Doodle Update (9.94592922 Months Old!)

Ok, so I made that 9.945 etc, etc up - but E is ALMOST 10 months.  In fact, TOMORROW she will be 10 months :)  6 months old was a big step for her because she finally started sitting up on her own - and that opened up a whole new world of possibilities for her (and for us!).  So that was cool, but Jesse and I both agree that the last 2 months have been pretty spectacular in the BIG SHOW we like to call: Doodle Discovers The World.

First up, she has really added to her baby sign vocabulary - she is so interactive!  She likes to use her sign for "more" (which is actually funny to see because she does it by banging one fist into her open palm - it looks like she's saying "Why I oughtta . . .") for LOTS of things (book, cracker), pretty much whenever she wants to emphasize something.  Soo maybe she IS saying "give me - OR ELSE".  So aside from that, other words she signs are: car, bath, moon, stars, light, bye-bye, baby, diaper.  She recognizes a bunch more - mostly ones revolving around food - but she doesn't do them herself yet. 

Next, she is becoming something of a locamotive genius (not that we're biased).  Now that she's been pulling herself around for a couple weeks, she's able to transition between tummy and sitting and sitting to tummy to creeping much more quickly.  If she see's something she wants, she gets that she needs to get off her cute butt and HEAD IN THAT DIRECTION.  Last night we were out in the front yard with her and the grass was tickling her belly, so we're pretty sure we saw her first real bits of "crawling."  She wasn't super psyched about it, but somehow she got from A to B without letting her belly drag along the grass! 

The food arena has gotten more - let's say - interesting as well.  She is staring to shun the spoon (at least when mommy wields it).  I thought at first she wasn't hungry but then she'd keep making the sign for "more" and getting upset when I'd bring the spoon near her mouth.  Sure enough, if I handed the materials over to her, she happily began smearing it EVERYWHERE - including into her mouth.  It's hard to tell if you're not paying attention, but she actually gets about 70% of the food into her mouth.  The rest does get flung about quite a bit, but we're guessing it's all part of the process for her.  And now that it's warmer up here (85 degrees today!~) I can just dunk her in the tub after a particularly enthusiastic meal. 

It just seems that she's so much more - I'll use this word again - interactive these days.  She points at other babies and they point back at her.  She listens to music and starts flapping her hand to the beat like a little rapper.  She imitates the sounds of things we're saying.  I swear (and I've got witnesses to vouch for me) that the other day I held the phone up to her and said "Say: bye bye, Daddy" and she imitated the words perfectly!  We are pretty sure that she is calling me "mama" now, so who knows, maybe she's saying "daddy" too - she just refuses to say it to Jesse's face :)  She is also getting better at playing by herself.  I had a paper to write this week and she was pretty content to make a huge mess in the "baby salon" while I typed away - blocks and books everywhere!



So that's the story of the Doodle these days.  She makes us laugh, she makes our hearts happy.  She makes us slow down.  She reminds mommy that "messy" isn't a four letter word (well, it's a five letter word, but you know what I mean).  She hangs out with daddy on the front porch, counting the cars and the dogs that go by.  What more can we ask for?

First Mother's Day

Eddy has been having SO MANY "firsts" lately - it seems only fair that I get to have a first - FIRST Mother's Day!  Good news: I got to share it with a super-Mama, Grandma Woodford.  Her kids are about the best people I know.  They are so tip-top, I had to marry one of them.  (Sorry Lauren, Chris, you two lost the coin toss!)  Bad news: we were all SICK Mother's Day weekend!  Miss E perfectly timed her first ear infection (another first!) with Grandma, Grandpa, and Mariah's visit :(  Which meant she was snotty, coughy, feverish, and did not want to be held by ANYONE BUT MOMMY OR DADDY.  Grandpa did eventually wrangle some one-on-one time with her but poor Grandma did not get one happy picture with the Doodle!  Throw in a couple of colds for Jess and me (mine, by the way, would turn into a "mild case of pneumonia"), and we were quite a pathetic little family ;)  But, aside from snot and germs, we had a really nice weekend.  The boys got a few small projects done (electricity up and running to the garage? check!  3-prong outlets installed in the downstairs? check! gaping hole surrounding the fridge outlet closed up? double check!) and we all feasted on Dinosaur BBQ, fresh caught fish, and Mother's Day cake. 

Margaret and Stevo got to check out the Regional Market with Jesse on Saturday morning (though I'm pretty sure, in true fashion, Jess zoomed them through a bit to get to his goal: perennial plants!) and they came back with a lovely assortment of herbs and perennials for our new corner bed (did you think we'd run out of corners to put beds into?  You would be mistaken!) including some clematis for our south-facing trellis (thank you Margaret!).

Mariah was a lovely addition to our merry party :)  Mariah was a big help, offering herself for DOODLE DISTRACTION DUTY.  This included playing with a cranky baby, trips out to view the porch and flower beds, and even a couple walks around the neighborhood with a 19-pounder strapped via baby wrap to her chest.  Thank you, Riah! 

So our first Mother's Day was a success - I even scored some beautiful turquoise jewelry from Eddy and Jess (I think Jess helped her pick it out - she's got good taste but does not yet own her own debit card).  To all you mommies out there, I hope you had a relaxing Mother's Day.  And if you've got a mommy of your own, give her a call again today - she deserves it!

lotsa love

caitlin

 

The Swings at Barry Park

Some Eddy Candy to hold you over while we are gone for the weekend :)  If you turn up the volume, you can hear the Doodle laughing in the background.

The swings video is here!


(This should hopefully solve our DUELING VIDEOS problem . . .)

We Have Forward Progression!

Miss E.B. has graduated up to an army crawl :)  Mostly we use electronics to entice her (ie cell phones, laptops, etc).

Click HERE to see it!


And this is all in the middle of a cold-turned-into-an-ear-infection!  Which means we have graduated to yet another step as parents: the step where you torture your child by forcing antibiotics down their sobbing throat :(  I may have mentioned before the LOOK OF BETRAYAL - well it's even worse when you have to pin them down in order to get ALL THE MEDICINE down . . . It's actually getting better - Jesse and I are improving our medicine-administering technique, getting the whole process over and done with quicker.  We had tried a few different methods: pouring it in, mixing it with a little juice, putting it into a bottle nipple to see if we could trick her into gulping it down -- to no avail!!  The old syringe is now working the best - a little crying, a little gagging, but happiness as soon as it's over.  We've been pretty lucky that this is the first time she's gotten sick - and we caught it so quickly.  No midnight runs to the ER with high fevers!

Check back soon for a recounting of our wonderful Mother's Day Weekend with Margaret and Stevo (and Mariah!).

The Difference Between Men and Women

**The following is a dramatization of an actual conversation that occurred earlier today.  Any and all similarities to real people are purely intentional and should be taken withOUT any shards, chunks, morsels, or pieces of salt of ANY KIND.**

*ring ring* (or, since this was a cell phone, insert your own song, ring tone, noise, etc)

Caitlin: Honey! Guess what?!  Eddy just pulled herself forward!


Jesse:  She crawled??!!!


C: No, no crawling yet.  But she was on her belly and she used her hands and her toes to pull herself forward to get to a toy!!!  It was so amazing!!  I wanted to call you right away because I felt bad you weren't here to see it . . .


J:  Oh.  She did that last night.

*beat*

J: When you were gone.


C: And you didn't TELL ME????


J:  Well, it wasn't crawling or anything.


C:  But it was FORWARD PROGRESSION!.

*beat*


J:  But it wasn't crawling. 


C:  *sigh* 

Impromptu Chalkboard Space

I've always loved blackboards and chalk.  I haven't practiced my drawing skills much, but there is something so satisfying about running chalk across a waiting surface, leaving lingering dusty trails, smudging, smudging, smudging -- leaving a surprise message!  I love the small chalkboard in Mama Woodford's log cabin kitchen and it inspired me to put up one in our kitchen at Fellows.  I wanted to use something we already had at home, in our garage, attic, or basement, and I had already picked up a can of spray-on chalkboard from Michael's a while ago.  Low and behold, I found the old (already painted the "deep peri" blue throughout the rest of the kitchen!) kitchen cabinet doors just sittin . . . doin' nuthin in our basement. 

To turn the cabinet door into an impromptu chalkboard, I turned the cabinet door "sideways" with the handle now on the bottom, taped the "frame" of the chalkboard with some painter's tape, covered the rest of the frame with newspaper to protect it from over-spray, hauled it all out to the garage and let-er-rip with the chalkboard spraypaint!  I followed the directions on the can and sprayed in light layers (no drippage!) horizontally, then vertically.  Let it dry, then another coat!  After waiting at least 24 hours I then rubbed the broad side of a piece of chalk all over the chalkboard and then rubbed it away with a paper towel to "cure" it.  Yay! 

As you might guess, the finished product did sit on the kitchen floor for a couple days before we got around to hanging it up.  But it is now, indeed, UP! and with a piece of chalk tied to a string to boot.  It was a fun project (I felt handy), very easy, and it only cost me the price of the can of spray paint - which I can now use for other projects. 


On lazy days, you may see me just post a pic of whatever we have written up there for the day :)

The Porch Gets A Sprucin'

As promised, here are some pics of the front porch!  Yesterday was the perfect day for Jess to get a final coat of paint on everything.  All we have left to do is paint the concrete floor, install a couple canvas, linen, or bamboo shades (we get some major Western sun in the evenings), get some hanging flower baskets up and presto: an indoor/outdooor space for all three of us to enjoy.  E has already flopped around a bit on it (not crawling yet!) so it is obvious that she approves.

Speaking of, E does have a baby cold - she was pretty pathetic at 7 this morning while Mom and Dad were de-boogy-fying her crusty nose :(  If you ever want to feel like a no-good, lower-than-low meanie, just de-boogy-fy an infant (preferably one that is related to you) and soak up that look of pure hurt and betrayal they give you while tears stream down their pink chubby cheeks.  Yeah.

On a happier note, being sick does not seem to get in the way of Miss E.B. having fun!  For realz - when I am sick, I feel pathetic, I act pathetic, and I make sure everyone knows I am suffering!  Not Miss E - this weekend she played at a backyard BBQ, stayed over at the neighbors house WAAYY past her bedtime, AND posed for pictures with Daddy and the front porch - all with the contents of her nasal passage proceeding at a constant flow down her nose, mouth, chin, and front.  Aside from the red eyes and marching mucus, you'd never know she was sick. 

We are taking a break right now from some Spring Cleaning - baby clothes transport, sorting things destined for the Salvation Army, a bit of vacuuming, dusting, clearing out the salon to be a bit more "baby friendly", etc.  Any Spring Cleaning going on in YOUR neck of the woods?







lotsa love - The House at Fellows