Because he's thlee!

He can count to 14, recite nursery rhymes, undo his shoes, and play nice with his friends. He can make up silly rhymes and hum song-y song songs and giggle and wiggle and snort when he laughs.


He can peel sticker backs, rinse his hair in the bath, use the potty, and use his indoor voice at the library.


He can even climb all the way up the tall slide at the park and walk across the wobbly bridge all by himself! He can ride his tricycle, play notes on the baritone, and look on both sides before crossing the street.


He can play mosaics with shapes, solve big floor puzzles, and even make computer creatures with daddy.


He can do all these things, you see, because now he's thlee!


Happy Birthday Jubilee Bubilee! I love you more than you could ever know, my sweet boy ;0)

PS - Now, how 'bout that cake?! I made it using the instructions from Jane Price's book, The home guide to cake decorating. It has detailed ideas for every number made from cake molds you already have and is complete with recipes and inspiration galore on lots and lots of other themed and non-themed cakes. It's my favourite eye-candy too since it is so beautifully styled and I don't hesitate to recommend it.


This three for instance was made from two ring cakes. Neat, eh?

Buzzzzz buzzz

I must have read Billy Bunny to baby Julian at least one hundred times over the years and each time we flipped the last page to reveal a pretty meadow a-buzzing with busy bees, Julian would point them out while I buzzed and tickled his neck or tummy to his giggling delight. It wasn't long before the bee tickle became our thing anytime we saw a picture of a bee...anywhere! And since almost every children's book or puzzle has at least one bee in it, I've been buzzing for a long long time!


It was only a matter of time really before our bee thing would start affecting my knitting. And now it has! Meet Buzzy and Buzza. Our new knitted bee noise-makers. I used Little Cotton Rabbit's Easter egg pattern to make these and simply knit the "egg" in alternating 4-row stripes of brown and yellow for the bee body.


For the wings, I simply cast on 20 stitches, worked 6 rows in stockinette, cut the yarn and pulled it through all 20 stitches (2x). I then used the tails to seam the sides and sew the wings to the bee. For the antennae, I knit 3 stitch i-cords for about an inch, tied knots in one end and sewed them to the bee. Ta-da!

I filled plastic easter eggs with rice and then seamed the bee around them to make salsa style noisemakers just like the plain ones we use in music class. Note to the wise: one of the bees is already busted -- and I didn't catch the offender so I don't know how it happened -- so if you make one, I suggest you seriously tape or glue the egg halves closed before dressing them in their bee costumes, just in case ;0)

And now for something completely different: it was our daddy's birthday this week! The big 3-0! So the kids and I went on a secret mission to the grocery store where Julian got the run of the store picking out decorations for daddy's cake. It was all about animal crackers, mini marshmallows, m&m's, licorice, and 4 kinds of jimmies and Sunday sprinkles! He had such fun decorating it and we really enjoyed eating the mountain of cake and candy he created.

Happy birthday dada, we heart you plein, plein, plein, plein!

You asked for it...

...and now Get Ziggy has a hat!


I didn't think you would remember the prototype hat I had knit for the original Get Ziggy late last year and was blown away at how many of you not only remembered it, but were really enthusiastic about wanting to knit it.

And since you all asked so nicely, I decided to give it another go. I tinkered with the pattern some more until I was satisfied that it met my strict wearability and super-cute-on-a-baby standards, heehee!


So there you have it: my Get Ziggy pattern now includes instructions to knit this matching hat as well as a detailed photo tutorial to make the pompoms. I sent the new version of the pattern to everyone who had already purchased it (though if you already bought the pattern but didn't get an e-mail from me about it today, please drop me a line so I can send you the new file).

Anyone who has purchased the pattern today, or who purchases it later for that matter, will automatically receive the new file with the hat pattern.

Thanks again for all your enthusiasm. It means more to me than you will ever know.

Happy knitting!

Get Ziggy's in the hizzle

It's been months in the making, but now (finally) Get Ziggy is ready for his big debut...


I started scheming about this one way back in December. I wanted to design the ultimate baby/toddler sweater: quick to knit, mindless bits for telly or commute knitting, and a more interesting cabled front to break up the monotony of the stockinette for the knitter and to wow the recipient.


It also features lap shoulders (my fave) to easily fit over those big baby noggins! Lolo is wearing the 18 month size. He's 14 months old and the sweater fits him great with ample growing room...I'm hoping it will still fit him in the fall though I realise that might be delusional considering my baby keeps growing and growing and growing faster than my knitting can keep up with ;0) Luckily, I've sized the pattern up to a 24 month size so I can always whip him up another in the fall!


I've knit 3 of these while tweaking the pattern and have found the pattern to be very stash-friendly. The brown one was knit in Rowan All Seasons Cotton. I know I already told you how much I heart this yarn, but I really really love it. It's so cooshy and soft. I think my Lolo bear likes to wear it too but then again he hasn't really been swathed in luxury fibres...yet!


I've also knit this sweater in O-Wool Classic (the cream version) and in Phildar Tweedy (the blue-green version) and have been happy with all three. So if you've got 3-5 balls of aran weight around, you can Get Ziggy too, heehee!

The pattern is available from my shop at www.jujubeandlolo.com as an instant download for $6.50 or if you prefer, it is also available as a Ravelry download here.

Happy knitting!

ps - some of you have noted that the link to the Yoda Baby sweater from my last post was no longer active. The link is correct but it seems that the designer has moved all her patterns to Ravelry. The Yoda Baby Sweater is still available as a free download directly from Ravelry here.