"It's a mole," said I.
"Aa'mal!" said T.
No doubt he thought I said "animal" instead of "a mole" but I still tried to explain that some words have two meanings and that some moles are animals, but some moles are spots on peoples skin. Although T shows incredible intelligence for and 18-month-old (in my less than humble opinion as his mother), I suspect my explanation still came across as gibberish as several times a day he reminds me that there is an "animal" on my face.
While I was slogging through the featherweight cardi a friend made a pair of these mitts. They were so simple (and I already had this awesome yarn in my stash) so I decided to take a break and make some too. They were fast indeed and I had so much fun working with the bright colors ... that cardi is still hibernating. The mitts are made from Noro Taiyo (cotton/silk/nylon/wool).
I only burned through part of a skein with the mitts, but I still felt like I was on a spring cleaning roll, so I dug out this soft wool/angora/silk blend that's been adorning my sewing room for at least 2 years. This was made from not quite two skeins of Noro Kochoran and I made up the pattern as I went along.
Emboldened by several small sweater successes in the last year, I decided it was time to try something grander - a full length cardigan! For probably the first time in my knitting career, I selected a pattern before picking the yarn. Usually it's the other way around - I fall in love with a yarn and then figure out what to do with it. I didn't actually have enough of any one yarn in my stash to do this, so I made a trip to the local shop and found this neat colorway that reminds me of lightening. None of these colors would have seduced me on their own, but I found the unusual combination very compelling. This is my Noro Kureyon (wool) Catwalk Lightening Cardigan. This was my first ever pieced sweater and it even has pockets! I can do anything now.
I fell in love with this Noro waistcoat pattern and after surviving Catwalk Lightening, pieces, pockets, and all I had no trouble diving right in. I had some of this Noro Taiyo yarn already, but not enough so I had to order more. Luckily, the yarn has so many colors to begin with, I had no trouble blending the two dye lots. The back was knitted with two skeins at the same time, alternating every two rows to create a broader stripe pattern.
Abbey, all done, all gone, animal, apple, ball, balloon, banana, bath, bee, beep beep, belly button, bike, bird, blue, boat, boo, box, bubble, bum, butterfly, bye bye, car, cheese, cracker, daddy, dirt, door, duck, ear, ei ei o, engine, eye, eyebrow, fan, fish, flower, flush, green, hair, ham, hand, hat, hi, hiding, home, honey, hop hop, hot, kitty, knife, lawn mower, Letha, lights, mango, mess, milk, mommy, more, mouth, neigh, night night, noodle, nose, off, Oma, onion, outside, owie, owl, pee pee, pepper, pew, pizza, poo poo, quack, rain, raisins, razor, ring, row, row, school bus, screwdriver, spoon, strawberry, stripes, thank you, tick tock, toothbrush, truck, tunnel, twinkle, uh oh, up, vacuum, watch, water, wee wee wee, window, yellow, yum.
Animals: bzzzzz, quack quack, moo, meow, woof woof, who who, rawer
He also does vehicle sounds: Woo woo (train), rum rum rum (motorcycle), vroom vroom (car)
Everything his says is adorable, but the fundamental communication is especially nice. I love that he can ask for water and tell me when he needs to go poo poo. Sometimes he asks for specific food items like apples, mangoes, crackers, and hop hop (bunny grahams). The other day after I tucked him in I could hear him calling from his room. When I came back he was standing and pointing to his net full of stuffed animals and saying aa-mal. I love the way he says it with a long drawn out emphasis on the 'A'. I handed him a soft green frog from the net and he promptly dropped it in his crib and resumed repeating aa-mal. I handed him a striped tiger and he dropped that as well. Finally, I removed him from the crib and held him up to the net so he could pick his own aa-mal. He chose a spotted cow complete with bell (not my first choice for bed time). He laid right down when I put him in the crib and went to sleep with his aa-mal of choice.
T is fixated with Lawnmowers. As soon as he hears someone fire up a lawnmower engine he starts saying 'mowmower' and will keep saying it until we help him identify the source. He watched our neighbor mow his entire front lawn yesterday and waited patiently for glimpses of the lawnmower through the gate when our neighbor moved to the back yard. He loves to push the toy lawnmowers at school and also enjoys helping us vacuum.
The Scoot and I are often shocked by how observant T is. He'll say something that is very understandable, but we won't see the object he's mentioned. The first few times this happened I thought he was mistaken, but I've learned that if I look harder I'll find what he's talking about ... A silent, parked, lawnmower in a neighbors yard; a ball glimpsed through slats in a fence; a tiny tiny duck sticker on the dresser (qack qack). He's also training me to pay attention to the context when he says things. Although he gabbers plenty, most of what he says are 'real' words and if I try hard enough I can usually figure out what he's saying. This morning he pointed to his tray at breakfast and said something I totally didn't understand. When I looked at him but didn't respond he repeated it. It sounded liked "right here" and when I said "right here" he stopped repeating, so hopefully I got it right. I don't want to miss and opportunity to let him know that I'm really listening.
