Hello all,
I'm knitting a pattern that starts with some ribbing. I was expecting a simple knit-purl rib, but this pattern has me doing (p2 k1) on the right side, and (k2 s1wyif) on the wrong side. The ribbing looks nice for sure but what exactly does this type of ribbing achieve and how is it different from a regular knit-purl rib? That is, how does slipping a stitch differ from just purling and why might you choose this method?
Thanks in advance for any responses!
edit: typo- wrong and right side instructions were the wrong way around

Hi friends! This is my first warm season as a knitter, I started knitting after christmas. I noticed many people do the seasonal knitting meaning they will knit warm garments from like september till march and from march till august they will knit spring and summer garments. I did give warm weather garments a try, I made one top with drops belle but I am not super happy with it since it is a thick fabric so not really great for summer, one I made with drops Paris using drops free pattern, that one is even worse, super thick and way shorter and smaller than it sould be (yes, I did meet gauge and picked the correct size). In general I enjoy knitting with wool way more than with non-streachy plant based yarns. I also heard about drops not being the greatest yarn. So my question is should I give warm weather garments another try with better quality cotton or linen yarn (I was thinking sandnes garn since it seems to be really loved in the knitting community)? Or will every plant based yarn give me this heavy, thick fabric and brand doesn't really matter? I'll just add, in general I got into knitting because I looove sweaters. Seriously, no amount of sweaters is too much for me, I'll wear sweaters every day from october till february. I'm not so sure about how much wear I would get from knitted tops since I would wear them mostly when it's really hot and when I don't want any thickness in my garments.

My current boyfriend is my first, and we have been together for the past 3 years (he courted me for a whole year during our first year of college) and the years with him have been the best in my entire life. I used to take anti-depressants before I met him but since we got together I have never been more happy my entire life.
He is the sweetest man ever, he's a gentleman and he's never mad and he never let misunderstandings and other things blow off proportion. He's very protective but also very carefree and trusting, he knows just what to say whenever I feel down and is always understanding even when I'm being super unreasonable. He's also the one who remembers important dates, events, and details about our relationship and he's always been thoughtful. In summary, I hit a jackpot, he's the perfect one - except for one 'flaw'. He have a girl best friend since he was a baby and they have always been together.
He's very protective and attentive to her, many said that they thought that he (let's call him Paul for story's sake) would end up with her (let's call her Allie) because they're tight-knit. Paul has always been Allie's protector, always there and taking care of her since childhood. So I guess it was a natural assumption to make.
Allie's very clumsy, and to be frank I think she has very low EQ, she's always so blunt and out of touch and very useless in anything physical even chores (she can't even swim and ride bikes), I think it has to do with her rather sheltered childhood, I've known of her and Paul since childhood since they just live a couple of blocks away from us and we attend the same school since daycare. She was a very sickly child up until middle school, when I say sickly I really mean it, that poor girl's in the hospital more often than not and people gossip that she should have been homeschooled.
So for the longest time I never really minded that Paul adores her and takes care of her. To be honest, their relationship, to me, looks more like a parent to a child or a brother to his younger sister. It was rather adorable, the way he attends to her that I keep thinking that he would make a really good father.
So, what's the problem? Well, I never really minded it for the longest time, Allie is a darling, thoughtful in her own way, and her chatter when she's passionate about something (more often than not, it's rather morbid like true crime, bloody history, etc.,). And really, Paul has never made me feel like I'm a second choice, he's very thoughtful and intuitive with my needs, but recently, people I talked to have been saying that I should be more assertive.
They say that a man can never have a girl best friend without strings attached or something like that. I didn't really pay attention to it that time, because it's not like Allie and Paul do anything worth getting jealous or possessive over, or at least that's how I have always felt. Allie rarely joins us and even helped me with my thesis and other stuff, she's always been thoughtful about my relationship with Paul and I know she declared that she's not interested in relationships even as far back as high school. I have always had a good relationship with her. Paul too, he always goes out of his way to ensure that his attention is always on me whenever we're together. It was all good.
But these past few days have been tough, both mentally and physically, and I find myself thinking about what people say about Allie and Paul. I know them, and I know they're good people, to be honest, I think Allie is too honest for such backstabbing, and Paul, too nice. But I can't help but think about it at random times, and I keep overthinking and overanalyzing every little thing.
Paul has been asking me about what bothers me but how can I say it? How can I say that out of nowhere I'm jealous and insecure? I asked my best friend (let's call her Jade) and she said there's nothing to be all insecure about since Paul clearly loves me and Allie isn't really interested in such things. I wish I could believe her, but other people keep saying that it's suspicious, it's inappropriate, or some nasty things. I don't know what to think about anymore.
Please, I need your advice. I don't know how to address this, and I don't really hate Allie at all but my brain is so uncooperative, it's been stressing me out more than anything and we're nearing graduation, I don't want to let it consume me and I have seen a similar post on TikTok and Reddit so I revived this account just for this. Thank you for your help.

From the time I started playing this game up to now, every single stego has been like a solid, default-stance block sliding along the terrain. They do move along the ground in what looks like normal movement patterns (ie, turning sharply when they would be attacking with their tail, moving slowly when wandering passively, etc), but no model movement. Just creepily frozen, like some indie horror game monster, babies included. I’ve even tamed a couple and nothing changed, I just have statues following me now.
Recently though, I got the Forglar mod map and saw stegos that MOVED for the very first time. I honestly didn’t recognize them at first, it was mesmerizing. Then just hours ago, while playing that map, the glitch struck and now all the Forglar stegos are frozen too.
I don’t know f all about fixing glitches or bugs, programming, or what settings could even cause this, but it’s gotten just annoying enough that I’m tired of seeing it.

I have a sweaters quantity of happy place blossom. A pretty, bright, DK weight pink that is quite gorgeous.
I’ve completed all of my current WIPs (so rare, I know!) and am at a loss for what to knit next.
Pink is so far out of my colour comfort zone but I loved the colour so much. Since it’s such a bright colour and summer is right around the corner, I’m looking for a summer knit with this yarn.
Maybe a Tee, tank or anything in between! Anything with slight pattern to it also would be a plus! I think this yarn would really shine from maybe a fisherman’s rib or eyelets.
Any pattern recs are welcomed!

I hate it when I have a project idea I can't execute... Grrr. Here's the plan: I'm going to knit a baby blanket with the Java program for "hello, world" knit into it. The first problem is designing the pattern in stitch fiddle so that it's not gigantic. I think I can solve that. The second is that in order for letters to look any good in relief, they really need to be at least 3 stitches wide. Four is better. Which results in an enormous blanket. What I'm REALLY good at is color work in the round. I'm bad at flat color work. What if I knit the whole blanket IN THE ROUND and then steeked it, then knit on a border? Is that insane?

For many parents, especially those new to the role, interpreting a baby’s cry is a daunting challenge. Each cry might signal a different need or discomfort, turning the task of understanding them into a complex puzzle. Interestingly, weaving musical rhythms into daily routines can greatly soothe a distressed infant and aid parents in deciphering these cries by fostering a tranquil environment conducive to attentiveness and responsiveness. This blog delves into how musical rhythms can assist in comprehending an infant's needs and discusses how companies like Sukoonify are utilizing lullaby music to strengthen this understanding.
Understanding Through Melody
Infants naturally respond to musical sounds, likely a trait developed from exposure to rhythmic patterns such as their mother's heartbeat in the womb. This predisposition helps explain why certain music types, especially soft, rhythmic melodies, are particularly effective at calming crying infants. Music's soothing properties can stabilize a baby’s physiological responses, reducing their heart rate and soothing their breathing. This not only comforts the infant but also simplifies the task for parents trying to figure out why their baby is crying.
Sukoonify: Melodies for Peaceful Nights
Sukoonify specializes in crafting lullaby music and playlists aimed at creating peaceful settings for both infants and parents. Our Spotify collections feature a variety of tunes tailored to the sensitive needs of infants, providing a calming soundscape that enhances sleep routines and helps decipher a baby’s distress signals. Incorporating Sukoonify’s melodies into your daily routine can cultivate an atmosphere that alleviates and clarifies your baby’s cries.
Musical Cues for Understanding Your Baby

1. Recognizing Patterns: Regular exposure to kid-friendly sleep music can help parents recognize behavioral patterns and responses to tunes in their babies. Over time, parents may identify specific musical responses that hint at their baby’s needs.
   
2. Soothing Effects: The calming influence of music can lessen the frequency and intensity of a baby’s cries. This quieter state allows parents to more easily assess and meet their baby’s needs.
   
3. Enhancing Sleep: Properly used, newborn sleep music can boost overall sleep quality and duration for babies, potentially reducing cry spells related to tiredness. Bedtime music can smooth the transition to sleep, easing the baby’s distress.
   
4. Strengthening Bonds: Music can enhance the emotional connection between parents and their child, fostering moments of closeness and understanding. This bond is essential for intuitively meeting a baby's needs. The repetitive and gentle nature of baby sleep music can deepen this connection, aiding parents in interpreting their infant's non-verbal signals.
   

Tips for Integrating Music into Daily Routines
● Consistency Matters: Regularly include soothing tunes during feeding, bathing, and bedtime to establish a predictable and calming environment.
● Explore Different Playlists: Try various types of music to discover what best soothes your baby. Sukoonify offers a range of playlists suited for different moods and needs.
● Mind the Volume and Timing: Ensure the music is quiet enough to be soothing without being startling. Timing music to start before fussy periods can preemptively calm your baby.
● Participate Actively: Join your baby in listening to the music. Sing or gently sway with them to not only calm but also strengthen your bond, enhancing your insight into their needs.
Conclusion
Integrating music into your baby’s routine is more than a soothing strategy; it’s a thoughtful approach to understanding and responding to their cries. Music speaks a universal language that resonates with emotional depths, setting a rhythm that guides both parents and children through early development. Sukoonify’s carefully curated playlists on Spotify are crafted with the delicate art of interpreting your baby’s cries through the gentle influence of lullabies and soothing tunes. By embracing these musical tools, parents can turn challenging moments into opportunities for growth and bonding, ensuring peaceful nights and calm days.

_ _ _ _ _
Impact and introduction
_ _ _ _ _
His first thoughts about his little predicament were that it was nothing like the anime he’d watched.
Finding yourself suddenly free falling from hundreds of thousands of feet in the sky was significantly more terrifying than it had seemed while cozied up in his bed, wrapped up in three-plus blankets and contently slurping his microwave ramen.
That said, he felt justified in screaming like a little girl. “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!” What was happening? Where was he? He had just stepped out of his house for a ramen run at the nearest gas station, and now this was happening. Great, just great, now he wasn’t going to be able to watch anymore anime- he stopped suddenly. “Oh, of course,” he muttered to himself, “That’s what’s going on here.” He was suddenly as stoic as a knight in shining armor as he plummeted through the sky, and he pushed the slightly problematic matter of falling out of his mind and focused on what would be important: His story. First: his name was Caen Eloso. He came from a strange other world with wondrous technology that left nothing to the imagination. Caen was what was in his third year at his school, Hansen Academy High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where teenagers his age were taught arithmetic, science and language punctuation before they went off into the world on their own. Colorado was one of fifty individually operating states in his home country called America, which was home to more than three hundred million people and overseen by a President.. America was located on one of 7 continents in his world, called Earth. There were a great many other countries besides America, of which he knew varying amounts about their cultures that he could give little tidbits of information about, but he figured he knew the most about Japan. Japan was basically heaven. The Japanese people were responsible for creating the best possible thing that his world had to offer, a wondrous thing called anime. He had dedicated his life to exploring every nook and cranny that was connected to the world of anime, and there was nothing that brought him more happiness than binging.
However, he figured he oughta remember some cooler stuff about Earth (he couldn’t really expect many people to weeb out with his stories without watching anime in person) if he ever found himself in a tight spot and needed to, say, entertain a dragon or something. Because…
He was ninety-nine percent sure that he had just been isekai’d.

That’s why, while plummeting to what seemed to be his inevitable doom, he kept a level head. Ignoring the previous screaming-like-a-five-year-old fit. Because, of course, anyone that was summoned to another world via falling from the sky always survived; it was kind of a given, otherwise the story wouldn’t get anywhere, duh. Whether it be due to some miraculous vitality, impossible superpowers, a one-time “safe-landing” provided by the dude that summoned them, or (and what he personally was hoping for) a rescue from some either super-shy or super-pissy elf hottie in possession of a huge rack… of swords, you pervert, that dressed in some skimpy armor (that really would do nothing to protect the vital organs, from a defensive standpoint) and who would kick off the protagonist’s harem.
When he actually gave it thought, he realized he wasn’t really all that interested in a harem, and kinda found the thought of one IRL gross. Like, did he even have to explain? But he knew that if he’d said that in an online chat with one of his internet buddies, they would definitely try to overrun his laptop with viruses. In what was now his previous life, he had had little to no experience with talking to girls, let alone “getting some action”. He really hadn’t seen the point, considering how difficult 3D girls were to handle. That said, he never really got into the hardcore otaku-type 2D obsession stuff, like buying lewd figurines and pasting posters all over your room and buying body pillows of your favorite waifu. He was just a hardcore watcher, and that kind of made-up for his lack of other tendencies. He would frequently spend 12+ hours a day shacked up in his room in 6 hour sessions of binging anime at 1.5 times speed; (he wanted to get in as much watching as possible) and that was only on weekdays. Yeah. With school. (Needless to say his grades weren’t exactly top notch) But weekends were another story, with him usually staying up till four in the morning on Friday night and then sleeping until twelve, when he would wake up and choose whether or not to eat before watching until he was told to get off, and then stuffing his fat face in the kitchen to his heart’s content. The point was, he had originally decided he didn’t want to “waste time” on a girlfriend. (Not that he was exactly confident he would be on anyone's radar if he were to try)
Anyways, more and more, (before he found himself falling from the sky of his new world) Caen had found himself feeling lonelier and more depressed as time went by, and so, he decided that in his new life he was going to quit his otaku and introvert tendencies and find the love of his life in what was to be his new world. Quite the goal.
With his mind made up, (this was some relatively quick thinking given the situation; he’d been falling for about four and a half minutes before coming upon this decision and entirely giving up on his old world and everything he had loved in it) (Besides his love of anime) he realized something… interesting. He hadn’t noticed it due to being lost in thought and not being capable of feeling it (probably his magical protection or something that came with being summoned), but he was currently a ball of flame. If he had been wearing clothes earlier during his fall, and he hadn’t actually bothered to check because of his little fit, they were long since burnt to a crisp. Even though he was certain he had a grasp on the situation, he couldn’t stop himself from freaking out just a little bit, especially as he felt himself growing closer and closer to the ground. ‘Alright, you can rescue me now,’ he muttered to himself, though his words were lost to the wind. His eyes widened. He realized he was too fast, far too fast. This entry was apparently going to be very flashy, which he wasn’t against, but… He could hardly gauge distance before he had halved it. Twenty thousand feet, ten thousand feet, five thousand, he broke through low hanging cloud cover, two thousand.. He shut his eyes as tight as he could and pulled his limbs in tight while covering his ears to brace himself and-
Boom.
_ _ _ _ _
Learning to walk and not-squirrels
_ _ _ _ _
The sound of impact deafens him. He instantaneously loses awareness of anything else besides the sound, but somehow remains conscious, unaware of if he had completely shattered into a million billion pieces or not. For time out of mind he couldn’t move any part of himself. His ears ring and his head throbbed something awful. He could not conceive what would make him capable of surviving a fall like that. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, he opened an eye to gauge his surroundings…
He was in a crater. Caen had expected as much, but his jaw literally dropped in surprise, something he thought no one actually did. It was at least eight hundred feet from edge-to-edge and four hundred feet deep, the ground smoldering, red-hot and smoky, but surprisingly only warm where he lay (thank you, summoners). He must’ve stayed stagnant longer than he thought for it to have cooled enough to touch. He slowly pushed himself into a seated position, sitting on his right leg and letting his left arm rest on his left leg, which he had bent at the knee. He once again surveyed his crater by twisting his head around.
Quite the entrance. “I guess this fits into the one-time no fall damage category…” he muttered to himself, running his hand through his hair, making note that it was surprisingly silky. “Cause there’s no way this is a vitality thing, right? Way too overpowered.” For a minute he sat like that, until he realized that something was tugging on the back of his mind. At first he ignored it like he would a buzzing insect, but it kept poking at his subconscious. And then he was hit with it with as much force as when his sister sent him to Jupiter for accidentally breaking her new phone; that wasn’t his voice. ‘Huh?’ Neither was that. His eyes darted to the sides of his vision where it gently rested on the sides of his face. His hair. It was much, much longer than it was in his old world, reaching as far as to hang below his pecs. It was shiny and straight, and didn’t look like it had ever been cut. But that didn’t startle him as much as its color did.
Caen thought back to the fairy tales and stuff of his childhood, and about how they tended to over exaggerate the features of their characters and the objects in them so that the average kid could understand it better, with phrases like “as beautiful as a freshly-picked flower”, “as strong as a bull”, “as bright as the sun itself”, and “as white as snow”. Well, now he wasn’t so assuming that those were mere stories and not just incredible experiences from the writers, because he was witnessing something impossibly… beautiful. Because his hair was white. A stark white, with an almost silvery sheen to it. Like when you wake up the morning after a snowstorm and open your window to see if school is canceled, and the snow blinds you when you look at it because it's reflecting the morning sun. Beautiful. He quite literally couldn’t think of another word for it. Slowly, he reached up to touch it again, once again feeling the impossibly smooth sensation. It glided over his fingers like water. And then he saw the fingers of his hand. Long and slender, perfect and unblemished. He was dumbfounded. ‘Are these really… mine?’ he asked quietly with his new voice. ‘A new body was always possible, I suppose, but I thought if that were to happen I would first have to be reincarnated and grow up with it myself. Did this body… come into existence just for me when I got here? I would hate it if I kicked out someone's soul so mine could stay here or whatever.’ He stood shakily. He was tall. Taller than in his other life, where he’d stood at around five-ten, Caen figured he was now around six-two. And, what he found almost as shocking as his hair, was that he was fit. Or perhaps thin would be a better word, something he had never been before. His stomach felt strange to him as it no longer bulged, and when on a whim he attempted the stretches he wasn’t close to being capable of before, he did so with ease. He could reach his feet when he sat and stretched out his legs, and he could even easily touch his toes. He was in the middle of attempting to put his foot behind his head when he realized he should probably get a move on and get out of there. He guessed that he most likely looked like a meteor for any settlement within a few hundred miles of his crash site. He quickly tapped his foot on a particularly smoldery-looking piece of earth to test if he could withstand the heat like before. He once again found it to be only pleasantly warm. With that reassurance in mind, he decided to get himself out of the crater. That was, before he realized he’d need to learn to walk again. He fell hard and broke his fall with his arms. His muscles felt unused and unfamiliar, though the movement of his arms came more naturally than the rest. At first, his legs were very wobbly and his knees shook and moved sharply if he strained them too much or too little, causing them to buckle and him to fall and roll back down to the center of the crater when he tried to walk out. It didn’t help that it was a pretty consistently steep climb to the edge. He must have been at it for at least an hour. But the distance was good practice for him, and with a lot of rolling in the scorched earth he finally managed to get himself to the edge. The adjustment period wasn’t that awful, considering, and he felt he should be kind of proud for learning so quickly. (At least that's how he thought of it) He stood up on the rim of the crater to see exactly where he was. A pretty considerable distance away he could see trees ringing the crater site, and he decided that he had landed in a forest. The further away from the edge the less burnt and bent the trees were, from the shockwave that came with the force of the impact, he decided. He sat down, leaned back and let his feet rest on the decline of the crater. It was incredible. It felt like he’d just woken up after twelve hours of sleep, and his mind was buzzing with activity like he hadn’t experienced before. Everything was so fresh. He didn’t feel tired or winded at all, and he saw everything in vivid detail, even though all there was to see was the smoldering earth and the forest in the distance. He even tried breathing in deep with his nose, but all he got was burnt dirt and he started coughing from the smokiness of it. Despite this, he smiled. He hadn’t felt like this in ages, a thought he had believed was reserved for seventy-year-olds after getting their backs adjusted by a chiropractor. He jumped up, deciding that the first thing he should do would be to find a settlement of some sort, or at least a stream so that he could drink some water. He wasn’t particularly thirsty, but the thought of a cool liquid down his throat made him shiver. He also wanted to eat something, and decided to keep an eye out for nuts or berries in the forest that looked innocent enough. And so he started his trek. Soon he was walking on long, springy grass and gazing at all kinds of fauna that was surprisingly familiar. He couldn’t really see a difference in the trees or bushes at first, but when he plucked a leaf from the low hanging branch of a tree that looked like the one in his backyard, he saw that the pattern of the veins was definitely different, if not by much. He could at least tell that, since he had played under that tree when he was little. He also saw a lot of strange forest critters, and his heightened senses picked up on their presences like a radar. Soon there were dozens of them watching him from the trees, giving him a wide berth but for some reason following, so he still caught a few glances. Most had bushy tails and large ears with short whiskers on their little snouts, and tiny little heads that looked like those of baby foxes. The overwhelming majority were a sandy brown, but a few times he also saw one that looked blue and one that looked red, and even one that was pink, but these were always directly in the shadows of the trees and bushes and would dart away as soon as he tried for a closer look. A different species that looked like a miniature boar no larger than a bowling ball, complete with tusks, a stubby tail and hooves, trotted directly trotted directly through his path with its head held high in what looked like a show of contempt before disappearing into a bush. It was totally adorable and he regretted not trying to pick it up before it had disappeared. He winced internally as he thought of how many of these balls of fluff were incinerated in his landing. Slowly, as he trekked on, the creatures became more and more daring, darting past him and soon getting in his full view shamelessly, but they didn’t seem to have any ill intent, so he really didn’t mind. At least, they didn’t look predatory. (though he inwardly didn’t trust that idea from his knowledge of anime) Suddenly, one that was much larger than the others, probably the pack leader, scurried directly in front of him and stood on its short hind legs, its arms drawn together. It was similar to the way squirrels “stood”. Caen paused mid-step. It had some sort of presence, and its pose seemed to indicate that it wanted him to sit down so they could have a conversation. Unlike the other not-squirrels, (as he decided to temporarily call them) this one’s coat looked much fluffier and was a rich, chocolate brown, and its ears had white tufts at the ends. Its tail twitched and he also noticed that towards the tip of it the hair was also white. It gave off some sort of aura. Caen crouched. ‘Hey there, little guy. What can I do for you?’ He asked in the same voice he would use for a cute dog or other friendly animal. It tilted its head and he had to stop himself from launching at it in a surprise hug attack. It stared at him for a little longer. Then, out of nowhere, it beckoned to him with a little arm, turned, and started running off. For a second, Caen stayed crouched, dumbfounded at what he’d just witnessed, until dozens of the hiding squirrels started running in the same direction as the big one. He shook it off and decided this was supposed to be his first big event in his story, and so he started sprinting after it, because these little guys were speedy. He ran for more than ten minutes, almost losing track of the pack until he caught glimpses of a bushy tail or fluffy ears that kept him on their trail. Since his endurance was off the charts now, he actually enjoyed the chase, and took the opportunity to breathe in the rich forest aroma as he ran. Soon, he broke out into a small clearing, where he saw the leader “standing” beside the mouth of a cave. The once again shy not-squirrels all hid in the trees and bushes that surrounded the clearing, and all he could see were their cute little button eyes glimmering in the leaves. There must have been hundreds of them. He hesitatingly walked over to the giant not-squirrel (because that was what it was in comparison) and crouched down again. ‘Do you want me to go inside there?’ He asked, pointing at the cave, and turning his gaze to the eyes of the creature. It stared at him uncomprehendingly, its black eyes giving no indication of some great intelligence that secretly lurked. He sighed. ‘Might as well,’ he muttered, walking over the cave entrance. It was as dark as one would imagine, but there appeared to be a faint candle light of sorts dancing on the walls around a bend about a hundred feet in. It also smelled heavily like some sort of crushed herb he was unfamiliar with. It almost overshadowed the rancid smell of rotting flesh. He narrowed his eyes at the giant not-squirrel and the rest of the pack hiding in the bushes before walking in. There was definitely something alive in here, and from the smell, it or they were dying.
_ _ _ _ _
Elf hotties and magic
_ _ _ _ _
The further into the cave he went, the more overwhelming the stench of death became. Caen gave himself a second to regain his composure, then covered his nose as he turned the bend. His eyes widened in shock. A pretty girl with silver hair and sharply tipped ears lay upon a bed of leaves, naked save several fern leaves that provided her the barest of modesty. Her form was softly illuminated by several low burning candles that framed her. A singular giant fern rested on her stomach, covering where James guessed the mortal wound was inflicted. Her eyes were closed and she breathed shallowly, and sweat was beaded all over her body. The different colored not-squirrels he had seen earlier were all gathered there, watching her intently, but quickly turned their heads as they heard his bare feet shuffling on the stone floor. All three of them were there, the red, blue, and pink furred not-squirrels, as well as a green one that he hadn’t seen before. They stared at him for several seconds before all but the green not-squirrels scurried behind him. The green one leaned its head down and seemed to whisper something in the ear of the elf. Caen’s world slowed. Her eyes crept open, a rich, deep purple that seemed to shimmer with silver dust like stars. She ever so slightly turned her head to look at the not-squirrel questioningly, and then her gaze drifted to Caen. As their eyes met, he felt a shiver and a volt of electricity passed invisibly between them through their gaze. Her eyes widened with what looked like disbelief, and she smiled at him ever so softly. Caen felt entranced. There was something special about this girl, something so very special, and he felt a stirring in his chest that made his stomach twinge, but not unpleasantly. She beckoned to him with a finger and he slowly approached her and knelt. Those few steps, with her eyes fixated on his, and his on hers, felt like eternity, and he couldn’t break the gaze if he wanted. ‘Greetings, White One.’ She said softly, still not breaking eye contact. Her voice sounded as though it were made to sing. ‘I apologize… I… was meant to be there to greet you upon your arrival. The best I could manage was providing you a safe entrance from the heavens.’ She said sadly, and a tear welled up in the corner of her eye. He hesitatingly reached out a hand and cupped her face, gently wiping away the tear with his thumb. She shouldn’t cry. He knew that, somehow, that it was wrong, that she shouldn’t ever have to experience sadness like that. She breathed in sharply at his touch, and then her gaze softened. ‘Who… are you?’ He asked quietly. She smiled sadly and tears flowed freely on the back of his hand. ‘Unfortunately, I don’t have the leisure to cry with you. I am glad that my friends were able to escort you here and provide you with safe company, for the forest is a very dangerous place, but… more than that, I am glad that I was able to see you… at… least once…’
Her eyes drifted closed. He quickly grabbed her arm and was hugely relieved to find a pulse, ever so faint.
She is so close to death, White One.
She has been holding out so that she could meet you, White One.
She has been waiting so very long for you, White One.
She spent what little mana she had left providing you safe entry into our world, White one.
These sweet-sounding voices echoed in his mind, though all of melancholy tone. He slowly stood and turned to face the not-squirrels.
Please save our Silver Lady, White One.
This voice was deep and strained with pain and suffering. In front of him stood the pack leader. He sat just in front of the other four not-squirrels, all mimicking his position. All Caen could do was nod, even though he was dazed and had no idea how he would be able to help her at all. ‘Show me the wound.’ he declared in a voice that sounded much more confident than he felt.
The four different colored not-squirrels glanced at the leader, and, the words still echoing inside of Caen’s mind like before, he said, ‘Do as the White One proclaims.’ They unhesitatingly scurried to their “Silver Lady” and carefully removed the large fern. Caen did not react how he thought he would. He saw it and his body shook, but not with disgust, or surprise, or horror, but with rage. He clenched his fists and the muscles in his arms grew taut as his fingernails dug into his palms. Her stomach had been ferociously torn open, revealing a sight that was best kept undescribed. His voice shook with power as he spat, “Who… Who did this… to her?”
His head snapped to the not-squirrel leader, his wild, hateful eyes boring into the creature. “We do not know, White One,

**I am not The OOP, OOP is u/throwaway151702
Slight chance my (39M) pregnant wife (38F) had an affair, should I ask for a paternity test or wait?
Originally posted to relationship_advice
TRIGGER WARNING: possible infidelity, fertility issues
Original Post May 9, 2024
My wife (38F) and I (39M) have been together for 12 years. I don't know how to describe it other than calling it the perfect relationship. I think in 12 years we've only ever gotten to the point of really raising our voices at one another maybe 2 or 3 times? We do everything together but always have never had issues allowing each other to lead our own lives and follow our own interests. We bought a house where we wanted.... we both have good high paying jobs that have great work life balance. Basically it's been everything short of perfect.
We've been trying for 2 years to get pregnant and it hadn't been happening. We were just about to start the fertility stuff when I came home from a work trip, and guess what she's pregnant. I had this weird instant thought of.... Wait I thought we didn't try during the week last month because of the fertility testing... But I couldn't remember exactly because to be honest... We were busy at it. So I just assumed I miss remembered.
Now, I travel around the country pretty regularly for work. Other than COVID, I've been on the road as much as 40 weeks a year sometimes. Since COVID its been less but still more than a week a month.
Over the last 4-5 years my wife has gotten very friendly with a guy she works with, let's call him Matt. Matt is slightly younger, I think 34M or so. I know him, he's married, I know his wife. They've worked together for I think 7 years or so. He's always been around, him and I have been friendly. Have I ever thought something was happening? No, but I've always thought.... You'd be a fool to not think there's even a 1% chance your spouse would go outside the relationship. Maybe I'm naive, but I've always seen it as a safeguard to not take my wife or any other partner in the past for granted. She's never given me a reason to think she'd do that. But anything is possible.
So about a month ago I'm out of state for work and she's at home. I ask her what she's doing earlier in the day and she says Matt is coming by for dinner. Not out of the ordinary, Matt comes by from time to time. Sometimes with his wife, sometimes without, sometimes when I'm not there. I don't think much of it.
We have a security system which includes cameras both inside and outside of the house which we installed after an unrelated incident a few years ago. They record and are live accessable by both her and I. I often use those cameras to check on the dog when I or both of us are away, as the rest of the system is monitored by a company Incase of an alarm going off.
She knows I check those cameras, there's a system installed where I can talk through them. I'll mess with my wife and she will with me on them if either of us are out of town (she travels for work as well, but far less than I do). Point is, it's known that I check them often when I'm not at home.
So I turn on the camera and I see my 4 months pregnant wife, lying on the floor, on her side with Matt sitting, straddling her legs and using a foam roller to message her hips. So I'm like.... Ok... What the fuck is this. I start rewinding through the footage and they are eating and talking normally, but then they get on the couch and get under the same blanket. Now...... They are feet to feet, but that couch isn't that big. Then they move to the floor and that's when I logged in.
Anyway I text her, I'm still watching the cameras they both look like deer in headlights and he very quickly leaves. We get into an argument she isn't mad at me accusing her but she's adamant that nothing has or ever would happen, and that what I saw was innocent and she was complaining about being in pain from the pregnancy.... Which I know is true shes already having some issues with back pain etc.. The biggest point of that discussion was I asked "If I were there would you two have been comfortable doing any of that Infront of me" and she reluctantly admitted... No probably not. I told her I didn't want to talk after that and we'd talk when I got home 3 days later.
That's when It hit me..... What if my weird gut moment feeling about her telling me she was finally pregnant, was... This. What if my 1% happened and this is not my child we are having?
Now, it eats away at my while I'm at a hotel alone a thousand miles away for 3 days. I reconcile with myself that... I think it's less likely than more likely that something between them has happened. But Basically my 1% just jumped to.... 10% 20% maybe?
I get home and she's on eggshells and doesn't mention it. I kinda wait to see what she's going to do. 2 days later she finally brings it up and breaks down. Swears nothing has happened she would never. Doesn't do anything over the top to try and prove anything... Which I took as a good sign. But anyway we talk out the issue and everything to a point of at least moving forward for now. I'm still coping and dealing with it figuring out how to re trust after all this time.
I'm getting more and more understanding of the fact that they are friends they've been friends for so long, maybe he has intentions.... But I don't see her having any and I've never really picked up on it and I've spent time around both of them together many many times, and never caught anything.
So the thing that is destroying me right now is.... If I'm wrong and something did happen... While I can figure out how to deal with that... What if that child isn't mine. In the argument and few long conversations we've had about the situation since I've never brought that up, and she's not mentioned it. Mostly because I don't want to make the situation worse and crush her if infact she's telling the truth, which I mostly Believe.
The only thing I can think to do at this point is to wait until the baby is born and immediately order a paternity test in secret. Should I do that? Should I tell her and have it dealt with now? If you're a woman in her shoes and you're telling the truth, would that destroy you, or your view of me? If you're lying what would you do if I asked? I don't want to ask a super vague question but..... What do I do?!
TLDR: very small chance my wife of 12yrs had an affair and she's 4 months pregnant and I can't bring myself to ask for a paternity test for fear of crushing her if nothing actually happened. But I am planning on doing it in secret when the baby comes. What do I do?
Update: Soo many comments. Thank you everyone more than I can address directly but I'm going to keep reading a few things.
1 stop DMing me about this, thanks.
2 some have made some good points about addressing it now rather than later and that's something that I'm considering more than I was before, thank you.
3 to those focused only on my relationship. I get it but that's not what I'm focused on. We've been talking about it a lot. My wife and I are pretty open people with each other. I'm not saying I'm convinced nothing happened but I'm more focused on paternity right now.
4 if I need to track, spy on, life360, my wife. Then this relationship is over already. That's not the relationship we have and not one that I ever want, and in my opinion not one anyone should ever have. We are working on rebuilding trust. As I said in this long winded post my default of 1% possibility went up to 10% or so. Trust me I'm taking my relationship seriously but to those I've said this to already. If the kid isn't mine, then there's no longer any conversation to have.
5 I've already had this discussion with my lawyer, I don't live in a state where the birth certificate stuff will be an issue. If I have paperwork that this child isn't mine than divorce isn't going to be much of an issue. Both of us are in an independent financial situation where it won't matter much regardless.
I'll keep up with this post as long as I can and post an update when and if anything gets resolved.
Update May 10, 2024
Update: Slight chance my (39M) pregnant wife (38F) had an affair, should I ask for a paternity test or wait?
Here's the original post from yesterday.
https://www.reddit.com/relationship_advice/s/CphGAU9Tsm
So she was out of state on a business trip until late last night. It's Friday so she worked from home in our kitchen. So I asked to talk and brought it up and asked for a test.
She immediately said yes and said there's zero doubt and nothing that she'd even have a second to worry about. But she has no problem doing it now. The only caveat I left it with is. If it's invasive at all per our doctors then I'm ok waiting until it's low risk. (I'm not a doctor, no clue what they'd have to do to do it now)
So not sure when we are. But she's aware and we are getting one. It was a decent and longer conversation. We are currently sitting together getting lunch. She's got no clue I did this on Reddit. Hence the new account because she is on here somewhere.
Thank you everyone for your help and opinions, a bunch of you made me realize that we are already really open about everything and if nothing happened then she wouldn't worry about getting one.
I was more worried about her health and adding some insane level of stress if it was an issue as she's an at risk pregnancy and it took soooooo long for us to get pregnant.
So again thank you all for the help. I suppose I can update if it's mine or not but I'm not sure how long that will be. I'm... 90-95% sure it is mine. But this will help us continue this conversation.
Thank you.
Update: just because it seems to be more of a topic on this post vs the other one for some reason.... Yes I have the footage. No I haven't talked to Matt yet. He's told her he wants to talk about it but I've told them to wait on that. My relationship with my wife and the paternity is what's important right now. I will eventually talk with Matt.
No I'm not going to get Matt's wife involved intentionally. I don't know why I would other to just be vindictive. I'm not going to cover for him obviously but his relationship is his. And mine is mine. I'm not interested in making this worse. Whatever is going on between him and his wife isn't any of my business.
RELEVANT COMMENTS
OOP when asked why his wife thought she could be intimate with someone else

We've talked about it at length nothing is being ignored. I could write you an essay about our past, her reasons and my feelings on it. But instead I'll just say. I'm aware of it. She's claiming innocence of anything further but at the same time admitting that it wasn't a good look but she wasn't thinking about it at the time. And that's what we are currently working through.

When told it doesnt look innocent and asked if his wife goes to Matt's house when his wife isn't home

She's 4 months. I was home. And we had been on the clock..... To the point of the days blending together, trust me.
We are pretty open people and pretty comfortable with ourselves and each other. I don't know if she's been to his house without his wife. I mean the 3 and 4 of us all hang out probably once or twice a month but they work directly together everyday and have for years. So obviously there's a closeness there. They are both upper management in their company. And at my company I have long term friends that are women. I've traveled with them we've done dinner and hung out in hotel rooms together. But I've never done anything because, that's not me. I'm married and love my wife and my life. I have no reason to.
So I mean the optics are bad. I just have to decide if it's only the optics. Or if she has a reason too. Maybe he has a reason too and that's what I saw? That I'm not sure about. But that comes down to, do I trust her to handle that. She says if that's the case she's never noticed it. And she hangs out with him and his wife just about as much as he hangs out with us. She works in a building right near them. My company is based out of Chicago and I live on one of the coasts. So my coworker friends are much more spread out. We can't go to the bar to grab afterwork drinks any day like they can. Honestly I usually go to their work hangouts more than mine because of that. I'm friendly with her CEO because of it.
So is it perfect? No. But I've always trusted her, I've never had a reason not to. In 15 years, this is the first, crack or dent in it.

OOP gives a clearer description of what happened that day

That's not what I saw. She said something, he froze. Said something I couldn't hear she said no no don't worry about it. He put something in the dishwasher and she walked him out to the front door. He didn't dive out the window.
You have to remember this is Reddit. I'm not putting every single nuanced detail in this because that would take me hours to write and I'm not putting my security footage on the Internet for strangers to see. The reason I have the security system in the first place is because of a stranger on the internet.
I'm not saying anything beyond that didn't happen for sure between them. I'm saying I don't know now and I don't have any proof. That's what my wife and I are discussing just about every day and what we are working through.
The original point of the post was..... The only thing we hadn't talked about was paternity because I don't want to put her in a situation where she medically loses the child. Mine or not.
Not only have I not been able to put every single nuanced thing in this I've also sprinkled in false details about our lives, nothing pertinent to what happened but other mundane details. I was a very small public figure at one point. And some low life from the Internet traveled across the country to make death threats against us because of something warped in his head. To the point where the federal government had to get involved.
People in here are wildly jumping at conclusions with much less information than I have and ignoring the original point of the post and the original questions asked.

Has he told Matt's wife

She is my wife's friend's wife. We don't meet up and knit together. I know her through my wife. I see her maybe once every few months at a bar after work, or if they come by for dinner or to hang out. We aren't besties.
Again what should I go tell her. Hey your husband was at my house. I knew he was there and I saw him run a foam roller over the outside of my wife's hip while he was sitting on her feet..... It's super obvious they are fucking and Even though I'm not sure. It's possible she's carrying his baby.
This isn't a soap opera. There's nothing I KNOW that I can tell her so why would she take my word on what tiny evidence there is. And why or how in the world would that help my situation? If all of this is false now I've destroyed my relationship for acting like a child trying to drum up drama for what obviously looks like being vindictive, and I put them in the same situation we are in now.... For something THAT I DON'T KNOW IS TRUE YET.
I believe you have entirely lost the plot here.

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP
DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

My partner loves David Lynch movies and for their birthday I want to make a few cool items that symbolize their favorite movies. What I've got so far - I've made an eraserhead baby out of sculpey clay and I want to make a set of coasters in the black and white zig zag floor pattern from twin peaks. Maybe also put red velvet on the bottoms of the coasters?
Having trouble, though, thinking of what to make to symbolize Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Wild at Heart.
Spare idea is to make Suzie from Rabbits, probably also out of sculpey clay.
Kind of leaning towards knick knack things that can be displayed on shelves/in plants things that can be hung on a wall, or things that would be useful to have around (like the coasters). But any ideas in any medium would be v v helpful!
Thank yall so much

I'm 24 and don't have kids, we've been together for 6 years. I used to dream of carrying his child in me, having our baby. Being a mother by the man I adore. I'm already in pretty deep being with him for six years and sunk cost fallacy is eating away at me...but I need to know before I'm REALLY in too deep with marriage and children.
I absolutely couldn't bear the thought of him using porn while I'm pregnant or after I've put my body through the pain of pregnancy and childbirth. How could he even have the audacity to look me in the face after I give him children and he's fondling himself to porn? I couldn't take it and I know I'd go into a brutal rage at him and would absolutely spiral if he used porn after all that.
My very worst fear would be taking out my pain on an innocent child by being a bad mother because I resent the father THAT much. The possibility of it is real because I grew up with severe family/parental trauma and an abusive household. So it's like the patterns are already there in me and I'm so afraid his porn use will be the trigger for them to come out. I don't want the cycle of abuse to repeat. My dad cheated on my mom his whole life and still does. I can't become the neglectful, abusive parent I'm so afraid of becoming but I'm so so afraid it will happen. What if I resent the child simply because it's HIS.
My time reading posts on this community has me thinking there's a strange thing where their porn use escalates right after they get you pregnant. How could it be though? I don't want to believe it. How fucking sick and depraved can a man be, that he doesn't see the beauty in a woman who's body created life. A life who's him and her...
Ladies, tell me the bitter truth. I need to know. Six years is a lot, but it's nothing compared to an entire lifetime more of pain and betrayal. I'm happy to be alone forever than give children to a pornsick man who treats the beautiful, life-giving bodies of women with no reverence. I'd rather surround myself with women for the rest of my life than be chained to a man like that. At least women have a soul, empathy, and concern for how our actions might hurt someone.

I lived my entire life with the notion that nobody was ever going to believe me simply because I was a child; people always made the assumption that higher authorities were always right, no matter what. Our parents were always right about us. I went through counseling centers to counseling centers to therapists to therapists with my dad at the forefront telling them everything I was doing, which NONE of it being true. He used to tell people I smashed things, screamed, had temper tantrums constantly, and absolutely none of it was true. My dad was trying to get me admitted as some crazy lunatic child. I am still convinced of that.
Well, now I feel a sense of "See? I'm not lying!"
I should emphasize that both my parents were abusers, but my mother was the Covert Narc. My dad was the more Authoritarian Narc. Two peas in a pod.
I started running a Facebook page for my artwork recently, about the beginning of last year. I post drawings and sometimes I sell my own products there because of an art show I actively take part in in town every summer. I interact with the kids by providing custom coloring pages and crayons and coloring with them.
My mom, despite being a complete covert narc who seriously gets on my nerves and has tormented my entire life since childhood, still associates with me and frankly, she's not AS bad on a good day. I don't nessessarily hate my mom, not like my dad. I detest my dad with every fiber of my being, but I don't hate my mom. She's a pain in the neck and I was neglected as a child, but as an adult I see it as child's play compared to what my dad did to me (I lived with my dad where the abuse mainly happened as my parents were divorced, my mom wasn't there) so I'm not as salty towards her. That being said, I still know she is a narc with narc patterns and she's a flat-out bully, and I get seriously sick of it.
The reason I bring up the whole Facebook page thing is because my mom has no idea how mean she truly sounds when criticizing my work. She does it openly, in the comments of my drawings, and honestly, it kinda pleases me. All of my friends, all the people who doubted me, everyone who truly doesn't know what I went through, gets to see it now.
There was one particular instance where I had uploaded a drawing a few months ago, one that I was incredibly proud of, and my mom made the first comment which was her strongly criticizing my artwork, claiming "I CAN'T EVEN SEE HER ARM, WHY DOES SHE LOOK LIKE THAT, IT'S ANNOYING". What I did not expect afterwards were multiple people who commented on the drawing at the same time complimenting it and saying they saw absolutely nothing wrong with the drawing, and they were confused as to what the problem was.
It actually got to a point where my mom was becoming angry because nobody was agreeing with her. She insisted there was a problem, and kept making fun of the drawing weeks later, jabbing about it towards me during outings. People were actively seeing her doing this to me.
Just today as well, there was a new drawing that I uploaded on to my Facebook page for my artwork, and my mom just did the same thing. She'd cracked a joke about a flaw in my drawing that, once again, everyone is going to see.
It honestly feels kind of good that my mom is openly outing herself as someone who is not a nice person. I don't know if this just seems petty, but now finally maybe for once I can actually be believed that my childhood was not the greatest. It was actually quite awful, and I can never take those years back.
I don't know. I oddly can't really complain about it.

Hey all, this is going to be a long post but I really appreciate everyone’s time to read (and comment on) this.
So basically, my husband is from China (turned SG citizen) and I’m a Singaporean. We met and work and got married less than a year of dating (we knew each other for a couple of years while working together). My husband left his hometown almost 20 years ago to come to SG to study and work, alone. So when we got together, he was living in a rented room alone and we basically just called his mother once a week or so. We got married during Covid period so we only had an intimate ceremony with about 10pax, and I didn’t get to see my MIL or any of his side of the family. Soon after, I got pregnant with our first child and the Covid 19 restrictions eased up, so he talked about flying his mum over to SG (with no return date because he was intending to get apply a LTVP for her on the grounds that she’s here to take care of her grandson), and he did as planned. That was in year 2021.
At first, I was really excited to meet my MIL, I mean, it’s just like having another mother and she seemed really friendly over the video calls. BUT, when she came, ONE DAY AFTER MY CHILD WAS BORN, she was supposed to take care of my confinement and she really didn’t do a good job at all. On the first day when she came, my mum (who has a full time job), guided her on what are the things she can cook for my confinement, and she even bought some fresh meat and kept in the freezer and told BOTH my MIL and my husband. Turns out, they both said they didn’t hear it and for dinner that night which is the first meal that she was supposed to cook for me, my husband just went down to buy takeaway food back. For Chinese, during confinement, we need to drink HOT Longan red date tea, and I told my hubby and my MIL, well, she cooks it everyday BUT she just leaves it in a regular Tupperware container that doesn’t keep warm and every time I wanted to drink I had to add some hot water myself. I spoke to my husband about it, I even told him that before my child was born, MY MUM specifically went to buy a new thermal flask for me for that purpose and he knew it all along. Well, instead of correcting his mum, he went against me and said why bother since I always don’t finish the drink also. His mum only cooks the food that my husband likes to eat, well understandable, but the most I got from her was just a bowl of soup and sometimes kept the leftover for the next meal (along with all the other dishes she cooked for her son). And when I told my husband about this, he said he will speak to his mum and he even went online to search for a few menus and ask me to choose what I wanted to eat. I did, but the food never changed lol. When I asked him why, he said ‘aiya i see the menu, most of the food you also don’t like to eat one Ma’ and I’m like, ‘but weren’t you the one who gave me the choice in the first place? And didn’t I already choose the menu?’
But that’s not all, I can take care of myself. The worst nightmare is when my MIL tries to poke her nose into my business and how I take care of my baby. Whenever it was time to feed the baby, she will ALWAYS ask me if I was going to breast feed or formula feed. It came to a point where I was really so stressed I closed the door and shifted all my breastfeeding equipment snd baby formula and milk bottle into my room so I could get everything done inside. Even so, when I carry the baby out to her to play, she will still question like why she heard the baby crying etc, DUHHHH BABIES CRY WHAT 🙄 and when I swaddle my baby, she always removed the swaddle and wrap him loosely for his sleep, saying that the baby doesn’t like to be swaddled. I told her it’s not safe to have the blanket loosely wrapped on him and also swaddling will make the baby feel safe and not keep getting jump scares. She never listened and one day, my son started vomiting a lot of milk after each feed, we brought him in to the doctors and the PD asked if anyone was sick at home, and we said no. The next thing he asked if the baby is usually swaddled, and I said not really, so he said it could be that the baby’s free hands were touching everything and he just put it in his mouth causing germs and eventually led to stomach flu. My boy was just 2 months old people.
I also paid for MY OWN postnatal massage and when the lady came, my MIL asked to carry the baby outside cause she said the smell was too strong and not good for the baby. ERM HELLO? These people even help to massage newborns as part of the routine for goodness sake. Anyway I didn’t want to argue with her in front of an outsider so I let her take my son out of the room. To my extreme shock, when I went out, I saw my son sleeping, wrapped in a thick blanket, with a KNITTED SWEATER on top of him, windows closed, blinds turned down, NO FAN NO AIRCON. I immediately told my husband to bring him back to me and I asked why didn’t he stop his mum, the baby could easily get over heated, and he just told me like his mum just switched off the fan. Excuse me it’s so freaking HOT IN SG. Ever since then, I cancelled my following sessions because I really couldn’t stand her taking care of my son THAT WAY.
So anyway, she eventually went back after 4 months of hell and we were back to our normal lives. My husband was then offered a job in Japan and he decided to take it up. So we moved to Japan with our then 8 months old son, and I got pregnant soon after. And my husband suggested to let his mum come to take care of me, I immediately refused. Who knows how much distress she was gonna cause me.
When my second son was born and hit 3 months old, we planned a trip back to China and stayed there for 2 weeks. She offered to take care of him while we bring our older son out to play. While we were out, I would ask her from time to time how’s the baby and she will always say he’s fine. Then one day, I found out that she left the baby ALONE at home TWICE on the same day. Once to go down to collect a parcel, and another time to go to the rooftop to hang the bedsheets. When I told my husband about it, he went, ‘butthe baby was sleeping Ma’. That got me so furious I told him YOU NEVER LET A BABY OUT OF YOUR SIGHT, NOT AT ALL.
She later followed us back to Japan to stay for 3 months (I know,lol). And again, started to meddle with small things like what I wear for my kids outdoors, or whether to on the air con or fan (she’s always saying the kids are cold)🙄 before I agreed to let her come, I told my husband that I have 2 conditions;

1. Not to speak their native language in front of my son as much as possible (cause my son seems to be having trouble speaking with the many languages that he is hearing)
2. Follow my way to care for the kids.

He readily agreed but NEVER FULFILLED THEM. I have to send my older son to school eveyday and my younger son would be with my MIL at home. Each time he naps, he would only nap for 20 mins max under her care. He also refused to drink milk when she tries to feed. And after some time, I noticed when she makes the milk, it’s always HALF hot water, HALF room temp. And sometimes when he refuses to drink she would keep the milk warm by placing in a bowl of hot water, but when she picks the bottle up to feed him again, she NEVER tested the temperature of the milk and just fed him directly. I think that kind of tramaustised my son and I told her to stop feeding him and that I will take care of him myself.
She never believes me when I told him the baby needs to sleep or wants to sleep. Until I got really fed up and I always pat him to sleep by my own. So basically, her being here not only didn’t help, but it caused me even more unhappiness, and my husband doesn’t see it! He’s always siding her. When I try to talk to him about it, he feels that I am prejudiced against his mum. I even tried to speak to her and she felt like she was already following my way but hell no man.
Anyway fast forward to today, we have been planning a trip back to SG since a few months back, but the trip keeps getting postponed because of my husband’s work load. For the 2 years since we have been in Japan, it has always been like that. I always had to accommodate to his work schedule to go back and is always like, flying off next week and the air tickets are only bought a week before. As a result of this, I often have to make last minute plans to meet up with my friends or to go for my medical appointment (I have medical review for a minor op that I did for a tumor behind my ear, I needed to keep going back to check if the tumor came back). And I was fine with that. But this time round, for the past few weeks I kept asking him if the dates were confirmed and he’s like ya confirmed. Today, when I finally told him to buy the air tickets, he sprung a surprise on me telling me that he intends to go back to China on one of the weekends that we are back in SG. I was really pissed off because:

1. we were only gonna be back for 2 weeks
2. I only have one full weekend with my family cause the second weekend we would be flying back (and my family work on weekdays)
3. He freaking didn’t mention any of this plan for the last few weeks UNTIL I TOLD HIM TO BUY THE AIR TICKETS BACK TO SG When I told him he should have discussed with me, he got pissed off at me as though it’s my fault for being unreasonable to make such a request.

That aside, I’m also kind of dreading to live with my MIL, especially since SHE JUST WENT BACK TO CHINA AFTER LIVING WITH US FOR 4 MONTHS 🙄
I’m sorry for the long post, I’m not really sure what’s my purpose of this. I guess I mainly wanted to RANT and for my feelings to be known. 🥹🥹🥹

I'm starting the decrease on my very first hat and misread the pattern:
*K next 3 (5, 6,7,8,9,10,11,12) sts. K2tog. Rep from * to end of round
Silly me forgot that I'm making the largest size which meant I should have knit 12 then k2tog but I knit 3 then k2tog. When I got to the end of the round it didn't work out evenly, which I thought odd but stupidly continued on to the next round of all knits. At the end of that round, I realized what I did. (Face palm).
I am knitting for the first time in the round, for the first time with dpns, and only the second time with a pattern with a decrease. (I've done mostly blankets and scarves to this point. ) I am very scared to rip out the last two rows because of the round and tinking back with the decrease terrifies me more. What are my options? Or, is it so early in the decrease maybe it's okay?