Kiss me......I'm Irish???

As parents, it's our job to teach and train our children in all sorts of areas: religion, family, values, manners, sports teams preferences... Sometimes, we just drop the ball.

Elisa (DD#1) and I were talking about St. Patrick's Day a week or so ago. She was talking about her friend who's Irish, and wearing green, and what to do to celebrate today.

So I told her, "You know, you're Irish."

"I am? I never knew that!"

How does she not know that? How have I missed telling her that vital piece of information?

"Yes", I tell her, "my grandmother's father came over from Ireland as a young man."

"Oh, I thought I was more than that."

What can I say? I'm.....well....I'm just white. She gets all her interesting genes from her father. She has such fun being half Puerto Rican that I guess she never heard about the Irish part of her. It's cool to have a dad who's first language is Spanish. She's even been to Puerto Rico twice. (Let me tell you how my high school friends teased me when they heard I was marrying a Spanish-speaking man. "We TOLD you to take Spanish. But NOoooo....you had to take French!!!)


She occasionally surprises me like that--when I realize that she has no way of knowing something unless I told her. What else have I forgotten to say? That a direct ancestor came over on the Mayflower? That direct ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI and WWII?


Usually when this happens I find myself telling her things....and telling.....and telling.

"I know, mom, you've told me that 5 times."

I have, however, made sure to share with her my love of crafts. Elisa (on the left) and her friend decorated shirts for St. Patrick's Day. Paint, glitter, and homemade stencils were all used.



She also got my love of baking desserts. These cupcakes were shared at school.

And, let me just say that I have tons of Wilton's icing colors, and have used them extensively for dyeing wool, but this may be the first time we actually used them for baking!



In knitting news (that's right, I do remember that this is a KNITTING blog....), I've been practicing reading while knitting. I've read of people who do this, and while it seems impossible, it was worth trying. Doing a basic "knit in the round" goes quite well, actually. I use my knitting machine weight (why not, it's accessible) to hold my book open. I'm knitting a soaker from handspun Corrie wool that's "spun-in-the-grease". I tend to knit from the loose skein, rather than winding it into a ball. Yep, basically lazy. (we won't even TALK about swatching!) Knitting this wool with the extra lanolin on bamboo needles is REALLY giving my hands a workout. There's such a drag on the needles--it's take way more strength that normal to move the stitches along. I'm very happy with the result, though, so it's worth the extra effort.