Proof that Ellie likes broccoli

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Laura

The other day she was actually “nursing” on the broccoli – moving her mouth as if she was nursing and making nursing sounds.  It was so cute- clearly she equates broccoli with food, food with nursing, therefore broccoli with nursing!  (And, note the bib – thanks Aunt Nikki!)

Posted in AIBLW, Ellie, nursing | 1 Comment

Dropping Naps = tricky

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Laura

Ellie usually wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 am these days.  She also tends to take short naps so she still needs four naps to be OK the whole day.  However, she is fast becoming unwilling to take that last nap and so usually wants to be awake from around 1:30-2:00 (until bedtime around 7:00).  However, around 3:30-4:00 (when she should be taking a little quick nap to get her through) she gets very fussy and whiny and wants me to hold her all the time, which is really not an option.  Enter the Ergo.

First of all, she likes being in it, which eliminates the fussiness.

And second of all, it puts her to sleep.

I love her lips when they look like this!

This picture is from today and she’s actually still sleeping on my back as I type this!  (Strike that, she just woke up!)  And strike that, she just went back to sleep!

Some days, she’ll be happy in the high chair for a little while  so I can get some of dinner done.  The other day, this happened!

I’m grateful for the Ergo although she’s already feeling really heavy on my back and we’re only 7 months into this thing.  I think I need to start doing Pilates to strengthen my core!

Posted in Ellie | 3 Comments

April Sewing – Anne’s quilt

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Laura

April’s big project was sewing the Hide and Seek Spectrum Quilt from Handmade Beginnings for Anne and her little girl, who was just born on Wednesday!

Betsy, Heather, Steph, and I worked together on this one.  We each sewed some blocks (which you can see in the background of the bunny picture).   Then I was in charge of piecing the quilt top:

As you can see, each block has a door that hides a fun fabric in the same color!  Sharp-eyed family members may recognize the frogs and the ducks!

Then I added white muslin in a very wide border, along with quilt batting and white muslin backing.

This quilt is sewn like a blanket (i.e. wth no binding).  So after I sewed it, turned it rightside out and double-edgestitched it, I handed it over to the other ladies.  They were in charge of all the amazing handsewing to illuminate the quilt.  They did lines of color through the border and around each block.  They also embroidered around one shape within each block.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

We trumped up an excuse for us to meet at Anne’s house last Thursday night and surprised her with the quilt!

This was such a fun project and so fun to be part of a quilting bee, even if we did most of the work on our own.  Now I want to make one for Ellie!

P.S. This quilt was also a bit of a triumph for me because I wanted to prove to myself that I could sew quilt blocks together and have them meet perfectly at the intersections.  So I trimmed the blocks really carefully so they’d be exactly the same, sewed really carefully as well, and ta da!  I did it!  (I’m not at 10,000 hours yet by any means but even a few hours of practice really makes a difference!)

Posted in friends, sewing | 9 Comments

Toys are becoming popular around here

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Laura

Ellie is really asking for things to play with now – as in, she gets bored and whiny pretty quickly.  So I’ve been slowly getting out the toys that we were given before she was born.  The other day, I came across this ball that the mother of one of Nik’s friends made for us.  Ellie loves it!  She and Nik have already been playing some fun games with it.  It’s especially easy for her to hold and the ribbons on it are fun to play with too.  Thanks Barb!

(Kelly, will you make sure Barb sees the pictures of her ball in action?!)

Posted in Ellie | 3 Comments

Adventures in Baby Led Weaning* – She’s eating!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Laura

*from here on, known as AIBLW

It took five days of playing with her food but Ellie finally started eating!  It’s still very small amounts but she seems to have figured out that what we put on her tray is for putting in her mouth.  So far she’s had plenty of sweet potato and broccoli and today we added carrots and peaches.  Her favorite so far? Broccoli!  Her most disliked? Peaches!  We can our own peaches in the summer and they are by far the most delicious peaches you’ve ever had.  And when she put it in her mouth, she made the craziest faces (as in, “Gross!”) and spit it out!  So it may take her awhile to get used to fruit!

We’ve had so much fun watching our precious little baby discover food!
On her own!

Posted in AIBLW, cooking, Ellie | 2 Comments

Berta’s Better Bagels – the best yet!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Laura

Since January, I’ve been making bagels, using my friend Kristen’s mother’s bagel recipe.  This recipe was my college graduation present from Kristen.  Lest you think that a recipe seems like a rather poor graduation present, know that I was THRILLED to get the secret bagel recipe which had been a closely guarded highly desirable secret in our townhouse in college.  Even though Kristen gave me the recipe years ago, I’d only made them once before January.  I’ve made them many times now, and this last batch was definitely the best.  I’ve learned to roll the “snakes” much longer than I think I need to, which allows me to leave a bigger hole in the middle and also overlap the smaller ends so that the bagel ends up relatively uniform in shape.  We love our bagels!  Thanks Berta!

Posted in cooking | 6 Comments

April Sewing – Ellie and Luke’s Easter Bunnies

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Laura

Tina commissioned me to make soft bunnies for Ellie and Luke for Easter.  Alex (Luke’s 3-year old brother) had decreed that they should get soft toys in their Easter baskets and that he should get chocolate.  Smart boy!

I used a pattern from the Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts.  I wasn’t impressed with either the template or the instructions.  But I still think they came out looking pretty cute!

Plaid for Luke, flowers for Ellie

And the bunny in action (with Nik’s and Ellie’s feet for scale)

Posted in Ellie, family, sewing | 3 Comments

April Sewing – Ellie’s Easter Shoes

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Laura

Yiayia found a really cute dress for Ellie to wear on Easter so I decided to make her shoes to go with it.  You can see a picture of the shoes in action here.

I used the booties pattern from Anna Maria Horner’s book, Handmade Beginnings.  I wasn’t thrilled with the instructions for making the inner sole and then I just decided to not bother with it.  So if you look inside, they’re not finished – but no one did!

Posted in Ellie, sewing | 4 Comments

A fun new toy

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Laura

She figured out how to get the circles off – I didn’t even have to teach her!

Posted in Ellie | 1 Comment

First Solid Food

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Laura

We decided to celebrate Ellie’s 7-month birthday by eating some solid food.  We chose sweet potatoes.

So first she looked at it.

Then we had a little fun playing.

And then we played some more.

And all that playing made a big mess.

In all of this, only about one smidge of a taste made it into her mouth.  And that was Ellie’s first experience with solid food.

(And yes, in all these pictures you have probably noticed the lack of a bib.  Classic new mama mistake.  Oh well – it washed out just fine!)

I plan to write more about this in the future but for now, in case you’re wondering where the classic “spoon into the mouth” picture is, we have decided to feed Ellie using the Baby-Led Weaning method.  The basics are no spoons, no purees, and the baby is the only person who ever puts food into her mouth.  You’ll find a good explanation of the method here.  I’ll write more about our reasons for doing this at some point.  The first part of this is just Ellie discovering what food is – consequently, lots of playing, not much eating.  She did a good job playing though!

Posted in Ellie, parenting | 3 Comments