Having Three

[liralen]

Last night, the neighbor called as she was in a mild bind.  She either needed kid care from us or was going to have to send the kids out into the rain with their dad.  So I said, sure, send 'em over, and they came and it was... instructive.

Three kids definitely keep busy together.  So I had to do less entertaining.  BUT... I also had to do a heck of a lot more refereeing, monitoring, and border watching which, in my mind, is a whole lot less fun than when I get to enjoy and play with Jet when he wants some attention.  Even when the refereeing consists of, "TALK with X about it!  Not me.  I can't help you, you have to work that out with X."

I resisted the urge to say, "Don't tattle." quite diligently.

An interesting phenomenon was that when there was a dispute I could just tell each participant, "Okay, tell me about it."  And really listen and express some sympathy for the emotions of the teller, but not provide a solution.  After everyone had their say, and I was about to ask them, "What do we do about it?"  the involved parties, having said their piece, were done.  So they'd just run off and do the next thing and not really care about any resolution beyond being heard.  That bemused me, mildly.

We did baking soda and vinegar volcanoes (it's U and V week at pre-K), had some dinner (pot-stickers and scallion pancakes.  The visitors nibbled at pancakes while we ate) and then they played and played and ran and ran and ran.  So when they left and Jet had fifteen minutes to wind down, we got through his sleep routine pretty quickly and he fell pretty fast asleep.

Both John and I are under work stress and we didn't get any exercise today, so we did not do nearly as well in the sleep category.  I did, however, finish a pair of Jet's Kool-Aid® dyed socks, as he's been wanting them for a while. I did them toe-up, first to fit him as he's grown, and then because I wanted the separate heel I can easily replace (though I really don't like the holes in the short-row heels, but hey, the last time he wore the heels out in a week, so I'll get to replace them soon enough), and finally to use every last bit of yarn in the cuffs. I had to rip and re-do the very top when my yarn estimate was off. That's when I realized it was 1am. Oops. So I went to bed to find that John still wasn't asleep. He got up then to deal with *his* brain, but I slept happily after getting so far with the socks.

This morning, I managed to rip and keep going on the yarn and ended up with just 2 inches of spare yarn. Whew! That's the thing about sock yarn, no matter how small an amount I might have of any color or type, it can be used, somehow, somewhere.

Comments

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

I made Robby a pair of socks last year that I started in the middle; I did a provisional cast-on just north of the toe and finished that, and then turned around and went up the foot. I did an afterthought heel (the "just like a toe" sort, which I like better than the short-row kind) also for easy re-knitting, although as it turns out he hasn't worn it out yet! He's pretty close to the point where I'll need to rip the toe and re-do it, though, which was the plan and the point of doing them in that manner. Or perhaps I will simply steal them, since they fit my feet as well, and make him a new pair. The new pair will not fit my feet, since his are already an entire size larger, and I will of course allow a bit of grow room.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oooo! What a great idea. I'd wondered about that with the toe-up, 'cause I was thinking it would be hard to rip the toe, but I figured I'd just cut them off, pick 'em up and then reknit, but I like your idea a lot better. Makes it cleaner to take off (no little cut bits to pick out).

Cool to get the confirmation on the heel!! I'll try that the next time. I don't like the swirly afterthough, but was thinking that "just like the toe" would be cool. :-) I'm glad to know it's not just me.

[archangelbeth]

. So they'd just run off and do the next thing and not really care about any resolution beyond being heard.

I must try to use this technique sometimes.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I'm not at all sure why it works or even if does more often than not, but last night, when I was intent on getting *them* to figure out a resolution, it happened pretty much every time out of three someone-crying-because-someone-else-did-something times.

[niherlas.livejournal.com]

Zoom out.

You and John are disagreeing about how to solve an issue. In one situation, he dismisses your concerns without even listening, then proceeds to resolve the issue in his fashion. In another, he listens carefully to what you have to say but still insists on his methods. The result is the same. From utilitarian principles, the first is more efficient as you haven't spent time listening to and/or expressing the dismissed point of view.

But it should be patently obvious which is going to leave you happier with both John and the solution.

Listen. (*makes quiet resolution to work on this himself*)