Chiara's new self

Chiara is learning so fast it's hard for me to keep up. I get such a kick out of her preferences and her little personality. This morning I was feeding her strawberries and she insisted in poking a hole in each one with her index finger before eating them. Later in the afternoon I was eating a granola bar and giving her some cheerios while her real meal was warming up. She looked at my granola bar, smiled and reached out her hand. I smiled and gave her a cheerio. She mulled it over for a few seconds before calmly spitting it out ... letting it bounce off her chin and down onto her bib. Hmm. I gave her a little piece of the granola bar. She smiled, chewed, swallowed, and opened her mouth again like a baby bird. I offered her a cheerio. She accepted it, then calmly spit it out, again, letting it gently bounce down her little self until it rested on her pants. She wasn't whining or crying, she was just matter-of-factly letting Mamma know that cheerios weren't doing it for her at the present.

Honestly ...

So I shoved the last bite of granola bar in my own mouth, kissed her, and got up to get the rest of her lunch. She's taken to handing me treats she wants, like those little bites of dehydrated yogurt and little tomato flavored puffs. It's so funny to me, and yet I don't want to spoil her. If she cries I definitely don't give in. But if we're just having a relatively polite - albeit silent - conversation, how can I resist? She's just so darn cute!

It recently came to my attention that her clothes aren't quite fitting her, so I waited until I had a coupon and shopped the sales racks for some toddler clothes. I can't BELIEVE she's a toddler. I get those week-by-week emails about how my baby is developing and every time they call her a toddler I want to hurl something through cyber space and conk them in the nose. She's NOT a toddler! I want to tell them. But of course, she is. How did this happen? It's kind of heart breaking. Cute, but heart breaking. :)

I love how she always crosses her ankles ... GOSH she's just so darling. I couldn't get her to look at me for the picture ... that's getting harder as she grows up. I make all manner of my most silly and immature noises to get her attention and she remains unimpressed. What can you do?

Also, I took a picture of the duvet cover I made. I know the pillows don't match, but they're the only ones I have at present. I'm going to make covers for those blue ones soon ... it's just not that high on my priority list at the moment. And yes, the curtains are chocolate brown, which doesn't exactly go with the black print. But I don't care because I'm convinced I can make black, brown, cream, beige and white look coordinated somehow. We'll see.

I love it. And the texture of the fabric doesn't wake me up in the night, which is a nice feature. :) Our last one was rough and it made me get all claustrophobic or something ... it was weird. I just couldn't breathe if it got too near my face. So, clearly something had to be done. My next sewing project is a darling little tote bag ... we'll see how that turns out. :)