10 Months

I can't believe that my baby is already ten months old.

At 10 months old, she is...

getting around so well.  She crawls all over, loves to climb the stairs, and is always walking around furniture, walls, or whatever she can lean on.

standing without support every once in a while, but only when she is not paying attention and doesn't know she is doing it.

in love with music.  She loves to play the piano.  She starts dancing and singing whenever she hears music.

great at giving hugs.  She will climb up on our laps and lay her head on us saying "Awww."  It is so cute.  The last couple of days, she has also started hugging her toys, pillows, really anything she likes at the moment.

hating when I do her hair.  For a few months,  she did a pretty good job of holding still so that I could do her hair.  Now that she is so mobile though, she refuses to hold still for two seconds so it is a real battle to do her hair.

an absolute wiggle worm.  She will not hold still, at all, ever.

still in love with food.  She is now eating almost everything that we eat.  Her favorites are macaroni and cheese, spagetti, or any kind of noodles, anything with some spice to it, and meat including roast beef, chicken, and hamburger.

getting really smart.  She crawls to the window and waves bye-bye whenever she wants to go outside and shakes her head no whenever she gets close to something she knows she isn't supposed to touch.

in love with being outside.  She likes to crawl around and explore outside, go for walks, anything.

looking and acting less and less like a baby and more and more like a toddler.

It is so sad to me that she is growing up so quickly, but at the same time I love each new stage that she goes through.  She is so much fun now.  She is developing quite the little personality and attitude.  It is so fun to watch her and see who she is turning out to be.

Thanks to the Mothers

I couldn't let the day go by without thanking a few of the mothers in my life.

First of all, my own mom.  My mother is the most amazing woman I know.  She is one of the most compassionate, loving people in the world.  Throughout my life, she has always been there; supporting me, teaching me, crying with me, loving me.  I have never doubted the depth of her love.  I have learned so much from her and love spending time with her.  She is a great mother and a wonderful grandma.  I love you mom.  Thanks for everything.

Next up is my mother-in-law.  I have so much fun whenever I am with her.  She is a wonderful person and an amazing grandma.  Most importantly, she did a great  job raising her son.  I will forever be grateful to her for loving, supporting, and raising Kirk.  I know she was a great mother because I see the fruits of her labor.  Thank you so much.

This Mother's Day, I also feel that is important to thank another important mother in my life, Zoe's birth mother.  That woman understands unconditional love in the way only a mother can.  She loved Zoe enough that she did one of the hardest things a mother could do, giving her away.  She is a wonderful woman and a great example to me of love and strength, qualities that I hope Zoe inherits from her.  I love her for what she has given my family and for the life she has given to Zoe.  There are not words to say how thankful I am to her.

Simple Handmade Toys

Those of you who know me, know that I always have a new hobby.  I dive headfirst into some new activity, become completely absorbed with it, and then after a few months, put it away and move on to something else.  My most recent hobby has been sewing.  In the last couple of months, I have sewn a couple of dresses for Zoe, a skirt for me, and have been working on a quiet book that may get finished for my first grandkid.  The other day though, I just needed a quick project that I could get done without a whole lot of effort.

I desperately needed a diaper and wipes case.  My diapers kept getting squished at the bottom of my diaper bag and I could never find one when I needed it.  I found an easy, cute pattern at boogaboobabies.  You can buy a kit there with everything you need to create the bag, or you can download the pattern for free.  The pattern was really simple, but I wasn't thrilled with the way it turned out.  I used thicker ribbon for the handle than they did and it just doesn't quite hang right.  It does its job though and looks cute, so I am happy with it, and I think with a little tweaking, the pattern could be perfect.

My favorite creation though was the cute stuffed animals made out of the fabric scraps.  I found the pattern for them at Make It and Love It.  There are so many cute things on her blog that I want to make.  These animals were super simple and I love how they turned out.  Zoe loves them too.  She likes to play with the ribbons and suck and chew on the head of the giraffe and the trunk and legs of the elephant.  She also really enjoyed helping me make them.  She was fascinated with the batting and could have sit for hours just pulling it apart.

There is just something amazing to me about making things with my own hands.  It is very satisfying to watch my baby play with a toy that was made in my own living room, instead of some factory somewhere.  I think that sometimes our kids live in such an overstimulating world that we forget it is the simple things that often keep them happy and satisfied.  I am certainly not giving up on store bought toys, but something homemade is definitely nice once in a while.

Some Good Links

I just thought I would post a couple of links to some interesting blogs some of my friends and family have been working on.



Progressive Pioneer is the work of Amy, my roommate from freshman year of college.  Amy uses this blog to talk about the natural family living movement: things like cosleeping, cloth diapering, eating whole foods, urban homesteading, etc.  Amy lives in an urban area, but raises chickens and bees in her backyard.  She loves to make whole grain bread from scratch and live close to the earth.  She has some great insights and some wonderful stories.  She is my hero.  I think that anyone could learn a lot from her blog.  (She is also giving away two subscriptions to "Mothering Magazine" right now.  You have to enter before Friday morning, so hurry up and check it out.)



My sister-in-law, Karena, also has some pretty great blogs.  The first one is A Pleasant Sunday.  It is a place where she collects ideas for creating and enhancing spiritual moments with our children. She has a lot of fun ideas for things like family home evenings and keeping your kids good during sacrament meeting.  I have found several ideas on her blog that I have used in my own home.  It is a great resource.

 

Karena's other blog is Cookie Nut Creations.  It is a brand new website that features her free blog backgrounds (she also does custom work).  Although blog backgrounds aren't really my thing (I like my blog clean and simple), she does amazing work.  I love the backgrounds she has created.  If you are in the market for a new look for your blog, you should definitely check it out.

My Little Fashionista

Zoe is almost 10 months old, and is totally in love with shoes and sunglasses.  She refuses to wear shoes, but she is fascinated by everyone else's.  She has always been obsessed with my sunglasses, trying to take them off my face the second she sees them and grinning huge whenever I tease her by putting them on her.

The other day, my friend, Joy, gave Zoe these really cute sunglasses.  I didn't think she would ever wear them, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  She loves them and awards me with a big smile the second I put them on her.  Sometimes she takes them off, but usually she will keep them on for a really long time.  It is funny to watch her because she is so proud to be wearing them, and she looks adorable.

One of my favorite things about them is that her nose is not very good at holding them up, so they are constantly sliding down.  She is always looking over them.  I love it!