Penny Surveillance... oh, and books and knitting, too

Well, the big news from the weekend is that my wonderfully intelligent toddler (have I mentioned she can write her own name and can pick out letters and words?) swallowed a penny on Saturday night. She was in the living room playing and I was walking back and forth between the living room and bedrooms putting folded clothes away when I hear some coughing and a frantic wail. I run into the living room and she cries, "I swallowed the money!" Me: "What?!?! What money?" I call my FIL, and he says to give her a glass of water, then a piece of bread, then another glass of water to make the penny move to her stomach. At that point I didn't even know it was a penny - I had to ask her if it was a brown money or a white money and she told me it was a 'one brown money.' I did not see that happening. Later I asked her why she had the penny in her mouth in the first place and she said she was trying to clean it. First off - a billion levels of ICK! So, we are all in penny surveillance at the exit - now that was a wonderful thing to have to ask of her daycare teacher this morning.

A much happier subject - books. As with my knitting projects, I always have multiple books going as well. I will read just about anything from bodice rippers to alternative scifi to American history to geography books to really cool kids books. Tonight on the bodice ripper end I finished Susan Johnson's _Temptation_ - low on story, high on sex. I am also have way through Ann Bishop's _Dreams Made Flesh_, a book of novellas set in her Dark Jewels world. I liked the original trilogy better, but this book is doing a good job of fleshing out parts that were taken forgranted in the trilogy. At work I am listening to Erik Larson's _Devil in the White City_ on CD; it's about the Chicago 1893 World Fair and a serial killer who was operating at the same time. It's a little on the dry side - however, I do know the story from having read a fictional account of the murders a few years back in a different book. Next into my grubby book-hungry hands? Mary Janice Davidson's _Hello Gorgeous!_ - it looks to be a quick and funny read.

On the knitting front... the cables have been sitting in my knitting basket since before Teri was here. Instead, I frogged some beautiful laceweight merino in the 'Tidepool' colorway from Knitpicks and started working on a very easy lace scarf. I have only finished about 5" so there isn't much to make out yet - and add to that it won't make much sense until it is blocked. The pattern is only a four line repeat, but given the delicacy of the stitches (and how hard they are to see), I don't work on this project until Willow is asleep. And I bought the best needles for them! I believe they are made by Lion Brand, but they are kid's training needles - only 7" long and in bright colours (green wool on red needles at the moment). I have small hands, so this is great for me. Normally I would work in circulars so I wouldn't have the needles flailing around past my elbows, but these short needles are working wonderfully. I think I am going to start Willow's poncho as well - just so I can have something to work on while she is playing.