eight months of mae

Here she is... eight months old!

Just kidding, that's her stunt double. Do you know how hard it is to take a photo of an eight-month-old?? Especially when there is a STICKER involved??

Ok, here's one for real. These photos were actually taken during three separate sessions throughout the day. The first attempt resulted in a full-scale meltdown. Mae was in a pretty good mood most of the day, but we just could not coax a real smile for a photo!

This month has been all about babbling! About a week before Christmas, I was starting to get worried since she hadn't made any sounds (other than crying) in a couple weeks. I made a note to mention it to the pediatrician during our next visit. Then, just a couple nights later, I walked past while Dan was changing her diaper and she blurted out, "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!" Just what I needed to hear! Since then, we have been getting lots of fa-fa, ba-ba, and especially da-da. Da-da-da-da-da. All the time. I'm not bitter at all.

She also attempts to communicate with me through a complicated series of tongue clicks. I must have a funny accent or something because she thinks it's pretty hilarious when I try to click back at her.

Mae goes down for both naps and bedtime like a champ now. We zip her into the sleep sack, pop in a pacifier, and lay her in the crib. She falls asleep in minutes with minimal fuss! She sleeps well at night about 50% of the time. The other 50%, she chucks the pacifier (and the backup pacifier) out of the crib and wails until it's replaced. Someone needs to invent a sleep-safe, non-strangley pacifier tether.

Meal times are still a struggle with this girl, and the pediatrician continues to express concern about her weight gain. After an impromptu office visit today (for a weird rash that popped up this morning), we have even more tips to try to sneak calories into her. Everyone says, "Don't worry, babies won't starve themselves," but this one sure seems to be trying. She'll eat a few bites of anything that isn't green, but loses interest quickly. She has started giving me this face while I'm feeding her. I can't tell if she's mocking my fake smiles as I try to convince her that unseasoned sweet potatoes are actually yummy or if she's baring her teeth and threatening, "If you shove one more bite of squash into my mouth I will bite you. And I have six teeth now, so it's gonna HURT." (Teeth numbers 5 and 6 popped through two days before Christmas!).

She used those little chompers to crunch on puffs for the first time this weekend. Getting them from tray to hand to mouth is a very tedious process, and they stick to EVERYTHING. On the plus side, she seems to enjoy getting her pearly whites brushed. I'm not sure what a Bubble Fruit is, but it sure makes a delicious toothpaste flavoring.

Happy eight months, Mae!

new year, new socks

Don't worry, my New Years Resolution wasn't to abandon my blog. We've just been busy with things that aren't very fun to share (like the stomach flu). Instead, I'll share a little project I finished late last year: my first pair of knit socks! I was super intimidated by the thought of knitting socks, even though I've worked trickier projects in the past. Thankfully, these were much less difficult than I anticipated!

The yarn is the hand-dyed skein I bought from Neeley's Knits at the Kentucky Wool Festival last autumn. The colorway is called Chocolate Frog, and it even came with a mini-skein of silver to make a contrasting heel and toe. I feel like I'm in nerd stealth-mode with these, since they so perfectly capture the colors of an iconic Harry Potter prop (the Chocolate Frog packaging), but aren't quite as obvious as, say, Gryffindor socks.

I used the Wicked Simple Socks pattern and the Fish Lips Kiss heel. They are just a smidge big so I might use 60 instead of 64 stitches for my next pair. I am elated that my first socks turned out so well! Project details on my Ravelry page.

Another little project that I worked on over the holidays was this car seat blanket for Mae. It has a little hood and flaps to keep her warm on chilly winter mornings. I loosely followed a tutorial from Imperfect Homemaking, with a few modifications. In the back is a large, oval-shaped cut-out to reduce bulk and allow the car seat straps to be pulled snug. I also hand stitched the edge with embroidery floss instead of using my sewing machine. Stay toasty, Mae!