Portrait of an Artist...A New Chapter

8 Months Old Progress Report

tawnyamarie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:36:54 +0000

Well, it’s hard to believe, but Scarlet turned 8 months old last week. I know in the future I will forget when things happened, so I thought it would be nice to record what Scarlet’s doing at different ages.

Verbally: Scarlet has been quite a talker for a long time. Lately she’s been doing mostly “Ba Ba” sounds, with an occassional “Da Da” or “Ma Ma”. The Dadas and Mamas don’t really sound intentional though. However, last week, the day before my birthday, I was on the phone with James and Scarlet was on the floor beside me. She looked up at me and very clearly said, “MaMa”! It seemed very intentional and it made my heart melt. She hasn’t said it since, but we’ll count that as your birthday present to Mommy, little Scarlet!

Crawling: As far as crawling, Scarlet has been on a backwards kick for over a month now. Finally this week she has started crawling forward, and it’s been with confidence.

She crawled her way under Grammy’s couch a few weeks ago.

Pulling up: Last week, Scarlet started trying to pull up to standing position. She’ll grab my hands and though I keep her steady, I don’t really help; she can get up from sitting to standing position on her own. Time to move the crib matress down! Forgot to mention that Scarlet has also been doing a lot of “uh uh” sounds. There are times when it seems she is trying to say “up” as it corresponds to her movements.

Eating: Currently Scarlet still enjoys a bottle in the morning, before bed and maybe 1 or 2 more sprinkled throughout the day. She eats lots of Earth’s Best organic baby food as well as Organic applesauces in many flavors. We also give her table food. She enjoys cheese when we go to our favorite pizza place. And she will not let you drink in front of her without demanding a drink herself.

Play: Scarlet mostly works on mastering skills like pulling up and crawling. She does love her V-Tech puppy that I found at Goodwill. She also has finally started liking her butterfly teether I got several months ago. Here she is the other day playing in the leaves in the park.

Teeth: Four teeth so far, and it seems as if more are coming! You can see some of them in the picture above.

Other: Her hair seems to be getting lighter. Still pretty fine, but getting longer too.

Check out this Diaper Giveaway

tawnyamarie — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 04:33:16 +0000

Do you cloth diaper? We do, and I have been entering blog giveaways for free ones. It’s fun to try out different kinds.

Photo from Green Line Diapers Website.

Green Line Diapers have some extremely cute prints. Right now there is a giveaway going on at Thrifty Nifty Mommy. What do you have to lose?

New Website button

tawnyamarie — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:07:19 +0000

Baby Hangover

tawnyamarie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:01:12 +0000

Scarlet looks like she has a baby hangover.

Scarlet Sitting Up Video

tawnyamarie — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 04:49:59 +0000

Scarlet started sitting up alone just about a week after she turned 6 months old.

Sorry I can’t seem to figure out how to turn this video to the correct orientation. I’m trying to remember now to always record in landscape orientation.

Squealing, Happy 6 month Old – video

tawnyamarie — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 05:19:46 +0000

Scarlet’s cousin Molly, age 7, made a highly entertaining “thingamabob”.

Solid Foods

tawnyamarie — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:40:14 +0000

Since her four month check-up, Scarlet has been trying solids. We started her with cereal. Of course James had to go get not only Organic, but whole grain. I’m actually glad she’s getting good stuff. She did not seem like a fan, though it might have been just getting used to eating that was difficult for her. One day I tasted the cereal, and I can’t say I blame her for not liking it. Tastes like some kind of gloppy tasteless paste.

We then moved to applesauce. She didn’t seem to like this either as seen here…

but she gradually seemed to warm up to it and lately she’s been opening her mouth and leaning in for more bites. She’s even taken to grabbing the spoon.Today we tried bananas and for the first time, she seemed truly happy to be eating food.

Though that changed after a few minutes….

This picture cracks me up….Looks like she’s holding the camera out to take a picture of herself.

My plan is to get a book on making your own baby food and whip some up to freeze and have on hand.

Fourth of July Fun

tawnyamarie — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:00:36 +0000

James, Scarlet and I headed up to my parents for the Fourth. My niece and nephew were back from visiting their “Alabammy Grammy”. I hadn’t seen them in almost 2 months, so it was good to see them. I wanted to enter a patriotic photo contest for a chance to win another cloth diaper so we posed for some pictures that afternoon. Here’s the picture I entered:

One of the requirements of the contest was that it had to feature a cloth diaper. So when I took off her navy star bloomers, I decided to use them as a hat. The fabric was too cute to lay aside. The kids were all into the photo taking and helped me set up props and such (including everything under the sun, like dirty flip flops). They helped me wash this fire truck so we could use it in some shots…

(This is a strange expression on Scarlet’s face. She wasn’t crying or even unhappy. She was talking in her happy little way.)

This isn’t a very good picture, but I had to include it because it reminds me of one of the funniest conversations I overheard between James and my niece Molly. He was teaching her all the tricks of the trade of babysitting. I was in the other room eavesdropping and giggling to myself as he talked to her at length about…well…about how to wipe her butt. So funny that before Scarlet, James said he had held a baby maybe one time in his life. In this picture he was encouraging her to be a big cousin and carry her in the other room. It was a struggle for her.

Later that night we headed to my brother’s house (he’s got enough acreage to make shooting fireworks legal). The kids had fun shooting off all kinds of stuff.

And I’m happy to report that the first picture was one of the 3 winners in the photo contest. And although a cloth diaper doesn’t seem that exciting to most people, it’s nice to try new brands (and since some of them are nearly $20 a pop free is definitely good). Here you can see it with the other winners. I almost didn’t enter when I saw that first picture of the soldier meeting his daughter for the first time after being overseas. If that doesn’t make you feel patriotic, I don’t know what would.

Gaining a Brother-in-Law

tawnyamarie — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 05:43:06 +0000

Sunday we celebrated the marriage of my sister-in-law, Eileen. James had really encouraged her to join the dating site on which we met, “Plenty of Fish”. She did join about 6 months ago, met Ken a few months in and found her match. Family and a few friends gathered at her house for a backyard ceremony. The rain changed that plan however, so we witnessed her marriage on her front porch. It was actually quite cozy with the rain and the beautiful flowers she has surrounding her home.

Photo by Rob O'Toole

I didn’t get very good pics, as I was holding Scarlet and in the very back. So this is one-handed on super zoom. Congrats to the Happy Couple!

And I also got to meet my new niece, Quinn. Here she is with her parents. The mommy is James’ niece, Bri.

And the grandmother is Eileen. So much happiness in her life right now. Just a few days after this, her son’s wife delivered their son, Ethan. So now there are 3 babies that will be around the Hart family gatherings.

Here’s Scarlet with our family friend, Nanette. Don’t think I had a picture of them together before today.

The Exersaucer

tawnyamarie — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:01:50 +0000

Thanks to my friend Emily, we were able to get this Exersaucer as a hand-me-down from her friend whose baby outgrew it. Scarlet tried it out this week and absolutely loved it. This is quite a contraption. I’m impressed. Jewel seems like she’s being protective in these pictures. (Click to see bigger).