I stayed up late tonight to do dishes. Not to read, not to knit, not to spin, and not even to watch the Olympics. I finished the dishes and now here I am, actually typing a blog post! I'm stunned, too.

I have been knitting a little, here and there. I finished the body of a Bog Jacket for PeeWee that has been my car-knitting for the past 6-7 months. I started it with some Noro Silk Garden that was left over from Boberly's entrelac hat I made last fall. When I ran out of that, I bought a couple of random balls of Silk Garden from my LYS. Then I bought a few more balls of Silk Garden as souvenir yarn this past spring when I was in Solvang, California for an art show. I'm not really sure how much yarn I used... I plan to finish the jacket off by picking up stitches up one front edge, around the neck and back down the other front edge, then knitting button bands and a shawl collar. I have to add on a couple inches of width to the jacket with the button bands because when I started this project, PeeWee was a lot smaller than she is now. :)

I've also been doing some gift knitting for darling Prairie Mama Kim. She's due in about a month and I'm taking this Baby Surprise Jacket over to her tomorrow. (Kim, if you read this before I get to your house, just act surprised, okay?) I subscribe to the Spunky Eclectic Fiber club, but in July, I got sent the sock yarn of the month by mistake, instead of the fiber of the month. I think it was meant to be, since the colorway (Flowering Weeds) just cried out to be made into a BSJ and the pretty yellow made me think of Kim. I adore this pattern. This was the first time I've knit it and it was a delight. I HEART Elizabeth Zimmermann. (Sisties, she's the designer of this pattern and the Bog Jacket above--and though she has passed on, I consider her to be my Knitting Muse and Guru.) About halfway into it, I got worried that I would run out of yarn, so I pulled out some of my undyed Henry's Attic Kona DK (superwash merino that matched the weight of the Spunky DK sock yarn perfectly) and dyed it a coordinating yellow.

My babies started school this week. I have one big baby who is now in high school. I have another baby (who is actually bigger, though younger, than the big-baby-high-school-freshman) who is now a Big Man on (middle school) Campus. I surprised him with his first cell phone (you got to love pay-per-use phones, huh?) and he's pretty excited, can you tell? My next two babies are still in elementary school, and then the baby of all is here at home. She strapped on a back pack this morning and asked if she could go to school, too. She was pretty disappointed that she didn't get to stay at the school with the big kids. (Can you see the look on my Middle Child's face? He was peeved that I made him stop for a picture.) Sigh. Where did my wee precious darlings go? Why can't they grow up already and stop breaking my heart with how fast they change? I have a recurring desperate fear that I'm going to blink and they'll be old and I'll be really old and I won't remember any of the clever and adorable things they did (are doing)...whatever. I need to go to sleep. I should have left the dishes for morning.

mustard pickles

I dyed some of the mountain of superwash merino I have hiding in my closet. I actually dyed this about a year ago with PAAS Easter egg dye tablets and it was gross. The pinks and blues ran together and made a muddy lavender--and I mean MUDDY. I decided to overdye it with a huge dose of yellow. The yellow turned out--as perhaps you can tell--not ochre, not sunshine, but rather PEE yellow. The splotches of green might save it, though. The color name for it shall be Mustard Pickles--either that or Poopy Diaper. Well, at least I had fun with the dyeing process.

I sent some to a friend and I'm going to spin the remainder soon (after spinning the Toxic for the Snaky Blanky, of course!) and see what happens. This could be very exciting. In my world, yes, this is big excitement. Shut up.

My mother made the best mustard pickles when I was young. I need to find her recipe and make some this year. Did I mention the ravenous bunnies in my back yard? I have no more carrots. The beans are gone. They don't seem to care for the zucchini, onions, or tomatoes. My kids have named the rabbits. So much for the tragic and horrible fate that I had planned for them to meet (the rabbits, not my children). There's one named Mr. Cinnamon Boots. See my problem?

some summer spinning

Spun on my Schact Matchless using long draw!!! (I love long draw.) It's dreadfully underspun and SO fuzzy. It was a bit of a fight to spin because it was a barely-blended batt and the chunks of silk, mohair, wool, and soy silk didn't always want to get along while drafting.

Kind of a boring post, but there we are. Maybe I could add in some personal details...things like: We have rabbits in our back yard and they ate my eggplant plants. I'm peeved. They haven't touched the tomatos yet, at least there's that. I hurt my back again. I'm infatuated with crochet; it's fast. I tried to knit a baby sweater for a new little niece while I was on a 10-hour road trip to a funeral a couple of weeks ago. It was a dismal failure. I backed into a parked car last night. PeeWee is piteously proclaiming, "I need foooooood!" So is Joe. So is everyone. I've fallen out of love with food. I used to love food. I used to love to cook. I'm tired of it. I think I need a private chef. Yeah, that would do it. Maybe Bob will do it... Okay, enough of the daydreaming, they're starting to gnaw on my ankles.

safety first

It's been a while since I posted. I just haven't the heart (or apparently the brains to save back up copies and thus alleviate frustration) to retype lost posts after the computer decides that something untoward is occurring and all Internet access must be immediately terminated! (save draft)

You see, I have a teenage daughter. I have a pre-teen-who-thinks-he's-just-as-mature-and-capable-as-his-teenage-sister son. They have been repeatedly warned of the dangers of chat rooms. They chose to disregard the warnings and were apprehended in the course of chatting! Something about being irritated and trying to sound authoritative makes me go all formal and multi-syllabic. (save draft)

A very vigilant and jumpy net-nanny program has been installed on the computer. It's killing me. It shuts me down mid-post about every 3 minutes. I've been avoiding confrontation and just not trying to blog in the past week, but I'm suffering withdrawal. I've simply got to expose my dirty laundry to the world and maybe some knitting, too. (save draft) You know, I could compose this in another program and then copy and paste! A-ha!

All right. I've typed up the rest of my say, and now--careful there--I'm gingerly pasting it in... Yes.

Knitting. It has been slow going with one stitch forward and 3 stitches back. I’ve been doing some of the frogging myself, and I’ve had some help from tiny friends. Look.
Can you read that baby body language? The picture is a little dark, so I’ll translate for you. Sis, in front, is saying, “Oh no. I think she’s mad at me. Maybe if I don’t look at her…Hmmm. Is that a goldfish cracker over there?” PeeWee, in back, is saying, “Ooooo, you are in trouble! Don’t you know you’re only supposed to pat the yarn?” Two disastrously paired events occurred to bring about this unfortunate mess: 1) I was foolish enough to leave the in-progress Sweet Pea sweater and two balls of beautiful Sublime yarn artfully arranged in a bowl on my coffee table (I don’t have cats and PeeWee has been trained since infancy to respect the knitting); 2) I had the audacity to make a solo visit to the potty. Five minutes of negligence lead to 2 hours of untangling. No, I could not pitch it—it’s SUBLIME, darn it!

Spinning. I bought some kinda garishly dyed roving a week ago, a little rough but with a nice long staple length, for some serious practice on my wheel spinning. I’m amazed at how the colors change as the fiber is spun. I started out thinking that this roving was a little ugly, and know I really like it! I’m excited to see what the plied yarn looks like—maybe I’ll try doing chained singles (aka Navajo plying) with it and then use it for a Fake Isle hat. That would be cool. The beautiful Elfin Snow Forest roving is buried underneath the purple/teal/lime-green on the bobbin, patiently waiting to by plied. I’m avoiding plying it because I’m afraid that I didn’t put enough twist in the singles and they’re going to come apart when plied. I’ve got to suck it in and just do it. I don’t think the honeymoon with spinning is going to end any time soon. I love it more and more every time I sit at the wheel. I’m so anxious to get my own lovely Schacht. Come soon to me, my darling matchless one!

P.S. I have a Secret Pal!!! (Hi spinaddict!)

a few days later...

Wow, what a holiday! The lovelies all got better from the stomach bug, then it cycled through Middle Sister and Middle Brother again! Despite the fact that our fridge died and we had to throw out all of our Christmas food, Christmas was a wonderful day. Aren't they cute? I like the way that Eric's portrait of Christ looks like He's sitting there in the group photo.





Nice, huh!

Shameless plug: By the way, if anyone would like a copy of this painting, we had it reproduced as a giclee (archival-quality inks on canvas) so that we could give copies to our parents for Christmas. The image is 16x20 inches and mounted on acid-free board, ready for framing. We have extra copies and one could be yours for a mere $160. :)



Okay now, KNITTING!

I am a hopeless knitalong zealot. I learned years ago that I have a yarn addiction; I'm at peace with it. This new, but related obsession with knitting along is perhaps a little scary. I think that the group mentality (the energy, the camaraderie, the peer pressure...) is sucking me in. I'd better take a break from it...in a week or two. For now, another knit-along! This time we have the knitalong/wrapalong/travelalong! This is a fun idea for using stash yarns to make a cape. Would I wear this item? Maybe, maybe not. I'll have to actually finish knitting it and see.


I am completely enamored of the yarn combination possibilities. The requested/suggested yarns are A) some handspun, B) a variegated worsted-ish, and C) some alpaca. Now we all know that I am replete with alpaca, and I have a fair amount of variegated yarns, but handspun? Do I have any? Well, though I am not yet a spinner (it will happen someday...) I do, indeed, have a tiny bit of handspun. I have squirreled away in my stash a hank of Angora Cottage sport-ish weight angora/silk/wool!!! It's lovely-soft and a lustrous creamy color (seen here with some Noro Silk Garden and a bit of tan Plymouth alpaca). I started knitting the wrap with it and I hated the stripey look. The contrast between the Silk Garden and the cream handspun was terrible.

I frogged it and stuck the bit of handspun that I had used at the top of the pattern in a pot of steamy Kool-Aid (tamarind, strawberry, some berry blue and a sprinkle of arctic green apple). It just occurred to me that I should have dyed a little more of the handspun for the bottom of the pattern. Hmmm. Oh well. I'm sure that I can replicate my entirely scientific method of measuring Kool-Aid for another batch of yarn. Heh.

In the mean time, I've got a purple and brown fixation (I have a vast collection of purple and brown yarn that are intended for an afghan) that is coming to life as a wrap-along-thing. I adore this Mountain Colors merino ribbon yarn (it's the variegated one). The colorway is called Red-tail Hawk and it is everything that I love in a mixture of colors. It even makes me like the blasted bulky lavender stuff that I felted (whoops!) when I dyed it.

So there we are. I haven't done any more stranding since the green Center Square hat from Knitty. I still plan on making myself those lovely Anemoi mittens from Eunny Jang. I've just got to take care of this wrap first!

bodily function day(s)

What do you get when you combine a 24-hour stomach virus and 5 kids? A five-day hurl-fest! And let's not even talk about what's coming out the other end. Poor PeeWee's bottom is almost as sore as when she was having chemo. All last minute Christmas knitting has been abandoned in the necessity of using the blessed carpet cleaner. Kristen, if you're reading this, SAVE YOURSELF! Don't come near. We started on Saturday with Middle Brother, then PeeWee had it on Sunday (and Monday--she had it the worst), Middle Sister on Monday, Big Sister today, and Big Brother is likely to succumb tomorrow. Yes, and Eric woke up with it today, too. I'm just glad that we're scheduled to wind up before Christmas Eve.

See that look on PeeWee's face? That's the same look that I have.

the day after scans

This is Eunny Jang. She is a design genius. She just released her latest pattern. She posts some of her patterns for free, but this one is for sale and rightly so! Supporting artists with our $$$ is very important. (No, I have no ulterior motives for exhorting people to spend freely on art...[buy art! buy art!]...what was that? I didn't hear anything. [buy art!] There are no [buy art!] subliminal messages on my [buy art!] blog.)

So for the Stranded Colorwork KAL, I'm abandoning plans to do Baby Norgi first. Instead, since the pattern is now on my hard drive, I'm going to do these spectacular Anemoi Mittens by Eunny Jang.



I was a busy little knitter yesterday. We had a drive to and from Salt Lake City, plus an hour of watchful waiting while PeeWee slept off the sedation--well at least she slept off part of it... I don't often have that much time in one day to knit, so I must say that I surprised myself. I finished this on the drive down:

I keep forgetting to get some raspberry Cremesavers at the grocery store--that's what I plan on using to embellish it.


I started and finished this while PeeWee slept:
This meathead is tentatively titled The Lemonhead (even though it's lime). I used Lamb's Pride Bulky in Limeade. The lemon slice dried for about a week on a piece of wax paper on top of my fridge. This morning I coated it with some glossy Mod Podge. I will probably brush on a few more coats of Mod Podge before I call it good. It was knit on size 15 needles in the smaller size and I had about 7 yards left over.

The Lemonhead was knit in honor of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. This is a fantastic foundation which was started as a little girl's dream to raise the money needed to fight childhood cancer. The little girl, Alex, had the same kind of cancer that PeeWee had (neuroblastoma) and she was determined to do her part to save other kids. Her parents continued with her dream after she passed away and have worked to create an organization that is doing great things in the fight against childhood cancer. We are already planning our own 2nd annual Alex's Lemonade Stand in Honor of PeeWee. Come, drink lemonade, donate with satisfaction that your money is going to be very judiciously and effectively spent to help sweet little loves like PeeWee. (Just my little plug for cancer awareness for the day...)


And I finished this on the drive home: This is Cat Bordi's Moebius Scarf knit in Fleece Artist (or is it Handmaiden?) 4-ply cashmere in the Nova Scotia colorway. It's for my mother.

We were at the children's hospital yesterday for PeeWee's regularly scheduled followup scans (aka The Day o' Torture). The sedation she has to have knocks her out cold for about 2 hours, then she's drunk for the next 24. It would be pretty funny if it weren't sad to see her wobbling around, unable to keep her balance, alternately crying and giggling. That was yesterday. Today, she's just plain belligerent.

So what did the scans reveal? "No evidence of recurrent disease." Yahoooooo! I admit, I was feeling anxious. The greatest chance of neuroblastoma relapse is in the first year after completing treatment. Well, we are now past that first year. Combine that with the fact that PeeWee's tumor didn't have the gene amplification that increases likelihood of relapse and that puts her, statistically speaking, in the clear. So the great news from yesterday was that PeeWee's oncologists feel that further regular scans are unnecessary!!!!!!!! Did you hear that? NO MORE SCANS! We'll still have quarterly clinic visits with urine and blood tests for the next couple of years, but that's nothing! Dr. Afify, a most compassionate and understanding woman, even asserted that we could do every other visit with our local pediatrician! So that means visits to the children's hospital only every six months!

and again with Joe's hat

I've discovered something ugly about myself and my knitting world has come crashing down around my ears. Here's what happened...

Friday, in the car, driving children home from school. Sweet, lovely, 7th grade neighbor-child says, "Did you make Joe's hat?"

I reply, "Why, yes!" (blush), "I did!"

Sweet, lovely, darling neighbor-child excitedly says, "My grandpa makes hats like that all the time!"

"Oh, how interesting!" I say, slightly puzzled. "Is he a knitter?"

"No," says sweet, lovely, darling, earnest neighbor-child. "He uses one of those round thingys."

"A knitting loom?" I ask, trying to mask my horror.

"Yeah! Is that what it's called? I guess he is a knitter, then, " concludes sweet, lovely, darling, earnest tormentor-neighbor-child.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yes. The world looks at the hat, the beautifully striped and ribbed Kureyon and alpaca-silk blend hat that filled me with such pride from deciphering the brioche stitch in the round instructions (which wasn't the easiest thing for me, mind you) and sees just another knitting loom hat. Not that there's anything wrong with knitting loom hats...but can't you see the decreases?????? You can't decrease on a knitting loom. Look at the beautiful decreases!!!!! I will probably never knit in brioche stitch again. I'm grieving. I grieve that no one will look at that hat and think, "Hey, someone used double-pointed needles to knit that!" I grieve for the realization that I am such a shallow, vain knitting snob.

brilliant! (and Joe's hat)

I'm feeling just a wee bit smug. Not greatly smug, nor even mildly smug. Just the tiny, but satisfying amount of smugness one might feel when one is essentially new to the blogging universe and one figures out how to put a picture of one's first knitalong on the sidebar. Yes, yes, I know that I first posted an entry almost a year ago, but really. You must cut me some slack for still having late effects of chemo. I wonder how long I can keep laying down that card. . . especially since I wasn't the one who had the chemo. Hmmm. I'd better find a new excuse in light of the fact that PeeWee has been napping for an hour and 45 minutes! Alert the media!!!! She has never had a non-drug-induced nap of that length in her life! Wahoo! If this keeps up I just might conquer the world (or at least the mountain of laundry sitting menacingly behind me)!! I can see it now: sleep-deprived no longer, Valerie takes up her needles and knits sweaters for everyone on her Christmas list! I'm getting delusional. I'd better stop now.

Oh yes, I finished Joe's hat last night. He wore it to school. I'll have to find some sunshine and grab a picture when he gets home. I got a little loopy-loose in my knitting (so what's new) and the hat is a little bigger than it should be. I love it anyway. I love the nifty reversible-ness of brioche stitch and I love the ribs of grey against the strips of Kureyon on the cuff of the hat.

Big Sister's world

When I looked at the computer desk this morning I found this fantastic vignette, courtesy of Big Sister:

I particularly like the perspective lines created by the left knitting needle and the clarinet. And isn't that tiny teacup, sugar bowl, and creamer the perfect little accent? But the thing that amazed me the most was that my 12-year-old daughter figured out all by herself how to do a stockinette/reverse stockinette motif in the middle of her scarf! And unless she has a chart hiding somewhere, she did that heart freeform!! I brought that ball of gold Plymouth Yarn Yukon home from Yarn Today about a week ago. Big Sis saw it and asked if she could play with it. I said yes, but she didn't do anything with it until last night. I went to bed a little early (Pee Wee was tired) and when we left to go start the bath/story routine, Big Sis was just starting to cast on. !!!!! I guess if you have enough yarn lying around and you say you are too busy to give your child knitting instruction, then that child might just get a little defiant and figure things out by herself!

August is almost over! How does it all go by so quickly? School started and I miss having the children around all day. They are probably glad for the change and the chance to breathe without me listening.

I made more bread. It wasn't worth taking a picture of it. It turned out poorly. I watered down the egg wash too much and sprinkled Germade on top of the loaves. Result: dull, pock-marked, ugly loaves of bread. It tasted pretty good, though. I didn't oversalt the dough this time. I may break down and start using a recipe, but I do enjoy just dumping stuff in to the bowl. It makes me feel liberated and innovative.

I've got about 7 knitting project that I want to start. Each child needs (NEEDS? Ha!) a sweater and Bev and Lydia both want leg warmers for dance. I want to find a lovely pinky self-striping merino for the leg warmers. Bev wants a lime green and yellow tweed wool for her sweater. Lydia wants a pink cotton-silk blend. Ted wants the bulky blue wool that I already have in my stash. Joe just wants anything--he doesn't care what, just so long as I actually finish it before he grows out of it. I think Ted's will get started first, seeing as how we are in between gallery checks just now and a trip to the yarn shop would not be a good idea...

Game today. Joe's team lost. Lydia and Ted had a great time. They played on a nearby playground the entire time and spent at least $10 each at the snack stand. Bev stayed home. I think she read that blood-sucking book about vampires the whole time. After we got home, I took a three-hour nap with Paige. She will actually sleep for longer than 45 minutes if she's latched on...

Alene just sent me a bunch of pictures from our family reunion in July at Bear Lake. Here's one of my favorites: my beautiful, contemplative, big sister Joyce. She's getting ready for the new school year--teaching two classes. She's a marvel. She has about an inch of hair now. Larry hid her wig, so she just has to go with the pixie look. I think she's adorable.

Cancer sucks. I get mad at my kids when they say that things suck. It's such a vulgar thing to say and children shouldn't have it coming out of their little innocent mouths. Hmmm. Cancer sucks.

Joe has his first football game tomorrow. He couldn't find his game jersey all day today. I told him he needed to pray about it. We turned the house upside-down looking for that jersey. Finally when we were all starving and ready to give up looking to go out to eat, Joe came skipping triumphantly up the stairs with the blasted thing...I had been on my knees in my bedroom, praying "Lord, help him find that jersey right now, please. He needs it and he needs to know that he can ask for Thy help and receive it..." Joe told me he had finally stopped searching and prayed for help, then had the idea that it might be in the crawlspace under the stairs (which he sometimes uses as a hideout)! There it was!!! Phew! I don't know that there are any extra jerseys and he might not have been able to play tomorrow.

We celebrated the departure of our houseguests by going out to a favorite Chinese restaurant. The children behaved very well and we had fun together. Ahhh...I like my kids. (I like Wendi's kids, too--but I must admit that 9 children on a full-time basis would be too many for me.) Paige over-ate. Does that baby have an off switch? She threw up in the parking lot as we were leaving. She seemed to feel much better afterward.

I told Eric that I was just going to read an article in a magazine and then come right in to bed. Hmmmm. I just can't seem to let go of this quiet time. I want to stay up and knit. Go to bed, Val! I am strong. I can do it. I can go to bed. But first, a picture of the bread I made yesterday. It's so pretty--I have to hold it up for display. :)

Thinking

This morning I was trying to explain to Eric why I often stay up WAY too late at night. He totally understands my need to have time to think my own thoughts. I figured he would relate. So as I was thinking about this idea of "thinking my own thoughts", I realized that part of why I feel deprived of the opportunity for introspection is that I have no record of it. I have not regularly written in any sort of a journal since I was 20. That's 16 years ago, people! A lot has happened in those years and I can't remember most of it. It's time for a life-change.

So here comes the deluge. Shirlene, if you read this, I'm sorry to present this to the viewing public, yourself included, but it's your fault--you got me started (well, restarted anyway). Maybe I should find another journal-y type avenue for this stuff that's a little more private...Maybe tomorrow.

I used to look down my nose at people who drank cola-type drinks. I used to think it was very low-brow and pedestrian. Well, I need to pluck and I'm on foot, because here I sit with a diet Pepsi and I LIKE IT.

My friend Wendi is in Europe. I have her four children at my house. I love them, but not quite like my own. I would actually like to stuff two of them in the closet until she gets home on Saturday, but I'm trying to disguise that urge by declaring everything they do or say to be FANTASTIC!

I took all of the kids (plus Joe's friend Peter, that's 10 kids all together) to the aquatic center yesterday. I think they all had a good time diving and sliding. I had a great time playing with Paige. I lined up the big kids in pairs and told them to stick with and look out for their buddies. For the most part, they did so, except for one of the closet candidates who didn't stick with his buddy when he didn't feel like it, which was roughly 3/4 of the time.

I made bread today using a recipe that requires a sponge (mixture of flour, water and yeast) that is stirred up the previous night and left to ferment until the next morning. My dear friend Julie called me tonight after dinner and we found that, once again, we are cosmically aligned--as she made bread using a sponge today, too! It was a first time for both of us. Listen to her--this is an example of why I love talking to her--"I've been watching this sponge bubble and heave and it's so comforting. Stephen is out of town and I feel like I have a friend over."

I've run out of steam. I guess it's time to give over to sleep. I just vant to be alone...Just for a little longer.

Here's a picture of my cute kids from a trip to a nearby amusement park three weeks ago. What a fun day. We don't go anywhere very often, so when the Candlelighters (an organization that supports families of children with cancer) sponsored a day at the park, we carpe-ed the diem.

PeeWee had scans on Tuesday, August 1. They were all clear with good results on blood and urine test, too!!!! We asked her oncologist if we could discontinue the pelvic CT scan and HE AGREED!!!!! Plus, we don't have to go back for another scan for 4 months instead of the expected 3 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I've used up my quota of exclamation points for the week, but that there is good news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bug

There. I felt the need to put PeeWee on this blog. I also felt the need to add an entry because I have been experiencing that dreaded "me-too" feeling caused by visiting Shirlene's blog.

Today is Pioneer Day. In honor of the pioneers, I cleaned off my patio. Yahoo! I am feeling liberated and also slightly remorseful because I sent off the nifty, but very bedraggled 60's patio furniture that I got from my neighbor's estate sale. Something is prodding me to keep it, repaint it, and make new cushions for it. I must be realistic, however. In what century would that happen? Not this one. I will pass that project on to someone else. Sigh. Unexpected benefit: Joe and Ted have rediscovered the lovely, level expanse of cement and played broom hockey all evening on it.

Things that Paige said today: Mom! Mom-mom! Moooooom! Up. Num-num. More (sign). Please (sign). Shoe (sounds like "shhhhhh"). Woof. Moo. Quack (sounds like "kak"--it's my favorite animal sound that she makes--SO cute). Hi. Hi. Hi. Dad. Dad. Dad. Bye-bye (sounds like "die-die"). Lydia (Ya-ya). Ted (Ded). Joe (Doe). Bev (Bob). Kay-ko (the all purpose word--it means thank you, here you go, give it to me, I'm the cutest baby ever, etc.)

I dearly love all my children and each one is my favorite child, but this Paigey-bug has me bound up in ways that I can't explain. I think I've developed some extra nerve endings that are in her body.