New Dress

 For my sister's wedding, I sewed myself a new dress. My sewing experience has been pretty sporadic, and my last attempt at a dress, during my senior year of high school, turned out pretty laughable—just ask my mom, I can guarantee she will laugh. So for this attempt I not only made sure to purchase an easy, beginner pattern but I also proceeded under adult supervision. And it turned out to be a great success! At least I really like my new dress. And I had the opportunity to learn a couple new sewing skills; I can now successfully make gathers and tack down lining. (The gathers is an especially good skill to know since my first attempt at gathers is the main reason my last attempt at a dress was so laughable.)

Hidden Kiss Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
48 Hershey's Kisses, unwrapped
powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350*F. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl until creamy. Stir together flour and cocoa; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Mold scant tablespoon dough around each chocolate piece, covering completely. Shape into balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
2. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool about 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Roll in powdered sugar. Roll in sugar again just before serving, if desired.

Photo courtesy of hersheys.com.

My sister Jennifer is getting married next month, and for her bridal shower we had a kiss cookie theme. We had some traditional peanut butter blossoms and two varieties of what I call hidden kiss cookies. I made the above chocolate variety and my sister Andrea made an almond variety. Both were delicious! I was feeling lazy, so I didn't roll my cookies in the powdered sugar, but I was thinking that for holiday occasions, I might roll these cookies in colored sugar sprinkles. I think that would be fun.

Also, I tried to find caramel kisses but failed. But I think the caramel kisses would be extra delicious. Although in their absence, one could use rollos or even mini peanut butter cups--yum!

Baby Feet

Charlie has officially discovered his feet and toes! I think it's certainly about time. I mean, should it really take three months for a human to discover that "holy crap those wiggly things down there are a part of me!" I think it's a feat that should be able to be accomplished much sooner, but apparently not. Oh well, at least he's not still in the dark. This particular discovery has come in handy quite a bit. For example, now during diaper changes, I don't have to hold Charlie's feet up because he does it for me! He's such a helpful boy. Also, now during playtime when Charlie loses all his other toys because he's dropped them, he still has two that he not only can't lose but can't get enough of. Excellent. I know this seems like a very small milestone, but it's one I've been looking forward to since Charlie's birth. So, hooray for Charlie!

Growing

Despite the fact that Charlie is a big baby, I have been hesitating to put him into his bigger-sized clothes. After all, he is barely more than 2 months old, so he should still fit into his 0–3 month clothes. Right? Well, sort of. If "fit" means that I am able to get him in and snap the clothes shut, then yes, he still fits. But "fit" doesn't seem to be a very good descriptor when the clothes are stretched tight around his body.

So, I have finally upgraded Charlie's wardrobe to his 3–6 month clothes, and I have mixed feelings about it. On the good side, he has a lot of super cute 3–6 month clothes (including the above dinosaur number with the cute dino prints on the footsies). On the not so good side, this upgrade means that my little bitty baby (who wasn't ever really that little bitty) is getting bigger and bigger, and before I know it, my baby will be a toddler then a kid then a preteen then a teen then almost a man then a man—weird!

But I guess I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself, and at least for now he's still my cuddle buddy. I'll just have to enjoy Charlie's babyhood while I can.

Playtime

Charlie is moving right along in his development; he's starting to reach out and touch things, grab things, put things in his mouth (he loves the feel of his burp cloths in his mouth), etc. All very small accomplishments, but to me they are awesome! Especially since these accomplishments mean Charlie is starting to entertain himself upon occasion. Hooray!

So Charlie's playtime has become more get-things-done time for me. And with Chad at work and school (he's taking two classes at a local university) most of the day, it's been great. I now have more time to work on my last college class via independent study (bring on graduation!—finally), and I've also taken on a freelance editing project for a local author, Rachel Nunes. Having published dozens of novels, Rachel is well established in the LDS market, so this will be an excellent experience for me.

All in all, things are going well for our little family!

Smiles

Hooray Charlie is starting to smile!

After a month and a half of negative reinforcement (poop, crying, spit-up, and more crying), we are finally getting positive responses. Phew.

It's amazing just how much easier parenting is to handle when I can look forward to those adorable moments when my baby smiles at me. I was beginning to wonder just when the "parenthood is so rewarding" and "it's all worth it" aspect was going to come in to play (hence my lack of posts over the last month and a half), and it is finally here. What a relief!

We're trying to discover more and more things that will make Charlie laugh, but so far we've got pinching/poking his cheeks, poking/wiggling his nose, and blowing puffs of air in his face. And, naturally, accompanying any of those actions with weird noises helps. We're working on getting him to smile when we tickle him, but he still doesn't know what to think when we tickle his belly or sides, and I'm not sure he's even aware of his toes—he better watch out when he finally does realize those little wiggly things down there are his, because I can't resist tickling baby toes.

Life is good when baby smiles.

:)