Busy days

We've been a bunch of busy bees lately.
This weekend was the start of cookie baking season. Mom baked 7 different kinds in two days. Lots of taste testing was in order of course :)
And Finn has been busier than ever. He started cruising the other day, so nothing is safe at all. We have a morning ritual of removing everything from the coffee table and every other low surface downstairs before Finn gets up and motoring. Then after bedtime we put everything back where it came from. And I think he's trying to say bear. When he's shown his teddy bear Mesquite he goes "Bah, bah, bah, bahr". It's pretty adorable.
As for me, I've been sewing up a storm. My cousing had (yet) another girl last week, so I made up a set of matching blankie, burp cloth and bib. It's turned out very cute, except for the bib which I think I'll have another go at. I also picked up some cuddly fleece SUPER cheap and I've already made a soaker for Finn and I have another soaker and a pair of sweatpants ready to go under the needle after he goes to bed. I think I'll be able to squeeze one more soaker out of it too. Not a bad deal for $2.50 :P I think after the holidays I may start a shop on Etsy for my plush creations as well as my diapering and baby supplies. It's something to think about anyways. It could take up the time between cold weather time and gardening time in the spring. I'm looking forward to starting that garden. Nothing big, just enough space to grow some tomatoes, onions and peppers. Something to get our feet wet with anyways. I haven't planted anything since I was a wee one, jabbing carrot seeds down into the ground next to my grandpa. It'll be nice to show Finn how things grow too. It'll especially be nice to get him outside again after being cooped up in the house all winter. I'm not sure how much he's going to enjoy being contained with his new found mobility. We may all be in for a bumpy ride.

In store for tomorrow:
Hand turkeys!!!

Baby Hefner

Yesterday Steve and I took our little adventurer to the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. He (and we) had such a great time! He doesn't get to spend much (okay, any) time with other kids, especially babies around his own age, so it was a great opportunity for him to socialize. And man, did he ever. We had him on a see saw-like exhibit for about 10 seconds before a little guy of about 2 years old came running over to play. And after his mum helped him go back and forth gently for a minute or two, a little girl came over and played on the seesaw with Finn too. Then they both played on the light peg table for a bit before the girl decided to high tail it out of there. Eventually after some more exploring we all settled into the baby play area where Finn was quite the hit with the ladies. Hehehe. He made two new girl friends, Chloe and Julia, both of them born within a week or two of him. It was really neat to see how three babies all born around the same time can develop so differently. For instance, Chloe had a bunch of teeth and says a few words (and actually knows what she's saying), but isn't really mobile yet, where as Finn has 0 teeth, says tons of nonsensical words, and is crawling all over the place, and the Julia also had tons of little teethe, didn't say much and was the most mobile 8.5 month old I've ever seen. She was tearing across the play area, pulling up on benches, cruising from one thing to another. It was crazy. I guess we have that to look forward to very soon.

Fast times

Well, it seems my baby is turning into a little boy. And quickly. Steve and I went out for a date night last Saturday and came home to a son that could pull himself up and break everything on the coffee table. The next day he decided he'd had enough of crawling backwards and set off to explore the house in a forward crawl (but didn't make it much further than the other side of the living room). Yesterday he explored under the end tables, threatened to take to the stairs and later on terrorized the dining room and attempted to sneak some dog food into his slobbery little mouth. Oh boy indeed. I guess he had to move on to the out of arms phase at some point, I just thought it would be more gradual. Suddenly he wants nothing to do with being carried unless its absolutely necessary (or if he needs a kiss on the head after bumping it on the entertainment center one too many times). Also today he learned (well, actually just randomly started doing) "soooo big", which entails throwing his arms way up above his head when you ask him "How big is Finnegan?" and waving hi/bye. What a crazy little guy.

Even crazier, when I think about it, is the fact that just a few years ago I wouldn't have even been able to imagine being married let alone being someone's mum. Then when I met Steve everything changed. From the moment we met I knew I could settle down with him and raise a family. I don't know what it was exactly. Maybe it's that he made me feel safe for the first time in a long while, or the fact that he made me laugh so hard without trying, or perhaps its that he knew how to dance or that i kicked his ass at monopoly and mariokart on our first date...but whatever it was, it definitely got me hooked. It's been an insane couple of years for us, but I can't help but look forward to many many more years with him. He is truly my lobster.