Red, Orange, and Yellow

It's the first sunny day below 80 degrees in a long time, and while the leaves aren't changing yet, you'd think fall was on my mind. There's a lot on my mind lately, mostly that Anne just learned to crawl burn rubber yesterday. Man, she's quick. She's scooted, rolled, and scootched around for months but yesterday she just took off in a real crawl and the cats are terrified. This kiddo is something else. She doesn't sleep much (I probably can't get this post done while she naps for 15 minutes, and she wakes every hour at night for the last 3 months, so if you wonder why there is no knitting around here it's because I'm just too darn busy and TIRED). Anne also gave up baby food. Won't pass her lips anymore, so she eats what we do. We mostly eat very healthy foods especially with my cholesterol issues and looming diabetes. It's the salt habit I have a hard time letting go of until now, as I have a child who won't eat a thing unless it's from my plate and I hold her while we eat. I feel pregnant again! I really don't mind, I will miss these times when she is older. I may not get to read, knit, quilt or even use the restroom uninterrupted, but it's worth putting these things aside for a while to have a baby in the house again.

Also on my mind, I go in for my surgical consult next week. I've been trying to avoid it, but a routine ultrasound showed bad news this last time around. It's nothing major, tests found no sign of cancer last year. I lose one ovary, so having more children isn't out of the picture. My grandmother died of ovarian cancer, and that along with my mother in law's ordeal has left me a bit gloomy. I'm sure all is fine, but it's just one more thing, you know?

On the less gloomy side of things, shown are my daughter's favorite red crab, Trekking color 283 I picked up at Y'Arnings in Helena. Then there's our orange cat, Robert, a mother and baby pair of *amazing* growing octopuses - these are the first I've found that really expand to many times their original size, I even scored them off CVS's 90% off summer clearance for 23 cents. Amazing! I made a pumpkin bread two days ago and it's nearly gone, we've all been hungry for a little autumn.

The orange and yellow veined leaf is a Ruth Lampi original, made during her cross-country pottery tour this summer. Ruth is Martin's adopted sister, an artist in Philadelphia. Lastly, Anne in yellow wondering in amazement at the University of Wisconsin's Badger Ballad. Hmm, yellow and badgers? We're reading Harry Potter IV aloud to the older child, maybe the sorting hat would put her in Hufflepuff. If you want to be a badger and hear the song, come along with me.... We introduced Anne to the song the other night while watching Antiques Roadshow. I don't know how we made the connection, one minute we were watching the Keno twins and the next we were singing her the catchy tune. That's pretty normal for us, though.