Ten

Into the double digits!  And almost to the double digits of teeth, with two more new ones this month--bringing her total to 8 (twice what Mr. C had at this point).

Fortunately these two new teeth did not cause so many sleep disruptions as the upper four.

(Her new funny scrunchy, snorty face.)

So she's continued sleeping through the night, for the most part, but naps have continued to be up and down.  I solved one problem (the answer: prunes....), but she still struggles with getting to sleep.  She refuses to do it on her own, but neither does she like to be held.  Which kind of puts us at an impasse.  She does a rather spectacular full body flop backwards when she's tired.

Of course when she does nap it's usually for maybe an hour, which is not super awesome either.  At this point I am just crossing my fingers that naps will get easier when she switches to one a day.  

(I call this one "Nap Strike")

You know, in like six months.

But despite her sleep orneriness, she is generally very pleasant.  She happily plays and explores and follows everyone around.  She loves to sit with the bucket with cars and slowly get them out one at a time.  Even when she's cranky at bedtime she always cheers up as soon as we start reading books.

She finally had her 9 month appointment, where she slipped a little in height and rather more in weight (Mr. C was almost identical percentage wise at this age): 17.69 lb (22%), 28.75 in (80%) and her head is at 17.5 (59%).  She's just always on the go.

I haven't got her clapping yet but she loves it when other people clap.  She'll stand for a second or two on her own, until she realizes it.  She loves to push walkers around and Mr. C likes to cheer her on.  

Her favorite foods are cheese, bread and her morning banana.  When she doesn't want something she flings her head forward quite spectacularly.  It's not surprising that she usually ends a meal with her food in her hair or on her face because of this.

(Her favorite part of Christmas)

Sometimes I just have to pick her up and squeeze her little baby body because she is so little and cute and scrumptious...

  

...nap strikes and all.

A Dream is a Wish Your Brain Makes

Once upon a time, nearly three years ago, I had a dream about the Hunger Games.  It was an alternate ending, where Katniss and Gale fled District 12 and lived in the wild.  They escaped by going down some stairs next to the highway, into the woods.  But that detail is irrelevant to this story.

Now, this next part will also seem irrelevant but just go with me.  One of my favorite artists in the whole history of art is N.C. Wyeth, an American illustrator.  And one of my favorite paintings is an illustration he did for Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, of trackers in the snow:

So beautiful, misty and silent.  Can't you just feel the cold?

(If you want to see some other glorious N.C. Wyeth illustrations, check out the Scribner's illustrated editions of Kidnapped, Treasure Island and Robin Hood.)

Now where was I? 

Well.  I had this idea, some three years ago, to illustrate my Katniss and Gale dream as my own version of the trackers in the snow.  I immediately sketched out a very tiny doodle, and...that was it.

It's been on my yearly goals list ever since but always went undone.  Why?  Well, procrastination covers many excuses.  In this case it was covering my fear.  Yes, I admit to being too afraid to even start this project.  I had many extremely valid concerns, such as: What if it turned out terrible?  What if it was hideous?  What if I had to give up?  What if it was hideous?!

So instead of trying, I put it off.  You know, until some future day when I woke up to find my skill set had miraculously expanded to include N.C. Wyeth impersonation.  

But last month, in a rare moment of uncharacteristically reckless courage I thought to myself WHY am I waiting and WHAT am I waiting for?  I said to myself, Kyle, no more waiting!  It's time for doing!

And so, I did it:  

(And yes, my ridiculous inner critic whines about how no one would mistake it for an N.C. Wyeth painting.  I shush it by examining the bow and arrow, whilst nodding contentedly.)

I persevered through the ugly phase(s), I pretended to know what I was doing, I agonized over basically everything.  But mostly I just worked.  And isn't it strange how if you just do a thing, it will get done and you can say hurray and eat a celebratory milkshake?  

There's probably a life lesson in here somewhere.

A Sewy Little Christmas

No, this post isn't about actual Christmas events.  It's just the usual rundown of crafty things I did for Christmas this year.  In other words, look at how talented I am!

(lawl)

Mostly I made stuff for Baby this year.  The biggest project was a little quilt for her, like the one I did for Mr. C's first Christmas.  I should mention that he treasures that blanket and sleeps with it every night.  

JUST KIDDING, it's in his closet...

(As for that Winnie the Pooh blanket, he DOES sleep with that one every night.  Figures!)

But here is her blanket:

The colors look rather washed out in photos but you get the idea.  It was fun to pick out the fabric (thanks, Jo-Ann!) and I think it's really cute, despite my best efforts to mangle every corner.  Here it is in its natural habitat:

A byproduct of going to Jo-Ann's was that I found this great London-themed fabric.  So I made myself pajama pants:

Just because I've torn holes in like six pairs of pajama pants in the last year *weeps bitter bitter tears*.

I also made Baby a sleep sack and hat, like I did for Mr. C last year.  I think the hat is super cute and the sack keeps her cozy.  

I will NOT say that I did my best sewing on the sleep sack.  In fact I did some of my worst but it is functioning just fine and no one but me and Baby ever see it anyway.  And did I mention she looks super cute in that hat?  Mr. C calls the knots "kitty ears."

Speaking of Mr. C., I made him this bag for his library books because he likes carrying bags and he likes library books:

Let me clarify: I bought the bag at Hobby Lobby, the patron saint of Christmas craftiness, and then added the letter.  It's felt that I cut out using a template I made and then just hand sewed on.  Easy peasy.

In ornament news, I made these candy canes of my own design for my family this year:

(I bought the bows, after attempting my own...)

We also made Baby's handprint ornament for ourselves and the grandmas.  Only one of them got broken by a certain someone and had to be remade.

Finally, since Drew works at an actual office now I gave him a bunch of stuff for his desk.  I made this to go along with it:

lol indeed!