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Sunshine Baby

As I've mentioned once or twice on this blog, I crochet things for people. Specifically, I tend to crochet beanies for little people. It sort of started as a one-off thing for a good friend, but then it sort of snowballed into making beanies for any friend who was having a kid. The Mild Wife and I were going to get them a gift of some sort anyway, so it just became a matter of making that gift instead of buying it for them.

Most people tend to appreciate this, because you have now put some effort into the gift. It's not just something you bought off the shelf or threw together at the last minute, it took a bit of dedication and forethought in order for them to receive that gift. If they happen to like the colors or think that it's a really nice gift, then that's doubly good. Basically, it works for people.

Along with this habit of making the beanies, I also have a habit of posting pictures of said beanies on a social media account. I don't like to say who it's for, but I do just like to post pictures of the finished product. I can't quite explain why I do this, other than the fact that I like being able to see them all if I ever choose to go back through the pictures. Sometimes it's helpful to see if I've already used that color combination, but if I'm really honest with myself, I just like seeing the various beanies. It's just kind of cool to see your work.

For the latest beanies I made, the Mild Wife liked the colors, and said that it reminded her of sunshine. Given that, we dubbed the beanie the "Sunshine Beanie," and very quickly thereafter started calling the recipient of that beanie the "Sunshine Baby." It was mostly a little inside joke between the Mild Wife and me, and we were pretty thoroughly amused every time it came up.

However, I made the mistake of writing a caption including that term when I posted a picture of this particular beanie. I don't remember the exact terminology I used, but I wrote something to the effect of, "this one is for someone whom the Mild Wife and I have affectionately dubbed the Sunshine Baby." There is a very logical series of steps outlined above for how this nickname came to be, but apparently, it is very easy to read something into this that I did not mean at all. Specifically, it is easy for others to assume that I was referring to a baby that the Mild Wife and I were going to have at some point in the near future.

How do I know this, you ask? Because a bunch of people then proceeded to congratulate us in the comments. It wasn't until those replies started to come in that I realized my mistake, but as soon as they did, I knew that it was more than just one person who read the comment that way. I immediately had to backtrack and post a mea culpa, because the Mild Wife and I were not expecting a child. Still, the whole thing led to some chuckles and the knowledge that I have to be very careful with my words.

Incidentally, I have decided that I'm going to keep the captions for any future beanies very, very concise. I'm not trying to fool people into this train of thought a second time.

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