I guess I’m out of the habit of posting, and another month has gone by!
Raley is now 18 months - almost 19. She’s not the biggest talker… she doesn’t say a lot of words, and refuses (refuses) to say the word “mama.” She knows the word, knows who it refers to, but just won’t say it. Instead everyone is “dada.” Oh well… it will happen, right? But although she doesn’t say a lot of words, she does know/understand a ton, including some pretty obscure ones…
Future zoologist, maybe?
Other recent “hobbies” include trying to fit into small spaces (although it doesn’t always end happily):
I can totally fit on this bookshelf!
I fit into this cat carrier, but then decided I didn’t like it!
So, yeah, taking that last picture might qualify me for “bad mom” status since I took the picture before helping her get out, but it’s all for the blog!
Climbing to the highest places possible:
Linus says, “Wait a minute! Whose perch is this?”
And stacking things:
Taller than Raley!
This last picture merits some explanation… one of the kitchen cabinets that we hadn’t put the childproof locks on yet is the pantry/food cans. While I was in the kitchen with her, she started taking cans out of the cabinet one at a time. Then she stacked most of the cans (the bottom of the stack). Then we went and ate dinner and played for a while and I left the stack of cans and didn’t think about it. Then I had to step out of the room for a second (bathroom break, I think). When I came back around the corner, she was in the hallway carrying that jar of salsa (OK, I didn’t really realize that glass jars were in that cabinet!). She took one look at me and giggled and then raced into the kitchen towards her stack. I immediately envisioned broken glass, cut toddler, mayhem, etc. So I raced after her, but in the seconds that it took me to get in there, she had placed it right at the top - too big to totally fit on the can of olives, so it has a jaunty perch. But perfectly balanced! We went into the (more childproof) living room, and then I snuck back in to take a few photos :). And then we bought the locks for the jars/cans cabinet.
So that’s the Raley update. I have whale pictures and crafty things, too… we’ll see if I can get them posted before Halloween (but don’t hold your breath!).
Since my last post there has been knitting and gardening and traveling… but I know that most of you are here for Raley. So here’s her take on most of those things.
Gardening:
Gad-zukes! (sorry, couldn’t resist)
From our 4 zucchini plants, these were the first 5 harvested. I didn’t really realize that you can actually pick them at any time - I was kind of waiting for them to fall off. So yeah, they’re big. For perspective, at her last dr appointment, Raley was 31.5″ tall (75th percentile), and a wee 19 lbs, 14.5 oz (5th percentile). Yep, still riding in her backwards facing carseat - poor thing. Anyway, she’s a little on the small side, but those are still some big zucchini! We’re still working out quite how to use them all - so far we’ve had lots of pasta dishes and veggie casseroles. If you have any recipes, send them my way!
In addition to the zukes, we’ve harvested 2 cucumbers and at least 40 cherry tomatoes. We also have 5 eggplant plants (with a few tiny little purple eggplants just starting), 2 heirloom tomato plants that have some greens and 2 bell pepper plants that were late additions to the garden (filling in spaces where others died).
I’m very excited by my garden bounty - in our Maryland house we just didn’t have enough sun for anything to grow (8 full oak trees will do that to you - great for shading the house, bad for garden!).
Whale watching:
This past weekend we went whale watching in Santa Barbara. We put Raley in the Ergo carrier so that whoever was carrying her (wound up being Dan) could have both hands free for the boat - definitely worth it. Luckily for us, Raley took very well to the boat and didn’t have any problems with seasickness (our friends’ 2-year-old wasn’t so lucky - poor thing; there’s really nothing you can give them at this age and she just had to sleep it off). Raley did fall asleep for part of the trip, which is to be expected given the Ergo and the soothing motion of the boat and drone of the engines (half of the passengers on the boat were sacked out about halfway through), but she did see the whales (she pointed and said “DA!):
Thar she blows!
We saw both humpbacks (above), including 2 breaches, and several blue whales (always impressive!). And we had some fun times with common dolphins:
Did you see the dolphins? Raley did!
Such a fun trip.
Happy boat family
On our way up to Santa Barbara we stopped at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center (in Ventura) where we had fun looking at their displays. Raley and I rode a dolphin (the closest we’ll ever come to riding a real dolphin!):
Dolphin!
And Raley was really impressed by the elephant seal - a model of a full-grown bull (male).
Wowee! Look at that!
I’ll save our trip to Indiana for the next post. I’m away from home at a conference, which might bode well for my blogging efforts - we’ll see.
It’s true, Dan and I have gone off the deep end and got a totally awesome playhouse for Raley - her very own castle!
Every so often I work on the weekends, and then I tend to take a workday off work in exchange. Several of these days I’ve gone to daycare and spent the morning hanging out with Raley and her friends (then I spend the afternoons back home working around the house). One of the days I was there, Raley figured out how to climb up on the playhouse/slide that they have (it happens to be a Clubhouse Climber) and go down the slide (all by herself!). So then I got to thinking that Raley might enjoy a slide/playhouse/large plastic yard thing. And then I started looking them up on the web and Craigslist. I became slightly obsessed intrigued by all the different kinds - who knew there were rock climbing mountains and adobes and log cabins? But I was torn between a playhouse and a slide… and then I found one on Craiglist that had both (and was a nice price to boot!). The castle!
Front
Back
It has a front door, a parapet, a slide and a secret door exit (behind the fireplace!).
So here’s Raley giving you a tour of Château Raley:
Welcome and slide!
She does actually go down the slide, but the video is too long for flickr. I’ll see if I can figure out a way to edit it; otherwise I’ll try uploading it somewhere else…
Secret door and parapet!
This will keep her happy for some time, but at some point I think Dan and IRaley might need a cottage… or two (must have village houses for the serfs to live in!). I’ll keep trolling Craigslist!
P.S. For knitters with kids (or who know people who have kids - and who doesn’t?), have you seen the new online mag for kid knits? Check out Petite Purls!
OK, by popular demand, we took a few more Raley videos last night once we had mostly finished dinner (hence the messy face). Here are our two favorites:
First, I think this video pretty much sums up Raley’s personality. In 12 seconds.
Happy, and then not
People always comment on how happy Raley is, and the fact is that in public she is usually very happy. She loves people, she loves activity, and she is most content when there’s a lot going on for her to observe, and sometimes participate in. We usually reply to those people, yes, she’s a very happy baby, except when she’s not… basically, she has two moods: happy and irate. And it changes so quickly! In case you were wondering what provoked that mood change, the answer is absolutely nothing. That’s just how she rolls. After I stopped filming, she actually continued crying for about 15 seconds, and then went back to waving her hands, and then happy again. You just never know!
And here’s a longer one (in happy mood) for your enjoyment.
RaleySpeak and Yogurt!
Dan and I often comment about what a beautiful language RaleySpeak is - you can hear some of it at the beginning of the movie. It’s a lot of g’s and l’s and many words along the lines of glihglihgleegihl. Too bad there’s only one fluent speaker, and she can’t yet translate for us, so we have very little idea what most things mean. No mamamama or dadada for this girl! She does have a few words so far, most of which revolve around animals: kitty (pronounced ga-gih), piggy (there’s a guinea pig at daycare; this one sounds almost like piggy), cat (gah), woof woof (ooh ooh when she sees a doggie) and sometimes doggie. She said “airplane” once but mostly just makes a sign (we live under a runway, so she gets lots of opportunity!). She has additional signs for “want” and “up.” She steadfastly refuses to say “mama” or “dada” or anything similar, although she definitely knows who they mean!
Two noticeable earthquakes in two days… this fault seems to be having some issues! That’s the map from today’s aftershock - currently listed as a 4.1. It was noticeable - we have two glass lanterns on our mantel that really rattle, I felt a distinct movement, and the cats freaked the heck out. But it wasn’t quite as bad (or as long) as yesterday’s, when I actually picked Raley up and went and stood in the doorframe until it was over (the shaking lasted about 15 seconds).
You know when you move to California that earthquakes are a possibility, or even a certainty, but it’s still a little weird. Of course, Dan and I felt an earthquake in Maryland right after we’d moved there (leaving California behind, or so we thought), so it’s less weird than that.
The most suprising thing to me is the sound - there’s a loud roar that is hard to describe. My first instinct is usually that a large truck (semi) has driven into the house, shaking the foundations. Then I realize that I don’t have a truck in my living room, and it must be an earthquake.
Speaking of moving and shaking, here’s Raley demonstrating one of her new “tricks”: to clench all of her muscles until they start to tremble. I have no idea how or why she started doing this, but now she’ll do it on her own sometimes and she’ll imitate me if I start it. It’s cute as long as it doesn’t go on too long - she starts turning bright red! Anyway, enjoy this video and there will be a Raley update post shortly.
She’d actually taken a single step at a time a few weeks ago, and recently she would stand in place, bend down and touch the ground and then stand back up again, but on Friday (also Jenna’s birthday!) she took 5-6 steps a few times in a row. And by today, she seems to have the concept down, as you can see by the video! She’d still prefer to crawl most of the time (it’s still quicker), but I can see that she’s starting to figure out that it might be just as quick, plus she can hold things in her hands!
Some other recent Raley news… Easter was a big hit. Well, specifically Easter candy was a big hit.
I like this bunny!
And these eggs are delicious!
She’s also perfected a new kind of smile, one to show off her half teeth. We call this the snarl…
Arrrr
but it’s a smile, I swear. Of course, it’s also her “can I get away with this?” smile. As in, I’m going to crawl right up to the edge of the bed… and then smile at mom. “Can I get away with this?” Not so much, little one!
And finally, I still have not spent too much time on the computer recently, even though both Raley and I now have our own laptops, thanks to a birthday present from Aunt Jenna:
I’m just going to push this button…
But I do have a few more things to update on (some knitting! Garden work! Visitors!) so more soon!
Well, hello, friends! How’s it going? Life is good chez Snargle. Busy (as usual). Lots less computer time these days, mostly because of my “helper”:
Hey mom, what does this button do?
Raley is fascinated with the laptop (as with other electronic devices like the remotes and the camera). She wants to pull on the screen, push all the buttons, pull out the cables, and, oh yes, chew on anything she can get her mouth around. Does not make for very good blogging - or blog reading (sorry if you haven’t heard from me in your comments in a while!) - while she’s awake, which is typically until 8:30 or 9. But the time I’m not spending on the computer has been put to good use. I have been reading a lot of (library) books these days - mostly fluff, and checking out some of the recent books of one of my favorite authors that I had missed when they came out.
And I have been knitting. As I mentioned last month, I pulled out the Cabled Zipped Jacket (Schoeller + Stahl #10, ravelry link here) again. And I made a lot of progress, finishing the other front and even making a good start on both sleeves at the same time:
Two fronts, and two cuffs
And then I got stranded on Sleeve Island and got bored and…
Cast on something else. But, but, but! Using stash yarn (hooray!). This is the February Lady Sweater (pdf) from my Tess Superwash Merino, purchased at Maryland Sheep & Wool, May 2008. OK, I have older (much older) yarns in stash, but this is one that I really wanted to use, and this pattern calls for a slightly shaded semi-solid color, and it was on top meaning I didn’t have to move stuff around very much, and I wub it.
Yokey goodness!
Thanks to a cross-country plane flight this past week (work meeting), I’m now past the third buttonhole and almost to separating the arms. This is one sweater I’m definitely knitting for the product rather than the process - I can’t wait to be done!
The Jacket picture up there was a sneak peek of one of our major home projects recently. Taking advantage of a visit by my in-laws to provide baby-wrangling services (thanks Peter and Judy!) we painted the living room. You may remember that this room had a giant unpainted patch on the wall where the previous owners didn’t see fit to move a piece of furniture and paint behind it, so it was definitely at the top of our priority list. Also, it was missing a mantel for the fireplace. In all of the real estate documents the owners had said they were taking the decorative mantel with them, so that was cool. But I guess Dan and I had assumed that there was something un-decorative (plain) underneath it that would be left behind. Um, nope.
Lack of Mantel
They did actually leave us with a piece of a new mantel, but it was just one piece and we would have still had to buy the rest. Instead, we found a full real wood hand-carved (in China of course) mantel kit at (of all places) Costco.
Then we chose an awesome green paint color (Bullfrog) in a no-VOC paint, and got to work.
Here’s Raley and Linus enjoying the results (while Judy supervises):
It’s a new room!
Much better! And now Dan and I are just enjoying the fact that there’s not very much else in our house that we feel like we NEED to get done. Oh, there’s plenty of projects that we want to do and that we will do, just not at a breakneck speed. We can take our time and do things here and there and really enjoy the process.
And for those of you who’ve made it through the whole post, here is some gratuitous Raley.
She had quite the cold last week, including her first (diagnosed at least) ear infection. And a double one at that. Plus a runny nose and deep cough made her an unhappy Buggle. This is how she was spending a lot of her evenings:
Poor sickie!
After a doctor’s visit and three prescriptions (antibiotic for the ear infection, albuterol inhaler and prednisone for the lungs), she’s now back to her normal self. Although she seems to have given up her bottles of formula. She used to take approximately 24 oz of formula a day and now she’s refusing it completely (although they can sometimes get up to 4 oz/day down her at day care, she won’t take it at home at all). She has been drinking juice today, and she’s still eating plenty of fruit and other foods, so I don’t think she’s too dehydrated. But we do have a follow-up doctor’s appointment on Monday (for the cold/virus) so I can ask him.
And here’s a few fun videos of the Buggle demonstrating her Mad Skillz:
So Big!, Clap Happy, Bye-Bye
Shiny Flashy Box, come to me!!!
Thanks, and I’ll try not to be such a stranger.
P.S. Oh yeah, Congrats to all of us from the Blog Class of 2005! (link found via Cara) I’m so happy to be part of such an amazing group. My blogging may be sporadic these days, but I have no plans to give it up, so here’s to at least 4 more years!
Oh yeah, and for anyone who’s clicking off the link there, FYI my rss feed changed last year when I upgraded the software, so if you’re reading me through a reader, you need to subscribe to this link instead:
http://snargle.org/crafty/?feed=rss2
Thanks!
Alright, I’m working on a longer post, but for tonight this video is going to have to do it. For those who worry that we’re not keeping Raley occupied, here’s proof that she can entertain herself just fine. All she needs is an empty DVD case and her head. What fun!
Note the laughter… Oh, my daughter. What are we going to do with you???
Halfway through the month already, and no post. I guess I’m just feeling a little of the blahs. Or the blahgs, as it were. I haven’t really been on the computer very much at home, actually. We’ve been trying to work around the house - unpacking boxes mostly. How fun!
I’ve also been knitting some, which cuts down on my computer time, too. I made my mom a shawl for her Christmas present (still waiting on modeled pictures, though). I’m almost done with some socks, and I picked up a long-languishing WIP, the Cabled Zippered Jacket:
This was a contest winner on my blog, but since it’s been… um… over 3 years (yep, November 2005), you probably don’t remember it. When I put it down, I had finished one front and started the ribbing of the second. I’m through the ribbing and almost to the underarm bindoff. Big needles, few stitches and cables… I’d forgotten how fast it goes! It feels good to be knitting a sweater again, too. I’m definitely a sweater knitter at heart.
But just to tide you over, I did put up some pictures from Christmas on my flickr account. We went to visit my sister in Colorado, which was nice and snowy. A 2-day drive on both ends, but Raley slept for good parts of it and it was nice to see a different part of the country. It was also great to be off work for almost two weeks. But now we’re back and back to work!
Hey, I have a 9-month-old! As of yesterday. Raley has now officially been on the outside longer than she was on the inside (by 3 days, actually). Crazy, huh?
Speaking of crazy…
She’s doing so much now, but it feels like we’re right on the verge of so much more. She almost has teeth. She is almost crawling - she gets up on all fours and rocks and rocks. She’s even gotten one knee up, but then she winds up going backwards (so frustrating!). She’s even pulling up to stand on a very few select surfaces, like the headboard of our bed. And if you put her in place, she will stand for a while holding on to the couch or this built-in bookshelf (yay! new house!):
I’m a stander!
She loves bath time now - splashing the water is so much fun! And even when you get some in your mouth or nose it’s not that bad.
She’s a tiny little munchkin. We haven’t had our well-baby visit yet, but a month ago she was still under 15 lbs. I imagine she’s just over 16 at this point, but she’s pretty long. She fits perfectly in the 6-9 month footed sleepers length-wise, but you could probably fit another baby her size in there with her around. But of course we think she’s perfect!
Still not a lot of hair, but the eyelashes are out of control. Blue eyes and the hair that’s there is red and curly. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it grows in!
She’s eating lots of different foods now, although just one meal a day still. At first, she reacted the exact same way to every food - she eagerly anticipated the first bite, then made a concerned face and shook her head once it was actually in her mouth. A wrinkled brow for the next few bites, and then she was fine. Now we’ve finally started to find foods she doesn’t like. And a sustained dislike - she will cry after subsequent bites and finally start refusing (which is when we stop, or at least switch to something else). Of course, the 2nd day we try the leftovers, and those seem to go down OK so who knows.
And then there’s the times when you just can’t decide between a food you like (in this case, mangoes), or whether you want to start to melt down because it’s close to bedtime. This is the result:
As long as you keep the mangoes coming, nobody gets hurt.
And then there’s fun with the zweiback toast, which is her after dinner snack. And toy, as you’ll see:
Why is my hand empty now?
Never fear, no food goes to waste around here - picked up, dusted off, and she had many more minutes of toast enjoyment (taking it down to about a square inch).
