blackmoondog

Just testing my blog move. Ya know the one I started working on in *February*. Scary is that I only had 10 new posts since I moved the intital set over. 10 posts in 4 months.

Why is it that "more fun" and "more work" seem to go together so often? Regardless, I'm really loving this age (now that my sleep has returned to a more "normal" level this week).

Month Six has brought us lots of hugs, smiles, and giggles. Zoe is sitting up with less assistance and is reaching for *everything*, especially when we're trying to eat. I expect we'll try solids this week now that the camera has made its way home.

Our Goldfish (Mommy & Me) class at the local high school is just past the halfway point. For her age, I'm told Zoe is doing fantastic though it seems her tolerance is shrinking. Today we were only in the water for about 20-30 minutes of the hour long class. It was definitely cold today though. At least Papa stopped by on his lunch break and was able to take some action shots with his phone! Here we are playing "Humpty Dumpty".

Yesterday was the 6 month checkup with the pediatrician. Zoe is catching up! She's 15.5lbs, 25in long, and has a 16.75in head circumference. That puts her mostly in the 25th percentile for her chronological age and that is on the chart that assumes the baby is fed formula rather than breastmilk. Everything else looks good and we verified that there aren't yet any teeth in her drooly mouth (she sticks her tongue out when I try to check). Once she's grown one more inch in length we are going to have to put in her new car seat to replace the infant seat that pops into a base.

Today we had our first session of the summer Parent Participation series at the local Adult School. We got to see some of the babies that we met through our last round at Parent Participation. The minute she saw the other babies she was wiggling and trying to crawl out of my lap to go to them. Definitely her father's daughter! This session we'll be learning about non-toxic cleaning products, making toys at home, and estate planning (odd, but we sorely need it) in addition to the usual songs and chatting.

Hmmm... Sounds like someone is ready to go to bed. More next month!

Tonight Zoe supervised the planting of a Giant Pumpkin plant that we got free from the SLO FFA/4H group that is sponsoring a pumpkin growing contest to be held near Halloween at the Thursday Night Farmer's Market. The pumpkins can get anywhere from 100lbs to 1400lbs. Thankfully, they will transport our pumpkin to the contest if it is too heavy to transfer ourselves.

Yes, you read that correctly. I am, in fact, knitting boobies. They're for my mother-in-law who will be having a double mastectomy any time now.

The yarn is Valley Yarns Southwick (52% pima cotton/48% bamboo) in "African Violet" and the pattern is Tit Bits from the Fall 2005 Knitty.

I have at least three other projects on the needles but I honestly haven't really been making much time to knit lately. The other projects include the Pacific Waves Shawl in Elann.com Sonata Print in "Rio", Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket using Peaches & Creme cotton in "Fiesta Ombre", Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe using Elann's Sock It To Me Colori, and the Dollar and a Half Cardigan from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits using Knit One, Crochet Too Parfait Solids.

Since Zoe has been fascinated by anything we eat and finally started trying to grab it out of our hands, we decided to finally give her a shot at solids.

Friday evening I mixed up some organic rice cereal with breastmilk and tried feeding her with a spoon. She did pretty well at not choking but, as expected, she wore more of it than she ate.

Eventually, she wrestled the spoon from me because, really, it was more interesting than the cereal. I perservered and got another spoon. I also learned why so many babies get nightly baths, as she was totally sticky when we were finished.

Saturday I gave her a chunk of banana to play with while we ate on the back patio and Sunday she got a little bit of avocado. Boy, this whole food thing is messy!