaite, but making it a square instead of a triangle. It's actually working out quite well. I have a gazillion stitches on the needles now though and each round is taking me longer. I think I will give up soon, maybe when I reach twelve repeats of the pattern. I still need to make sure I have enough yarn to finish the edging. I'd hate to run out again and have this look like a scrappy shawl, which it should not be. More recently I have also been dreaming up another simple pattern for a hat. this time it's a girly hat.  It's pretty simple and can be knitted up in a day or two. I took longer because of many interruptions and also feeling the need to concentrate on the shawl, which must be finished and blocked by the end of November as it is a gift for someone very special to Chris and I. I'll have to fine-tune the pattern and get it test-knitted. The yarn I used for this hat is actually a "seconds" lot from my store. the brown part has spots that are darker than the rest, and so it is a "seconds". I actually don't mind that and I think it's not very noticeable, and it goes well with the white/cream spots. I have been spinning too, but don't have that much to show for it. This one I call "Pure Dark Chocolate"  Spun from Bond fleece purchased from Shiloh Wool. It’s deliciously soft, which is, to me, so unusual for Corriedale, but I guess Bond is very special Corriedale. It is bred to have finer fleece than your run-of-the-mill Corriedale. It is approximately 24 to 25 microns and I didn’t think it would spin up so nicely, but it did. It’s going to be a scarf for Alex as he wants a scarf to be “just like you, Mummy”. Then there is this one which I spun for a customer, who is also a friend.  The hand-dyed superfine merino top is from Selah. It's not one of mine. It was a joy to spin as it really is quite soft. I navajo-plied it to keepthe colours together. I would imagine that it would stripe madly across whatever Anna decided to knit with it. I love how bright the colours are. they're not "my colours" but I did enjoy spinning them and just looking at the colours make me happy. The yellow is such a cheerful yellow and the reds and blues are so bright. That's all I have energy for today.. but I do have more to post later. Labels: Alex, Christmas, knitting, life, sewing, spinning
I'm still here...
That's right. I'm still here. Just a little busy over the Christmas and new year period but definitely still here. So.. happy belated Christmas. I hope you had a good one. I sure did! As usual we spent Christmas eve with Chris' folks. For dinner, my contributions were roast pork and potato bake.   It was not till we looked at last year's photos that we realised that I contributed the same dishes to last year's Christmas eve dinner! Could this be the start of a tradition?  This was Alex's dinner. He had pan fried chicken drummettes, hand cut chips and some potato bake. I can just hear some of you asking yourself about his high carb diet. He refuses to eat salad and that was the only vegetables we had that night. I did offer him some, which, to his credit, he did try. He spat it out and proclaimed it "YUCKY!". After dinner, we opened presents. Alex very quickly went from not knowing what to do with the wrapped packages to ripping them apart and asking for "An one" (another one).   Here he is, surrounded by his haul of presents:  He loved the kitchen Chris' family bought for him. The apron and kitchen utensils Emily gave him came in handy too. He wears the apron every time he plays in his kitchen. I think it is a good sign that he has not tired of it yet and he runs to it as soon as we get to my in-laws' house.  Amidst all of that I even managed to get some knitting time in:  They are socks for a friend's child. I used some of my own hand-dyed wool. It's "Sock" in the Fern Gully colourway.  A few days after Christmas, Alex and I caught up with some of the mums and bubs from an online mothers' group I frequent. All the "babies" were born in January 07 and it is astounding to see how much they have all grown. He had a great time playing in the sand and water, climbing on everything, and just getting hot and dirty.  He did remember to stop for a snack.. but not for very long. Labels: Alex, Christmas
I can't believe he is one already...
Where has the year gone? Remember this?  That was last year. This is this year.  Alex turned one yesterday and all of a sudden, with his new hair cut and new found confidence, he seems like a big boy and no longer the wee baby I knew. He now walks holding on to us with only one hand. Before I know it, he will be toddling along on his own. The thought of that brings a little tear to my eye. He's growing so quickly, I can barely keep up. Selfishly, I wish he'd stay a baby for a little longer, but I am also glad that he has grown and developed so well over the past year. I was going to have a Christmas post, but did not find time... so here it is... It was Alex's first Christmas, and boy, was he spoilt!  He had a ball wandering around the in-laws' house, even managing to find the stairs and climbing halfway up. Here he sits amongst his mini mountain of presents  I'd like to say that I had nothing to do with it, but the truth is that I am partially responsible. I thought I would stick to the "only one present" rule, but that didn't really happen. From my parents in-law, he received a Tonka ride-on toy and a whole lot of new clothes. from my sister-in-law and her fiance, he received some musical instruments (which he loves!) and some bath toys. My parents bought him the Magna Doodle toy. Chris' cousin and his wife bought Alex the Mr Potato-head toy and we bought him a shape sorter and some books. So.. is he spoilt or is he spoilt? We had a relatively simple Christmas eve meal. Everyone helped to put it together.. which is part of the fun of a Hernandez Christmas. This year I made roast pork, which came out quite well, even if I do say so myself.  I received, from my sister-n-law and her fiance, a creme brulee torch. Can you guess what we had for dessert that night?  On Christmas day, we had dinner with the Cooper-Garrett clan. Always a fun event and Alex scored more presents! He was given a Fisher Price Gumball machine which he loves. He pushes down on the handle to make it "sing", and sing it does! It plays one of those crazy tunes that's a cross between a carnival game type melody and a pinball machine type melody. He was also given a knitted cat, which he thinks is fantastic. It lives in his cot and he sleeps with it every night!  What better gift could one give a knitter's son? Especially when he is the son of a knitter who does not like knitting toys. Why? That's a story for another day, I think. All in all, we had a pleasant break from work over the Christmas week. I did not log in to work for a whole week! That's a first for me. At the end of the 10 or so days of holiday, we had Alex's first birthday. Poor boy was born on the day when everyone goes back to work, so he is destined to always have small birthday celebrations, I think. We had a small celebration for him with a mountain of cupcakes. I made 52. It was an accident.. really! I was trying out a new smaller cupcake tin and ended up with more cakes than I thought I would. I still have half a mountain downstairs in the kitchen!  Alex loved the candle and it was then that I realised that it's probably the first time that he's seen a flame up close. he doesn't know yet that it burns and that's ouchie! He loved the cake too, and could not get enough of it!  Since he was so spoilt with toys and clothes for Christmas, we did not buy him too many birthday presents. My parents sent me out to choose a book or two for him. Alex ended up choosing one and I chose the other. No, really, he did choose one book. He threw a tantrum when I put it back on the shelf - a reaction that I got with no other book. He really likes that "Monkey peeps" book. It makes him giggle when the monkey falls out of the tree! Chris and I bought him a new tee shirt and some new pants. He'll be wearing those this weekend when he celebrates his birthday with Chris' family.  So.. what has the past year been like for me? So much has happened in the span of a year. In January, Alex was born and Chris bought a new car. February marked Alex's first Chinese New Year. In March, Chris' brother and his wife came home for a surprise visit. Doesn't sound like that big a deal unless you know that they live in the UK! What a pleasant surprise! In April my parents came to visit and spent Easter with us. I also managed to get the only spinning I had done all year done then. We haven't seen my parents since then, though we do chat on Skype quite often. To Alex, they are just faces on the screen.. but that willc hange soon as we're going back to KL for a visit in February! In May I posted off my ISE4 scarf. It was difficult to part with the scarf as I had grown quite attached to it in the time that I had spent spinning the yarn for it and knitting it. I turned the big three-oh in June. I feel old now. Just old.. not grown up. I also started knitting things for sale then. Oh, and that was when I handed in my business project for uni. The end of my studies... what a relief! July saw Alex tasting "real" food for the first time. Up till that point he had only ever had breastmilk, so it was quite a big change for him. He took to it like a duck to water and we haven't looked back since. August... we fell in love with a house, after many long months of searching, and bought it! We moved in September and for the first time in about 8 months, Alex slept through the night. Oh, what bliss! I strongly believe that it had a lot to do with him having his own room. Aside from the odd occasion when he is teething or not very well, he has slept through almost every night since. Not much happened in October aside from a short trip to Canberra to renew my passport. So glad I don't have to do it again for another 5 years. In November Alex was cruising and we thought he'd be walking pretty soon after that. We were wrong, though as he still continues to walk only with some assistance. December was haircut month for Alex. He endured it well and now looks more like a boy than a baby. What is in store for us this year? I wonder... Labels: Alex, birthday, Christmas, life, new year
It's nearly the new year and he's still not here yet..
We're all set for his arrival now, and he's still not here yet. I did wake up a couple of nights ago with what felt like contractions, but they just faded away after about 30 minutes. How disappointing. As you can see here, I am still very much pregnant and the little one seems to be very happy to remain on the inside.  The cot is ready, and all his little clothes and blankets are washed. We did have some trouble getting the mobile to work, and had to return it. That was easy enough as the shop just swapped it for a new one, which we have tested and works fine. I can't wait to have a little baby to put into the cot now that it's all made up.  Last night we put together the bath, cleaned out the bathroom (don't ask..) and put away the blankets. That's when I realised that we have a lot of blankets for one little baby. I have a blue crocheted circular one, the Lizard Ridge (which I am still reluctant to call a "baby blanket but it IS amongst the little one's things), a couple of store bought ones that were given to us, the blue and aqua one which is currently in the wash and the blue, cream and lilac one which is drying on the line right now. Yes, folks, I did finally finish that blanket that's been hanging around for oh so long. Before I show you what it looks like, I'd like to show you this:  That's how many ends I had to sew in and cut off. All that for one itty bitty blankie. Trust me, I am never again making one of these blankets!  It looked a little unfinished without an edging, so I bit the bullet and put a crochet edging around it. It looks much better now, but it's drying on the line and I can't show you a picture yet. I'll have to remember to take a picture of it before putting it away. Can you tell I am proud of it? Of course I am! It was a test of my patience, and I passed (I think). On Wednesday night, we met up with some friends for a night of board games, food, wine (though not for me) and much laughter. One of our friends had found this and bought it for us:  Isn't it cute.. and so apt! Christmas with the in-laws this year was fun, though it did feel sad to not have the whole family together. Chris' brother and sister-in-law now live in Jersey and this is the second Christmas we are spending without them. They LOVE (and I do mean LOVE in capital letters) presents and get into the whole gift-giving and receiving thing in a BIG way. Without them, the bottom of the Christmas tree looks so bare.  Okay, it's not really bare, but if you have seen it in years past you'd know what I mean. Usually the floor around the tree is covered with presents and they are all stacked up high with presents - mainly for Chris' brother and sister-in-law, and mainly from each other! The special present that we had for the family this year was this:  These, my friends, are no ordinary jars of jam. Do you remember when Chris went to Paris to surprise his family? This is the jam they had with their breakfast whilst in Paris. He thinks it's the BEST jam ever. Not being much of a jam-eater myself, and not having tasted it, I think I'll just take his word for it. We found it at one of the local shops while doing some pre-Christmas grocery shopping and thought it would make a nice small present for his family. I cooked a whole ham this year. I am so proud of myself. It's the first time that I've cooked a ham, and it turned out quite well, even if I do say so myself. My contribution to the Christmas eve dinner was a glazed ham and a turkey roll. I don't have pictures of the turkey roll, but it's just a turkey roll, you know, nothing special. The ham, on the other hand...  Even the cat was eyeing it...  We had to freeze the leftover ham as there was so much of it. It was definitely worth the effort. The glaze was a mix of brown sugar, blood orange marmalade and Dijon mustard. It added a nice sweetness to the outside which matched very well with the delicate smokiness of the ham.Oh yum! Oh, and on Christmas day, we had lunch with Chris' extended family and dinner with the Cooper-Garrett clan (who are like a second family to me). Our contribution to Christmas lunch was roast pork and I am so glad that we decided to make that. It was a hit. There was hardly any left over, and that's something considering the amount of food we had. the relatives were very generous and threw us a little baby shower. We received all sorts of things including a cot quilt set, a music and lights thing (which will keep baby entertained, I hope) and a whole lot of hand-me-downs, for which I am eternally grateful. One fo Chris' cousins has a 4-year old and she had kept all her baby things. We got bibs, and towels and all sorts of practical things. We also got a stroller - a good one too. We gto a bed-rail, a play mat, and lots of other goodies. Yes, folks,w e are now definitely ready for baby to arrive... Bubba, it'stime to come out and play! Labels: blanket, Christmas, knitting, life, pregnancy
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