I Finally Finished Charlie's Afghan

When our children were born I crocheted each of them an afghan to be brought home from the hospital in, and also to be blessed in. (Never end a sentence with a preposition.) Anyway...so, of course I wanted to do the same thing for our grandchildren. I wanted the afghans to be different colors or patterns so they could tell them apart within their families. I chose white for Katy's first-born and got started months and months ago because I knew that with boutique and Christmas and other projects I had going, it would be tight, time-wise, in getting it finished by the time the baby was born. Before I added the border I measured it because it seemed awfully small. It was. I added more to the length, but that threw off the count for the border. I decided to set it aside and start all over with new yarn and a new pattern because that one had gotten too frustrating. I loved the new pattern and it was moving along nicely, but Charlie came early...instead of March 5th, she was born on February 10th. We had planned on going to a Square Dance Festival in Yuma the 13th-15th, which we did because there was no need for me to go and help Katy and the baby while they were still in the hospital. Since Katy had a C-section, and Charlie was in NICU, I still had some time to finish the afghan. I crocheted instead of taking down the Christmas tree ornaments, on the way to and from the Festival, on the way here to Burbank, while watching TV, etc. and finally finished it yesterday...one day before her original due date. Yeah!!!

February 2009 Family Letter

February 2009 Family Letter
Hi, Everyone!
Right now I am sitting on the floor in Katy’s apartment in Burbank, finally getting to the family letter. I probably should combine February and March this time.
I have been here a week now, helping with her new baby girl…Charlie Belle Clark. She weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz., and was 18 ¼ inches long. She was born on February 10th, but was in NICU for two weeks and a day. She had her share of problems because she was 26 days early, but she wasn’t a sick baby. She couldn’t figure out the nursing thing, but thanks to a breast shield, she now “gets it.” I’ll tell you what…the Turner kids sure know how to have beautiful babies…WOW!!! Charlie is adorable!!! And you should see her hair! dark, and tons of it, hangs over her onesie in the back. Spoken like a Grandma, right? But seriously, she is way cute!!! Usually I get foods cooked for future meals and get them in the freezer for my new-mother daughters, but Katy and Jim are moving and so all the pans, mixers, ingredients, etc. are packed away. So, I can’t clean; I can’t cook. All I can do is help with the baby. It’s a little slice of heaven. At first I slept at nights because Jim was helping with the baby, but now I help so that he can get some extra sleep since he has to go to work and I don’t. The reason it is good for me to help with the baby now is that Katy had to have a C-section and isn’t supposed to be doing any lifting. With the move they have to run a lot of errands, so I just stay home with the baby. It’s not a very good idea to take a new baby out in public at this age, so I am helping that way. One day they had to go into another town to sign on their house and were gone seven hours. Yesterday they were buying new locks, installing them, etc. and were gone about the same amount of time, and it would have been difficult to take the baby along. So I am glad I am here, able to help in this way. Katy and Jim keep apologizing, but it’s more of a bonus for me. I will stay at least one more week, hopefully through the move. If I need to stay longer, I will. This little grandchild makes number nine for us…every bit as special as the first. Funny how that works.
I’m doing a poor job of doing the “blogging” and “facebook” thing; I’ve got to get Katy to help me know how to put pictures up for all to see. Modern technology…gotta learn how to use it.
Over Valentine’s Day weekend we went to Yuma for a square dance festival. We are used to dancing with maybe six squares, on a good night, in our regular club, but Yuma’s festival had probably 60-80 squares. That’s a lot of petticoats. We had so much fun. There were several couples from our clubs, so it made it even more fun. It was nice to be able to go to a festival without having to travel very far. Yuma is only 3 ½ hours from us.
I am still trying to finish a crocheted afghan for Charlie. I have to take out rows and rows, but I finally got past the part where I couldn’t help making mistakes. Yeah! I am on the final row of the border now, so it won’t be long.
Well, that pretty much sums up my month.
Love and prayers to all, Nancy