Bye, Bye, Baby

Two weeks ago the tot turned 2. I consider that the official end to babyhood and it is soooo clear that he has in fact made the transition from baby to boy. And I have to say...I love it! As much as I love babies and as much as I long for a little girl, I love this little boy running around.

As for the celebration, we had the festivities at my parents' house again. It was a fish theme. Yes, his name is Finn and the theme was fish. The cake, which looks sooo amateurish to me in pics right now, was a goldfish bowl.



Whatever...I blame the icing, but it was cute nonetheless. A marble pound cake for stability, chocolate rocks on the bottom, green fruit roll-ups made into seaweed, a couple gummy sea creatures not quite visible here, and of course goldfish (and starfish) crackers. I've decided that for future birthdays, the cake will be made the night before and decorated the morning of. Need more time to perfect it and to actually SEE it before the party starts. He tried to blow out the candle, but couldn't quite get it.



I know, it looks like I am pushing him down while I steal the show here, but I assure you I was just keeping him from landing face first in the fish bowl. Although, now that I think about it, I didn't get to blow out any candles on my birthday this year - probably the first time in my whole life - I was owed one (or thirty one).

You may recall the lovely birthday garland that I made for his first birthday. Well, I updated it with fish to replace the birds and then left it on my dining room table as I left town. :( I was sooo sad about this, but there wasn't much I could do but get over it.

We also had swedish fish to snack on and I made this fishing game for the little ones to play and take home as a favor. The game was a HUGE hit with the 4 year old in attendance. The tot wasn't really into it, but his 2.25yo cousin did enjoy cheating at it. I will say though that the magnets in this project were a total failure - not strong enough and couldn't be drilled through, even with a drill press, so I ended up using velcro with the addition of a large button on the end of the fishing line as a weight and surface for the velcro - worked like a charm.

One of his gifts was this apron and oven mitts that I made for him along with a chef's hat that was purchased.



I love them (the boy and the accessories) and I think he does too.



So, that's the birthday wrap-up and now we're less than two weeks from Christmas. We've got stockings, berry garland, and the advent calendar. Cards arriving from printer sometime next week. Tree arriving....?

Baby gifties

My latest knitting endeavor involved making my very first pair of baby booties. I am not exactly a fan of dpns (although I have a feeling I'd like bamboo better than my slippery, little, metal skewers) and that is part of the reason I shy away from tiny little knits. The Saartje bootees, however...totally addicting. After running out of the leftover yarn I was using on the initial pair, I started this second pair.



These went to my friend's new baby along with this receiving blanket that I made.



I know one other person expecting a baby this year (a boy), so I think I'll be adapting the pattern to make some boy friendly booties (have you browsed through these things on ravelry?!). And I have no doubt that any future babe of mine will be lucky enough to wear handknit booties. Sorry, Tot - I hope your baby feet weren't chilly in their store bought, ill-fitting socks.

fever sleep

Well, it turns out my big boy wanted to show me just how much he still needs me. We've begun day three of a fever here, day three of me basically holding the tot all day long. Tuesday night his fever spiked to 104 and after getting it down, we were able to put him to bed. But, I first had to take the opportunity for a photo session that otherwise would have never occurred. When Finn was a newborn, I never quite got the wonderful photos of him that I had hoped for. So, this sort of makes up for it. It was of course unplanned, so the shots are not perfect and it was at 10:00 at night, but I'm sure I will treasure them for a long time. Here's one of my sweet baby.




I hope this ends soon and he's back to running and laughing. It's so sad to not hear him talk for such a long period of time. I did actually witness a laugh and smile in his dreams on Tuesday night which was such a nice relief. Hope all your babes stay well.

Big boy - 18 months

Not too long ago, this baby of mine turned 18 months old. Sigh... I love the little boy he's becoming, but I'm gonna miss the little baby he's leaving behind.
The stats:
24 pounds and 33 1/4" tall - sooo tall, and handsome, too!

He walks up and down the steps like a big boy. He's adding new words all the time...sticky, dirty, juice (which he doesn't even drink), bib, bowl, book, duckling, quack, night-night (LOVE it), car, go, no. And that last one... for now he is using it completely appropriately when I ask him a question, but hasn't started using it to rebel - I'll try to enjoy it while it lasts.

Our only hurdle in making this progression into boyhood is that we CANNOT get the child to drink milk, unless it's coming directly from me or sometimes a sip from one of our glasses. We've tried chocolate milk, soy milk, various milk concoctions. Reminds me of this post, oh so long ago when we were trying to get little Finn to take a bottle, which never happened. This makes the whole weaning thing a bit of a difficulty. I may have to just feed him cheese, yogurt and ice cream at every meal.

The latest in knitting...

is this set of toys for Baby Andrew.


A little rattle and ball. Both quick knits, luckily for me since it seems I have noooo time for this activity lately. The ball pattern is something free I found online - a simple pattern but I had to improvise to do the three colors since their instructions didn't make sense to me. I found the rattle pattern on ravelry...you can get it here. I thought I made the large size, but it doesn't seem as large as the one shown in the author's photo. Both ball and rattle were done in KnitPicks Shine. I personally adore the rattle, though if I don't have much time for knitting, I guess I don't have time to sit around shaking a rattle either.

Tot update

I've had so many blog entries in my head which I haven't had the chance to create and now they seem to be either forgotten or irreleveant. But I have a moment so I'll try to remember some content and do a Finn update at the very least. In list form, the latest changes in the tot's life:

- Just one nap a day. Every day. Finally.

- Boy that he is, he's totally into boobs and trucks. Boobs for the milk, all...the...time...and trucks everywhere we go. All of you mothers of girls will have to let me know if they have a crazy obsession with vehicles at 16mos.

- His first molar. That was fun. How many more do we have to go through?

- His first words. He had already covered Mama, Dada, and uh-oh (not in my Webster's but whatever). Now he has added tickle (usually said at least 3 times in succession), ball, and kaboom (as in our tower of blocks went kaboom or, just as often, Finn went kaboom)

- His first haircut. For whatever reason, I was hesitant to go ahead with this, but he was looking shaggy more often than not and so one day I just did it. I'll share some pics. He could actually use more of a trim already, because I was fearful of cutting away too much of my baby.

This is him just before the big event.


The cut was the day before Easter, so since I slacked on Easter blogging, here he is with the new do in his fancy pants on Easter Sunday.


And because I think he's stinkin' cute, some more photos for your enjoyment.



The darling outfit is actually parts of two outfits. The sailor suit was made by my mom for my older brother and has matching blue shorts. However, the suit was too small for him, so I pulled out these lovely white shorts that happen to match in style and function. These too large vintage shorts were my father's and I'm told there is a matching white jacket somewhere. Really, we're not so poor that we can't buy him new clothes (or in this case, clothes that really fit). I just have a fascination with putting him in my dad's vintage duds and lovely little things that my mom made years ago. (Plus, it helps validate the pack rat nature that I share with Mom.)



He's very interested in reading up on The Beatles.



And because I can, here is what he looked like last year at Easter in another outfit made by mom for my brother, sitting in the same chair as above.

Overcome...

So, I've been noticing signs (or so I thought) that my babe is ready to move from his two nap a day schedule to a one nap a day schedule. Yesterday we had a morning playdate that served well as a trial run. Just as I suspected, he fell asleep in the car on the way home, had lunch and then went down for a nap...not too reluctantly, but he didn't sleep all that long either. Today was the first "regular" day of trying the schedule and this is what happened...




The little guy couldn't even finish his lunch before he was overcome with sleep. I kind of wanted to just leave him there, but figured he would end up waking too soon and be really cranky. So to bed he went and without much trouble. He's still out, so we'll see how this goes.

Baby Gifts :: Part Two

Geez, I'm getting really behind with the blogging. So, I'm going to try to start off the new year by catching up.

During my last week at home before the big holiday travel week, I visited the Kline household and got to meet the newest resident, William - on his first birthday, actually. As a gift for the new baby, I decided to make a project from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, the Birthday Pillow. But instead I made it an adoption pillow commemorating the joyous day that Will officially joined his new family. Aside from early technical difficulties related to the printable cotton fabric, this was a fun and easy project. The text is printed and then embroidered in matching thread. Here is the finished result:



Will really was as happy and smiley as Annie always says he is. I think the boys will have lots of fun together in the year to come!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today my baby turns one. A year ago I had this prescious little bundle...



...and now I have a curious, brown-eyed, trouble-making, armful of cuteness.


We had a birthday party for him over the weekend at my parents' house. It was a bird theme - I made a birdhouse cake and little bird's nest cupcakes.





The cake was...well, troublesome. In hindsight, I should have ditched the cream cheese frosting (it was a carrot cake) for something more solid, and I should have chosen a light color for the birdhouse. It was supposed to be burgundy and after many rounds of adding coloring, I finally gave in to what was a pinkish house because it was taking waaaay too long. (Enter guilt for making my son's first birthday cake pink.) I think the bird's nests, however, were absolutely adorable. The whole thing probably would have been a failure if it weren't for the help of my sister who has been doing her kids' birthday cakes for 13 years now.

Finn absolutely enjoyed his cupcake, including the little nest bits.


He ate every bit that wasn't lost in his highchair.


I also got these warbling bird whistles as favors for the kids at the party. I just loved these when I was little.



And here is the birthday garlard that I made:


A crappy picture...I know. If I get a chance I'll do some more in a follow-up. Anyway, this is something I will use over and over again. I can't take credit for the idea - I saw it here at Mahar Drygoods some time ago and have been planning to make one ever since. I just added the birds to the ends for this year. I think the supplies cost me less than $6, so definitely worth it and fun to make.

3

That is the number of seconds that Finn can stand on his own...no hands. Impressive, I think. He just wants to stand and climb everything, even when he's nursing. Picture this...his mouth latched at the appropriate place (you don't really have to picture that, not in detail anyway), his feet on my lap and his butt way up in the air. That describes our last feeding session with him trying to climb up me while still eating. He's a maniac.

3 is also the number of naps that Finn continues to take. I tried at about 7 months to get him into the 2-3-4 schedule, but he was always cranky after 2 hours awake, so we stuck with what was more like 2-2-2-4. Now, he's dealing well with being up 3 hours after the morning nap, but his naps are ending up being so short that he needs a third one. One hour naps, so the schedule is now more like 2-3-2-4. Ughhh. How is this supposed to work? I think I was better off before. Now his feeding schedule is getting thrown off as well. What to do? Is there something I don't know?

my lover, Sean

This is going to be pretty photo-intensive...just 'cause.
Here is the giant sock, all knitted up:


I was trying to get a shot of the babe with the stocking as a size comparison. This was last week, pre-crawling, but he kept getting away from me, even when I stuck him inside it.

Is that baby bottom in handknit not the cutest thing? I really should have him in wool soakers all the time.

Now for the detail. The loop that I added:



The heal:


The toe:



And the end result after felting:



Most importantly, it's big enough to hold all the loot I expect Santa to drag down the chimney. Happy, happy!

We've got mobility!

I've been so busy chasing baby that I feel like I am way overdue in posting about this momentous occasion! Last weekend, Finn started crawling...and at the same time...pulling up to stand wherever he can. Here he is trying to get his new stocking!



The babe's already got a fondness for the handknits! And I must say that I am very happy for BabyLegs - his poor little legs get all red without them.

So, we're pretty unprepared for this mobile creature. There really should be some kind of warning. It didn't take too long before I decided to put up a baby gate, which we just happened to have gotten on Saturday morning, pre-mobility. Maybe that's it...buy a gate and the kid starts to move. In any case, he loves being a caged animal:

updates, updates...

...because I know you've been wondering. There are a few past blog items on which I wanted to provide some updates, in no particular order.

- I discovered that the giraffes at the Pittsburgh zoo died, I believe earlier this year, from old age. Very sad, but they lived long lives. Two yearlings will be joining the zoo this summer. Wondering what happens to zoo animals when they die? I was. After picturing a giraffe-sized grave being dug into the ground in Highland Park, I googled and found that the animals are most commonly cremated, sometimes after tissue and/or blood samples have been taken. Guess that makes more sense, huh?

- I shared a photo a while back showing storm drain markings popping up around my neighborhood. I've since learned that they are the Eagle Scout project for a local teen. I think his name is Josh and he'll be stenciling all of our drains. Way to go, Josh...I dig the fish.

- I also had a little vent relating to finding non-super low-rise jeans. I'm happy to report that I was able to end my search at Eddie Bauer where I found well-fitting jeans at a reasonable price and...the best ever handicapped/stroller accessible fitting room. Finn does not like to hang out in little rooms while I play dress-up, but he does like to look into mirrors with me. This fitting room was huge and had a full wall mirror, so I could park the stroller next to me facing the mirror and had plenty of room to move around. Perfect. I don't frequent the mall, but this is a huge plus if ever I have to goes clothes shopping with the tot in tow.

And...I must now edit this to add that I just ate the lone berry. Mmmm.

Dad's Day at the zoo

We went to the zoo yesterday for R's first Father's Day. Finn and I had gone earlier in the year, but this was the first time for the whole family. It was hot, but not too hot, and crowded, but bearable. What I was not happy about was the lack of giraffes. The giraffe is my favorite animal and we didn't see them on either visit this year. This really bummed me out. Actually, it made me a little mad, to tell you the truth. But then I thought that maybe the giraffes are just tired of being on display and decided to roam out of sight. If that's the case...good for them. Gorillas were present, but definitely avoiding the gawking humans - they're too smart for my viewing pleasure. Also, not a single orangutan. It was an exhausting day, not seeing animals.

If only we all could have taken a nap in the stroller.

over the lips, past the gums, look out stomach...

Finn has been eating purees for about two and a half weeks now. He's usually pretty eager to eat.

So far, I've made all of the food. We've done carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, and butternut squash. All cooked and pureed and then frozen in ice cube trays for easy use. Finn tolerates carrots, loves sweet potatoes, gags and pukes on peas and enjoys squash. Last night I mixed some peas in with his sweet potatoes and he gobbled it down, so it's nice to know that I have a way to get him to eat the less appetizing veggies. R also gave him some mashed banana the other day and said he really liked it. In a day or two I'll start giving him more fruits - his reward for eating all his veggies. I have a decent freezer stash of food that didn't take much work, so I don't think the homemade thing is too difficult at this point. My strategy has been to pick a veggie to make every few days and that provides enough to last quite a while. I used www.wholesomebabyfood.com and The Baby Bistro Cookbook as guidance for what to give him when and how to prepare it. I think I'll actually have more trouble when it's time for table foods since Finn probably eats better than R and I do at this point. I'm not so good about making sure our meals are well rounded.

Things I've learned: I had trouble with organic carrots from Costco - they were super hard, even after cooking for... a looong time and I ended up having to throw them out because I couldn't get them to puree in my blender. Use decent ice cube trays. Initially I used a set that was cheaper and the cubes were round (so, not exactly cubes). It was more difficult to get the not-cubes out of the tray and I don't think the thinner plastic would have lasted very long.

Random Post of Firsts

First baby injury involving blood.

Now before you get all concerned for little Finn, he was the cause and not the victim here. We were just hanging out on the bed and he was grabbing at my face, the way he loves to do. Well, he grabbed at my nose with one finger inside and squeezed as hard as he could. It really hurt, so after pulling his hand away I put my hand up to my nose and held back some cuss words. When I took my hand away a few seconds later, there were several drops of blood. I narrowly escaped getting blood on my new bedding. (And I had assumed I only had to fear getting baby puke on it.) Which brings me to my next first.

First photo showing the inside of my home.


You haven't seen inside my home thus far because, quite frankly, it's messy. And who wants to see that? I don't even know that you want to see this but, too bad. This new bedding just arrived yesterday and I was pleased to find that the color perfectly matches the linen curtains in our bedroom. I ordered this online and it was a major closeout steal...as in a King size coverlet and shams for about 30 bucks. It's reversible, too, so I could switch it up a bit if I get bored. If this were a proper post, I'd have some detail photos of more of the decor in the room, but it's not. For example, I could show you the bedside lamp and shade, an IKEA find that I totally stole from Amy. But I think the lamp complements the bed and now the shade goes quite nicely with the bedding. So, sorry for biting your style, but I had to. I'm sure you understand.

Back from the Valley

We spent the holiday weekend visiting my family and have returned with a six month old. Finn's latest stats, as of yesterday, are 16 pounds 12 ounces and 27 inches. That's average weight and just greater than average height for a boy his age. I'm just hoping he doesn't outgrow his infant carseat too soon. It looks like Finn is about the same size as his 10 1/2 month old cousin Annie, although she has one more leg roll than he has.

We spent most of Finn's half birthday in the car, but we did get back in time to do some hanging out at home.

What you see in the background of that photo is this:

...some oversized debris in the back yard that was there to welcome us home. It's actually larger than the photo makes it seem, taking up almost the whole yard. Now we're just wondering how long before the next limb falls from that tree. The one that is likely to actually hit the house before it hits the ground. Guess it's time to call in some professionals.

Sleep, Cake, Insects, and Babies

Last night, we started sleep training for Finn. It's not that he is a terrible sleeper, but he was continuing to wake up multiple times a night to eat and he just doesn't need that any longer. I realize this is as much my fault as it is his 'cause, let's be honest here...if he woke up and my choices were to be up with a crying baby or feed him and go back to sleep, I was going with the latter option. Hopefully this training will also help him stick to more of a schedule, at least for night time. Sooooo last night... to bed at 7:30, 11:00 dream feeding, woke at 2:00am to eat. I didn't feed him and instead just comforted him... for an hour and 45 minutes until he went back to sleep. Then he woke at 6:45, nursed, back to sleep without much fuss and woke at 8. Despite the nearly two hour awake time in there, I think it went really well. He wasn't crying that whole time, and I wasn't holding him, so I wouldn't call it difficult. We're following the Sleep Lady's methods which require that I stay in the same position (in a chair by his crib for the first three nights) until he is asleep. What I learned that wasn't in her book is that I need to have a glass of water and some tissues nearby. I was looking for something to throw at R, asleep in the next room, so that he could get me what I needed. The reward came in the morning when I fed Finn and he looked up at me with the most wonderful look on his face...like I am the absolute love of his life, which I guess I pretty much am at this point. He wasn't even all that interested in eating, but was just completely obsessed with me. I guess that shows that he didn't really need to eat at night but just liked to use me as his security blanket. His new security item is that little stuffed elephant from his cousin, Laura (one of many elephant lovers I know). Yes, I am a jerk who busted in on his nap today to take that photo and, No, I did not pose the elephant - either he got up on his own, or Finn stood him up like that. Seriously. He was lying down when I put him in there.

In the kitchen this week, I baked up some delicious Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake. It had been on my to bake list for a while, just a simple recipe from the back of the Domino sugar bag. I made two large loaves instead of using a single tube pan, used dark rather than semi-sweet chocolate, and omitted the nuts. It reminds me a bit of Funny Cake (I'd be surprised if any of my readers knows what that is).


Earlier this month it was a bird's nest on the back porch. This week, it is a hornet's nest on the front porch. This is what spring is bringing me. Again, we were lucky to find it early and it has already been sprayed and will likely be removed tonight.
However, it also seems like 'tis the season for babies. This month I learned that two friends are each expecting their first baby and I am so excited. Ever since I had Finn, I've been wanting someone I know to go through it. I mean, I was happy for other women before I was a mother, but now there's just an extra element there that makes me even happier. Also, I want to make baby things for them, but that's nothing new.

Double Tall Cafe Latte

Today, I'd just like to vent for a moment. While I am very happy to be wearing most of my pre-pregnancy clothes without issue, I have a problem. The boobs. It seems that the increase in chest size, due to breastfeeding, is just enough to cause most of my shirts to be really short and either show my stomach or at the very least make me look stupid. I've always had a long torso and now this has just put me over the edge. Add to this the fact that you can hardly find a stylish pair of jeans these days that are not low-rise and I've got a problem. And I can't spend $100 on jeans...I just can't. I just want to wear my clothes without flashing flesh! This is the only crack that I think is cute...

and even that I keep under wraps most of the time.

Now that that's off my chest (ha) I feel I need to mention that, despite the title of this post, I don't even drink coffee and if I did, I wouldn't buy it at Starbucks (no offense to you devotees, but they're kind of like Sprawlmart to me...Sprawlbucks?). I don't even know what a double tall cafe latte is, exactly.

Foto Friday

I've decided to institure Foto Fridays. Each Friday I will feature...you guessed it... a photograph! Just any photograph that I've taken that I'd like to share.



I love this picture because Finn is working his little tongue, which he did all the time during his first few months of life. And he looks so innocent, which is how babies should look, right?