Sleeveless sweaters have their merits

Things sneak up on you when you're a parent; the kids change so quickly and all of a sudden you realise that they're into a whole new phase of development. Jess thinks she can talk now, and to be fair, she's come a long way. A few months ago she had a toy that Katie wanted, and Katie asked me if she could have it. 'You need to ask Jess if you can have a turn after her,' I said. So Katie turned to Jess and said 'Gaa gaa goo goo ba boo?'. Jess, unsurprisingly, looked at her blankly and wandered off. Katie turned to me, terribly aggrieved, and said, 'She didn't even answer me, and I even asked her in her own language!'. Lovely! But Jess now mostly speaks a variety of English, although you'd have to be a mother to understand. Not necessarily her mother sadly: my sister does a much better job of interpreting than me. The bitter and twisted part of me mutters that that's because she's emotionally and intellectually closer in age to Jess. This is not kind I know but you get that.
On the knitting front things proceed apace... I now have a sleeve for each jumper. My tension seems to have gone haywire on the garter stitch so I'm encouraging Katie to hang from the monkey bars as much as possible. If her arms don't stretch at least she'll build up the strength to wear the cable one: all that bulky cabling means she's going to have to walk around with her arms held straight out to the sides. Hey ho...