She looked up at me with her beautiful, toothless smile, and my Princess said to me,
“I am a mama – see? Because my hands are so full!”
My hands are full, too, because I am a mama.
And so is my heart.
I hope you all had a lovely Mother’s Day yesterday. I know I sure did.
There we stood outside the giraffe pen at the zoo. It was a most excellent day with the warm sun and the cool breeze and the wonders of the animal kingdom all around. My sister and I had taken our kids for the day and we were having a grand time. The highlight for me was the baby giraffe.
(Photo taken from the zoo’s facebook page. I took my camera that day, but forgot to use it.)
Born just last month, this baby was an amazing thing to see, and we all leaned on railing to see her better.
So, there we were, oohing and ahhhing together, when I heard The Princess exclaim, “MAMA! Look!”
I looked down and saw that she was kneeling by the railing and had her eyes fixed on something on the ground. I knelt down to get a better look.
There, in the dirt, was a small snail.
“A snail!” she said in awe.
I picked it up and handed it to her. She excitedly turned to show her cousin and her sisters and brother, who all gathered around her to see and to shout out, “Can I hold it? I want to see it! Wow! That is soooo coooool!”
There we stood outside the giraffe pen at the zoo, gathered around a girl and her snail.
Sometimes parenting has some real weird moments. Sweet. But weird.
A few thoughts -
1. I knit this adorable little something but I can only show you a tiny peek. My niece is turning one this weekend and I have a lovely gift made just for her. I can’t wait to give it to her. And now all my girls want one, too (it always works that way, you know).
I’ll show you more later.
2. “Mama,” The Boy said to me the other day, “I know you already know this, but I just can’t believe it. Anneli is your sister, but that is just too crazy because she is so young and you are so old!”
3. I found a use for this.
Handmaiden Casbah in Blackberry
I am making some super simple, extra lovely socks for myself. I am halfway through the second sock and will be wearing them in no time. I can’t wait! This yarn is definitely my new favorite. It is fabulous!
4. I have more yarn on the way. I have to say that Eat. Sleep. Knit has an amazingly genius business strategy and I keep getting sucked back in. I make an order, and with it comes a lotto ticket worth five dollars. I save up a few of these and mail them in. The $15 credit calls to me day after day. I dream about my free yarn (what will I choose?). I let it linger and ferment in my brain until one day, at long last, I go on a shopping spree and buy all the yarn!!!! I need $75 to get free shipping! I need 1200 yards to get to the next marathon milestone! I need the odd skien of _____ just because it is worth 200% for the marathon! I got off easy this time (I will show you what I got as soon as it arrives). But we all know that in that box that is on it’s way is another yarn lotto ticket waiting to start it all over again. Genius, I tell you. Those folks are geniuses!
5. It is cold in my house. Sunny and warm outside, but I am freezing. Time to go sit in the sun. And knit. In the sun. Oh, yeah.
6. One more thing. This blog will be turning two years old on April 8th! It’s party time all next week. But more on that later….
Okay, not really. But, my kids are learning some important things because of my hobby. Things like:
Never get between Mama and her knitting bag while she is knitting.
It makes her mad, and you might get tangled up in the yarn.
Look before you leap.
Onto the couch. You never know what knitting project might be sitting there like a little porcupine with needles sticking out all over.
Some yarns may be scratchy.
But not merino.
The internet is a useful tool.
With it you can get on Ravelry.
Don’t throw your sweater in the hamper.
Unless you want it to fit your doll.
Sometimes love comes in the form of wool.
Comic drawn by The Bookworm. She gets it. 
A conversation with The Boy:
The Boy: Mama, wouldn’t it be cool to have a car that doesn’t have a roof on it?
Me: Yes. That is called a convertible.
insert long discussion about the pros and cons of driving a convertible…
The Boy: My spaceship is a convertible.
Me: It is, huh? How do you keep the air in?
long, long silence
The Boy: Well, all of my clones are robots, so they don’t need air.
We don’t need no stinkin’ air!
A post for grandparents far away… back to knitting content tomorrow!
One:
The Munchkin, now fully potty trained, has things just a little backwards. She was yelling, “POTTY! POTTY, MAMA!” from upstairs. Naturally, I took to the stairs with all haste, fearing to be too late. I wasn’t. But, there she stood by her bed, pants around her ankles. “Potty, Mama!” she said again. We made it, but maybe next time we could wait till we get to the bathroom before we start stripping?
Two:
The Princess is always saying the cutest things and making us laugh. Earlier this week we took a trip to the zoo with some friends. After walking around all morning, we stopped at a little playground to let the kids loose and give us mama’s a break. After a few moments of playing, The Princess came and sat down next to me with a big sigh. “Mama,” she said, “I am having too much fun.”
Three:
Our household was blessed with a piano this weekend, much to the delight of my two older girls who have been taking lessons and practicing next door at my grandma’s house for over a year. This is a little house, and I was hard put to make some space for such a large piece of furniture. When it looked like the only solution was to do away with my “sewing corner”, The Dancing Queen said in awe (as I boxed up my yarn to put in the closet), “Wow, Mama! You must really love us to give up your sewing corner for our piano!” Yes, my darling, I do.
Four:
The Boy is always somewhere else in his mind – a space shuttle on intergalactic mission, a battlefield fighting for his life, a science lab inventing some new source of power – so it shouldn’t surprise me when he says some of the things that he says. Take the other morning at breakfast, for example. I was giving the daily rundown over bowls of yummy oatmeal: “Today we are going to get our rooms clean, and do some school….” when the boy interrupted with, “and I need to change the batteries in my right arm or I won’t be able to get anything done!”
Five:
One of the joys of being pregnant is feeling the kicks and squirms of new life inside my belly. Even better is sharing those moments with The Bookworm, whose face lights up with such delight as she declares, “I felt it!” Of all the kids, she best understands what all this pregnant stuff means, and her excitement over having another baby in the house brings me so much joy!
… in every picture that your daughter draws of you, you are working on a knitting project.
This is me (knitting, of course) and The Man is bringing me more yarn!
Original art by The Dancing Queen
The other night, I had a killer headache. Not quite so bad as to relegate me to laying in the dark with a pillow over my head, but close.
So, there we sat at the table eating dinner, when the “Mama, Can I?”‘s began. If you are a mom, you know what I am talking about.
“Mama, can I have more potatoes?”
“Mama, can I have some milk?”
“Mama, can I sit by you?”
My head felt like it was going to explode, and The Man saw me gritting my teeth as I dealt with each “Mama, Can I?” that came along. Finally, he said, “Okay, guys. Mama has a headache. No more saying ‘Mama’.”
A pause in the onslaught, and then the Bookworm spoke up, “Mother?”
“No,” The Man interupted.
Another pause, and then, from the far end of the table came the Princess’s little voice, asking, “Woman?”
