Monday mornings are Esmé’s least project-y time of the week, being that her class at the Lyceum is the one and only commitment we have outside of home. We’re out all the time, don’t get me wrong, and most of that time can quickly shift into ‘project time’ for Esmé. For example, when she’s at the park and someone asks her about her new hat and she tells them that it’s an Ebola hat. As in, “Grandma knit me a HAT of the VIRUS. It’s a VIRUS HAT!” Which always sparks a conversation that involves viruses and their accompanying pathology.
Hawk, on the other hand, has Monday mornings.
Sure, we end up paying LOTS of attention to his project at other times too, but in more of a tag-along sort of way. For example, while Esmé is chatting a stranger up about the structure of virus proteins, I might point out a passing garbage truck to Hawk, or keep half an eye on him while he repairs the playground equipment with his wrench.
Mondays, though, are when Hawk and I get serious. We drop Esmé off at the Lyceum, then we head straight for some glorious, dedicated, one-on-one construction site observation time. My only requirement is coffee. Other than that, he can call the shots.
I love chatting with him to find out what he wants to do. Usually, the answer is the same. ”Watch diggers!”
That was his answer on the Monday during the laundry black-out at the co-op, when the coin washers and dryers were being replaced with fancy new carded ones. We had to plan a laundromat visit anyway, so I decided to slot it in on the Monday morning. We’d drop Esmé off, then drop the laundry off at a laundromat which I’d picked because at the other end of the block was a huge construction site with up to FOUR BIG MACHINES working at once. Boo ya.
I figured we’d be at the laundromat for 15 minutes or so. Tops. Then coffee. Then diggers.
Oh, no.
And why was I surprised when he wanted to investigate every square inch of the laundromat? Row upon row of tumbling, rumbling, whooshing and sloshing machines? Baskets on WHEELS? That he could SIT IN?
We were there for over an hour, until my need for coffee trumped the child-led-ness of it all. Then, and only then, did he want to go to the construction site.
Turns out this kid’s project isn’t just diggers. Or construction. It’s machines, I think. Machines of all sorts. And the tools it takes to keep them in working order. That might be more accurate. Although time will tell as I trail behind him, taking notes.
For now, I don’t care what Hawk wants to do on Monday mornings. It’s special because it’s just us, and it’s even more special because it’s up to him.
And for all those curious knitters, here is the virus hat that Grandma knit. Technically, it’s an anemone hat, pattern by Cat Bordhi.
What Grandma says:
“Here is the Ravelry link for the hat. It is handspun, chain plied merino (wool) and silk. I purchased the dyed roving at Knotty by Nature in Victoria this past summer. Lovley fibre to work with! ”
