Pieces

At one time, my heart belonged to me.

Then I met the Collar, and I gave him a piece.  I felt he could hold it for me.  We've been through a lot, the two of us.

After a long time (about 9 years of dating and being married) Game Boy arrived.  I gave him a piece of my heart.  He was small and too young, and it may have been a burden, but it went with him wherever he went.  It goes with him as he travels through his life.  I am not always sure where it is anymore.

And my heart lived with them, and with me, and we went to another adventure and the pieces of my heart were with them, and with me, and all was good.

After another little bit of time, Wiz was born.  I wasn't sure he would make it (he seemed to be in a hurry for seeing our lovely little planet, and maybe to see other places too), but I gave him a piece.  Again, it may have been a burden for one so young, but it went with him where ever he went.  He takes it whenever he goes into an operating room, and he takes it with him on all his adventures.

We had many adventures, and my heart did it with me, and with my children, and with my husband.  And thus my heart lives more with them than it does with me.

And now, the pieces of my heart are all together--mostly--but I see that they are going to go far.  Game Boy is growing, and growing and showing us that he is going to spread his wings and fly from us.  He's only thirteen, but the signs are there.  Wiz has always traveled a different route than the rest of us--and he is also showing the signs of flying away.

And so a heart, that lived with me, now lives with them, too.  It's hard when your heart lives with others.

I think it might be harder if your heart only stays with you.

How to Take Care of Baby

Maisie adores stuffed animals, especially if they are Wiz's.  Wiz finally gave one of his stuffed animals to Maisie, so she would stop stealing Wiz's lemur.  Maisie's animal is a grey penguin chick, with a small squeaker in it.  We call this Maisie's baby, because she cuddles it, protects it, and gets very upset if anyone takes her baby.

Of course, this means I steal the baby whenever she leaves it somewhere easy to find.   And then I tease her with Baby.  I do give Baby back, but that means that she must hide Baby from me and Lulu.  (Everything gets hidden from Lulu.)

Tonight, she hid Baby on Game Boy's bed.  Usually, Baby is stashed under the guest room bed during the day or under our bed at night.  She'll crawl under there to make sure no one's harmed Baby.

Parenting would have been so much easier if I'd just stashed the baby under the bed.  Who knew it could be so easy?

A Hat, and a Start

I wanted an easy project to take with me while we were on vacation.  The Sockhead hat fit the bill very well.
It's a nice, easy project.  I like the way it looks, but not on me.  It will have to find another home.

The last time I knit the Collar a sweater, it ended in disaster.  (It felted, and I cried.  The Collar might have too, but he never told me.)

So, I'm knitting him a sweater.  This one is a heavily patterned sweater.  I'm working on the back.  I do like the way it's going so far.  It's nice to have something where you can see it change.  Miles of stockinette (such as the hat above) bore me to tears.  Too bad that I like the way stockinette looks in sweaters and hats!

I've also started another sweater for me (red, of course), and I've got a pair of socks.  There is a pair I'm going to rip (again!), but there is one pair that is chugging along quite nicely.

Red Sweater

I knit a little sweater for myself recently.  This is before buttons.

 After I put the buttons on it.  (It's hard to take pictures of yourself in a sweater.)

A view of the lacy pattern on the top.

The pattern is Hey Teach from Knitty.  I made it a little bit longer than called for in the pattern, and it fits if I don't button it.  (Well, I can button it, and it isn't tight, but it gaps on me.  It looks fine open.)  I've worn it a couple of times already, and it's just right for 60 degree days, which are starting to threaten.

It did not take me long to knit this sweater at all.  Even better, I still have about two cones worth of the Lamb's Pride cotton fleece, so I can knit another sweater or two.  I think I'll knit Sitcom Chic  but with long sleeves rather than 3/4 sleeves.

(It doesn't matter that I have four red sweaters.  One--if you are me-- can never have enough red sweaters.)