Last Thursday this little baby turned One!

I hardly believe it. How far we’ve come!

We had an awesome party on Saturday, thrown my my amazing mom, Natalie’s Grammy. It was lots of fun, full of family and a few friends. She loved having everyone sing to her! It was so funny to watch her notice that they were all singing, TO HER, TOGETHER! she loved loved loved it.

And she even ate a little bit of her low-sugar cake thingy (more like a frosted pancake, perhaps? It wasn’t bad, though) that I made for her (we made traditional cake for everyone else, but she’s still not had much sugar so I thought I’d keep it that way a little while longer!).

She also loved opening presents. We were sure she’d only open a few and get distracted, but she was all like “what’s next?” That is, until she opened a doll stroller. ALL SHE EVER WANTED. Once it was set up she practically jumped over me to get to it and start pushing it around! Too cute. She kind of wants to push it from the front most of the time, but who am I to judge?

Our babybear is growing up so fast!

I made a little list not long ago on the other blog of things she can say, but now that she’s officially one, here’s a list of her accomplishments thus far:

• Things she can say: hi, Dada, Mama, meow, arf-arf, kitty, doggie, baby (bebe), na-na (i.e. Natalie, or “give it to me/Natalie”), me-me (”Grammy”), duck, owl, down, no, yessss, that.

• Other sound effects: mmm (”moo”), brmm (tractor, car), wee-wee (as in “this little piggy went to market”), an awesome pig snort, a slurping pretend drinking sound, lip-smacking pretend eating sound, a horse-foot clicking/clopping sound, and she bounces up and down like she’s riding a horse when she sees one.

• Sign-language signs: milk, more, food/eat, water, baby, sleep, waves hi and bye, and she points all the time.

• Record # of hours slept at once: 13

• She has been feeding herself since she was 7 months old. She hasn’t mastered the spoon yet, but can get tiny pieces and big pieces and all in-between. She loves most things she’s tried, but her favorites are broccoli, cucumber, bread, banana and pasta (a girl after her Dada’s heart!). She is not fond of cheese and I’m ok with that (cheese being one of my weaknesses, something I’m working on giving up!). She also loves graham crackers, well really any kind of cracker, pizza crust and tiny sips of green juice. She drinks water from her straw cup, and gets really mad at any kind of non-chewy sippy cup spout or having to tip a sippy cup too high. Can’t blame her.

• No crawling, lots of walking — almost running now. She can roll both ways like a champ, and almost does a somersault when she falls sometimes, but not on purpose! The day she got her stitches she learned to get herself up from the floor to walking. She can climb small steps but hasn’t even tried the stairs (thank goodness!).

• She likes to use her imagination and feeds her toy animals and dolls all the time. She’s also started trying to dress and undress the dolls, and has been trying to help dress herself for a while now.

It’s kind of like she’s a KID. Unbelievable. hehe.

{more photos here, including a visit with a sweet tractor and a cow, and a video of the walking}

This little girl is rounding the corner toward ONE YEAR! Next week she will be 11 months. Unbelievable. We celebrated one of her little friend’s 1st birthday this weekend, and I finally realized it’s really happening. Also, she’s walking. Thankfully, she still can’t get herself UP for walking around, so we can still keep an eye on her at all times. We’re getting baby-proofed around here, but as everyone says, she will surprise us and is sure to find whatever we think she can’t get to {baby-proofing thoughts/advice/suggestions??}. And judging by just how darn smart she is, she will undoubtedly figure out how to open something we have locked or how to climb out of or around something in her way. We have our work cut out for us, that’s for sure.

She hasn’t crawled. She tries, she gets in position, and then flops to her belly and rolls onto her back, flails and whines until someone rescues her (inevitable! we can’t resist!) and then it starts again. Or we just get her up to standing (because that’s what she really wants) and she’s OFF. She’s walking without any help now, and often carrying something, like, say, a boot or a book. It has been just over a week since the unassisted walking started, and she’s barely falling anymore. And I know she needs to learn to fall, but it’s hard to let her. Of course we also want to keep her safe and her head in tact. My grandma suggests we get her a helmet, what do you think? (yeah, I’m kidding).

I vaguely remember learning the much-disputed fact that crawling is very important for babies. I also recall thinking “of course my baby will crawl. I would never let my baby skip that all-important step!” And that was before I was a parent, before I knew that there’s no way to make a baby crawl. I will teach her how to do it once she’s ready to follow instructions, but until then, she’s a walker! Funny how you can be such a perfect parent until you’re actually a parent, eh?

also, it’s looking more and more like spring out there!  (now if it would just stop snowing)

needing some distractions…

today is our “due date” — but no real signs of this baby coming our way soon, so I’ve decided I need a little distraction, and I also decided it needs to be positive and send goodness into the universe, so here’s a little grateful list for today, Thursday April 29, 2010, in no particular order:

• the fact that I am about to become a Mama any day now

• having had a healthy and easy pregnancy, the prospect of a healthy and easy birth

• a gorgeous new nursery and new studio, all ready and waiting to be used

• a green couch!

• the beautiful washer and dryer in our new basement bathroom (and the washer works on hot AND cold water!)

• birds, bears, bunnies and other creatures of spring

• leaves on the trees, even tiny ones

• our Curly Willow tree that has grown from a twig to a 15-foot tree in 4 years

• daffodil bouquets from my hubby

• offers for distraction and fun from friends

• HappyDog’s unbridled passion for squeaky toys

• sea-salt brownies (I KNOW, right?)

• pre-sliced mangoes and pineapple

• imagining my hubby as a papa — and all the joy he will bring to this little one’s life

• imagining our HappyDog and the little one as best friends; we imagine it is inevitable.

I also want to thank you for holding us in your thoughts today, on our official due date, and for hanging in there with us as we stay patient and wait for the little one to decide when she (or he!) is ready to greet the world. We will of course keep you updated, and will post something here soon after the birth. {But, you know, not too soon. We are planning to take it easy and revel in the beauty of this new life; thanks, I knew you’d understand}

Just in case you were wondering….

36 weeks & 4 days — due April 29; we all can’t wait to meet this (not-so-little) little bean!

Also, it is spring!

That’s my very first crocus of the year! We planted these bulbs last fall during the big wall-building/porch renovation project, and it seems they like it here. Spring is a little later to arrive here up on the mountain, but it’s happening!

Not like you wouldn’t have guessed, but I’m taking a little break from all things web-related. I’m also going to be putting my Etsy shop in vacation mode in the next day or two (meaning it’s closed to new orders, but you can still see things that have been sold, contact me, etc., and you can sign up to be notified when it re-opens), and I’m not sure if I’ll re-activate it before the baby bean is born or not. We’re in the middle of project basement right now, and my entire studio is going to be moving down there in the next week. Since I probably won’t know where anything is or have access to everything for a while, I figured it’d be best to put the shop on hold for a while.

So, if you have any shopping you’ve been meaning to do in the Laurie Coyle Designs Etsy shop, now’s the time to do it! If you order something in the next few days I’ll be sure to include a super special free gift, too! yippee!

As for this blog, I’m just going to let myself off the hook, ok? I miss you, but I also feel bad when I don’t post, and that’s just no good for either of us. So I’m here to officially say that until I get into a routine with the little one, I’ll probalby not be here much. There may be no noticeable difference from the current infrequency, but who knows. I totally love you, though, and appreciate all of your encouragement and kind words and your interest in my work (and life!). It really means a lot to me, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on baby-progress, as well as any new work that comes out of the new studio. I’m also planning a big before-and-after reveal of the basement space, but the project is definitely not done. Not quite yet. So until then…

xoxox

I can’t resist. While processing pics for my upcoming stuffed birdie listings (up soon in my Etsy shop!) I came across a few more shots from around the farm lately that I need to share.

Our pretty HappyDog likes to help me garden. At least she wasn’t lying directly on top of anything I was growing on purpose. I don’t mind if she lies on the weeds, though. (check out the sweet railroad-spike sugar snap pea trellis my darling Johnnie made for me!)

And JaneCat just looks on, pretending not to know there’s work to be done. She’s really slacking on her mouse-terrifying duties lately.

And this is a for real scene, nothing staged here. Turns out the goats actually like us (when we bring them food, that is)! This is from before we moved the chickens in with the goats. Apparently they have now taken to laying their eggs all over the place and  in the goat barn. Oops. We’re going to have to work on the chicken-training, I guess.

Things are growing! Tomato blossoms and even a few tiny green tomatoes, these plants were grown from seed by my green-thumb Mom!

Last week John moved the chicken coop in with the goats, so they can graze together safely within the fence. The only real predator we’ve seen around here lately (knock on wood!) happens to be our HappyDog. She looks innocent enough, but after a little, erm, “incident” we are keeping her a safe distance from the Chickens. Well, at least on this side of the fence. She loves watching them, though. And the goats are trying their best to get to the chicken food, which we seem to have managed to barricade from them, at least for the time being.

And look at this photo below! Seem familiar? Quite uncannily like my radish painting, I GREW this one from seed, along with a whole slew of others. And they are delicious! Amazing how those tiny tiny seeds can grow something that can nourish our bodies so well, eh?

I’m not broken, not torn, just pulled a muscle/tendon — a bad sprain and I’m actually up on my feet now and walking without a cane or crutches like I was for over a week. Amazing how a body can heal, eh? Thank you, body, you’re fantastic. I’m still gimping around like a peg-leg with an ace bandage and a bulky air cast on my ankle, but I’m doing ok. Phew.

I’m really hoping I’m about a jillion times better by this time next week, though, because that will be the first night of SQUAM Art Workshops!! Yippee! I’m so excited for this opportunity to check in with myself and my art, as well as connect with all those lovely like-minded individuals who have chosen to take this opportunity to live the arty dream for a few short days of art and trees and lake and fun. Living in the woods is fantastic, and visiting someone else’s woods and lake is sometimes even better. I’ll also be sharing my cabin and taking one workshop with my dear friend Sarah G., who will be meeting me there from Burlington, VT. How perfect?

No news on the DC trip. I am contemplating changing our trip to a later date, since I’m not so sure how well I’ll be able to walk around the city all day. My ankle tends to get all kinds of swollen and painful when I stand on it too long. But the good news is that I CAN stand on it, without excruciating pain.

The last weeks have also been jam-packed with crafty goodness, wherein I did my first outdoor craft fair at Sowa Open Market, (with amazing help from my friends and my wonderful husband!!) and my second at Pittsfield Third Thursday (with amazing help from the other BerkshireMade members!), and then a fun one in North Adams at the NoAMA Mill, where I was really able to get to know the members of BerkshireMade much better. What a great group of folks, who make amazing work. Have you seen the new website that I redesigned for BerkshireMade? You can click around and see all of their super shops. Buy local, buy handmade! See pics of these events on my flickr, here.

OH! Also, I just got myself a new lens for my camera! A 50mm portrait lens for my Nikon D40, great for low-light, but with a finicky manual focus that is super fun to take macro shots with. Most of those BerkshireMade pics were taken with it — some nice up close shots of the jewelry and art and bags and people. Here are a few of the pups, because, well, they are cute.

Top: Mickey, my mom’s Australian Shepherd, enjoys a chewy treat. Bottom: Our sweet (and somewhat alarmed?) HappyDog.

ok, well, the warm weather has officially begun today (80s here in South Lee today, possibly warmer around the greater Berkshires), but I had to share this blog feature; fellow BerkshireMade‘er Stephanie Gravalese has featured me and my work on her blog, Atomsatwork.blogspot.com in a post titled “Crafty Goodness to prepare for warm weather”! (Thanks for the wonderful feature, Steph!)

Stephanie is a fantastic artisan in her own right, putting together wonderful creations from vintage buttons, such as earrings, necklaces, barrettes and more that she sells at fairs and on Etsy at atomsatwork.etsy.com. She’s recently started making wall-art collages which I just love, being a wall-art junkie myself. She also made some wonderful glass ornaments for the holidays with buttons floating inside. Fantastico! (oh, and check out her avatar glamour shot by Deb, complete with laser background. Oh the 80s glory!)

I’ve been selling my crafty goodness on Etsy for just over two years and boy is it fantastic! If for some reason you live under a rock and have not yet gotten yourself a (free!) Etsy account, get on over there and sign up so you can start buying handmade, wouldjya? Happy Etsy Day! (currently an impromptu holiday, but hopefully by next year it will be a national day of recognition for all things handmade! represent!)

I made the little painting above in recognition of Etsy Day, it’s a love letter to Etsy, distilled to its basic essence surrounded by a collection of some of my hand-making-tools. yum.