finger lickin' good

Valentine's Day, 2004. While I can no longer recall the actual pain of the contractions or delivery, I can remember every conversation and every image during those last few hours prior to Sister Stinky's arrival. And what remains most emblazoned in my memory is the loving image of my mother. Unable to attend Bossy Boots' birth, my mother was determined to witness gender-unknown-baby-#2's arrival. What more intimate experience could a mother and daughter have than to welcome a precious new life together? When contractions began on Valentine's morning, my mom dropped everything and immediately boarded a plane, hoping to arrive before Stinky. She did, and I was so grateful, knowing what comfort her presence would bring.

...You knew this couldn't be just a sappy birth story, right?

I called my midwife when contractions were 3 minutes apart, and we checked into the hospital. She told me that I was 7-8 cm dilated and that labor was progressing very well. Which translated roughly into: "What do you MEAN it's too LATE for drugs?! NO DRUGS??! Are you freaking SERIOUS?! Who wrote that crazy crap in my birth plan?! Don't you tell me to breathe- YOU breathe!" And in the midst of transition, when contractions were peaking less than a minute apart, when I thought I couldn't possibly bear it anymore, I opened my eyes to look over to my mother for support. And there I found her in the corner of the room, stuffing her face with none other than the Colonel's own extra crispy, asking my sister where the coleslaw was. Asking my sister WHERE THE COLESLAW WAS.

Coleslaw has since become a code phrase in our house, and while I never let my mom live this down, she truly deserves to be canonized. The woman raised 4 kids and managed to maintain her sanity. (This is questionable, but that is a topic for another post.) I am only too happy to be able to knit her socks and other secret Christmas items! And on that note, here is a completed Go With the Flow sock. A really quick knit that energizes you to cast on for the second sock. I admit that I temporarily wavered when I thought about the coleslaw, but nonetheless cast-on for the second. With any luck, there will be a completed pair in a few days. I also cast-on for SNB's Under the Hoodie with Elann Peruvian Highland Wool. It was actually the first project I'd planned and ordered yarn for when I learned to knit back in April. Amazing how knitting has taken on a life of its own in these past 5 months! I didn't want to put the hoodie on the wayside any longer, so I'm giving it a go.

As for KFC, well, it's never quite held the appeal that it used to. And in case you were wondering, no, I don't know where the mashed potatoes are, either.