Working without a net

I swear I've had 50 heart attacks in the last 30 minutes.

Last weekend the 'bee suddenly figured out how to push up to standing given any vertical surface within reach. The standing part is fun. It's entertaining. It's the cutest thing ever.

The problem is she can't get back down.

At first this was ok. She would fall backward onto her somewhat padded backside. Today, she's decided that her backside isn't good enough. Instead, she's going to let go with both hands, turn, and launch face/hands first into the ground.

For now we've resorted to letting her dive around the play pen we've never used until she figures out a less heart stopping way to get down from standing.

Aiyah...

Dance Class Nostalgia

Baby leggings are the cutest things ever. Luckily for my amateur sewing skills they are also one of the easiest crafts ever!

I had a pair of socks that had grown a hole in the heel, so I thought "Hey, wouldn't it be great if Zadie could wear them? Aside from the hole, they fit pretty well around her legs and would be much better than the funny knee pads they have to protect babies' knees from rather unforgiving hardwood floors". Lo and behold, someone had already thought of this. Luckily for my bank account, someone else had also posted some nice step by step photo directions of how to make them from knee-highs!

My first attempt...one of the cuffs was done wrong...I finally figured out what the directions meant halfway through the second one :)


Then I went to the tar.get to look for knee socks. Originally I wanted to do something for Halloween, but those were 100% acrylic, so I opted for the mostly cotton in fall color argyle. The second attempt turned out much better!

They remind me of footless tights we'd use for dance class. The bee loves having her feet free to get better traction as she scoots around. Also...so much easier than messing with pants that are not designed with cloth diapers in mind!

I discovered a hole in my alpaca hiking socks today. At one point, I'd had an idea to make a quilt from all the hiking socks I've managed to destroy (I don't understand why this doesn't happen to Zeb's socks...), but it will take forever to save up enough holey socks! Maybe when the bee's outgrown her leggings I can revisit this. For now, alpaca leggings for the bee!

We'll call him "Loppy"

The pattern is from Martha Stewart's website.

Here is her version...


Here is mine...


Practically indistinguishable, I know!

It is a good thing that the bee is more interested in chewing on things than judging their symmetry.

Stepmaster....

The living room no longer defines the boundaries of bebe-world. The bee has figured out how to climb the step!


I think she likes it because it gets her that much higher off the ground. She also gets to explore the rest of the house this way. She doesn't seem very interested in going backwards, so there was the "Unfortunate Bump Incident" when she tried to go down the steps!

Happy Half Birthday!

We celebrated the bee's first 6 months this past weekend!

She had lots of fun grabbing frosting, but was somewhat miffed when we wouldn't let it continue.

It was also great fun to play with cousins/aunties/uncles of roughly the same size :)

Special thanks to grandma for the terrific party and to auntie Christina for remembering to bring the camera!

In other news, the bee's figured out how to get up the steps in the living room. We are also working on our first little tooth. Watch out!