Fair Time!

Ewoyn went with us to two fairs this year. We had a great time looking at and petting animals, singing and dancing to music, watching people, going to a horse pull, we just had a great time. Eowyn is so flexible and excited about people that she's a delight to bring to events like that.

She greeted the cow with a hearty MOOOO,



the sheep got her enthusiastic BAA!! She quacked hello to the ducks, and then did the baby sign for "bath" while she watched them play in the pool.







A few weeks ago we went to our town's "Heritage Day", where we saw Alpaca, for Ewoyn that was the first time. She tried greeting them with Baa...which was a reasonable assumption. They do sort of look like long necked sheep, especially to a baby whose whole repitoire of animal sounds and knowledge come for books, at this point. Well, that is not even close to the sound they make. It's a weird screetchy sort of sound. Well, Ewoyn corrected her little communication faux paux and started to speak "Alpaca". Amused at the time, we sadly forgot about the Alpaca noise and having no real Alpaca books, went about our days mooing and baaing. Well, at the fair, we again encountered an alpaca. Ever the "baby for all species" Ewoyn greeted the Alapaca with the appropriate hello!! We were shocked, and needless to say, pretty proud!





Grampa and Ewoyn were checking out the chickens.




Later my mom showed her the John Deere tractor barn...trying to appeal to my father to buy one, because "Ewoyn really likes them"...and wouldn't that be great, she could buy her grandaughter a tractor, and maybe get Grampa to use it for some yard work...we did not come home with Eowyn's own tractor, but she did seem right at home in the seat.

Not made in China

I haven't liked buying Chinese goods for quite some time, but with recent issues with safety, I make it a stronger point to avoid toys made there. However, it's near impossible to find any "store bought" toy not made in China. So I am making many of my own. Eowyn loves her newest little "Made at Home" toy...Isn't she adorable! Do you want to make one? Here is the link to the Etsy Seller who designed the pattern... Owly She has adorable "boy toys" to crochet as well!

Tool Heiress...

My friend Jen made Ewoyn custom onsies when she was still waiting to be delivered. They fit her now, and I had to show you! Here's the little "Tool Heiress" singing and playing the bells!

Do I need another hobby?

Okay, so I probably don't need another Hobby. Ewoyn keeps me busy, and then I make beads from time to time, Knit whenever I can, sew while the baby sleeps...usually clothes for her. But then I got an idea!

I designed a new item. The Car Catch-all. Basically I need to know where a couple things are while I'm in the car. Namely, my Cell Phone, a pen, the debit card for when I go through the Starbucks drive through and order my Shaken Blueberry White Iced Tea (with 1/2 the sweetener). Occassionally a shopping list, or some cash, is among that list. The Car Catch-all handles ALL that AND my sunglasses!!

What mom couldn't use another hand? I love mine, so I am selling them on Etsy. Go check them out! I'd love it if you bought one and told me if you love it too!

Our own amusement...

We were in a restaurant. They had a Big Red Clifford to ride on...strange enough that they hollow out animals for children to climb into, but then there is the the brown clumps on his nose and head. Upon first glace we though...what is that? Poop? No, of course not, it's Dog Bones... I say this is just poorly thought out. But Eowyn did like it. We didn't take her picture because she was so cute playing with this bazarre toy, we took it because of the Poop inspired dog bone decorations. Yes, we find amusement in the strangest places.

Drinking with Straws

Eowyn now prefers to eat food from our plates, not baby food. She also likes to share our drinks. She figured out how to use a straw and here she is using TWO at once. Shortly after this picture was taken her hand went into the glass. We are still working on proper etiquette when sharing a drink...she doesn't understand not back washing either, so sharing is really best done when you didn't want anymore anyway!

Art Aficionado

Eowyn went to the Boston Museum of Fine Art for the first time in April. She loved it. The day happened to be during their flower show. Floral designers create displays to compliment or emulate the particular piece of art. The reason this matters, is the museum was filled with people, primarily women, primarily over 45, and they loved Eowyn. She loved the attention, all the noise of people talking and all the things to look at. She sang with glee almost the entire time. Since she loved it so much we decided to take her back every few months. This time was to see the Hopper exhibit. I guess one of his most famous paintings would be Nighthawks, from 1942.

He did a lot of landscapes inspired by New England coasts, as well as glimpses into life in New York. The exhibit was wonderful, and Ewoyn again enjoyed her trip to the Museum. She was very well behaved, sang a lot, and seemed to be much more into looking at the different pieces. It was a lot of fun. She did have a moment of frustration when we wouldn't let her play on the Japanese Artwork...I can see why she thought it was a toy. With the low lighting and her enthusiasm for the piece, she's a little blur in of excitement!

We also saw a fellow Lampworker in the "Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection". Kristina Logan lives in Portsmouth, NH. It was exciting to see her exhibited.

We will be taking Ewoyn again sometime, we had so much fun!

I'm so hungry...

I could eat a monkey!! Eowyn waiting for breakfast to arrive, during her first trip to Denny's...the breakfast Mecca!

Loving Barnes and Noble

Eowyn LOVES books. She prefers them to any other toy. Not that she doesn't like toys, she does. I'd say her favorite is her blocks. But she picks books far more often. We have a lot of board books and thankfully, even though she has her favorites, we don't have to read them over and over all that much. She is very good with the pages too. Most of her books are board books, but some are small books with regular paper pages, and she has done well to not rip them.

She'll grab a book and trudge over to one of us, drop it in our lap and do the sign for book. Sometimes when we are done, she'll do the sign for "more", then for "book". It's almost a sentence!!

Her favorite store seems to be Barnes and Noble. She does the sign for "book" off and on the whole time we are there. Christopher is reading to her in an aisle of the store here. She recently got a gift certificate, for her birthday, so there will be some shopping happening soon!!

(photo taken 7/22)

Room Service Please...

Eowyn spent her first night in a hotel. We went away for a church retreat and stayed nearby in a hotel. Eowyn did very well being out of her normal surroundings and not in her own bed. She liked the big bed, but slept her her pack 'n play.

She looks so little!

(photo taken 7/21)

The summer of DADDY!

Christopher is a teacher. This year, instead of working a summer job, he took the teacher summer off to help with Eowyn and work on getting ready for the next school year. He had such a great time with Eowyn and she LOVED having her daddy around. Here they are playing...

Boy are we going to miss him when school starts...TOMORROW!!

(photo taken 7/22)

Catch up!!!

Okay, it's been over a month since I last posted and a lot has happened...she even turned 1 !! Sorry I've been so silent. It's been a busy month with my business, then birthday plans, and family stuff, and Christopher going back to school, and developing a new item to sell, and chasing after a very adept walker, and ... are you tired yet? I am. Not to mention computer problems that made access to pictures difficult. But, enough with the excuses. On to the pictures.

Eowyn loves to sing. She sings a lot at home, and requests music with sign language. Here she is singing in a lively church service, with her daddy, while she plays her tamborine. Lots of people talked to us afterwards about how sweet it was to see her so into worship already! (photo taken 7/21)

Bad Hair Day...

...enough said.

11 months old and walking!!

Eowyn has been taking steps here and there, as you know. But on her 11 month birthday she started walking yards, not a couple steps. She can lift herself off the ground, stand, without assistance, stabilize and start walking. She still falls quite a bit, but I do believe she is now saftely considered a 'walker'.

She went to visit her grammy today, and walked around the yard with a big purple ball! She thought she was hot stuff...

Christopher's Musings...

When I started this blog I figured Christopher and I would both scatter our thoughts on raising Eowyn, throughout the "pages". As you who read often know, it's all me. But from time to time I reference Christopher's observations. This is one of those times:

We feed Eowyn healthy foods. Most of her baby food is homemade, by me, using wholesome ingredients and a blender. I've tasted this whirled cuisine and have found it to be very palatable, despite it's lack of salt, or added sugar. She likes most of what I serve her, though from time to time she will turn up her nose, or more likely wrinkle her face in disgust over something we've spooned into her mouth.

Then there are times when we are playing outside. There is grass, rocks, woodchips, or sand. All of these things my tactile baby loves to explore. Often times they head towards the mouth. Sometimes we don't catch it in time and it reaches it's destination. Such was the fate of a handful of sand at the lakeside beach. We diligently tried to wipe away all the little particles, which we succeeded on a moderate level. As Eowyn happily gummed the gritty residue, and reached down to try this move again, Christopher started to ponder... "Why disgust over tasty morsels in her highchair, but enthusiasm over a mouth of dirt?"

Conclusion: Children must have a switch in their brain. Food or Explore. When the food switch is on, the child has the ability to discern flavor, texture, and temperature. These all must align in perfect harmony for success to be achieved. But click the brain to Explore and anything and everything is fair game, and quite tasty to the little adventurer. Unable to find the switch, we will continue to dodge handfuls of sand and the occasional ant traveling along the floor...

Standard Issue Teddy Bear...

Legend as it, my Aunt, Uncle and Father were talking about "the problem with kids" and someone determined the problem to be the fact no one gets "standard issue Teddy Bears" anymore. Simple brown, soft bears, who don't talk, sing, dance, they just "are". So started my Aunt Eileen's (loving refered to as Chip by all her family...another story) quest of ensuring the children of the family start out on the right foot. A "Standard Issue Teddy Bear" is given to all the kids when they are born. I had one, my cousins all got one, and Eowyn recieved hers, as well. She loves that bear. She likes to drag it around, lay on it and give it great big "bear hugs" complete with a little growl of enthusiasm. Here is Eowyn, happily enjoying "StandardIssue", the Bear. Thank you Chip and Thank you Grammy Ouellette for the fabulous picture!

Showin' off for Uncle Kenny

Christopher's youngest brother, Kenny, came over for dinner tonight. Eowyn decided to take the opportunity to break her record of 4 steps in a row (which was achieved on the evening of the 20th), with a whopping 7! This is also the first time that she walked on her own, where the goal of her strides did not involve something we had told her she couldn't have. She was walking to Daddy tonight...aaawwwww.

And to the top...

Eowyn loves stairs! She doesn't take them slow either. If you are her finger support and she heads for the stairs, be ready. She is beatin' feet up those babies, and don't expect her to get both feet on one step at a time...one step = one foot, just like the "grown ups" do it. I'm sure that will change when she's flying solo, but right now she has many an adult taking the stairs!

Like mother, like Waterbaby

I love the water. If I'm stressed the best way for me to calm down is relaxing in the tub. In the summer, I love floating in the water in a nice big innertube. Eowyn seems to find the same solace and enjoyment in the lovely mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. She enjoys her baths, loves when Grammy W lets her play in the sink after a particularly messy meal, and recently had her first adventure in a lake. Here is the sweet baby girl enjoying her new floatie from Grammy O.

Summer Fun!

We went to our first BBQ with Eowyn. My cousin's son, Will, was baptised on Sunday, and we went to the "After Baptism BBQ". It was a great time and Ewoyn loved their lawn! She had the best time exploring, and I couldn't take my eyes off her, it was such a delightful sight. She picked up grass, leaves, rocks and the best part...nothing went to her mouth! She did a great job of exploring with her other senses, instead of her old standby. She also spent a good deal of time watching all the big kids play. You could see the wheels spinning. She wanted to be out there running around too. I'm sure she will be by the end of the summer. I took a ton of pictures and this is one of my favorites. It makes me smile, I hope it makes you smile too!