Where was the other sock?

1. After reading Auntly H's cracked out post about socks I was inspired to see what happened to the last pair I remember having on my needles.
2. I found 1 in my knitting bag, made by my Mom before she had to quit knitting entirely (carpal tunnel) to take up sewing before she quit sewing (not sure why). It had lots of stitches falling off its needles. I managed to pick them up. No matter. I have to frog it anyway. She chose a lace pattern and I am too sloppy to knit lace, since you can't tink it and I hate ripping things out. Since it is gorgeous Koigu I had promised her a pair of finished socks someday. This was about three years ago. But where was the other sock...
3. I was forced to go hunting through my yarn stash. This is a process so humbling because not only is it full of way too much yarn -- mostly sock yarn, but it is also full of unfinished projects from me and my mom. It is too much for one person's psyche. Plus I have all of her yarn stash and needles too. That part is sweet. Someday I am sure I will knit all of it. But I still could not find that other sock...
4. I remember I was using a pattern from a book by Lucy Neatby so I could learn a new type of heel, hoping to cure my boredomn, and I had stopped the heel halfway through. After opening every single yarn receptacle I own I decided to look in my knitting bag once more.
5. And there it was, in the zipper pocket I had forgotten about, buried under an unfinished golf club head cover.
6. So I have no excuses. I don't have to teach myself to garden this winter. I hope to finish those socks, and start a Wonderful Wallaby for Lucy (with yarn purchased for Henry) because if I don't it won't fit either child. Hopefully I can stick to it, but I am so tired at night and during the day I usually have a child threatening to disrupt which is reason enough not to begin.
   

Why didn't I just pick him up from school? Nobody told me to.

1. I was on time to get Henry off the bus. I was early actually. Lucy was napping and all was well.
2. As my neighbor and I were walking home she started to ask me if I liked my Crocs. Henry was dismayed by the lack of attention, and proceeded to interrupt, and ask her if he could see her upstairs. She demurred, "Oh Henry, you don't want to see my upstairs." (As in, it is so messy no one should see it.)
   
3. Then Henry took off to his friend Brennan's house, leaving me to chase after him, saying to my neighbor, "They're really ugly, but I love them." (About the Crocs). Brennan had already gone inside with his Grandma, who was watching him today because his parents are at his Great-Grandfather's funeral.
4. When I reach the door Henry has already gone inside, dropped his coat, his back pack, his shoes, and had headed upstairs where he proceeded to lock himself inside Brennan's room. Brennan's sister, who is Lucy's age is asleep on the couch in the family room, so we had to be quiet.
   
5. I get Henry to unlock the door by telling him that I will call his father at work if he doesn't come out. (I wonder how much longer that will work.) But he still doesn't want to leave and he is just about to start screaming at any second.
6. Somehow I muffle his sobs, get his coat, shoes, and backpack on, mumble something to the Grandma about working on our "appropriate social interactions" and drag him back home. Maybe tomorrow I should just keep him home all together?
   

Why didn't I just drive him to school? I don't know?

1. I had to wake Lucy up to get her dressed so we could take Henry to the bus stop.
2. She was fighting me about everything. Kicking while I was putting on the diaper, moving her arms like a windmill while I tried to get her t-shirt on. Plus I wasted precious minutes contemplating the location of a pair of tights before realizing we had no time for tights.
3. I got shoes on both children and Henry had put his coat on and was fussing with his zipper when I pushed him out the door, while I dragged Lucy without her coat into the driveway.
   
4. At this point the bus is cruising up the street, so I did the only thing I could. I left Lucy screaming in the driveway while I ran Henry across the street where my neighbor came and said, "I'll get him on. Don't forget his back pack!" (I was wearing it).
   
5. It was so horrible and harried and I don't know why I didn't just say screw it, I'll drop you off today. His school is only five minutes away. Maybe if we were really late and it was hopeless I would do that but when we are soooo close I can't resist trying to get him on the bus. I hope I didn't traumatize either of my kids. Lucy looked at me about ten minutes after the incident, once we were inside and said, "Where Henry?" So I think she's OK.
   

Small Losses, Big Wins

1. Lucy and I were headed to the gym. I was sitting in the driver's seat and went to put the key in the ignition when I realized I had no keys. 40 minutes later, after calling Cary's office and interrupting his session, suspecting that Henry snuck them off to school in his backpack, and debating whether it was bad karma to use the valet key to drive us to the gym, I finally found them on the closet floor where they had fallen out of the pocket of my rain coat the night before.
2. A neighbor and I joined Henry and her son at lunch in the school cafeteria today. The school has a policy that you can show up and eat lunch with your child whenever you like. It was mostly enjoyable, but I learned that Henry is the only child who has an assigned seat because of his behavior on the second day of school (like two months ago?!) when he didn't like his classmate's grammar. I think it is a little bit extreme, but he doesn't seem to care. He told me that his "brain tells him to sit there."
   
3. I know this is supposed to be a happy day for East Coast Liberals like myself, but instead of feeling hopeful I just feel like the task ahead is insurmountable, the damage done is so dramatic, and I am incredibly depressed that Dennis Hastert was re-elected. Rumsfeld resigning helped a little. I could almost hear a parental voice in my head saying, "but Rumsfeld resigned, doesn't that make you a little bit happy?" OK, yeah. I can't be completely grumpy.
   

Primary Care taketh and Primary Care finally giveth back

1. Last week I got a call from my new primary care doctor's office to remind me of my appointment. It was the 6th, but I had written it down for the 16th. I had set up the appointment in July and would have been really upset to miss it since the doctor I was leaving behind had made me cry on 3 out of 5 visits.
2. I went to double check the office location, although I was sure I had driven by it on the way to get my hair cut many, many times.
   
3. Oddly both google and mapquest had a different location.
   
4. And the office wasn't picking up its phone.
5. I had to leave or I was going to be late...
6. I get to where the office should be, but yeah, there's no office in sight, at least not for my doctor.
7. I had the presence of mind to bring the other address with me, and am happy to report I made it there about 5 minutes late. The new doctor was very nice, they even set up the referrals for me, and nobody made me cry.

Things my old doctor said to me, just for laughs:
"Having kids should be like having a second childhood. It should be fun."
"Relax and go rent a movie like Baby Boom. You know, with Diane Keaton"
I don't work on Wednesdays.
"You had your chance with Physical Therapy, and I am sorry your back still hurts, but you can't have any more visits."
"You have to stop carrying your children. You need to be the pampered pooch. Can't you just go get a massage?"

And yes, she chose not to start a family of her own.

Look out for Lucy

1. I went to dress Lucy this morning in a shirt that used to be Henry's. It was a suitably unisex red and white striped long-sleeved, hooded t-shirt.
   
2. She took one look at it and said, "No! Henry's" And then pointed towards his room and said, "Go!" As if I should return the offensive article from whence it came immediately.
   
3. What 2 1/2 year old refuses to wear hand-me-downs?
   
4. And how does she even know it was his? She wasn't even born when he wore it!
5. So I did what any good mother would do. I broke out a super cute t-shirt from mini Boden that I had been saving for her and we were all happy.