Stepping, Stepping, Stepping

When we were at my parents' house awhile back, Grandpa taught little E how to go up the stairs (we don't have stairs in our little ranch). He didn't do too much with that at home for awhile, but all of a sudden he loves to go up and down the step up to our back door. Sometimes the little guy will lift his leg up high to go down the step too, so cute!

 

At dinner today, Mr. Muffin was having some pureed peas (yum!), and he was really eyeing the dish I was filling his spoon from. I eventually let him see it (he was thrilled), bracing for a big mess. Instead of diving in with both hands as I was expecting, he carefully put one index finger in. Then took it out and put the other one in. Right finger. Left finger. Right finger. Left finger. Then he started grabbing with his whole hand...

I also knit E this little ball. I glimpsed it in a picture on Amanda's blog. (From reading Tiny Muffins, one might think hers was the only blog I read. It is not, although it's a good read.) I dug up the pattern, "Judy's 12-Section Yarnball," on Raverly, and knit it up.

 

Made with yarn leftover from a bunch of diaper covers!

 

It's knit in garter stitch, which I have never been particularly fond of. It's the simplest stitch, you knit each stitch back and forth in rows. Worked up in a relatively thick yarn like this, it does have a certain pleasing smooshy-ness to it. Maybe I'll make a garter stitch blanket afterall one day...

Cart Rider!

Today Mr. Muffin had a big first - he rode all around the grocery store in the shopping cart!

I almost always take him grocery shopping with me, but in one of the baby carriers. Over the past couple of months we've slowly been working on sitting in the cart instead. Some weeks he only wanted to sit in it for a few seconds before he reached up his little arms for me to take him out. Some weeks we didn't try it. And sometimes we even made it through the produce department.

Today he was just ready to spend the whole trip in the cart! He was busy shaking the handle and reaching out to try and touch everything.

No recent pictures since Hubbo was on a week long trip and had the camera with him, but here's one of our self-feeder from a little while ago.

 

Food Talk

Little E had his 9 month well-baby visit earlier this week. Vital stats are as follows:

• Height: 29.5"
• Weight: 22 pounds
• Noggin: 18" around

Nom nom, paper, nom

The pediatrician also happened to recommend the cookbook Nourishing Traditions, which, in an eerie coincidence, I had just checked out from the library last week. I'd look at the book once before and found it pretty overwhelming. Since the doctor was so taken with it, I'm going to do a "Nourishing Traditions Challenge" - cook one recipe or try one idea from the book each week. This week's challenge is already complete! The book is a big proponent of raw cheese, and the doc really thought E would do okay with me eating raw dairy. I tried raw dairy once before, and our conversation about it went like this:

her: What did you do with the cheese?
me: I put it in a casserole.
her: You did what?
me: I put it in a casserole.
her: You baked it?
me: Yep.
Silence...
me: I guess that disqualifies it as raw, doesn't it?
her: Yep.

So, I got some more raw cheese and didn't cook it this time. I ate all of it (not that I bought very much), and so far so good, no spits!

 

E is also really progressing at pincer grasping food and putting it in his mouth. We had strawberries at lunch today, and he got all of his pieces in his mouth without smooshing them! I think having really ripe raspberries yesterday helped him learn not to squeeze the food so much. Yes, I know you're not "suppose to" feed under ones strawberries or raspberries, but I didn't know that until after he'd eaten both with no ill effects. His first food was strawberries afterall!

Also, a strawberry piece fell on E's bib, and he pulled the bib up to his mouth and slurped it off. So cute!

9 Months Today

Our little guy is nine months old today! Most of the day was spent on the inspection of our (we hope) new house, and it was pretty fun for E, at least for the first couple of hours.

Walking with one-handed support

Tidbits:

• Your first tooth appeared this month!
• You most often walk around holding just one of our hands now, and can easily transfer your grip from one hand to the other
• You've started pincher grasping
• You're thinking about crawling
• You're having a bit of a mommy-is-best phase
• You've been enjoying playing the piano at your grandparents' house, and now the keyboard at home
• You regularly have two naps that start at about the same time every day (9am and 1pm), but you need a little more help to fall asleep than you used to

Although the camera probably could stop the motion of the fan blades, they are not actually on, don't worry.

Memorial Day

Looking back at Memorial Day, with a few pictures to share.

We went to the parade with my parents and met up with a high school friend of mine and her little girl. The hit of the parade was, of course, the band, even if they didn't play when they were near us.

Baby's first parade!

I love the gleam in Miss E's eye in this picture:

At the grandparents' house, we also completed a big project for little E! I've been on the lookout for a child-sized table for awhile. Although this one seems to be popular on some blogs out there, it's so expensive that even those people who really like Michael Olaf products tend to end up going with an alternative. That Michael Olaf table has a large solid wood tabletop, so it's quite sturdy. I wanted something similar, rather than say a kid's table from IKEA that would probably scoot around while the little guy tried to sit at it.

I found an end table that would work at a second hand furniture store. That was my lucky day, because nearly all of the other end tables in the store were only for sale in sets - 2 end tables and a coffee table - that were all over a hundred dollars. This one was in the "clearance" section, I suppose because it didn't have the matching tables and because it has a bit of visible wear on the top. Only $20, and it's solid wood!

After a bit of measuring and a brief meeting with the table saw, the legs were 8 inches shorter, putting the top of the table at 15". That height still allows the chair to fit under the "lip" of the table (the only drawback to using this end table this way is that lip), and it looks like a reasonable size when E sits in his chair. We're not really using the table yet, but it looks like a good spot for coloring to me!

In other news, a couple of days ago, Mr. Muffin pushed himself up on all fours! (With the help of a wall behind him) Here comes crawling...?