Happy New Year!!!

Happiest New Year to One & All!

To my family, Susi et al, Susan, Gina, Ali, Marianne, Meredith, Peggy, Kate, Kathy, MM, Meg, and all my other friends...love and kisses and prosperity in the New Year!

Thank you for reading my blog and sharing with me. I wish you all the best in the coming year!

My Beautiful Divas

I have a rogue's wall in my entryway with great pics of the divas, but the newest of them was taken in 2002. In passing, I said something about needing new portraits of the divas.

Guess what I got for Christmas!

Frame after frame of the most wonderful photos of my beautiful daughters. As I looked upon the 3rd unwrapped gift, I cried, of course...Maggie gets up under my face to see if there are actually tears and then stands up to yell, "You were right, Daddy! She's crying!"





They got creative...


Now before you go on, there is a context. When we were all home in California back in 2002, we decided to take pics of all the Halligan grandkids for my parents.

Meave was just turned 2 at the time, and she was an angel during the VERY long photo shoot. The older brats were having way too much fun, so getting them all to smile nicely at the same time was an exercise in maternal patience...thank goodness each set of siblings is rather wary of a different aunt so we managed through fear and intimidation...

Then we got to taking photos of just the sets of siblings...

...and Meave was SOOOOOO over it! We would get her sitting up and smiling, and then before every single shot, she would hit the deck. I finally told the photographer to just take it...take it dammit! This was as good as it was gonna get...my dad got a big kick out of this. As you can see in the pic, Molly thought it was funny and Maggie was sure someone was in big trouble.

So, Michael and the girls re-visited this theme...

First there was the happy pic with the teddy bears.

Then the respective divas hitting the deck...

I love this!

And then one last statement...


I so love them!

Meave's Cardi

Finished the cardigan last night. No pattern. Yarn is Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes). Very soft.

Meave wanted to wear it, so I did a fast steam block for pics, but it needs real blocking. Hoping the things that are bugging me (like the sleeve length) will go away with blocking. But, the diva loves it and that is all that matters!

The kid has been paying way too much attention to Maggie...I actually have to ask for a nice smile to get one!

The Pinwheel and an Arm-Thingy

Yes, previous posts about these, but they are both done now, so new pics and a few thoughts.

And...I am in possession of a luxury...TIME! My house is clean, clean, CLEAN for Christmas, things are already set up for the family dinner on Christmas day...I even have spotless bathrooms! So, I can sit here and write this post without feeling guilty about one single thing!

I am feeling a bit giddy...

Anyway, the knitting...

In a previous post about this sweater, I lamented that it seemed to be growing. I was wrong. I did make it bigger on purpose, but my perception that it was a fluid and changing creation was a tic in my...whatever-that-is-that-makes-me-crazy. It has actually maintained its original length and its shape. Must be the silk spun into the wool. Amazing.

Molly wears this constantly...which is an immensely gratifying thing. Sometimes she wears it long....






...and sometimes she wears it short (and she flips it in this practiced, bizarre way that left me shaking my head).








And here is the Youngest Diva's Arm Thingy (as she dubbed it).

The kitty jammies from Grandma Dodo are such a hit that she wears them constantly.


Here we tried a different facial EXPRESSION!


Cables and some weird moss stitch I got myself tangled in. Should say here that this is a "pattern" (so-to-freakin'-speak) out of my own head, which means there is NO pattern, I just went with the flow...








This is the crocheted edge which ended up being wider than I planned because Junior said it felt too short during a "fitting." Now she's happy.

Diva happiness is what I live for...

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

I hope this holiday season is peaceful and happy for all!

May you count your blessings and be glad!!!

Happy Birthday, Maggie!!!!

Middle Diva Maggie is 12 years old today.

What a trip...I am beginning to feel like time is snowballing. How did 12 years go by so fast?

I was pondering my divas not too long ago, and happened upon a few family truisms. When I was pregnant with Molly, only hard candies made from juice even remotely settled my stomach (sick as a dog for 8 out of the 9 months...I am not kidding that it started the second that cell divided and lasted until she was born except for 1 month in the middle wherein I thought I was SAVED!). She was born in the morning, and smiled a real grin at 3 weeks. She is still a grinning, early-rising carb freak!

Meave (the 3rd and last) was an unbelievably easy pregnancy...quite frankly, I might have more if the first 2 had been like her. Very little sickness, and what there was easily quelled by crackers or candy. She was born at night after only 4 hours. She is my omnivore night owl, just like me. And she was the sweetest, most easy going baby I have EVER met.

The middle one, Diva Maggie, was a pistol from the very beginning. She rolled, and stretched, and punched and kicked and generally abused me from about 4 months into the pregnancy onward. I thought that was too early to feel her and attributed it to gas, until it never stopped and it became obvious that it was her. The weirdest thing was that because of the c-section I had with Molly, I could literally feel Maggie's body parts! My abs never healed back together vertically (pretty common, I guess) so as Maggie did her gymnastics, her tiny body parts would take turns sticking through that split. After awhile, as she grew, we began to identify the parts and we would rub them. I swear she made sure her little lower back stuck through there more often than not for a reason!!! Easiest way to put her to sleep after she was born was to rub her lower back!

Maggie's favorite time of day was about 7pm. Most active. Same to this day. She gets her sisters all riled up every night. It is what they do. I tease them and say at least when they were babies, after only 15 minutes of the craziness they would poop and go to sleep! I keep asking when they are going to go do the business and go to bed!

The only thing that settled my stomach with her was saltine crackers and salty protein. She lived on Hebrew National hotdogs for the first 4 years of her life! Screw sugar! And when she is not feeling well (like the past 3 days) she only wants saltines.

Oh, and she was born early in the morning, and guess who is the earliest riser of all...Maggie.

I find all of those connections interesting.

So when I was in labor with Maggie, the epidural really did not work very well. They re-tried it 2 times. By the time the pain got bad, I was over it and too freaking busy to lean over for another. The nurse told me to really push when the pain was bad and that the pain would go away...and it worked! Perhaps biology at its best as this so did NOT work with Meave. But, after a very long labor, doc said the last push was at hand, I bore down and felt her give me one last hard kick on her way out! I am not kidding...that little whipper-snapper gave me a hard sharp wallop inside as she left!!!

That was the beginning of a very interesting, wonderful, off-balance relationship with an amazing, quirky, smart, sharp, random, creative, wacky and awesome kid. One way or another, she kicks me every day. It's why I call her "Sparky." She is a big part of the reason we all laugh everyday.

We love you so very much, Maggie! Happy, happy birthday, kid!

(Maggie's party is tomorrow, so Molly and her friend Ashley [she has become my 4th Diva] made her a tiny cake that Maggie described as a cup for frosting. Must always sing the birthday song and eat sugar on one's birthday. The following pics are from the hilarities...apparently made funnier by the fact that I kept missing the money shot so we had to light the candle for the blow-out 3 times! I never did get that shot...)












That was as close as I got! Time for the fingers!


And frosting on the face!





Happy 12th!