The Baby Food Saga Continues

Hello! Hope you all had an excellent Christmas! We sure did! Griffin had a great time opening and playing with presents.

But his favourite part was definitely having all the extra people around. He has been LOVING having all the extra love and attention, and just general noise. I don't know what we'll do when it's just the two of us again. I guess there's always the cats!

Thanks for all the food-eating tips! I tried squash and pears and was beginning to despair. The problem was that he wouldn't even open his mouth. As soon as he saw that spoon, he clamped his lips shut down, waved his arms around, and threw his head back and forth. He wouldn't let the food get anywhere near his mouth. I went on-line and saw this thing about Baby Led Weaning, where they give babies solid food right from the beginning, and let them feed themselves (no spoons!) Of course, he loves that. He's had banana (very messy!), frozen strawberry, and toast fingers. But I really wanted to get some rice cereal in there, because of the iron. So I got sneaky. Now I give him some "real" food, some rice crackers, and his very own spoon. Whenever he lifts his spoon to his mouth to chew on it, I sneak some cereal in there, super fast, with the second spoon. At first, he would make the most horrible faces, but he's starting to get into it now. And after he's had most of his rice cereal, I've been giving him dessert (mushed pears, apricots or apples.) Last night he even reached for my spoon, and pulled it into his mouth. Hooray! Plus, now he has a beautiful high chair to use while eating, which makes him feel pretty special.

So that's our eating saga, as it stands now. Today, I'm bumping him back up to two meals a day. Oh yeah, and my theory about him sleeping longer once he started eating more food has not proved true. So much for that. Now that it seems we've got him eating again, the next great hurdle will be getting him to actually sleep. Lucky for him, he's adorable!

Anyway, I've got to run for now. We've all been pretty busy this month, and I hope to share more soon. Until then, though, Happy New Year!!!

Ho Ho Holidays

Hello! Happy Weekend! We're pretty excited around here, because Jai has the next two weeks off work! Pretty nice. We had a light dusting of snow, which looks very pretty on the ground, especially with the sun shining.

Jai is trying to nap with Griffin right now, but Griffin is having too much fun to sleep.

The other night he slept through the night for the first time ever. It was so amazing! I woke up and briefly (foolishly) fantasized about how great it would be if he just slept like that every night. Actually feeling rested in the morning was so nice. My theory is that it is because he actually ate a good amount of rice cereal for dinner. I haven't really been able to test this theory, though, because ever since then he has absolutely refused to eat any more cereal, and cries if you try to feed him. And subsequently has gone back to waking up every hour or two, all night long. Help! What do parents do in this situation? I tried mixing the rice cereal with apple juice, then with breastmilk, and he's not having anything to do with any of it. I am thinking tonight I will try introducing some other kind of food (squash, maybe?) but even if he eats that, I still need some way to convince him that cereal is yummy. Hmmmm... anyone have any good tricks?

Other than that, we are still working at getting ready for Christmas. Yesterday I made everyone some new Christmas stockings out of felt that I had lying around. I used the stocking my Mom made for me when I was little as the template. It's getting a little worn, and it was time for new ones for the whole family. They were so much fun to make, and came together really quickly - my favourite kind of project!

Anyway, I better run - still got LOTS of baking to do. My peanut butter balls have been sitting in the fridge for two days waiting to be coated in chocolate. Little steps, in the right direction. Tonight, we are heading out to see some friends and eat some treats. Have a great weekend - full of winter sun streaming in the windows, and quiet, potent, moments.

“The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting.” ~Louisa May Alcott

Ready or Not...

Hello! I can't believe it's already been a whole week since I last posted anything! This time of year always goes so fast. I think by January I'll probably be ready to celebrate Christmas. But it's coming, ready or not.

Griffin and I have been adjusting to settling in for the winter. We've had a few days where it was just too cold to spend any time outside. So we are looking for indoor activities. Since we basically live in one room during the winter, it's been a little bit of a challenge. A few of the toys that were meant to be for Christmas have been wandering in to our play area, in order to stave off baby boredom. Only ten more days to wait!

During short naps and down times, I have been desperately trying to get projects done. I did manage to finish the legwarmers I was making for Griffin. This sock wool was so pretty, it was really fun to work with. I think I'll turn the remainder of it into pompoms.

And I've been trying to play with screenprinting as well. For my birthday, I got the amazing book, Printing By Hand

and I've been dying to try absolutely everything in it. Anyway, I managed to do a quick screen using drawing fluid and screen filler:

I have no idea what to do with it now. But it was pretty fun to do! When things settle down a little, I look forward to playing with this all a lot more.

As usual, I have big, big plans. Okay, they might not sound that big to anyone else, but at the moment, they seem massive!

a.) finish buying/making Christmas presents

b.) wrap Christmas presents

c.) mail Christmas presents

d.) make Christmas cookies

e.) make more Christmas cookies

f.) clean and babyproof the entire house

g.) shower

But for now, as Griffin naps by the fire, I think I will make myself some dinner, and see if I can read a little bit of my book. Sounds like a little piece of heaven.

A Touch of Christmas Fever

Hello Again! Christmas is drawing ever closer. Almost all the shopping is done. The tree is up and decorated. The cookie recipes are out. The snow is on the ground. Whoooo boy!

We're getting pretty excited around here. We got an amazing tree at the farmer's market for $20 (8' tall and perfect! another one of the things that are cheaper in rural Nova Scotia.) Griffin's been hanging out in front of it on his cozy sheepskin. He likes to touch it, but he's very gentle.

He likes to touch everything!

We had a bit of a slowdown the last couple of days, because our boy has had a fever, and a corresponding crankiness. He's doing really well today, though. He slept until almost noon, but when he woke up he was all smiles, so I've got my fingers crossed that he's almost done with that. He handled it all very well, but it was a very cuddly couple of days. If he wasn't feeling so yucky, I wouldn't mind at all!

Sarah, Erin and I shared a booth at the Annapolis Royal Christmas show. It was good fun - hung out with some great ladies, got a little knitting done, sold some things, watched Griffin smile at everyone. And now those little gears in my head have been turning, turning, turning. Slowly, I am gathering the materials, plans, and drawings. Soon... soon.

VideoPalooza

Hello! It's been a while! The camera was missing in action for a couple of days, but mysteriously reappeared on my keyboard this morning, after I casually mentioned to Jai (at four a.m. last night) that I couldn't find it anywhere. Thanks, Jai!

Griffin had his six month check-up last week, where he was weighed and measured. Our giant boy is tipping the scale at over 20 lbs now! Go Griffin! And the Doctor mentioned that it was time for Griffin to start eating solid food so he can get some extra iron in his system. So...

We have a video of Griffin eating for the first time! It's a little long, so I imagine only the die-hard Griffin fans out there are going to make it through right to the end, but it's all cute :)

So, eating has received mixed reviews. He loves doing it, but he's been getting belly aches, we think, because about an hour later, he gets really fussy and unhappy. I think we'll try a different kind of food, and see if that makes a difference. He just looks so proud to be doing something that Mommy and Daddy do all the time.

Also this week was the First Annual Bridgetown Craft Fair at Midnight Madness. Sarah and I thought we would share a table, just for a bit of fun. It was actually a great time, and good to see people's reactions to some of the stuff I've been up to. Here's some pics of our table.

This Saturday, we're sharing a table with another friend at the Annapolis Royal Show, if anyone in the area cares to check it out.

And we finally made it back to the Tree Lighting Ceremony. We missed the last two years because Jai had to work at the theatre both times, so it was great fun to make it back, watch the Grade 3 choir sing Christmas Carols, and exchange some old lights for some new LED lights. Jai took a video of it, too, so here it is, our Second Annual (After a Two Year Hiatus) Video of the Tree Lighting at Bridgetown Town Hall.

Hmmm, hopefully those videos actually work- I've never done that before.

We're starting to get pretty excited for Christmas around here - hopefully we'll pick up a tree on Friday. I can't wait to see Griffin taking it all in - a tree in the house! Talk about fun. And I'm going to win the lottery tonight, so all in all, we've got a pretty exciting week coming up.

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention the Bridgetown Video that Jai and I were in. Here's a link to it on YouTube, if anyone wants to watch a video about why Bridgetown is great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thQrN4iyG3g

Christmas Factory

Sorry, this post has some funky things going on with it - Griffin was pressing keys like crazy and I can't figure out how to undo whatever he did. Oh well, it was fun!

Griffin and I had fun this morning doing a photo shoot for the Christmas cards. Once again, I took way too many pictures. And now I can't decide. I think I narrowed it down to one of these:

You can see some of the projects I've been working on in a couple of those photos - some little toadstools made from leftover pieces of elephant sweaters. They're pretty sweet, and a lot of fun to make. I stuffed the bases with rice, so they stand up straight, and apparently they taste good, too!

I've been busy trying to get ready for a couple of upcoming Christmas shows.

It's been a little mini craft factory around here. Not the kind of stuff I've made for the last couple of years, but I'm enjoying this (temporary?) new direction. That said, these are more of the Christmas cards I sold for the last two years.

And some more dolls, but I really just put this picture in so I could say "Happy Birthday" to (Great) Grandma, who inspired them. We love you and miss you!

Happy Birthday! (To Me)

Hello! We're having a nice quiet moment here right now, so I thought I would pop in to say Hi. We were in Halifax all weekend, doing some Christmas shopping, and some visiting. It was great fun! And very yummy. We had an amazing Thai meal on Friday night (thanks Brandon and Jo!) and a weekend full of cupcakes. Oh man, do I love cupcakes!

Too much to stop and take pictures (guess I better get busy!)

Oh, and, before I go... Happy Birthday to me! So far it's been a wonderful day that started the best of all ways... with a sleep-in! Thank you, Griffin! I'll be back soon with some new pictures :)

Raspberry Blowing and Kisses

Hello All! Jai is out working late on the Bookmobile tonight, and Griffin and I are just hanging out. In his case, literally. He's currently hanging in his jolly jumper, bouncing around, blowing raspberries and sending smiles my way. When I blow him a kiss back, I get a big giggle. It's hard to resist! But who would want to?

Via Paddington Station

Hello Again! I just found this little Paddington Bear at a local antique store. He's almost a match for our other Paddington, and I just had to pick him up. He even came with his own little book. Griffin is a bit too young to play with him, but he really liked touching his hat, and his little buttons.

I almost forgot to mention that Griffin celebrated his six month birthday one week ago today. The time has just been flying, but also passing in this amazing succession of moments I know I will remember forever.

Griffin has definitely been becoming more and more aware of people around him, and interacting with them in new and interesting ways. For example, we had a play date with Jonah at our house this week, instead of us going over to see Jonah. He loves going over to Jonah's house, and playing with their toys, but decided that he does NOT love Jonah coming over here and playing with his toys. He cried almost the whole time we were looking after Jonah. The only time he wasn't crying was if I was holding him and he couldn't see or hear Jonah. As soon as Jonah made a noise, he was crying again. Silly monkey! Luckily Jonah was perfectly happy the whole time, and Griffin eventually cried himself to sleep. Sharing is a lesson we will have to keep working on.

Another thing he has started doing is hamming it up for the camera. He absolutely loves having his picture taken. This might be my fault. It's just so much fun to watch him look right into the camera and give it his biggest grin. He started going a little overboard the other day. Right past grin, into grimace. Still cute, though.

I might have gone a little overboard, too, in the picture taking department. We sure had fun doing it, though!

Look at those liquid blue eyes...

We've been having gorgeous weather all week - sunny and up to 15 degrees! Sure can't complain about that. We've been trying to get outside as much as possible, walking around the neighbourhood, again and again.

We had a short visit from Mom and my Uncle and cousin this week, so of course tripped over to Hampton Beach, where we found all sorts of treasures.

And tried to get a nice shot of the three of us, with everyone looking. Was not to be, but I like this one nonetheless.

Hope your week is full of wonderful savour-worthy moments!

Halifax, Kaslo, and the Super Secret Project

We're back from a brief but lovely trip to Halifax to celebrate my Mom's birthday. My Uncle and cousin as well as my honourary Aunt had flown out to help celebrate as well, so everyone got to meet Griffin, which was super great.

He absolutely loved being at the party, being surrounded by people and passed around. He was babbling like crazy all that night and the next day. "Blah ba ba ba abla ba ba." I guess that's what a big crowd of people sounds like to him. Pretty cute to hear him starting to express himself in new ways.

And of course we all loved meeting the newest addition to the family - Kaslo - named after the very small town in BC where my Mom was born. She's a sweety, for sure.

And now that I have finally gifted it, I can show you what I've been working on for the last couple of months. It was a top secret project, so I haven't even hinted about it, but I did get a little bit of work done in my spare time. I made my first full-size quilt! It was a lot of work, but luckily for me I am blessed with a short memory for hard work. Pretty soon, it will take on this rosy sort of glow, and I'll think, "that wasn't so bad, I should totally make another one!" (Just like babies, I imagine, though I'm not totally there yet!)

Anyway, I didn't get a full-size open picture of it, but this gives you an idea. It's very colourful! On the back, I appliqued some hearts with embroidery written on them (things like the date, and FOR MY MOTHER and WITH LOVE.) It's far from perfect, but I think it turned out pretty well. And yup... already it seems like a lot of fun. (But not babies yet - sorry Mom!)

Birthday Shout-Outs!

Happy Birthday Mom (Grandma!) We hope you're having an excellent day, and can't wait to meet your new puppy!

Also, Happy Birthday to (Auntie) Jo! Here's a rose for you both :)