""Why not?" "Privacy." "Privacy from what? From me?" I didn't want to hurt her feelings, because not hurting her feelings is another one of my raisons d'etre. "Just privacy," I said. She put her hands on her stomach and said, "From me?" She agreed to wait outside, but only if I held a ball of yarn, which went under the bathroom door and was connected to the scarf she was knitting. Every few seconds she would give it a tug, and i had to tug back - undoing what she'd just done - so that she could know that i was OK." (100)
--I think that this passage tells us much about both of the characters in the book. The mom, and the son Oskar. It tells us that Oskar is looking to be a little more seperate and not holding onto his mom much more. His mom on the other hand does not want to let go and still have Oskar as her little baby. She wants to let go, but she can't, even though Oskar is growing up and maturing more and more.
Oskar, at this point in time, is saying what he did to hide the answering machine with dad's messages from his mom. "I wrapped up the old phone in the scarf that Grandma was never able to finish because of my privacy, and i put that in a grocery bag..." (68)