Oh the pain!

I knit one of my armwarmers last week. The pattern was not working out for me. I frogged the dang thing at least 4-5 times before doing a little research and finding out the chart had errors. Even with the corrected chart I was not happy with my work, but I perservered because I was tired of frogging. Flash forward to this weekend. I get to go on a trip to the mall BY MYSELF!! I head to the bookstore with my mom's birthday gift burning a hole in my wallet. I pick up a copy of Knitting for Dummies (along with Yarn Harlot: the Secret Life of a Knitter). I leaf through my new book and skim the chapter on reading charts. I was reading the gol-durn chart backwards!!!! No wonder my work looked wonky. Do I frog again??? Do I try to block the cables into something more recognizable??? I don't know. I am feeling a lot of rage toward this little armwarmer. So much in fact, that I had to console myself by casting on a Clapotis in some slinky, silky bamboo fiber. Despite the slickness and tendency for the bamboo to split, I am in love. This fabric is so soft and drapey, I just love feeling it run through my fingers.

Emmett finally got the hang of the Big M play structure. We went there for lunch with friends and he spent two hours scampering up and down the towers. A couple of times we had to send kids in for rescue missions, and the last lap before we went home I went in to rescue him from a perch near the ceiling. This did not traumatize him in the least. As soon as we got back on terra firma he ran back in. I had to reach in and pull his screaming little body out and he did not stop crying until his carseat was buckled. He is getting more frustrated with his inability to tell me things. His vocalizations are more insistent, he points harder and glares at me now. His tantrums are more like nuclear meltdowns. I wish I knew what to do to help him. We are still waiting for therapy, after over a year on the waiting list. It is breaking my heart. The way Charlotte is going, she will be teaching him how to speak. This girl is in such a hurry to grow up. She looks deeply into my eyes and babbles at me with a seriousness and intensity that is comical. She is getting so good at crawling on her elbows and can balance for longer periods on all fours. She is trying so hard to keep up with her big brother.