George

I've been meaning to make a toy for Rachel that involves ribbons and paper (pillow tags paper that doesn't rip) since that's pretty much her favorite thing to play with on all her toys: the tags. Then I saw these sock dolls on someone's blog, so I found a video explaining how to make them and kind of adapted it to what I wanted to do. Here's the result. His name is George. (Wendi, tell Shannon she inspired us-not for the doll's looks, just its name.)

Rachel enjoyed poking George's eyes.

The "hair" kept tickling her face when she tried to taste it. She also loves his little bow tie.

New skills

Rachel's got skills. You know... bow staff skills, computer hacking skills.... Well, not yet, but she's figured out how to get from her tummy to sitting, and how to pull herself up to standing. Unfortunately she doesn't always connect the fact that her arms that she used to stand up also must be used to stay standing-she'll stand up, then let go and reach for something and be mad that she fell back down. Today she actually was doing a bit better at keeping a hold on things. Here's a video of her in her crib after she woke up from her morning nap.

She also is getting closer to crawling. She'll get up on her knees and half the time she moves one leg forward, then pauses like she's stuck and doesn't know how to move the other leg, so instead she just sits up. The other half of the time she'll get up on her knees and launch herself forward and actually make some forward progress, every once in a while also getting a good face plant in.

The other day I finally got around to washing the cover to Rachel's high chair, which was badly in need of it. While it washed, she had lunch and seemed so happy to be in the chair that was seemingly new to her, because it was missing its cover.

She was so excited she started dancing.

And check this move out.

Rachel kept turning around in her seat to feel the shiny back of the chair, so she was almost sitting sideways, then she put her leg up on the arm rest and before I got the camera she was so happy laying her head on the other arm rest, looking up at the ceiling, talking. It looked so funny. By the time I got the camera she'd only give me this look.

More teeth

So, it's been a little while since I've posted anything here. Sorry. There's not much new to report. But here's a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.
Both of Rachel's bottom teeth have come in, and she's working on her first top tooth right now. Here you can see her pearly whites.
Sunday we had my parents over for dinner (we usually eat at their house on Sundays, sowe switched it up a little). Rachel was enjoying herself while we waited for dinner to finish cooking.

And yes, that is a diaper on her head.

shoes

Last Saturday I had a baby shower to go to, so I decided to try out this pattern for baby shoes. They turned out pretty cute and were pretty quick. I put them on Rachel to make sure they actually looked normal-ish before I gave them away.

 

I think I'll make Rachel a pair of her very own.
Rachel has taken a liking to graham crackers, or any kind of crackers, really. She's not too good at finding her mouth yet, but I guess that's half the fun of learning how to eat--getting good and messy.

 

tomato duck

We have a lovely little garden--my first time experimenting with growing a garden and some things are growing very well, and some things aren't, and some things are getting eaten by the stinking birds every time they get to a certain height. But one thing that is giving us a lot is the cherry tomato plant that is taking over the garden bed it's in. And the other day I was picking tomatoes and I came across this tomato duck:

 

Pretty cool, huh?

As for us, Rachel and I have been going to a swim class lately for kids 6 months to 2 or 3 years old and she loves it. Even when it was freezing water and all the other kids got cold or were just not having fun after about 20 minutes, Rachel was still kicking like crazy and humming to herself, just having a ball. She's a definite water baby. So Saturday we went swimming with Jacob and Grandma Knight and here's a picture of Rachel and her daddy.

 

Hulu

We don't have TV in our house. We have a television, but it's only hooked up to the DVD player, so we can watch DVDs, but not TV. So my mom told me about hulu.com the other day. It's a website put up by NBC and some other affiliates (Fox, I think) and they have whole episodes of TV shows and some movies that you can watch for free online. I haven't actually watched a whole show yet, but I think there are still commercials built in. I thought it was pretty cool, and thought I'd share it.
Here's a clip from hulu that I thought was pretty funny:

Zooma

For any that have played Cranium, you may remember that the Zooma category gives you some pictures that are zoomed in really close and you have to guess what they're pictures of. So here's a zooma for you to try out:

What is it?

So, did you guess? In the real game I think you have 30 seconds to get three pictures, but I may be wrong; maybe it's a minute. Either way that's 10 or 20 seconds max for one picture, so you should have guessed by now. It's Rachel's first tooth, zoomed in on from this picture:

Rachel loves cups these days and tries to drink out of any she can get her hands on, so during dinner she decided she wanted the baby food jar, so after she'd finished eating I gave it to her and she tried drinking out of it, thus the food all on her nose and between her eyes and such.

Anyway, about the tooth, it's finally broken all the way through the gums, so I'm hoping for a full night of sleep tonight. She woke up every two hours on Saturday night because of teething pain, and last night she was down to just once, so I'm hoping that tonight she gets back to her regular all night sleeping.