Like a Sailor

For those of you who found it amusing that one of Freyja's first words was tattoo, here are some snapshots of her first ink...which has already washed off...don't worry. After we put it on her, she ran around the house grinning...with her sleeve rolled up like James Dean...and this little attitude like she was something special...yelling "Caw! Caw!"

Dolly Quilt

We found this sweet little baby basket on a thrifting day last summer, and stashed it away for later. Now that Freyja's starting to play with dolls, we took it out...but it didn't seem too cozy, so I made some quick bed linens for it. In an evening, I worked up a little cushioned mattress, a pillow, and a doll-sized quilt from some left-over fabric, batting, seam binding, and yarn I had in the stash.

I think it came out pretty cute! Don't these babies look snuggly?

The Countess

This is sort of nifty...and crazy...all at the same time!

I discovered she could do this one day last week while collating something and reading to myself out loud. What a little nutball. Now she's doing this all the time...one to ten.

FYI: I have no idea why this video is in black and white. It's a little creepy...

A (Not So) Good Yule...But We Really Tried!

Yule this year was...different.

Although the house was decorated in it's usual festive splendor...and we had all the most fantastic seasonal foods, as always...and the Yule gifts were spectacular...and we were surrounded by friends and family who are definitely awesome...things just didn't turn out as planned.

We had two friends fly in from Maryland on the 2oth, and due to some complications with the giant quilt order I had been working on, I had to employ mom to help me complete it, which caused us to be doing last-minute cleaning and grocery shopping until moments before their arrival.

Things were hectic.

Once they arrived, and all the pandemonium had settled, I thought we were going to have an excellent Yule, as always...but after one day...the sickness began. Somehow, the entire household caught a vicious intestinal flu, and people started dropping like flies. Although I can't prove it, I think Freyja brought it home with her when she went to the pediatrician, only a couple of days beforehand. The first person to show symptoms was Freyja, then me, then our friend John, and then mom. The last two people came down with it after they'd already left the house. It literally got to everyone. John actually became so ill while he was here that he had to be taken to the hospital. The next couple of days were spent with a house full of sick people, all trying to take care of each other. It was a mess.

Our friends left on the 23rd, and by Christmas Eve, Freyja and I felt much better, but mom was still in bad shape. Somehow we were able to get moving and have our usual gift opening and a light dinner. The huge dinner we would normally have was out of the question, since everyone had such sensitive tummies. Even so, it was fun to see Freyja tear madly at paper, giggle, and get generally overstimulated from unwrapping presents. She really was a NUTBALL! I was somehow able to get some photos, although all the movement made for some blurry moments. I could not get her to sit still, whatsoever! For a couple of hours, depsite not feeling so hot, we had some fun!

Freyja did get some great new toys, which she was amped about. She ended up with some new books and a set of finger puppets, a soft bowling set, a new baby doll and stroller, a peg and hammer set, two different shape sorters, a Mr. Potato Head, a puzzle, a couple of pull-toys, some soft animals, a See and Say, and a new outfit. Wow! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Our Christmas Day tradition, which is to have a big breakfast and open the gifts which have been left in our stockings from the Tomten, was a bit altered too. Instead, we all crawled into mom's bed and opened them while munching on some Kringle in our pajamas. It was pretty funny...

Yule this year wasn't exactly the most rockin'...but I think we tried to make the best of it. I'm looking forward to next year...when things will hopefully be more like their usual festive selves, with everyone happy and healthy.

I hope your holidays were excellent!

Snow Baby

These pictures are for Heidi, but everyone else can laugh too!

It snowed here last week. I bundled Freyja up in her snowsuit and we went outside in it. She was wearing so many clothes and the snow was so deep, she could barely walk, but I wanted her to be able to stomp around in the snow and feel it in her hands. It was pretty good for packing, so I made her a little snowman. We didn’t have the right things laying around for a proper snowman, but I improvised: pickle chips for the eyes, a baby carrot for the nose, and some green olives for the buttons. She stood there next to me in the snow while I worked, trying to tear the head off, and eat the olives off the snowman. After I put all of that together, I realized that our poor little guy had no mouth, so I pulled Freyja’s pacifier out and jammed it into the snowman. She thought that was super funny and let out a few giggles. Somehow I was able to keep her from eating the snowman long enough to get a few photos...

Happy Winter!

My Little Linguist

While writing some things down for Freyja's baby journal and reflecting on the past 18 months, it dawned on me that she's become quite the little conversationalist. In honor of her special day, I thought I'd post a little list of some of her favorite words.

Mommy

Mom

Mama (for Grandma)

Papa (for Grandpa)

Baby

Me (when she points at herself in the mirror or in a picture)

Cat, Kitty

Puppy

Duck

Deer

Bee

Butterfly

Fish (she pronounces it "shish")

Pooh, Eeyore (from Winnie-the-Pooh)

Ball

Boat

Keys

Bubbles

Towel

Ba Ba (for bottle)

Clock

Paper

Pool

Tattoo

Shoe

Hat

Yeah, Yes

Hi

Bye, Bye-Bye

Uh-Oh!

Boom! (when she falls down)

Beep!

Eye

Ear, Earring

Hair

Empty, Full

Open, Shut

On, Off

Up, Down

Eat

Sit

Hot

Juice

Pop

Cheese

Chicken

Apple

Banana (she pronounces it "nam-nam")

Ice

Moo! (for cow)

Woof! (for dog)

Meow! (for cat)

Caw! Caw! (for bird)

Ooh Ooh! (for monkey)

Baa! (for sheep)

Neigh! (for horse)

Grrr! or Ow! (for bear)

Cluck! (for chicken)

Ssssss! (for snake)

Oh, man!

I'm gonna get you!

Awesome!

Mama to Mama and Teeny, Tiny Caps

In the spirit of the coming Thanksgiving, I decided to take part in a little project through a new blog, Mama to Mama, which was created by one of my favorite blog authors, Amanda Soule of SouleMama. The purpose of the new blog is to reach out to other moms throughout the world using craftism...giving through making, rather than monetarily. The first proposed idea was the Caps to Cap-Haitien Project, and it's goal was to make cotton jersey hats for newborn infants, which would be put in home-birthing kits in Haiti. To learn more about the project and why this is needed, see the above link, or check in my side-bar. It's such a great thing.

Here are my completed hats. Despite some initial insanity with sewing knit fabric on a regular machine, I had such a nice experience doing this. It felt so good to take part in a project which I knew would help other mamas...women like me. Although our backgrounds and needs are different, we all need help sometimes. As I was working, I was thinking about all the little children who would be wearing these caps, and sewing those little thoughts into each one.

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween this year was completely awesome! I realize that I'm a serious slacker for blogging about this in November, but here I am.

We went to three different trick-or-treat festivities on two separate weekends, and although the first one ended up being on a cold, rainy, and dark evening and the second one almost resulted in a mom and grandma double-time smackdown of some older kids (and their parents) with no manners, not to mention some seriously long lines...Freyja was all about it this year, and her excitement made it great.

If you recall, last year we had a festive pumpkin outfit and a pea-in-a-pod ensemble which she wore while I walked her around the neighborhood while the older kids were trick-or treating. She was only 5 months old at the time and obviously clueless in regards to why she was dressed like a vegetable, but she was still super cute.

This year I picked a very adorable bumble bee suit for Freyja's costume. I even thought ahead and bought a size bigger so she could wear it again next year, if I can get away with it. What I didn't realize when I picked it out was that when it came time for her to wear it, she was going to understand exactly what it was.

We have a book called, Time for Bed, by Jane Dyer and illustrated by Mem Fox. It has some beautiful watercolors inside, and Freyja likes to point out the animal on each page...first by name, and then she makes it's "noise". She's particularly excited about the horse, cow, sheep, duck, dog, and cat. One of the lines in the book is, "It's time to sleep little bee, little bee. Yes, I love you, and you love me." I didn't think she had really grasped what a bee was yet because she was always quiet when I came to that page, but apparently I was wrong. When I put on her costume, she started yelling "Bee! Bee!" So, I took out the book, turned to the page with the bee, and she immediately pointed at it and said "Bee! Bee!" Pretty amazing stuff. I think it's so awesome how these little ones are learning so much and storing it away, and then one day they just decide it's time to use it. I wonder how long she knew what a bee was before she actually said anything?

I love that last photo. She's looks like she wants to tear the camera ot of my hand.

So, since we live in a city which overlaps with a second one, we went out on two different nights to trick-or-treat in the business district of each downtown area. On the night went to Bloomington it was rainy and cold, but Freyja didn't seem to mind. There weren't many kids out, but the event was still going on, so I pushed her in the stroller through the misty rain and we had fun anyway. On the night we went to downtown Normal, it was absolutely beautiful outside and not cold at all. It seemed like every child around here was there! So, the lines to get candy from different merchants or free food and drinks were quite long and the wait was making the kids stir-crazy. Freyja was pretty chilled out though...she seemed satisfied to check out all the different people and costumes, and was super happy when I let her eat her first lolly-pop. There was sticky stuff all over, but she loved it. On the actual night of Halloween, grandma and grandpa took Freyja around the neighborhood for door-to-door trick-or-treating while I relaxed at home, ready to hand out candy to the kids roaming the neighborhood.

What should Freyja's costume be next year? A fruit? An animal? Something off the wall? I guess we'll see...

I love Halloween! I'm totally excited that someday there will be parties, spooky cupcakes, pin the hat on the witch, bobbing for apples, and all kinds of fun stuff, but not yet...

More Pumpkin-ing

Here are some photos of us pumpkining and gourding and such at our usual produce stand, and at a brand new pumpkin patch which just opened in our town. I'm so grateful to the random lady who happened to tell us about this place. It's part of a small, family-owned farm, and they have a really nice and very accessible pumpkin patch for little ones, a fantastic playground, a sandbox (minus the sand and plus dried corn kernels...pretty nifty), a petting zoo (always a crowd pleaser with this little girl) and all sorts of animals running around, not to mention all kinds of varieties of pumpkins and gourds, wild corn, and fall plants and herbs...and super cool wagons to put all your stuff and your kiddies in while you're there. Awesome! As usual, Freyja was having fun and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Lemon Pistachio Biscotti

I recently tried out a new biscotti recipe, and they were dangerously good. It came from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, but there is an identical recipe here. I am a huge, HUGE fan of both pistachio nuts and lemons, so this particular biscotti had me yelling with happiness.

A Zoo Review

If you haven't figured it out yet, Freyja is crazy about animals, hence the plethora of photos featuring her checking out some creature and/or playing with the cat. She also likes to point out every animal possible in books, pictures, etc. and yells in excitement when she sees one in public. Future veterinarian? I suppose it's possible. Or, maybe all little kiddies are pumped about animals.

Regardless...

At the end of September we took Freyja to the zoo. Obviously, given her animal fascination, she loved it. I forgot to post the photos at the time, so here you have it...

This first photo cracks me up because these little guys are looking straight at her!


Our local zoo is the middle of a huge park with a large pavilion, a lake with paddle boats, a miniature golf course, and an immense playground, among other things. Since it was a ridiculously hot day, we took her to the fountain park, which is also a part of the whole complex. I don’t know how to describe this place, except to say that it’s a big concrete pad with sprinklers and fountains sticking up out of the pavement for kids to run through and get sprayed by when it’s hot outside. At first I was just going to let her walk around the edge and get her feet wet, so we both took our shoes and socks off and I rolled up my pants and walked her over, but she seemed completely happy and wanting to go in further, so I figured, “Why not?” and we just walked all the way in and got completely soaking wet in all of our clothes. We were laughing hysterically by the time I finally picked her up and carried her out. It was so much fun. All of the other parents looked at me like I was crazy. I wanted to scream, “Hey, lighten up!” but figured it wasn’t worth it.

So, I guess we did have another hot day after all!