Poppy is 7 Months!

Well here she is, our big baby on the downhill slide to 1 year. Hallelujah. This age definitely brings its own challenges but I'm super glad to be out of the newborn era.

So. Poppy has changed a ton in the last month. First, she actually sleeps most of the night most of the time. Progress! Next, she cut her first tooth (bottom right) on November 17 and loves to feel it with her tongue and fingers.She has also made the executive decision to skip baby food and go straight for the good stuff. Despite having only one tooth, and a tiny nub at that, she insists on having whole crackers, bread heels, carrot sticks, whatever we will give her that is not fed by a spoon. I've scoured the grocery shelves and come up with some unexpected solutions - more on that in a future post.

Poppy's current nicknames include One-Tooth Wonder, The Great Pooparoopa and Ruggabugga. Because she is often found face down on the rug. This kid is ready to crawl but just not there yet. She sits for awhile, then spots something out of reach and dives for it, usually ending up on her face or in a split configuration any dancer would envy. We're just glad she's not crawling yet, and hopefully won't until after Christmas (all those low hanging ornaments are just too great a temptation.)

Here are a ton of pictures. She has a crest of hair that stands up straight unless I hairspray it down (which I only did once, for the photo shoot. When her hair is wet down in the bath the girls say she looks like a boy.) You can see it well in these pictures:
Favorite toy: the remote -
Chewing on her "mini me", our baby doll Zoe -
I just LOVE this hunched over concentrating posture they do at this age. Often accompanied by a focused groan -
And, I never, ever, ever get tired of this smile:
That's our 7-month-old!

Pics from the Shoot

It's already been a month since our family photo session with Alia Cardwell. But I am finally posting some pictures. It was hard to choose, but here is the very narrowed down set.

Fall Goody Plates

(This is one of those rare posts that is like, which blog do I put this on? But in the end it is more about what we did than what we made, and besides, it is all recipes I've posted before. Except one.)

One of the things we did to keep busy while Hazel was on fall break, and Ed was gone hunting, was to make some fall goody plates for our neighbors. Although we have been in the house over a year we are still very slowly meeting the neighbors. Not the ones right next door and across the street, but the ones around the corner, the ones down the street, the ones down the street and around the corner. We have met some through walking to school, and some through Hazel's classmates. Some through other neighbors and some through conversations in passing. It is a new experience for us, to meet our neighbors and build relationships with them, in a we-are-all-going-to-be-here-awhile way. We've never had a neighborly community. It's kinda nice. And we wanted to show that with, what else, goodies.

Over two days the girls and I made:
Gingersnaps
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Shanna's Ooey Gooey Caramel Popcorn (with almonds)
Apple Bread (this was the new recipe; it is a variation at the bottom of this muffin recipe)
Then we packaged them up and delivered them in the stroller, I think six or seven plates in all. We got nice-looking paper plates at the grocery store, and autumnal ribbon and stickers from the craft store. New fine-point Sharpies and white tags from Staples topped things off.
Making goody plates is fun. What would you put on yours?