Grandma came to town, and we went to the Ballard Market

On Friday Layla's Grandma L came to town to visit again, her first time back since her helpful visit last March when Layla was a little-little brand-new baby.


We have been having so much fun!! On Saturday we had pancakes at home and then walked around the neighborhood, up to the lake, to a garage sale (where we bought a pile of things) and then went to lunch in Fremont and Yellow Leaf Cupcakes. On the way to get the cupcakes we convinced ourselves to buy their famous Pancakes N Bacon cupcakes but when we got there they were out! So we settled for Orange Cake, Boston Cream, Snowball, and Chocolate-Toffee, which were all delicious.

Today we needed to let the Studly Hubby get some work done so Layla and Grandma L and I drove out to Ballard to go to the Farmer's Market, which I love but haven't been to in about a year.


I have made some really awesome discoveries at the Ballard Farmer's Market, including the Best Soap, Pie and Cheese in the World, and Layla discovered her favorite new band, That Family That Plays the Most Awesome Bluegrass at the Market. Even when she's tired and cranky she's still happy to watch bluegrass at the market.

Afterwards we went to Kerry Park in Queen Anne where you can take the most scenic pictures of Seattle, although we all three forgot our cameras. So, my mom and Layla slept in the car for a while and I played on my iPhone, then when they woke up we all checked out the view and headed back home.

At home, Layla worked on her mobility. She has really made progress this week. Last week, she was getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth and crying with the frustration of not being mobile. This week, she learned how to get from that position into a sitting-up position and then this weekend she learned how to combine sitting-up, rolling, and wiggling on all fours to actually get around the living room. So, I'm going to call it:

LAYLA IS MOBILE

So now we're chasing her around our living room keeping her from getting into all the stuff she can't wait to get into, like all the cords by the phone, the cabinets under the TV, the stuff on our shelves, and that intriguing space under the coffee table. Unfortunately, she bonked herself on the noggin a few times and we are learning how much dust we've been collecting behind the couch, but for the most part it's really exciting.

deals and steals

I've become a huge fan of online shopping since I had a baby. You can do it late at night, there's no rush to figure out what you need, and everything gets delivered to your door. Also, I've found some AMAZING websites that have great deals or just a nice layout with everything you'd ever need. Here are some of them:

1. Diapers.com. Someone told me about this months ago and I ignored them until recently, when I realized they had 20% off of the carseats we were looking into buying (and then I found a lot of other stuff that was way cheaper than the other sources we were using). They deliver in 2 days too! If you use it let me know and I can give you my 'referral' code and get $10.

2. albeebaby.com I think this is like diapers.com but with different stuff on sale.

3. babysteals.com This is like 'groupon' but for babies, and laid out fancier so it makes you really want to buy the stuff.

4. zulily.com Just found out about this so haven't had time to check it out but it's basically like babysteals only for designer items.

Did I miss any good ones? Let me know!

Also Old Navy is having an awesome sale on baby stuff right now!

Baby group!

Here are all the babies from our parent support group! Layla is in the middle, grabbing at the pacifier strap of the baby next to her. I can now say that lining up 8 6-month olds and taking a picture is not easy, but very entertaining.

Wallyhood blog

Our neighborhood has a blog! I love to check in every once in a while and read about garage sales, weird stuff people have on their lawns, church fundraisers, etc. This week the blog suddenly became useful, however, when we got a letter in the mail that a church near us is planning to be a site for an organized homeless group. What! There was a very heated discussion about this that we had to miss, and tomorrow is 'opening day'. So we both checked out all the details on the wallyhood blog, and found out that a lot of our neighbors were doing the same (the first blog post on this topic had 116 comments!). It turns out that for the most part, it should be ok - it's not a huge group (like the famous Seattle Tent City and Nickelsville groups). There will only be 15 people/night, they have to sign in and out, they will be supervised, and they have to be in by 9 pm and out by 7 am. But, unfortunately, an unregistered sex offender was hanging out in the last one for a while before he got caught (they don't have time to do background checks on everyone). And, weirdly, the church that is hosting this shelter happens to also host a daycare (not OUR daycare, thank goodness, but you can see why this is controversial).

But, what can we do? We have to try to help the homeless, right? And how can you help them if you don't let them sleep anywhere? This program keeps SO MANY people from sleeping outside. And problems in the nearby neighborhood are VERY RARE. So, I don't see any good solid reason to shut it down (other than the daycare issue, which as I said is very weird). But, I have to admit, I'll be a little nervous for a while as the neighborhood adjusts to its new neighbors.

6 month photos!!

We have been looking forward to getting 6-month photos ever since we got our totally awesome newborn photos (when Layla was 5 days old!). In anticipation, we went on a shopping spree at Once Upon A Time in Queen Anne, a kids store with lots of fancy-pants locally handmade items. You can spend a lot of money fast at that store! But, it's good to get a couple of really really nice things every once in a while.

But one of the best things for our pictures - the 30-year quilt! We spread this out in the grass and took a bunch of photos on it, and it was really comfy AND beautiful!! And the photographer couldn't BELIEVE my dad made it.

Our photographer is really amazing, and as we expected she took some awesome shots of us, even though Miss Layla put on her crabby pants after only about 40 min.



These are just a few - I'll try to post more once we get the entire set.

Crawling!

Layla is trying so hard to be mobile. She is getting up on her hands and knees and working really hard on moving around but still can't, and then gets really frustrated over it. We spent the entire weekend working with her on the floor because we really wanted to see her crawl for the first time (instead of the daycare workers getting to see it!). We each got down there and showed her how it's done, and we moved her knees for her, and we encouraged her by cheering her on and putting toys she wanted just out of reach. But, the end of the weekend came and she still isn't crawling yet. She is, however, scooting backwards (much to her irritation - she moves AWAY from the toy she wants instead of towards it), and she can also turn 180 degrees around now. So, we made some progress. We'll see what the week holds!

Crawling!