Four and Bananas

M turns 4 today.

This kid! She looks so small in photographs, but she’s so big in real life. She’s incredibly powerful, loving, generous, strong-willed, intelligent, and mischievous. An episode yesterday was perfectly illustrative: she argued her way into my room (where I was having a lie down to recover from a headache) because she wanted to snuggle and read me the epilogue from Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles. For the record, the only words she couldn’t read were “tremendous,” “decency,” and “responsibility.”

I’ve never met anyone with so much love to give and share, and so little heed to what anyone thinks of her.

I’ve been wanting to make her a birthday hat, since her sister got one. I thought she wanted an Every Flavour, but when she saw me flipping through the Milarrochy Heids book she wanted to pick her own. She liked most of them, but we settled on Roamin‘ by Lynette Meek.

I took out one seventh of the pattern to make it more M sized, but I kept all the length in it. As a result it has a considerable slouch on her (which I think is darling but she probably does not). But I can still get it on my head, so hopefully that means it’ll bring her joy in future years as well.

Like its recipient, this pattern belies itself in photographs. The pictures show off the colorful crown, but the lace is what makes it amazing. The waves and the play of light are pretty stunning.

I know better than to get too attached to something I make for an opinionated 4-year-old getting much use. By on the upside, she says we can share. And she really wanted to take my picture in it too.