Sophia and the Scrumble

I haven't written about my granddaughter Sophia in quite awhile. She turned 1 recently and had a lovely party. Unfortunately, she hasn't been very happy to see me and tends to cry when she does! We aren't sure why that is. Sophia in general doesn't take to many people. Still, it's a bit of a bummer that I am not one of the chosen ones.

Her father, my son Shaun, brings Sophia by every Saturday and I do everything he says, even the silly stuff, to try to win her over. I think we are starting to make progress and last Saturday some significant progress. It started with me handing her a green freeform scrumble, which had a bit of fuzzy mohair.
She seemed to like it a lot, walked her little baby Frankenstein walk, scrunching and feeling it.

Sat in Daddy's lap awhile with it...



...then came over to where I was sitting and began poking around in a basket of yarn and knitting needles. We wound up playing a little game where she handed me one of the needles and then took it back. Back and forth, back and forth - she even let me sit on the floor with her and continue the game! And my son quietly left the room. About 3 seconds later, Sophia looked around for him and I could actually see a moment where her Insecurity warred with her Desire to Play and.... Play won!

Although I don't have picture, there was a stellar moment when I was able to take her in my arms, and walk away with her for a bit. I was able to hand her back to Daddy before she started fussing or crying to go back to him.

I am still feeling great joy - and it reminds me again to be grateful for the small things, to not take anything for granted, especially when it involves children, and remember that perspective can make all the difference . A repetitious little game might be annoying to one grandmother, and a source of great delight to another.

Recently, on the Freeform Crochet yahoo group, there was a discussion about allowing people to touch freeform work when it is on display at conventions and fairs. When I handed Sophia the scrumble, I was remembering that discussion and what some people wrote about tactile pleasures. I can't help but think that giving her that interesting bit of textures to feel helped to create the fun that followed.