Living with Lambchop

You remember this wonderful woman, Shari Lewis. She was as much a part of my childhood as Applejacks and Captain Kangaroo. In my wildest dreams, I never thought that any of my kids would be influenced by her brand of coolness. But, I am happily wrong.
I bought this for the Pickle BEFORE he was born. I was working at a hospital, and this was on the shelf at the gift shop. I just knew this was going to be what my baby slept with. But it didn't happen that way. He ignored it for years. It wasn't until I was about to give it to "Idgy", (the baby I keep), that he picked it up and it's been a part of lives ever since.

The Pickle has slept with all kinds of inanimate objects, none of which were anything classified as a nighttime sleep toy. You remember "Toothbrush" from long ago. He never actually used it to brush his teeth with, but it was an action figure of sorts. Pickle has slept with cell phones, computer keyboards, and any type of gadget you can imagine. Seeing him embrace this little Lambchop is really mindblowing. Even the toughest of boys has a special toy that becomes "real", like the Velveteen Rabbit. (I love the story of the Velveteen Rabbit as many of my toys became "real.) Lambchop goes to kindergarten every morning, and has to be in the car when he gets out of school. Even the Diva (who I take care of and isn't quite old enough for school) reminds me that I have to "get Lambchop". And of course, Lambchop sleeps with Pickle every night. I decided to research Shari Lewis and Lambchop to see if I could find some actual programs for him to see. Sure enough, in our generation of Youtube, there were plenty of episodes to view. That's how he spent his Saturday morning. Amazing, isn't it, that the most retro of things can still be the coolest?

My son, the married man

Oh, you might be thinking, "The Legal Adult has gone off and gotten married?" And due to his consenting age, that would normally be a good guess for the eldest son. But alas, it isn't the eldest who has claimed a bride, it's the YOUNGEST!

The beautiful girl by his side is his childhood friend, Easter. Of course, that's not her REAL name, but that will do. Pickle informed her mother, my friend, Ally, that they had gotten married last year on the playground. These pictures were taken at a recent playdate. He informed me today that he needed to go see his "wife".
"Wife?"
"Easter, Mommy, Easter!"

She has a birthday coming up this weekend and we are going. Easter will all of 4. You know, you wonder how much they pay attention to what we do. Pickle has an old keyboard on his dresser, along with an old cell phone and deodorant container. Before he treks off to kindergarten, he is at the keyboard.

"What are you doing, Pickle?"

"Checking my email, Mommy."

Then he picks up the phone, " I have to check my voice mail." And finally, he "puts on deodorant". It's all pretend deodorant lest I get any concerned emails. I know they grow up fast, but this is faster than I wanted. I guess he's going to be a family man, like his dad.

The Jury is still out...and thinking

I went to a local quilt history gathering in my town with a quilting girlfriend of mine. One of the speakers was well-known, at least to me, and I looked forward to putting a face with a name.

During her talk, she spoke of supporting our local quilt shops, which I do. More than Hunnybunny would like. And she spoke of her own online shop, which I thought was kind of contradictory, but I let it go. After the meeting, I stood in line to speak to her about my favorite online resource, Quiltshops.com. I guess it's the hormones, but the polite thing to do when someone is waiting to speak to you is to acknowledge your presence. Well, she walked away. My friend and I stared at each other and wondered who did what to her Wheaties. I then followed this woman across the room, where another woman got in front of me and she again walked away. Finally, I caught up with her by touching her shoulder:

"Wow, you're hard to catch!" I laughed. For the record, she didn't.

"I wanted to tell you about Quiltshops.com. You didn't mention them in your resource list." And I told them about the search engine, how you can put a Boolean search to look for this, not that,ect. She proceeded to give me a lecture about supporting our local quilt shops and how using the internet was a way to put small shops out of business.

"I do use them. However, if there's a fabric I can't find, I'll look there next." She again tried to dissuade me against using the internet to find fabric. Finally, I asked her,

"Did I understand you correctly that you have an internet shop?" She nodded.
"How is that any different? Most shop owners are savvy enough to have a site along with their shop's goods. That way, you don't waste precious gas money if they don't have it."

I honestly can't remember what she said in rebuttal, but I remember walking away thinking that maybe I don't need to go to any more of these 'educational' meetings. The sad part is she is part of our local guild, and if I re upped, I'd run into her. I guess I'm struggling with this mentality of "you have to do it this way". The internet has lots of options for people and fabric ordering is probably my favorite. I utterly despise walking into a quilt shop and having to look through all those bolts of fabric.



It's nothing personal, usually I'm dragging some child or husband with me and they are less than enthused. So, what do you think? Is the internet going to be the downfall of the local quilt shop or can they co-exist?

What I've been up to.......