Pookie Adventure: Columbus and Ikea

(Topic: Travel, weighted bear)

Hi Friends!

Another Pookie Travelogue. Last fall we did a lot of traveling, and I take Pookie along and take pictures of him, so here's a fun photo story of our adventures in Columbus Ohio and visiting the Ikea store there!

First stop, hotel! This one had some fun "modern" style items. Here's Pookie in his meta snowsuit (he's a blue bear, in a suit that makes him look like a blue bear!!)

Because Ikea has furniture for kids, there's a lot more Pookie-sized stuff!!!

He suggested a tea stop at the café. I agreed.

Yum! From this angle you can see the building :D

This bed is close to the right size! I think it's a doll bed.

Pookie tried to convince me we needed a riding moose. I remain unconvinced...

"Please, have a seat."

Spaghetti night, anyone?

Pookie requested a cart ride, which I agreed to, because he's a heavy little guy!

"I'll handle the dishes."

Really? "not actual size"?? Shucks!

Pookie also thinks we should get him his own couch. I said he could buy it when he has his own money and his own apartment.

Yours,

Sarah

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Adventure Pookie: Altoona PA

(Topic: Travel, weighted bears, blueberries, trains)

Pookie wanted to dress like Daddy, and do Work. Daddy asked him what he was reading on Mommy's tablet.

Blueberry futures, said Pookie. Research. Important Work. Also, yummy.

See, Daddy? Market shares. Sharing. Blueberry PIE. Important. Also, yummy.

Hi Friends!

As part of last fall's travels, most of which had to do with interviews, I got to take Pookie to lots of cool places, all over the Midwest (ok, really just Ohio, Western PA, Western NY, and southern MI. Still a lot of travel!). I didn't blog as we went along, but took lots of pictures... after this one, I believe there's still one more post that will be coming!

The main place I spent time in Altoona has to do with their history. Altoona was essentially founded as a base station for building the massive Horseshoe Curve. There is a great railroad museum downtown, and then you can see the curve if you drive a bit out of town, and there's a museum and a funicular railcar there, too, which are also suuuuper cool!

What's Horseshoe Curve? Basically, it's really hard to get trains through mountains, because they don't do hills well, or snow, but building tunnels or bridges is a ton of work. A railway route designer came up with a plan to use the curves of a valley to loop the tracks around, giving them enough length to slowly make the ascent that would otherwise be too steep and would have to be on an impossibly long bridge. So they built up and tore down edges of the valley, looped the tracks around in a big, gently slanted uphill, which allowed them to cross the PA mountains and connect to the "west" in a direction that no-one else was doing.

I had permission! :) This was truly a cool museum if you like the history of railroading.

Pookie in the lobby. Behind him is a model of iron being worked, to make locomotives, which was Altoona's bread and butter until the 30s and 40s, when steam went by the wayside and diesel took over.

The railroad museum has a lot of neat rolling stock. Nothing really makes Pookie look small than having him sit on something that big... he's smaller than the coupler!

Much of the roundhouse isn't open, but parts of it are - they do some restoration in that space.

Pookie got a new hat in the museum store, but this is the wrong end of the train for that hat!!!

After the museum, I wanted to see Horseshoe Curve, but hubby was done a bit early and I'd spent more time at the Railroader's Museum than I'd realized! Hubby was sweet and wonderful, though, and assented to a visit to the Curve :) He knows how to make his wife happy!

This is at the curviest part of the curve. You can see a train going on the tracks above the parking lot. There are three parallel lines of tracks running the curve. At one point there were 4, but the 3rd track got removed in the 80s.

Norfolk Southern is one of the main lines going through this particular route. I think the other might have been CSX. At the top of the viewing area, really close to the tracks, they have rail control radio on, and explanations, so that train watchers can figure out what train to expect, from whom, and sometimes what cargo, too.

Containers and trailers, pretty routine.

In the museum courtyard. Pookie is a pretty small cargo!

There's my little engineer!

The funicular tracks from the museum up to the viewing area.

Some stats for the train buffs reading this :)

Up the funicular!!!

There's also a locomotive on display in the viewing area. Snapped this picture just as a bunch of tankers went by!

More interesting stats and history, if you're interested :)

Some of the explanatory signage for novice train watchers.

Looking back around over the valley. The base of the curve is behind me, and you can see it cutting through the hills on the left (lower side) and right (higher side).

Panorama of the curve. I think you can click on the picture to see it larger.

Unintentionally, this trip was also timed perfectly, because my train-themed birthday party was a week or two after this visit! I definitely picked up some of my party favors in the museum store...

Yours,

Sarah

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Resource list: Visit my spreadsheet at www.tinyurl.com/infantloss

Potholders

(topic: crochet)

Hi Friends!

This was a Christmas gift, so although I finished it about a month ago, I couldn't post till now!! I'm a potholder fan, and my hubby is an oven mitt guy, so I looked for a compromise. There are options out there, but I like making things myself. I have made a pair like this for us, and we liked it so much that when we realized my sister needed to equip her apartment kitchen a bit more, this seemed like the perfect thing! I picked 2 colors I know she likes, in a cotton yarn (non-flammable, much. Other options would be 100% wool. Both char more than burning or melting - non-natural fibers melt, which is dangerous if it gets on your skin). These are all single crochets: 2 squares, and just edged together using more single crochets!

The colors, and the cast on!

Finished products - front (I like reversing the colors in the second potholder. Fun!)

Finished products - back

They're fairly fast to make, and it's fun to pick out the color combinations! The single crochet, if done tightly, has no holes for fingers to get burned through, and is thick enough for normal work - but if grabbed from the outside (instead of used as a mitt) can be a double layer for super hot things!


Yours,

Sarah

To subscribe, find the "subscribe by email" note in the left column and enter your email there. Links to posts will be emailed directly to you whenever I post them! Nothing else gets emailed.

Resource list: Visit my spreadsheet at www.tinyurl.com/infantloss

How many months?

(Topic: Age of deceased child, thoughts)

Hi Friends,

Charlie recently "turned" 2-1/2. He "wouldbe/is" a toddler to me, but what struck me that day was that I didn't notice the day until it was nearly over (December 19th, the "half-birthday").

Early on, I noticed when the 19th came along, every month. I even noticed the number 19, anytime it came up.

Lately I've been noticing them less and less, and I hadn't noticed that I wasn't noticing.
I felt so guilty, like I'd been forgetting Charlie himself (not true).

My therapist says it's normal to find normal life taking up more time, and it's normal to feel guilty (even when we didn't do anything wrong, and certainly haven't forgotten them).

But what helped most was what my husband said: Other parents, with living children, stop counting their child's age in months by about age 2. We're past that, and we're also not counting in months anymore - we're just being normal parents.

I love my husband so much.


Yours,

Sarah

To subscribe, find the "subscribe by email" note in the left column and enter your email there. Links to posts will be emailed directly to you whenever I post them! Nothing else gets emailed.

Resource list: Visit my spreadsheet at www.tinyurl.com/infantloss

My new hat

(Topic: Knitting)

Hi Friends!

Today I got to take part in a really cool local yarn shop's knitting workshop. I rarely make things for myself, so making a hat FOR ME, and also IN ONE DAY, and WITH FRIENDS was a super cool opportunity!

Here are some in-progress pics, and, at the bottom, me wearing the finished product.

The top, made first. It's a wonky shape, but it comes out awesome.

Starting to be more hat shaped. I'm in LOOOOOVE with this color! It's a high-quality 100% acrylic yarn.

Done except tassel!

Yeah, love this yarn shop. 💗

Handmade tassel.

Done!!! So pretty!!!

I batted at the tassel for a full minute. I finished it about 2 hours ago and haven't taken it off yet. Super comfy!

Quick post, because I was at the yarn shop all day!!! I think I actually knitted for 10-1/2 hours today, making the hat from start to finish. It is a simple project but I think it is really cute, and I'm thrilled with the result!


Yours,

Sarah

To subscribe, find the "subscribe by email" note in the left column and enter your email there. Links to posts will be emailed directly to you whenever I post them! Nothing else gets emailed.

Resource list: Visit my spreadsheet at www.tinyurl.com/infantloss

Adventure Pookie: Cincinnati

(Topic: Weighted bear, photo story, Cincinnati, History)

President Taft's front room

Dear Friends,

Yet another installment in Pookie's Fall Travel Adventures!

We recently had the opportunity to visit Cincinnati, and while there, my first stop was the Taft home (a National Park site). This is the house that President Taft grew up in, and has a small museum adjacent to the home, and then a tour of the historic house. I took Pookie with me, and was surprised at how matter-of-fact the rangers treated him.

Pookie at the front entrance. Interestingly, as Taft was growing up, the home had been made taller and had a front porch added, but Taft's son decided to put it back the way it had been when Taft was born rather than how it was when he was a kid or teen.... interesting preservation choice.

As we toured the home, there were children doing their "junior ranger" badge - a series of questions designed to get them listening and involved in the tour. When I got back to the museum/visitor center, I asked if I could take a picture of Pookie in a Junior Ranger hat - too large to buy for him, but still cute! The ranger suggested I put him next to Taft himself, and even suggested the perch Pookie is on. How sweet!

The ranger then asked if Pookie had done the Junior Ranger badge. I said he hadn't, and the ranger said, "well, now he has!" and pinned a badge onto my little guy. It made my day.

After leaving the Taft house - an experience I highly recommend, it has great exhibits - we headed downtown, where we spent a bit of time before meeting a friend for lunch.

Very cool building. Apparently the wiry top was added to make it taller than the tallest building in town.

A cool ferris wheel that was set up - but wasn't open, so I didn't get to ride it :(

View of a lovely bridge toward Kentucky.

I spy, with my little eye, a lounging Pook!

Who, me??

Also right near the river front, there is a cool old carousel, which of course Pookie and I opted to ride. Also found a cool salt-and-pepper shaker set of kissing tigers, which of course I had to get.

Which animal did Pookie choose to ride?

Hm, no surprise there.

Family fun!!

Pookie watching over our purchases, as we waited for our friend for lunch. We met with another mom whose baby died. While emotional, it's really nice to meet my online friends in person.

Once I was done with lunch, I still had some time before hubby was done with his meetings. I put Pookie in the car for this bit, because it was going to be a hike and then heights, and I didn't have a good carrier with me, and I wouldn't want anything to happen to Pookie. I went to Carew Tower the formerly tallest building in Cincinnati! It has a great observation deck.

There is one main bank of elevators, then you get off this one, walk to another set of elevators, and go up another few flights.

River front. See the carousel and the cool bridge?

After we picked Daddy up, we all visited some relatives that we have in Cincinnati, in a local cemetery.

The Warner family headstone

It was a lovely trip, and a really neat town to explore!


Yours,

Sarah

To subscribe, find the "subscribe by email" note in the left column and enter your email there. Posts will be emailed directly to you whenever I post them!

Resource list: Visit my spreadsheet at www.tinyurl.com/infantloss