10 months.

Dear Scout,

Here we are at the 5/6th mark.  You are getting so big, and you've developed the appetite to match.  You eat huge meals and have been a bottomless pit for the past few weeks.  You eat and eat and eat.  Your favorite foods are yogurt and peanut butter Cheerios.  We also discovered that you like dill pickles.

You are crawling everywhere and fast.  You crawl after Nola, who just sits and takes your petting.  And you crawl toward the stairs, and sometimes climb a few.   You are not always content to sit still, including during the monthly photoshoot.

But honestly, you do like to sit and play too.  You stack cups, play with your talking/ singing walker, "read" your books, and keep yourself entertained.  On occasion, you do pull yourself up, but generally, you just aren't that motivated.  We're trying to work on your standing and balancing.  The one place you always pull up is in the bath tub.

You still just have your 2 bottom teeth, but I feel like you might be working on a couple more.

You also experienced your first real snow this month.

You are getting more and more hair, but I'm not positive what color it will end up being.  It appears light.  When you get out of the bath, we sometimes give you a 'do.'

A little sleepy eyed before day care.

We have another busy month ahead, and we can't wait to watch you learn new tricks and skills.

This pose is getting more and more difficult to capture.  You immediately roll over.

Love ya,

Momma

I made something.

I haven't had much motivation to knit lately.  I don't know why.  I made a square for a blanket as part of a knit-along on a message board I frequent, but other than that, nada.  A few weeks ago, however, I did dust off my sewing machine and fired it up.  My amateur skills are rusty, at best, but at least I made something.

I made these little pouches for my nieces for Valentine's.

I had the little triangles (with Heat 'n Bond Lite ironed to the back) cut out from a previous project.  Did I share that?  I don't think I did...  Coming soon.

Anyway, it's a really basic little zippered pouch.  The interweb is full of tutorials on how to sew a basic lined pouch, so I'll not bore you with the details.  And honestly, my zipper skills leave much to be desired.  I think they are cute, and the bonus is that I used materials I already had on hand.

Inside, they were filled with a tiny Moleskine notebook, pen, butter rum Life Savers (the best kind) and Pop Rocks.

Can anyone tell me why the Butter Rum flavor of Life Savers are so hard to find in stores?  (Wikipedia lesson of the day: Life Savers candy is 2 words.)  Now go find a Wint-O-Green Life Saver and make it spark.

Happy Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's went in the mail late, but they are on their way.  In the meantime...

WWSW: Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day tomorrow, I present a Valentine's day ensemble.  Scout may be wearing something similar.  

Personalized Book

One of the books that Scout received for Christmas was from my sister's family.  It's a custom board book (or board book flashcards) and it features pictures of Scout and our family.

Scout loves it.  She loves the way the pages flip around and the ring that holds it together.  She's just starting to recognize some of the pictures, or at least she likes the picture of Nola even if she can't make the connection quite yet.

ETA: In earlier version of this post there was a statement here that referred to a picture of me on the day we took Scout home.  It was unflattering to say the least and was removed before publishing but I forgot to remove the comment.  

The book was made through Pint Size Productions.  Details on their personalized books can be found here.  I will definitely be making more either for Scout or as gifts.

In my next life...

I love children's books.  I sometimes wonder if I missed my calling as a children's librarian.  Except that I'm not sure I could deal with other people's kids all day.  Maybe a children's book editor.

I'm slowly building Scout a nice little library of picture books and board books.  She received some great books for Christmas.  I order discounted books through work and always talk myself into adding a book or two to any Amazon order (most recently an order for various devices for childproofing electrical stuff).

Scout's just starting to sit still long enough to listen to us read.  She likes the cadence of Brown Bear, Brown Bear (I could do a long post on Eric Carle), and loves to turn pages.  At this point, it's mostly about chewing the corners of board books and throwing them to the floor.  As I find books that we like, I'll feature them here.  New books.  Classic books.  Books I've never heard of, but the rest of the world has.

What are you favorite children's books?

Snow.

To date, it's been a really mild winter.  This weekend we went to my parents, and we finally saw some snow.  It was also pretty warm (for a snowy day), and Scout got her first snow experience.

It started out pretty well.

And then she started getting a little confused.

You'll notice a couple of things.  First, it was a very pretty snow, wet snow - perfect for snowballs.  Second, she's pretty much outgrown her snowsuit lengthwise at this point.  I don't think it will be worth it to replace it this year.

And then I really wanted to get a snow angel picture, and things fell apart.

Don't worry; she recovered quickly.