The Banging Wall

Suburban Correspondent had some good things to say recently about the joys and pitfalls of parenting.

And shortly after reading her post, I found this post waiting in my Bloglines. And I mostly agree, though her statement that “Children are natural teachers too, their gentle ways instilling respect and affection for siblings, a calmer pace for the household.” does not reflect my experience of motherhood. Maybe Charlotte got mellower kids than I did?

Speaking of my kids [you knew I would, sooner or later], the quietest of them recently posted something that helped me to understand her a bit better. She is also the most private of my girls, so I won’t be linking to her post. But it sounds as if she and I both have tickets on the Where Do I Go From Here Express. She has always been my Noticer and my Finder, even as a toddler, and I have no doubt that she will synthesize all of her thinking and feeling into an amazing and fulfilling adventure. But it will be on her schedule, and not on anyone else’s.

OK, my first Anastasia sock is done, as of about 8:00 last night. The afterthought heel is not for these feet of mine. So I’m going to try the pattern as written for sock number two, with the abominable short-row heel, and see if I like knitting it any better than I did last time. But I suspect that I will be making a third attempt, this time with Wendy’s toe-up-heel-flap heel, which fits me impeccably. And I may knit the leg of the second sock on a size 0 [2.0mm] needle instead of the 00 [1.75mm] that I am using for the foot. And I will probably be frogging the first sock back to the heel and reknitting from there, but I don’t even want to think about that at the moment. I’ve cast on the second sock, and it’s going into timeout for a day or two while I play with [Almost] Cozy, and give my severely-poked finger time to heal.

I had a really good day yesterday at Secondborn’s. And BittyBit made the funniest comment at lunch. She looked over at LittleBit and asked in a puzzled tone, “Who drew on your eyebrows?” [LittleBit has lovely, strong, neatly-tended eyebrows. There is absolutely nothing wrong with her eyebrows. Sophia Loren in the 1960’s would have coveted LittleBit’s eyebrows.] LittleBit told her a bit sheepishly, “Nobody ... I guess I should get my tweezers.” We all cracked up.

BittyBubba is an Olympic-class cuddler. [Even the old East German judges would have liked him.] So LittleBit and I each got our fill of holding somebody cute and male. It helped. A lot.

LittleBit has a pre-UIL [University Interscholastic League competition] concert at 6:00 tonight. I will be hard-pressed to make it on time from work. She has been rehearsing like crazy for this for the past two weeks. And we still have her spring concert to go, and her voice recital, and then graduation to get through.

I think I’m going to curl up on the couch with my knitting and the soothing voice of David Reidy before I have to think about something for breakfast and what to take for lunch. I don’t think that I’ve been to see Captain Kolache since LittleBit started driving herself to seminary. [I’ll take my G-rated testosterone fixes any way that I can find them.] Might be a good day for a field trip.