Update 1 of 3 - Mayhem and Chaos

I have lots and lots and lots to update with. So I am breaking it down into three updates. This first one is concerned with Mayhem and Chaos, both Version 1.0 and version 2.0 - the kids, AND the shop I named after them.

The kids are going well. I've popped the photo up there as a reminder that nine times out of ten they really DO look like butter would not melt in their mouths. Even when you realise it is suspiciously quiet, and round the bench to find a tin of milo has been poured all over the kitchen floor, they look at you and grin, for all the world like total angels. It's lucky they are cute!

Master Mayhem now goes to daycare for 6 hours on a Friday, which has proved to be much better for him than I thought it would be. He's become more wordy since then, and alot more confident and independent which is a good thing. Although the wordiness I am in two minds over. We were so worried about his lack of speech for so long, but when I am working away on the computer with them next to me, and he drops something and goes "oh shiiiiit!" it makes me wonder why I worried at all. All in good time as they say. (Although I will admit to having to turn away so he wouldn't see me fighting my uncontrollable laughter)
He also appears to be going through a growth spurt at the moment - well, they both are actually - it's like spring has sprung and weeds and kids need to grow. All of a sudden our little boy who was kinda short, and a little bit swarthy and gnome-like because he was so broad, has shot up. Pants are becoming too short, as are sleeves.

Mistress Chaos has always been on the tall side, however she is shooting up even further too. There is 13 months and 2 days difference between my kids, but she is about 2 inches shorter than her older brother, and there is about a millimetres difference in the sizes of their feet. They have both already worked out their shoes are interchangeable. This is a problem because Miss Chaos has inherited the shoe loving gene from her mother. Whereas Mister Mayhem inherited the bowerbird gene from his father and is obsessed with anything sparkly or shiny. Throw in one pair of silver sparkly glitter shoes, the realisation by Mayhem that he fits them too and you have trouble. A world of trouble.

Miss Chaos you see, is.. well.. a bit of a drama queen. And when I say a bit, I mean I need to enrol this kid in acting classes when she is old enough. She doesn't get a drink at the exact precise moment her brother does? Have a paddy. Accidentally dropped her dummy? Have a paddy. Something doesn't move out of her path when she looks at it sternly? Have a paddy. We are talking throw self down onto the floor, wail and squeal like its the end of the world, paddy. She's a princess too. If she has socks on or is barefoot, and steps in something? She will hop around on one foot, wailing, waving the dirty foot in the air until you clean it off. It's really quite amusing that one!

I am partly bemused and yet partly of the feeling its typical that my two really are far more speedy, and far more sneaky, than other kids their age. I look at other kids out and about who will sleep in a pram, or hang on to the trolley and walk with their mothers when Shopping and I think "Why can't mine do that instead of running off in the other direction hand in hand before deciding to have a headbutting competition in another aisle?". Then I realise if they didn't do that, they wouldn't be them. And for all the sneakiness they really are very clever, beautiful kids who are alot of fun. They make me giggle on a daily to hourly basis.

That's not to say I don't have my days where I feel I will scream if I have to say the words "no", "put that down", "look with your eyes not your hands!" , "don't touch that" , "get off the bench", "put the cat down", "don't kick your brother / sister" or "get back here!" again. Although having to tell Mister Mayhem the other day "don't lick the cat!" kind of made me feel like I had fallen down the rabbit hole and lost my mind along the way.

As for Mayhem and Chaos version 2, I am nearly ready to do another stocking. I am hoping to do proper, regular stockings from now on, and am looking into getting my own website up and running down the track rather than relying on Etsy. This update will have hand dyed 18 micron sliver for spinning, and sock yarn in 5 new colourways, and one old colourway. There will also be handspun yarn go up, but I have a few things on the way for future updates. Keep eyes peeled!

And while I am speaking all things handspun, hand made etc - I have a question to ask the blogosphere at random. (It also helps as I know some of the people I am addressing the question to read this lol). If you or your kids received hand made gifts for christmas be they hand knit, handspun or whatever - would you think the giver was stingy? Or a stooge? Would you mind receiving gifts or your kids receiving gifts that by their nature are not seasonally appropriate given christmas falls in the Australian summer - but would be useful when winter rolled around again? I am considering making some of my neices and nephews some hand knit stuff for christmas gifts, but am unsure of how they would be received. Any excuse for me to thumb twiddle over a dilemma and avoid the washing piling up in the laundry eh?