Catching Up...

Why not make yourself a cup of tea and visit for a while? I know that I've been neglecting the blog lately, so today is another "catch up" post where I try and relate everything that's been happening over the last month...

ADA

Ada is 7 months old and continues to blossom into a pretty little girl. She can sit up on her own now and is very interested in playing with all of her toys. I know I've mentioned this before, but this is one happy little girl! Ada has also started to learn new consonants (like the 'd' sound) and babbles happily to herself while she plays.

But don't let her cuteness fool you; this girl likes to get her own way. She lets out a horrific scream any time Liam takes one of her toys away and if you set her down on the floor when she'd rather be carried, she lets you know!

Ada is now onto fruits and vegetables. Her current favourites are pears and apples with peas finishing a dead last. We'll keep working at getting her to like those peas!

LIAM

Poor Liam is sick of been cooped up all day in the house. We've had some warm weather lately, so I let him out to ride his bike around on the sidewalk. I sit by the window with a tea and watch Liam play in the snow - doesn't he look like Elmer Fudd in that hat?



Last week, Liam spent a day at the farm and Grandpa and Grandma Farm took him skating for the first time. Way to go, Liam!

Liam is now fully potty trained. He even can pee standing up "just like daddy". He's pretty proud of himself.

AROUND THE HOUSE

I have become a lean, mean bagel making machine. Unfortunately, none of my subsequent batches have ever turned out as good as the first! At any rate, we're really enjoying homemade bagels for breakfast these days.

My mom also passed on some sourdough starter to me and I have been experimenting with sourdough baking. I love it, love it, love it! Here is my starter that I feed 1 c of flour and 3/4 of water everyday.

There are many sourdough recipes out there to try and my mom has posted some of them on her new website. By far, sourdough waffles are the best waffles I have ever tried.

I'm ready for spring and have put in my order for this year's seeds. I've been looking through my usual gardening books - here's my favourite.



It has great vintage photos, but even better, it's a really great resource for those who want to garden organically. This book taught me all about crop rotation in the garden.

And it inspired me to garden in my Sunday best...

...if only I looked that good in the garden...

This year I hope to can some of my veggies. I've tried canning before, but with limited success...I prefer to blanch and freeze veggies for winter storage. However, I'm hoping to can things like spaghetti sauce, relishes, chutneys and jam this year. Who knows, maybe some of these items will turn up in your christmas stocking!

Nialle's great aunt and uncle own an acreage near Devon and are planting potatoes, tomatoes, squash and carrots for me in exchange for my labour. I will go out and help them in their massive garden about once a week and get to take home extra veg that I can't grow in our yard. I'm pretty excited about this and am looking forward to learning new things from some gardening masters.

I've been very unmotivated to knit these days. I think trying to do a handmade christmas this year really burnt me out. But I've tried to remain disciplined and have managed to knit the body and sleeve of a new sweater.

...here's the back of the sweater...lots of texture that feels great under your fingertips...

It's green. I'm really nervous about knitting with colour...I prefer more muted, natural tones, but this was the only colour I could really find locally that suited this pattern.

I've also been spinning a bit, experimenting with bamboo...

and some merino from a flock belonging to a couple that goes to our church...

I've also designed and knit a simple pair of leggings for Ada to wear. The free pattern is over here.

Liam doesn't like to wear sweaters of any kind, so I don't think I'll be doing much knitting for him this year. Thankfully, Ada's too young to complain about wool yet, so I'll be keep busy knitting for her (if I ever feel motivated to knit again).

Yikes! Long post...and there's still more I could write about. But your cup of tea is probably done now, so I'll save other news for another day!

Six Months Old

Ada Babes is about to turn six months old. I can't believe that half a year has flown by already. I know it's cliche, but it seems like just yesterday I gave birth to our baby girl.

Ada is bright and sunny: full of laughs, smiles and snuggles. She is definitely the apple of her Daddy's eye and has him wrapped around her little finger.

We started solids on Monday and Ada is taking just fine to her rice cereal. She tries to 'nurse' the spoon, but isn't having any problems swallowing the pablum. I'm looking forward to introducing her to some nummy fruit in the months ahead.



Our little girl has discovered her hands and is reaching out and grabbing for things. Anything, really. Glasses, hair, noses, forks and cat tails are all fair game and go immediately into her mouth. But the best thing about Ada learning to use her hands is that she'll gently touch our faces when we hold her, or she'll play with my hair and rub my arm while she nurses. I remember Liam did the same thing when he was this age...it was heart melting.

Ada is becoming more mobile. When put on her tummy, she can push herself around in a circle with her hands. She can also push herself backwards too. I didn't think she could move as well as she could until I felt her gnawing on my pant leg while I was making lunch today. She had moved half way across the kitchen floor to where I was standing!

Ada's two favourite things are still her brother and her cat; seeing either will send her into spasms of laughter.

I am truly blessed to have great kids and a happy home. Here's to the next six months ahead. Cheers!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

This morning, Liam was watching a Bobcat clear the parking lot across the street. When the bobcat had been loaded up onto the trailer and driven away, he asked, "Mommy, where'd the bobcat go?"

"Well, Liam, he probably had to go to another parking lot to clear the snow there. A bobcat has a lot of hard work to do."

"Yeah," Liam responded with a serious look on his face, "but it sure does impress the girls."



I just about died laughing.

Nap Time?

Nap Time is a rather loosely used term around here. Liam rarely, if ever, takes naps anymore. His nap time consists of playing quietly in his room for about an hour after lunch. This quiet time is more for my sanity's sake than for his rest.

Ada, however can sleep like a machine during the day (the nights are a whole 'nother story). When she starts to fuss I can just lay her down in the play pen and walk away. No nursing or rocking her to sleep needed. I lay her down, she wiggles around under the covers, gives a smile and promptly falls asleep.

So imagine my surprise when I laid Ada down for a nap today and didn't hear her quiet snores, but instead heard her giggling and squealing.

Can you guess what I found when I went to investigate?

Apparently, Big Brother doesn't think Ada needs naps either. They were having so much fun together, I had to take a video of it...

Ada, thankfully, still took a good nap once I finally got her brother out of there.

Hmmmm, what could this be?

See that? Looks like a pretty bad rash on the small of Liam's back, doesn't it? Well, it's not a rash.

Nope. That's from the cat.

Liam is forever bugging our cat, Otto. When Liam was younger the cat would just sit and take whatever assault came his way, but now that Liam is getting older, the cat clearly is starting to fight back.

Look out Liam, I think you've met your match.

Domesticity

I've been feeling very domestic lately. It's probably the snowy weather.

Yesterday, I tried my hand at making some homemade crackers for Liam. They were a lot easier to make than I thought they would be and very tasty too. After his first bite, Liam announced that he "yuvs these."



Sesame Whole Wheat Crackers

1 3/4c whole wheat flour
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c sesame seeds
1/2 c water
2 t honey
1 t salt

(you can omit the sesame seeds for just a basic whole wheat cracker)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, olive oil and sesame seeds in a bowl. Add honey and salt and mix thoroughly. Add water and mix until you have pie dough consistency (don't over mix or the dough will be too tough to roll out). Roll out dough to 1/8" thickness on some parchment paper. Score with a knife into squares. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until crackers are golden brown.

I found my edges were starting to burn and that the middle was still uncooked, so I broiled the tops of the crackers, then flipped them and broiled the other side to get the crackers nice and toasted.

Soooo good. Original recipe here.

Oops...has a month really gone by? Let's see if I can remember what new and exciting things have been happening around here lately.

Liam and Ada are now taking baths together. Liam has a great time showing off to his sister how he can 'swim' in the tub. Ada, as always, is quite enamored with her older brother and is more than thrilled to take a bath with him.


Ada shows her love for the water by constantly kicking her legs and pumping her arms when she's in the tub. She now sits in a tub ring, which supports her perfectly.

Our Ada Babes turned 5 months old last week and is turning into quite the wiggle meister. She enjoys rolling around on the floor and is learning how to use her jolly jumper. Her love affair with the swing isn't anywhere close to being over. She could sit in that thing all day if I'd let her.

Just a short update. I promise to be more diligent with posting. Should be lots to write about now that it's almost Christmas.