Just A Little Knitting Content

These little preemie hats are all the knitting I accomplished so far in January. The hats themselves were quick and easy enough to make but I struggled over getting my pompoms to look nice. Finally, I just gave up on the pompoms. Besides, while searching the web for preemie hat patterns I found one site which stated NICUs prefer hats without pompoms so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! These aren't my best work, I thought I'd get many more finished and do a better job on them but January brought several interruptions and minor crises. Such is life.

I have been horribly remiss in posting puppy pictures - as I've been reminded in several emails. The pups are all doing great. The little tri has stayed quite small but she was never without strength and energy so I continued to supplement her. I was anxious to get her started on solid foods, or more correctly at this age, "puppy mush" so I started all of them yesterday when they turned 21 days old. This is a bit earlier than I normally like to, but it has paid off as Tri Girl has gained 3 ounces in the last two days.



The puppy at the top right is Two Spots and that's food stuck on the top of her head. Not at all unlike babies first learning to eat in their highchairs, a puppy's first meals are messy business. I must have snapped this picture before Shamrock had a chance to clean her up. Two Spots has her head draped over the smallest red girl, Fussy. And of course that's the little tri color girl in the center. Isn't she tiny compared to her sisters? Still, you can see she does know how to keep herself warm! Next is the puppy I call Necklace and on the bottom left is the biggest girl, Splats. Notice her lovely smile? She must be dreaming of the great meal she just finished. I had to spend some time teaching Tri Girl and Fussy how to eat off of a platter but there was no need to teach Splats how to eat.



This is a picture of the puppies at 17 days. They had just discovered each other and were biting on each others ears and barking for the first time. It's so funny when they make their first bark as they usually bark and then fall over. They aren't so steady on their feet yet at 17 days.



While her four sisters were learning to bark and play, Necklace was zonked out.



And finally, Shamrock spends less time in the whelping box these days and more time supervising from the leather chair in the puppy room. She thought it was rather insulting for the flash on the camera to disturb her nap here.


Did you survive the bitter cold weekend? I did, but barely. I'm very good at hibernating during the cold. My sister Rita came out on Sunday afternoon. Rita enjoys football just as much as I do not but I did want to sit down with her and watch at least 5 minutes of the Packer game simply because I had to see what kind of crazy fools would sit outdoors in -20 wind chill to watch football. I ended up watching the entire game and what a game it was. I'm sure it's the first entire football game I've watched in 10 years. I do know how to pick them don't I? My sister Rita has Down's so I don't think she quite understands the whole Packer mystique. I told her from the beginning I was cheering for the Green team so naturally Rita was cheering for the White team. Boy, did she have a good time razing me when her team won!

Sorry I don't have a current picture of Fame to post. Fame has been busy learning a few show dog lessons. I despair of ever training her to stand still and let a stranger examine her bite. My little Fame does have a stubborn streak.