Growing like a Weed

Conan had his well-baby checkup today, and he's now 17.5 lbs and 29" tall. That puts him in the 95th percentile for height and about the 20th for weight. If you're like me and find the whole percentile thing confusing, here is what that means: Conan is taller than 94% of the baby boys his age, but weighs less than 80% of them. Tall & skinny - he didn't get that from my side of the family, that's for sure. :)

In other news, although he still hasn't completely mastered crawling, now he's pulling himself up. He mostly seems to care about crawling to the extent that it gets him closer to things he can climb on. It's pretty exciting stuff, he REALLY likes to stand up. We've had to lower his crib mattress and raise the side, because he could pull himself up and get his arms over the rail. We also got a baby gate/fence to go around the wood stove and kitchen entrance, since the stove was turning into one of his favorite things to climb on, and it's all angular cast iron on a slate hearth - not a good place for falls! So far we haven't had any really bad falls, but there seems to be at least one a day. I know I can't keep him safe from all these bumps and bruises, but I sure wish I could.

NW Summer = Berry Time

For Anita's birthday on Sunday I picked an assortment of berries and made a cobbler. It was so good! We are really lucky to have so many berries available, I picked all these just walking around the yard. 10 different berries were included: blackberries, tayberries, raspberries, marionberries, wild (cascade) blackberries, blueberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries, gooseberries and strawberries. The strawberries, salmonberries & gooseberries are almost over, and the others are just now coming on. This brief seasonal overlap when all of them are available is a magical, tasty time.

Here's another berry treat, this is the Father's day pie I made (back on father's day, naturally). It's my grandma Mary's fresh strawberry pie recipe - which is simply THE BEST berry pie recipe - but instead of strawberries I made it with salmonberries. Wild and yummy!

For anyone who wants to give it a try, here's the recipe:

• 1 baked pie crust, cooled
• aprox 4 cups any kind of berries (enough to fill the pie crust) washed, de-stemmed, strawberries sliced if needed for uniform sizing

For the lining:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

For the Glaze:

• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c. water
• optional: a few drops of food coloring or berry juice to color the glaze

Blend the cream cheese, sugar, and vanila until smooth. Spread a uniform layer over the bottom and up the sides of the crust. Essentially you are waterproofing the crust, keeping it from getting soggy from the berries. Distribute the berries over the creamcheese layer in the crust. You can get creative aranging them in pretty spirals or rows, or you can just dump them in and shake the pan to level them out. Combine the glaze ingredients (remember - add water to cornstarch, not cornstarch to water) in a saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat. Stir gently and constantly, otherwise it will get wierdly lumpy. Cook the glaze for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool for 5 more until it starts to thicken. Pour over the berries. Chill the pie for 2-3 hours before serving.

Big Kids & the Fourth

We had lots of fun this weekend, BBQ'd and visited and set off some fire works. The highlight was watching Conan play with other kids. He is always really interested in what the big kids are doing. Now he's getting big enough to be able to play too, and he just loves it.

Friday we had a small impromptu BBQ at our house, and Conan got to go on a wagon ride with Hank, who will be 2 years old the end of September. Conan is almost as tall as Hank!
They had a lot of fun together, both riding in the wagon and also just playing on a blanket on the grass.
Saturday we went down to the Ericson's for a BBQ party and fireworks. We got to see a bunch of fine folks we don't see nearly often enough, it was a lot of fun chatting and catching up, and eating great food. Conan loved playing with Moira and Kiah, and all their cool toys.
Sunday morning Kiah and Conan had a great time playing together with their cat Loki, who has an amazing tollerance for baby attention. He was crawled on, layed on, grabbed, pulled, thumped and thorougly slobbered upon, but he kept purring. Not like the kitties Conan's used to at all!
All in all we had a marvellous weekend, although we didn't get much sleep to speak of last night. Conan slept through most of the fireworks only to wake up at midnight - wide awake and ready to get up and play some more. He wasn't upset or crying (as long as he was being held, anyhow) but he was NOT sleepy. We ended up doing the middle of the night stroller tour of Bothell trying to get him back to sleep, and then bringing the stroller into the house and letting him sleep the rest of the night in it. We'd been having really good nights recently, with 4 consecutive all-night sleeps last week. (yeah!!) But I think all the excitement, noise, and sleeping in a strange bed was just too much. Hopefully tonight will be better. I'll certainly be turning in early!

Excersaucer Fun

Conan really enjoys his excersaucer. It's loud, has tons of toys, and it bounces - what could be better? Another baby consignment store sucess story! I had never really done the consignement store thing before, but I'm really getting into it lately. I've gotten toys, books, bibs, cloth diapers and of course clothes there. Sure, you have to pick through things a little, but most of the clothes are really nice and new. It's so much cheaper than buying things new, and it's much easier (and faster) than watching craigslist for what we need. I've taken a few things into the store, and the last time I went in I had $27 credit - which goes a long way in a store where most things are about $3 - and an excersaucer is $24. :)

mmmm... Cherries

A fresh cold organic cherry in a mesh feeder makes for one happy sticky baby. Nummy! And soothing on those teething gums.

Conan's food list is growing! He's tried - and generally liked - the following:

• Avocado
• rice cereal
• carrots
• watermelon
• snow peas
• cherries
• squash

It's a pretty well-rounded list, I think. Tasty!

Extreme Cuteness

I think there's a rule that says babies must be photographed at least once being cute while playing peek-a-boo with a blainkey. So we can cross that one off our list now! Whew.

This was taken after his shower, which I am happy to report is no longer a source of screaming terror for Conan. We switched to showers (held in mama or papa's arms)when he was just a couple months old because they were better than baths. Baths were horrible baby torture. Showers were also pretty awful until recently, but at least they were over quickly so that was an improvement. But just over a week ago he seemed to come to grips with the idea that getting wet wasn't actually the end of the world, and since then he's even started to enjoy shower time a little bit. Which is a very good thing, because now that he's eating solid foods he really needs to be hosed down frequently. :)

Crawling!

After his bath tonight we were having "play on the floor while mommy folds the laundry" time and he just up and started crawling. I ran and got the camera and of course missed the best of it, but got enough that you can see him in action. He's still a bit hesitant and wobbly, but it's a definite CRAWL. He's been scootching pretty well for a while now, but he hadn't been able to combine forward motion with getting up on his hands and knees. Until now! I'm so excited and proud. :)