The Peanut Gallery

I keep trying to come up with something cute or snappy or witty to say, but apparently my wit is broken. Or perhaps it's hibernating. Either way, I think I've run out of ways to say, "Oops, meant to post, got too busy, here's some pictures of the baby to make up for it." So, yeah. That.

July 28, 2011: Sporting the awesome handmade!! clothes he received from one of the Ravelry October Moms.

August 15, 2011: One of our new favorite games is eating the camera.

August 18, 2011: Grandmama came to visit and she bought Schondy Tot's first shoes!

August 21, 2011: This is Schondy Tot's first balloon. He spent hours with it, until the dog popped it. He had so much fun, I'm wondering if I need to invest in a helium tank.

August 28, 2011: Carlton is the source of much fascination.

August 28, 2011: Bathtime, always an adventure.

August 29, 2011: When Irish eyes are smilin'... they're usually up to something. See also: when babies suddenly get really quiet...

August 29, 2011: Baby's got blue eyes

September 1, 2011: Our newest trick, first begun on his 10-month birthday (8/31), is standing unsupported. Yes, I'm helping in this picture, but only so we could get a picture where his tongue isn't sticking out in concentration.

Why did I leave you here all alone? Well, you see, life happened. We've had a lot of life happening lately. You've heard the saying, "I try to take things one day at a time, but lately several of them have attacked me at once," right? Well, We had a whole mess of them. For better or worse, we have a whole herd of them bearing down on us as I type, but the baby is sleeping and Schondy is playing video games, so I felt like I could take a few minutes to bombard you with baby photos.

So what's been happening? Well...

June 9, 2011: Schondy Tot and I played outside for a little while in the glorious weather we're having.

June 13, 2011: Schondy Tot had a playdate with one of the other babies from the October group. These two are 3 days apart in age if you can believe it.

June 18, 2011: We went to a wedding in Napa. He was a real trooper and looked like such a big boy in his button-down shirt and kakhis.

June 22, 2011: He's a big fan of food. In case you couldn't tell.

June 2011: We bought a house. (Yes, really.)

June 24, 2011: Schondy Tot started packing up toys to put in his new room.

June 2011: I finished off a new quilt.

June 26, 2011: Schondy Tot approves. That's good, since it's his.

June 27, 2011: Lulu and Schondy Tot shared some yogurt.

June 28, 2011: Bound and determined to crawl.

We also celebrated our first Father's Day and yesterday, my beautiful baby boy turned 8 months old. In the last month, he graduated out of his infant car seat, and he's started saying both "mama" and "dada" (though not really with any meaning behind them), clapping his hands and pulling up on everything in sight. He's not crawling, but he doesn't let that slow him down - he can wiggle/roll/army-crawl faster than you'd believe. In the last week, he's cut his first two teeth, mostly mastered eating yogurt from a spoon, and started laughing when we laugh. I wish you could all be here to enjoy it.

So........ hi.

Yeah.

I have no excuse other than...

Ooh, look! Pictures!

For Mother's Day, Schondy and the Schondy Tot did a photo shoot. I was there, but I was just the costume and props lady. Anyway. Pictures.

With the Easter Bunny Grandma Judy sent

Easter outfit 1

Easter outfit 2

Easter outfit 3

Yarrrrrr!

Yo, ho, ho and your little dog, too!

Pirate-y

Surrounded by Lubies

Lulu's never been very good at keeping her tongue to herself.

Hiding under the blanket Mama knit.

Hmmmmm.

Ooh! Blanket!

By some strange occurrence, my baby boy has reached the ripe old age of 5 months. I'm not sure how that happened, only that he's glorious and adorable and I can't believe what a person he is. He's beginning to sit on his own, though not for long and if you leave him there too long, he kind of slumps forward and ends up with his head between his feet. While yoga instructors might be thrilled with that position, he's not sure how to extricate himself and just gets frustrated. He's rolling back-to-front, though he's still having trouble with getting that one arm out of the way. And he's beginning to figure out how to really make use of the doorway jumper, which he hurtles around in at top speed while squealing in glee at the top of his lungs. There's an awesome HD video of him doing this over at my MobileMe gallery (Sorry - I'm not going to post a link. Trying to keep things as anonymous as possible. Email me if you don't know where my gallery is).

I've started work on SchondyTot's quilt. I'm now in the final phase of piecing together the top, where I actually have to make some decisions about final size and placement of things. This is the exciting part, but also the part that scares me. It's where it becomes obvious if you've lined up all the seam allowances right and cut all the previous pieces the right size. If you cut corners (pun intended) earlier, this is where that bill will come due. Otherwise, I'm working, driving back and forth to daycare what feels like a hundred times a day and trying desperately to keep up with life.

I haven't been able to participate in the last couple photo-of-the-week challenges due to my work schedule and not having enough hours in the day where we're all here, all happy (and not sick) and all awake, but I do have a couple to share, as well as some just random adorableness, of which there's no short supply.

So 3 weeks ago, the theme was Water Babies and.. I won!!

Since I won the week, the theme of the next week was my choice and I chose to feature Chew Toys! A lot of the babies in the group are now teething, and all of them have discovered the joys of cramming things in their mouths, so I felt like it was perfect timing, but then life happened and I just couldn't catch a picture that worked, beginning my streak of not having an entry, though I now have a couple photos that would have been perfect if they'd happened a bit sooner. For the most part, I can usually fulfill the challenge on Monday when I'm home all day with SchondyTot, but if I miss it on Monday, it's just not going to happen. So, had I taken the photo earlier, this would have been my entry for Chew Toys:

Last week, the theme was All Dressed Up. Missed that one, too, but I have several outfits that are needing some photos so I'm going to take the pictures and post them even if they're totally at the wrong time and don't count.

This week, Flying Baby. SchondyTot doesn't fly around too much, though it's more because he's so heavy than because he doesn't like it (he loves it). If I manage to catch one today, I'll enter it and it will be super late (the week ends on Saturday night, winner and new theme announced late on Sunday), but more likely I'll take a picture today and then won't actually post it. That's kind of what keeps happening to me.

So. Random cuteness!

Love my Grandmama and my new shades

Freedom!!!

Oh, hello!

Mom got a new carrier.

that I am insane, I made a quilt. I started it when TheSchondyTot was just shy of 11 weeks old and finished it on Thursday when he was just shy of 16 weeks old. Because clearly what every new mother needs is a project the size of a quilt to work on while she's learning to take care of her infant. On an impulse, I bought a quilt kit that was on clearance, thinking I'd use the fabric to dress up some burp cloths, but then realized that I've always said I wanted to make a quilt and, well, no time like the present.

I worked on it primarily after he went to bed, even going so far as to move my sewing machine and all the required parts and pieces down to the kitchen table so I wouldn't make noise near the sleeping baby and so I could hang out with Schondy while he played video games. I took very few pictures of it in progress, but I did capture the blocks while I was still trying to figure out how they should all fit together.

It's far from perfect. Far, far, far from perfect, and I daresay any serious quilters would be horrified at some of the decisions I made and some of my ham-fisted attempts at artistic elements, but this is the first quilt I've ever made and I think it's pretty good given all the extenuating circumstances.

When I was done with the top and needed to pick fabric for the back, I took scraps of all the different designs of the front and pieced them together to make a "swatch" that I could take with me to the fabric store. Partly because I didn't want to lug around that huge top and partly because I just liked the idea of a little block made from all the random scraps. When I was done with my swatch and after I'd picked out the back, I just fell in love with it and knew I needed to use it for something. I had a million ideas - make a pillow, make a wall hanging, make a bag, save it and combine it with others to make another quilt. Ultimately, I decided it would look really nice to put it in the middle of the back. This meant that I had to then piece the back together patchwork-style, but I think the result is really nice.

And just because I think it's a requirement to photograph any finished crafty project with the youngest critter in easy reach, gratuitous baby photos!!