Home and other happy things

I have several random things to share (including Actual! Knitting! Content!), so I'm just going to jump right in.

1. Home.

We arrived home a week ago tonight and are slowly settling into regular life again. Coming home was rather emotional for me, living so close to the reality that we almost came back with only one child. The tears were from gratitude and relief, but from sadness too. On a visceral level, the trauma of what happened somehow imprinted itself, so that even though things turned out happily, there's a part of me that can't shake the horror or the grief.

But mostly there is happiness, and gratitude, and amazement. Here is the picture that almost wasn't, taken the night after Little Buddha's accident:

we look pretty dang happy, don't we?

One of the most tender things to come out of the trauma has been the increased affection and closeness between Tiny Dancer and Little Buddha. They have always seemed to love and enjoy each other, and they are both very affectionate little boys. But the accident seems to have intensified their relationship, especially for Tiny Dancer.

a poignant moment at the lake at the beach,
the day after the accident

Tiny Dancer embracing Little Buddha

There is so much still to process about what happened, at least for me. The boys, though, seem to have moved on, for which I'm grateful. Ah, the resilience of a three year-old.

2. National coverage.

If you missed The Early Show segment on CBS, you can view it here. (in the drop-down menu select "videos" and then type in "sand danger"). Overall, I was pleased with the job they did, and mostly just grateful that My Old Man and I didn't appear to be total idiots (you never know what stupid thing is going to accidentally come out of your mouth that will become a sound bite). There are a couple of corrections, though. They said that our son climbed into the hole, whereas he says he fell, and that's what we said in the interview, repeatedly. This was an important point to me because I want people to realize that this can happen entirely accidentally, if other children do not cover up the holes they dig. Also, the news show said he was in the hole for 10 minutes, when it was really more like 5 (long enough, trust me). I shudder to think of him buried alive for twice as long as he was. The possibility of his still being alive at that point would've been even more remote.

Still, I am grateful for the coverage of what happened, because I believe that raising awareness about this potential beach danger is the only way to prevent it from happening to other children.

3. Guardian angels.

There still aren't words to express my gratitude for Erika Orlando, the young woman who felt led to look in the sand for him. She and I are in correspondence now, and she is delightful. She's a twin, too. To read her version of events, and see all the "coincidences" involved in her even being in the beach at that particular moment, is amazing. I thank God for her every day. I wish every child had a guardian angel like her.

4. Happiness in blogland.

My life hasn't been only about the trauma, even though I clearly can't seem to write about anything else. First, my day started yesterday with an email from Cara telling me I had won her latest contest! You know, winning yarn (and an awesome pattern!) made me unbelievably happy - it really made my day. I am so into lace right now (not that you can tell, given how little I actually write about knitting on my blog these days), so I'm super-psyched. Unfortunately, Ravelry is keeping me honest - I have a ridiculous number of WIPs and hibernating projects right now, so it will probably be awhile before I can reasonably cast on. At any rate, Cara rocks! But you already knew that.

Then later in the day, I was notified that I had won a little something else: a Perfect Post award from Lani, for my posts about Little Buddha's accident.

Isn't that cool?
I'm so honored.

Seems like I'm on a roll for winning stuff in blogland, so I guess I better hurry up and enter this contest to win a 37" flat-panel TV from Best Buy. You should enter too!

5. Knitting.

Ah, yes, this is a knitting blog, isn't it?

Well, I got my Sockapalooza socks done - not that you even knew I was doing Sockapalooza since I have failed to write about it even one time, or even put the little button on my blog (can you tell I'm all out of sorts with my blogger template right now? - everything's kinked up over there in the sidebar and I haven't gotten my old buttons back up yet). At any rate, here they are:

pattern: Waving Lace Socks, by Evelyn Clark, from Favorite Socks
yarn: Lazy Perry Ranch Superwash Supersock Merino from Collette's Etsy shop
color - Brown and Pink
needles: size 0 dpns
started: July 14
finished: July 27
modifications: none
verdict: I'm pleased. My sock pal has the same size foot as me, and these fit me perfectly. And, of course, brown and pink is one of my favorite color combos. I actually bought this yarn for myself and had started a pair for my sock pal in a different colorway. When I finished it, though, I realized I couldn't give it away. More about that another time....
At any rate, I really loved this yarn, and this pattern is super. So pretty, so easy, so interesting. I realize the pattern would show up better in a solid or semi-solid, but I was just itching to use some variegated. The pattern shows up better in real life than it does in these pictures. I found these socks unusually hard to photograph. Here are some detail shots:

Thank you again, for your many kind words in the comments and in my email inbox. It means so much to me to feel like people really understand the horror we went through, as well as the fact that you are sharing in our happiness at the outcome. Thank you, friends.