E does the blogging - 21 months

In the past few months I have turned into quite the chatter box. Mom figures I was just waiting to say things until I could really say them well. On the day Mom took my pictures I said my name for the first time. Mom and Brother were so excited and tried and tried to get me to say it again - but I wasn't interested. I've also recently learned, "prickly" "train" "airplane" "truck" "story" "pants" bike" "flower" "outside" "buckle" "go away" "please water" "sorry" "help" and a whole lot of other words too. I will even attempt to say anything Mom asks me to, like "friend" at the store yesterday.

Brother taught me a great trick of saying "hi" to everyone we see - especially at stores. Mom says we make a lot of people's day when we say hi to them. I am certainly not shy when it comes to saying "hi" as long as I do it myself. If Mom has to prompt me to say hi then I get really shy.

I love fruit! Right now we have apples, pears, and grapes in our back yard and I sample each of them nearly every day. I am just the right size to fit under the support structure for the grapes. I have surprised Mom several times by walking out from underneath the grapes when she didn't know I was under there. I can hide completely in the grapes and then I can eat as many as I want. I really love eating grapes! Every day when we got outside I ask Mom for an apple. She quickly found if she didn't give me a good apple I'd just eat the rotting ones off the ground. So now I get an apple a day - and it seems to be keeping the doctor away. I haven't had to go to the doctor since I got tubes in my ears in June.

I am very motivated to keep up with my big brother. I love to follow him around and do everything he does. If he sits down to put his shoes on I sit down so I'm in the exact same position to try to put my own shoes on. I really love shoes, too. I know which shoes match up and which person they belong to. I sometimes hand people their shoes in matching pairs when I'm ready to leave. 

Since I got tubes and moved into a bed I've been sleeping a lot better at night, though I often fall asleep just inside the door and sleep on the floor all night long. But I rarely get up in the middle of the night any more.

Climbing is my favorite game. I love to open the dishwasher and climb on the door. If the stools are down I push them around the kitchen and get into whatever has previously been out of my reach. One day I even set the timer off on the stove. It really scared me and I haven't tried that again. 

I love reading books, especially the books that just have pictures and the words to what they are. I pull one out and tell Mom everything I know in that book, then I have her tell me all the things I don't know. Then we start all over again. My favorite things to find are dogs and cats, because they also make noises which are fun to make.

E Does the Blogging - 18 months

Ok - so my update is a month late - but the picture is about right. There is just so much to do these days! Who has time for typing on the computer when there is a whole world to explore? I love exploring. I climb on everything and even when I fall it doesn't stop me from climbing or trying to climb on anything else. In the few weeks we've owned a bunk bed I've already learned how to climb up and down the ladder by myself. Mom always says I have no fear. I love water and heights and dogs and strangers...I'm not scared of anything - except being taken away from my mom and dad. A couple weeks ago (6/24/13) I got tubes in my ears. The anesthesiologist took me from my mom and dad and I was not happy. Other than that the tubes haven't bothered me much at all. The hardest part was not eating before we went to the doctor's office at 7:30 in the morning. By then I've already been up for a couple hours, you know - and a guy sure gets hungry when there's so much to explore at 6 am!

I love living in my new house. I love playing in the yard - especially the front yard. I'm not allowed to be out there by myself, but I sure try to be. I really love playing in the sprinklers. I always scrunch my shoulders when the water hits me - but I keep going back for more. I also love to play in dirt and mud. I have ruined several outfits since we moved with mud. We got a dog a couple weeks back and I sure do love Lola. She often licks me right in the face and I always shudder but go back to her for more. I love dogs! Every time I see her outside I holler "DOG!" and I start saying "woof" over and over. I have also learned to say "meow" and I always tip my head to the side when I say it.

My vocabulary has exploded over the last month or two. My favorite things to say are "uh-oh" "stuck" "Cay-ba" (Caleb) "Ouchy" "shoe on" "shoe off" "wite" (light) "bonk" "car" "no" "tanks" (thanks) "Bye! 'ove you!"

I love food. Watermelon may be my all time favorite though. The other day Mom gave Caleb a plate of watermelon and I reached over, grabbed a piece, and stuck it in my mouth - amid protests from my older brother. Mom handed me my own plate of watermelon a few seconds later and I spit out the piece of watermelon I swiped from Caleb, put it back on his plate, and went to work on my own plate of watermelon. I sure do love watermelon! I am not a fan of bread and I nearly refuse to eat tortillas. But other than that I'll eat anything. I love emptying the cupboards and getting into anything I think I might get away with if no one is looking.

Sleeping, especially at night, is not my favorite thing. Since I've been moved into a big bed I can now get out whenever I want. I often end up snuggling with Dad (Mom always takes me back to my bed - she doesn't believe in snuggling and sleeping at the same time). Sometimes I have night terrors and lately when that happens I end up running around my room or the house and screaming in the middle of the night. Usually when it happens once then it happens multiple times that night and then doesn't happen for a couple weeks. I almost always wake up about 5:30 - no matter how late I went to bed or how many times I was up in the night. I have to be that early bird! Lately though Dad just snuggles me back to sleep for an hour if he can.

I love doing anything Caleb does. If he lays on the floor - so do I. If he poses for a picture - so do I. My big brother is my best friend and we always do everything together - except he isn't fearless like I am so I am often the one to lead out in making trouble. I love carrying my blanky (Bay) around and chewing on it. Mom says that's gross - but she can't convince me!

I have been learning to sing and dance. Most of my singing is incomprehensible to everyone but me - but Mom says she can sometimes tell what song I'm trying to sing. Zip-a-dee-do-dah is one that I love to sing that's easy to hear what I'm trying to sing.

I suppose that is enough of an update for now. I have cupboards to unload, you know. "Bye! 'ove you!"

Wavy Crochet Blanket Pattern

Adapted from THIS hat pattern and THIS blanket pattern

20 week blanket size
3 colors of yarn
Color 1 = in between little stripe
Color 2 = first wavy stripe
Color 3 = second wavy stripe

Ch 52
Row 1 - color 1: sc across

Row 2 - color 2: sc across
Row 3 - color 2: sc across, ch 1, turn
Row 4 - color 2: *sc 3, hdc 2, dc 5, hdc 2* repeat * to * across (ending with sc 3), ch 1, turn 

Row 5 - color 1: sc across

A
Row 6 - color 3: *dc 3, hdc 2, sc 5, hdc 2* repeat * to * across(ending with dc 3) ch 1, turn
Row 7 - color 3: sc across, ch 1, turn
Row 8 - color 3:  *dc 3, hdc 2, sc 5, hdc 2* repeat * to * across(ending with dc 3) ch 1, turn this is a repeat of row 6 - all your stitches should match up with the stitches on row 6 - sc on top of sc, hdc on hdc etc.)

Row 9 - color 1: sc across


B
Row 10 - color 2: *sc 3, hdc 2, dc 5, hdc 2* repeat * to *  across (ending with sc 3), ch 1, turn
Row 11 - color 2: sc across, ch 1, turn
Row 12 - color 2: *sc 3, hdc 2, dc 5, hdc 2* repeat * to * across (ending with sc 3), ch 1, turn (this is a repeat of row 2 - all your stitches should match up with the stitches on row 10 - sc on top of sc, hdc on hdc etc.)

Row 13 - color 1: sc across

Repeat A and B until blanket is at desired length - I usually go until it's square for angel baby blankets. 

For your last two rows you'll want to do the last two rows of the next A or B section to make it less wavy on the top. So if the last full color you did was B then you'll do row 7 and 8 after your row 13. If the last full color you did was A then you'll do row 11 and 12 after your row 9

To make a bigger blanket start with a multiple of 12, add 3, add a ch 1 and turn.

Embellishing

Embellishing

Angel baby crochet outfits

I've been trying to find more ways to use embellishments lately. It's really fun to see how outfits can go from a cute outfit to a darling outfit with very little effort. 

These No-Sew Hats are great! I just tied on the little blue teddy bear button with a knot. I hot glued the rosebud onto the knot. 

This 16 week rosebud set is currently my favorite:

I hot glued my roses on - though I have heard of some other glues that might work as well/better. They seem to be sturdy enough for now. I've taken this outfit out a number of times and even fit it to the little 16 week size doll someone made for me and there is no danger of the roses coming off yet. I sewed the buttons on first then I didn't like the way they looked so I glued the rosebuds over them. Make sure the hot glue doesn't accidentally close your outfit off!

I've also been working to mix and match sets a little more so that everything isn't all the same color. One thing I've been playing with quite a bit is using the sewn Teeny Tears diapers with crochet sets. Someone else did these diapers - and inspired me to glue things onto the safety pins on the diapers:

One thing to be sure of is that your safety pins can still open and close with something glued on. The roses are hot glued on to one side of the safety pin so that it can still open. The buttons cover almost the whole head of the safety pin - but are nice and flat so you can still open and close them.

What other embellishing ideas do you have? I need to try this a little more - it makes the outfits have an extra measure of cuteness!

A house is a house for us!

We closed on our house today!

Back yard pictures

Perfect for our 5th anniversary - don't you think? Lots of work to do in the next two weeks till we move (and probably more after that) - but the house is ours! And today is a beautiful day.

And yesterday Sam took the day off so we could go see the tulips at Thanksgiving point - something I've been wanting to do for weeks and we had planned to go this weekend but now we're house fixing instead. But we did make it and got some fantastic pictures. What a fun (and busy and crazy) anniversary weekend we are having!