Middle Child Syndrome

Luke has it.

Now, with the recognition that my cats are cats and not people, my cats have very definite family birth-order personalities: Han is the older brother, brave, confident, a mama's boy, but in the sense that he wants to take care of me. He looks after his brother and sister, if someone's sneezing or throwing up, he goes over to make sure that they're okay, with the sweetest little concerned look. If I put someone in time out (either shut in the bathroom or in the cat carrier), he won't leave them alone, because he knows that something's wrong.

Leia is the baby sister. She's the darling, the sweet, soft, cuddle girl who loooooves to play and will push her brothers aside for a toy or a treat. She's somewhat of a favorite for Elijah and me, because she's so much more willing to cuddle and interact.

Although Han and Luke are twins, Luke's personality is definitely that of the middle child. He's not as brave or confident as either sibling; he's a 'fraidy-cat. I got them a new water fountain yesterday, and when I brought him over to see it, he struggled out of my arms and ran away to hide. He spends a lot of time hiding in caves, or anywhere where it's harder to get him out.

I've been working on toilet-training them, and it's actually going pretty well- we're down to the intermediate green ring on the Litter Kwitter (step 4 out of 6, essentially), and the cats are generally pretty good about using the toilet. We keep Leia in the bathroom at night, because if we don't, we tend to find poop in awkward places. A few nights ago, we put all three cats in the bathroom overnight, because the boys had been acting up at night (wrestling on the bed when we're trying to sleep, bringing toys onto the bed, taking things off my desk). Luke seemed to take offense at being shut in the bathroom, since he's started peeing outside the bathroom- on bags, backpacks, etc. Last night was just Luke and Leia in the bathroom; since Han had been good (he had a great day- he actually asked to go outside, and once outside, he even did some exploring!), he got to stay out with me. When I got up to use the toilet in the middle of the night, Luke escaped, and I had to chase him around the house twice before I could catch him to put him back.

It's a bit of tough love, but I'm going to win this. Luke thinks that he can win ("Well, if you put me in the bathroom all night, I'm going to pee on your stuff, so there!"), but I've told him that he'll stay in the bathroom at night until he stops doing that. Unlike his forgiving baby sister, middle child Luke seems to hold grudges.

May Yarncraft Recap

Here's a quick list of the knitting and crochet projects that I did for the HPKCHC in May:

For Ancient Runes, we had to do something relating to an Elder Futhark rune. I chose to represent the rune Kenaz, meaning “beacon” or “torch”. It also has the meanings “Vision, revelation, knowledge, creativity, inspiration, technical ability. Vital fire of life, harnessed power, fire of transformation and regeneration. Power to create your own reality, the power of light. Open to new strength, energy, and power now. Passion, sexual love.” Source: http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/meanings.html. I designed the pattern.



Next up, Herbology, where we were studying Puffapods and had to do something flower-related. I made a flower dishcloth. I also submitted it for Ravenclaw's May Flowers contest.



Then for Charms, I used the Avifors spell to create a Lesser Goldfinch:



DADA's assignment was to make something that a member of another house had in their queue. We were given Extendable Ears to assist us with our spying... erm, research. I spied on anthrogirl17 of Hufflepuff, and made this dishcloth, which also counted for Ravenclaw's May Monkey Madness:



For Potions, we studied the way that different potions ingredients combine to make a potion, by either making something that had multiple parts to seam, or something with multiple colors. I made this Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake:



History of Magic's assignment was to explore the Chamber of Secrets, and craft something that we found therein, or something useful for the exploring. I decided that every explorer needs a good explorer hat- they’re terribly useful. You can shade yourself from the sun, shield yourself from the rain, fan the flames when you’re starting a campfire, or use it to carry tools or small artifacts! Here’s my explorer hat:



Finally, this term, the Headmistress has given us all a special challenge. As the Headmistress said, "I want to send a package. A very awesome package to JK Rowling. In it I will include a scrapbook. In the scrapbook will be pics of various HPKCHC meet ups. Along with the scrapbook I want to send as many HP themed bookmarks as I can get my hands on." Our challenge is to create those bookmarks, up to four (one for each house) each. I rose to the challenge, charting my own patterns for crochet. I put up the pattern for sale on my Ravelry store, with hopes that others may use it too! Here are my results, posing with the book that I'm currently on (having read the English versions, I'm now working my way through the French):



And that's all for last month! June brings with it new classes and new assignments, which I am eager to finish!