Eight Months Old!

Natalie turned eight months old yesterday.She seems on the verge of so many things - getting her two top teeth (every instance of fussiness we attribute to these teeth, but then they never appear), crawling (we've caught her doing the yoga plank pose in her bed via the video monitor), and saying "mama" and "dada" (she makes those sounds, but hasn't quite figured out that those are words with meaning).Meanwhile, what she does do is adorable. We're still bringing her to bed a for a little snuggle each morning. She'll lie contentedly on her back for a while, alternately petting our faces / pulling my hair / grabbing Daddy's glasses, and then flip over onto her stomach and wiggle around. At this point she's still much better at going backwards than forwards, so she'll promptly launch herself backwards under the covers, and then we have to retrieve her. Totally cute!She's a good eater - her staples are banana and oatmeal, but we also have avocado, butternut squash, applesauce, apple-plum sauce, apple-raspberry sauce, spinach and potatoes, winter vegetable puree, and summer vegetable puree in the mix. She's also getting better at drinking from a cup.She likes stories, songs, and little games. She still doesn't really do peek-a-boo, but she does love any game that involves a stuffed animal kissing her stomach.She takes three short naps per day, or two longer ones, depending on the day.Her attitude toward walks remains, uh, fickle.Last week we also had a visit from Grandma Pat.Grandma Pat played with Natalie while we gardened - this worked only as long as Natalie could neither see us (nor pictures of us) nor hear our voices. As soon as she was reminded of us, she wanted to be with us. Sweet, no? Also, since one of us is almost always with her, we had never had the experience of her missing us - we didn't even know if she knew to miss us. She does!

Grandma Pat and I also went to see "Fiddler on the Roof." I'd forgotten how totally dark and depressing that show is. Wow. I had remembered the larger-historical-context-dark-stuff, but had forgotten all the stuff about the relationships among the characters. Maybe I'll just focus on the music....

The garden was looking great.But then last night it snowed! I know, seriously, right? But we definitely had some damage out there, despite my best efforts to cover the plants. I think the basil, tomatillo, and chili peppers are toast (or compost). Some of the tomatoes might be salvageable, along with some of the squash and eggplants. I guess I'll give it a week and then see what needs to be re-planted. (At least the potted plants are okay, as they were loaded into the wheelbarrow and then re-located to the garage for the night)

In happier backyard news, we finally have Mike's grill set up. (This picture was taken two days before the snow incident, when it was 70 degrees out)This grill was a present promised to him at his graduation. Now that we're settled in the house and there were some good spring sales, we jumped on one. And it's great! (Note the beer; I think that's obligatory for grilling in Texas. You know, except that we only grill fish, veggies, and veggie burgers).

In terms of inside cooking, I continue my love affair with world peace cookies:And Mike has been connecting with his "inner Texan" by learning to make biscuits:
But this remains our favorite little sweet treat: