Knit Hats and Shane

One of my assigned jobs for co-op is to be a teacher's aid in the practical needlework class.  Jason will not let me leave him in the nursery and he isn't allowed in the classroom, so I haven't been able to actually go to class yet.  The teacher and I are friends and have first hour in the nursery together.  She asked me to help by creating and test knitting patterns! My favorite!

This is just a quick garter stitch hat knit flat on straight needles.  It's *almost* like the first hat I ever knit, only I was still teaching myself from a book and I didn't know there was a difference between knitting flat and in the round.  So my hat looked like this even though it wasn't at all what it was supposed to look like:

That hat has been the most awesome, long-wearing hat.  In fact, that baby in the picture-Shane-pulled that hat out of the box to take with him on his sailing trip this weekend. 

When Shane was about three years old, he had a hard time telling if his shirt belonged to him and if it was on right instead of backwards.  It caused him some anxiety, so anytime he got dressed, he asked, "Is-is-is this MY shirt? And does it go on like THIS?" If we didn't answer yes to both questions, he would cry.  I've used this story recently to teach Shane about being patient with annoying younger siblings.

So today, Shane pulled the hat out of the hat box and put it on.  He said to me, "Hey Mom, is this my hat?"  I turned around and said, "Yeah, but it's on backward. The seam goes in the back."  He smiled sweetly as he slowly turned the hat to face the right way... and he said....

...."Soooo.... Does it go on like THIS?"  I laughed and then I lost it and cried for awhile.  I cried again after I dropped him off for Sea Scouts.  In fact, I'm crying again as I write this.  It's a mom thing.  I love that boy, the toddler and teen, all in one.