A New Hobby for David

For a couple of years, David has been watching his big brother do counted cross-stitch (you can see Josiah doing that in this long post, if you scroll down far enough).  Josiah isn't quite finished with his first project, so obviously he's taken extended breaks since his start in 2012; but every once in a while, he'll pick it up again and work on it some more.  I'm pretty sure he'll finish it this summer.

For a couple of days, David has been pestering persistently asking me ;-) if he can do counted cross-stitch, too.  I said yes, of course, but didn't have the time to immediately help him when he asked me; but finally last night, the process began.  First, we looked online for a pattern, but then after I pulled out a book of patterns I have from many moons ago, he chose one from that book rather than any of the online patterns he had seen.  It was late enough in the evening that we didn't get any further with our project, but this morning we made more progress.  I pulled out my box with lots of thread in it, and David chose the colors he wanted to use; then I got a piece of cloth, a hoop, a needle, and so forth out of my cedar chest.  We were ready.

And so we began!  David was a quick learner, and has spent quite a bit of time working on this already today.  I'm really proud of him!  :)

 When I think back to my own childhood, one of the things I appreciate is how my brother David and I had such a close relationship and loved being together so much that we got to do all the "boy stuff" and all the "girl stuff," too.  We'd play football together, then come into the house and sit on the couch and crochet.  I was glad to be active and outdoorsy with him, and he was glad to do cooking and needlework and so forth with me.  There was no reluctance to participate in something because "only girls do that," for example.  I LOVED that.

I also love the fact that my son David, who does flips on the trampoline like nobody's business, who chases his brothers around the yard yelling battle cries as he goes, who jumps at the opportunity to tell his jokes to someone new, who rolls his eyes when I get teary-eyed while reading Miracles on Maple Hill aloud, who wears his roller blades to zoom around the barber shop and sweep up hair on Friday afternoons, who is all-boy...  This same boy was thrilled to learn how to use a needle, some thread, and a piece of cloth to create something of beauty.  The fact that he chose a pattern with a Scripture verse was icing on the cake.

Did I mention I'm proud of him??  :)