Gemma's Birthday, Part 2!

 

It's fair to say that Gemma liked her birthday cupcake!  

By the end of it all, she had blackberry juice all over her outfit.  I'm so glad that boiling water took it right out! 

 She also liked using her old-fashioned high chair for the first time, although the tray didn't last long.

She was a little more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents themselves . . . until she finally got them open.  She honestly did open about two of those presents all by herself, but we a more experienced little friend help with the others, for the sake of time.  We sent our friends home with felt bird ornaments from Michael's for their Christmas trees.  :)

Birthday Party #1!

Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day, which meant that our little one was turning 1!  Though we plan to have a party with all the grandparents closer to Christmas, a week ago, we decided to throw together a little party on her actual birthday, and I'm so glad that we did. 

I started by taking some pictures of Gemma outside and designing an invitation to e-mail to her little friends. 

With some input, we planned a simple lunch menu of potato soup, almond-butter sandwiches cut into Christmas tree shapes, carrot sticks for the big people and fruit purees for the little people, hot cranberry cider (from Trader Joe's) . . .

 . . . And, of course, cupcakes! 

 I wanted to be a little healthy, so I made carrot cupcakes (from the Moosewood Cookbook) and topped each one with cream cheese frosting and a blackberry. 

If you squint, you can see the candle impaled through the blackberry in the cupcake on the right!

We also decorated a little bit.  :)

 

Grammy Reid found Gemma this perfect little bib second-hand somewhere!

The birthday girl herself was all ready in her tutu leggings, a top from Aunt Heidi, and pigtails.  :)

 Let the party begin!  More tomorrow!

Thankful for our Little One

Giving thanks is about saying even the things that go without saying, I think.  Our lives were turned upside-down in a good way almost a year ago now by the birth of our little one, and we are beyond grateful for her.

Personally, I'm full of thanksgiving for how beautifully her birth went (story here and here). Anticipating labor was a real anxiety for me, but God showed us how needless my fears were. 

Now, she is over eleven months old, and they have been eleven months filled with joy.  As she gets older and her budding intellect begins to reveal itself, my heart is also filled with a deep sense of stewardship.  We know that this precious child is ours for a time only, that her life comes from, belongs to, and will be directed by God our Father.  And yet, humanly speaking, the decisions we make and the actions we take will tremendously shape her character in the coming years. 

Since it's been quite a while since the last update, perhaps you'd like to hear what she's been doing lately!

• There have been some big changes!  Gemma no longer uses a pacifier (not planned by us) and now sleeps through the night (not without some tears, but thankfully it only lasted one night).  And, yes, those two things are related . . . 
• Army crawling is still her preferred method of motion, though she's also started climbing!
• She's still not pulling herself up to a stand, but she does love it when we stand her up holding onto a piece of furniture.  She'll play with whatever is nearby and practice standing for several minutes!
• What Gemma lacks in gross motor skills, she makes up for in talking!  She's been our little babbler for months, but now she also consistently says, "Buh buh!" for "Bye bye!"  She also knows who "Da da" and "Ma ma" are, and often tries to mimic my words when I'm talking to her.
• She loves to play in the laundry and, in general, take things out of whatever they are in!
• She also loves "reading."  A board book with lots of pictures will keep her busy for a while (it kept her busy for an hour in the car once!).  She flips and flips and "reads" aloud ("oooooh").
• And of course, there are lots of adorable things she does like clapping her hands, wrinkling her nose, and shaking her head!  Sometimes it seems to mean "no," and sometimes we're not sure!  
• When she hit ten months, she suddenly became more interested in food, but she's still very attached to nursing, which makes me profoundly glad.  Some of her favorite finger-foods are Cheerios and beans (black, kidney, it matters not!).

We took Gemma to a bonfire recently, and she looooved it!  She wanted to get in!

There were several more pictures I wanted to share, but for some reason blogger won't let me keep vertically-aligned pictures vertical today.  Perhaps John can help.  What a great guy . . . I'm so thankful for him . . . but I'm getting ahead of myself.  ;-)

"O" is for Overalls

  . . . and "o" is for orange-colored mums . . .

 . . . and "o" is for oatmeal bread . . . 

 

 . . . and "o" is for our overtired baby, who likes to take one half hour nap a day lately . . . 

 . . . but of course we still love her lots!

Gemma's *Fifth* Wedding!

Recently, we drove back to my Alma Mater for yet another wedding of a dear friend from my college days.  <3

This wedding was actually in the lovely Neo-Gothic chapel on campus.  I was thrilled that Gemma was there to experience all the beauty!

 

And beautiful it was!   The bridesmaids glided elegantly down the aisle in gorgeous up-dos and floor-length chiffon gowns, echoing the blue in the stained glass windows.  A couple of them, the bride, and a few other guests had been friends since freshman year, and it was sweet to see them again. 

 

The bride looked absolutely majestic as she entered the chapel on her father's arm, the pipe organ triumphantly sounding traditional wedding music.  

  

The butter was pretty . . . 

 

John found another engineer to talk to, and they even matched . . . 

 

And, all in all, we had a lovely time! 

 Congratulations, Sarah and Chris! 

Pig Tails

Our little one can wear . . . 

pig tails!

Next time, we will probably use elastic bands, though.  They didn't stay in for very long.  ;)

Of Pilot and Pixie

"Despite what the thermometer says, autumn is coming!"  That's how I planned to begin this post, and then God blessed us with a suddenly cooler day which does feel like autumn!  It was the right kind of day to bake rice custard and actually wear Gemma in the Moby wrap for our walk.  (I make my custard with brown rice and only a little bit of brown sugar, so I offered some to baby, but she wasn't interested!)

Gemma and I were cozy together in the wrap, but I wished I'd put a hat on her.  Her new winter hat is still very much in the works, but I've finished two others!

I'm indebted to my friend Amy for inspiring me to grow in my knitting skills and for introducing me to Ravelry.  There is a world of free patterns to be had and so many pretty ones to try!  When I saw this pattern there last year, I knew I wanted to try it someday.  The author actually directs folks to her updated version, however, called the Lil' Midi Bean.  I loved how it is completely seamless!  It came together nicely.

I worked the first one up in Paton's Kroy sock yarn.  It was the prettiest color I could find at Michael's, but when it was finished, I decided it was still a bit too masculine for a girl.  It was also just a tad small for Gemma, and winter's not even here yet, so it will go to someone else. 

 In search of prettier colors in wool, I visited a local yarn shop and brought home this lovely fingering-weight superwash Merino.  The woman who had dyed it sold it to me, and it is soo pretty.

This hat is actually smaller than the first, but it's for a friend with a newborn.  I'm sure it will look much prettier on a little girl than on Gemma's monkey! 

The sweet pixie point was a large part of what sold me on the original pattern, but the author said the revised pattern eliminated "the awkward point to the top."  I decided to follow the revisions exactly in hat number one, and it is a bit more pilotish, but I followed a more gradual decrease pattern in hat number 2, hoping to get the sweet fairy look back.  :)

Just a little while, sweet baby, and yours will be next!

9 Months Old

Our sweet baby is nine months old!

Sometimes she likes to eat lots, and sometimes she just likes to play with her food!  So far, she's tried bananas, peaches, oatmeal, avocado, peas, scrambled eggs, strawberries, pizza crust, chicken, rice cereal, crackers, cauliflower, corn chips, tomato sauce, japanese fried rice with white sauce, cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, green pepper, red pepper, beets, asparagas, homemade bread, waffles, cherries, mashed potato, tomato, french toast, green beans, pasta with bolognese sauce, and black beans.  So, she's tried almost everything, even though she hasn't eaten much of everything!  We've decided to take a Baby Led Weaning approach to solids and it's been fun for us all!

Gemma has one tooth! 

She's been to her first baseball game, although it meant staying up quite late.

For a while there, she would get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth, like she was revving her engines!  But now she mostly gets around using the army crawl.  She can move pretty quickly!

Her most favorite game right now is "Where's the baby?!" which is our version of peek-a-boo.  :)  She loves helping to make the bed, because she loves to be buried under the billowing sheets, only to pull them off herself when she hears us ask, "Where's the baby?!"  

And of course she loves playing with toys, electrical cords, and just about anything she can get her hands on!  Gemma remains our happy girl and is starting to learn not to fuss when we say "all done!" and have to take something away.  O, next three months, pass slowly by!

  

Summer Drawstring Dress

I mentioned that I've been sewing a dress. Well, it's done!

As I was unpacking my summer clothes this past spring, I realized in dismay that I wouldn't be able to wear any of my dresses. There was no simple way to nurse without completely disrobing! I really wanted to make a dress, and though I've only made one before, I picked up a pattern and fabric . . . and it sat while our busy lives rolled on!


Suddenly it was August! Somehow I survived dressing for church with my skirts, and I realize that I could have just been content with those. Still, it was fun to do!

Since I still love everything Regency, I chose the Drawstring Dress from Sense & Sensibility Patterns "The Elegant Lady's Closet" pattern. The neckline opens up wide enough to allow for nursing access (not for discreet nursing, however, I might add!). The skirt is also gathered in front. I think it will actually flatter me more as a maternity dress in the unknown future. :) I simply shortened the hem so that it would look less costume-y.

The back details are my favorite

There's enough fabric left to make something more . . . perhaps a dress for a little girl who grows too fast, or perhaps a curtain for the guest room. We shall see!

The Rest of the Swiffer Story

"Pride goeth before a fall," so the old Proverb goes. Thankfully there was no literal fall involved this time, but a bit of an ego fall. Just when we had escaped the keep-buying-Swiffer-supplies trap by knitting our own Swiffer socks and outsmarting their "nonrefillable" Wet Jet bottles, the following happened:


Yes, my Swiffer handle snapped. It was a sad day. My darling husband, however, rigged it back together with duct tape. I didn't take a picture. You know what duct tape looks like. ;) So, it works once again, but it's a little shaky. We conquered our Swiffer but then it wimped out on us! I still love my reusable knit Swiffer, socks, though. They have some great scrubbing ability! So, we'll continue to use it, albeit more gently.

And because every day is a good day to see a picture of a baby, here you go:


Gemma love playing under her mobile! If you can't tell, she's grinning behind her paci. The squinty-eyed grin has been something new in the past month. ;)

John's Belated Birthday Adventure!

There's a whole list of things to blog about on the bulletin board in the kitchen, and it's been there for a while . . . but I think we've just been too busy living life to write about it. I've been busy making my bread, yoghurt, granola, and desserts. I've been cleaning the house pretty faithfully, following some of Fly Lady's suggestions. We've been going on walks. I've been sewing a dress. It hasn't been a bad thing. :)

But, right now seems an apt time to write some, so I thought I'd tell you about a recent adventure! At this time last year, I received a half-off voucher to go zip-lining via LivingSocial and thought it would be the perfect birthday gift for John! So, I printed off the vouchers, gave them to him with his birthday card, and they sat in a drawer until now. I was pregnant, then we had a newborn, etc. etc. There seemed to be no perfect time to go. However, since they were about to expire, we finally made the time, picked up our friend Ben and made a day trip off a drive to Carolina Ziplines.


John asked about letting Gemma ride with him in our front-pack carrier, just in case. The owner was open to the idea, but after putting in a phone call to his insurance company, he told us he was sorry. She'll just have to wait until she's two to join in the fun.


She certainly enjoyed chewing on the strap to John's helmet, though! I'm so thankful for breastfeeding. It makes me worry about germs much less than I would otherwise!


John and Ben had an awesome time, and I suspect we may be returning in the future! The owner felt so badly that I had to stay back with the baby, that he let me ride one line for free! It was a long one, too!


Thanks for an awesome birthday for John, Carolina Ziplines!