Penelope at 9 months

 
Our sweet Poppy is 9 months! She's learning so much, growing so fast, and becoming her own little person. We love her more than our hearts can handle!

She still crawls everywhere, but has also recently learned how to cruise along the couch and use the kid chairs as walkers. Can she truly be ready to walk? This can't be happening already.

 She has the sweetest, tiniest face. Her lips look like a duck's most of the time. She finally got two bottom teeth!! We thought they'd never come...poor thing had a TERRIBLE time teething.

My most favorite thing is when she plants kisses directly on our lips. This baby age is so fun :)

Signing "all done". It was the first one she learned! She also does "more" and "eat". It is the cutest thing :)

Till next month!

mermaid felt doll

Last week Charlotte told me that she wished she was a mermaid. This was no surprise...everyone in our household is very much aware of how much Charlotte is completely obsessed with mermaids! I started thinking that it would be fun to make a paper doll mermaid that she could dress up. My grandma used to play paper dolls with me for hours when I was little...I still remember how special I felt that she took the time to do that with me. 

Since I have totes full of felt just gatherin dust in the garage, I decided to go the felt route. Plus felt is great because it doesn't rip as easily as paper and it naturally adheres to other felt surfaces. I began with a simple naked mermaid shape, then added some bead eyes and bellybutton and hand-stitched mouth. To enforce the doll I ironed some stiff interfacing on the back, which I also had laying around in my craft supply pile. 

And then the outfits! Charlotte insisted on an Ariel and Melody ensemble. If you haven't seen the second Little Mermaid movie, Melody is Eric & Ariel's half mermaid half human daughter. :) 

 The treasure chest was fun to make. It opens and closes with a button enclosure, and when it's open the button looks like it's part of the treasure hoard. 

Charlotte also asked for an outfit that looked like her. Easy! 

And one that looked like me. 

Talmage loves penguins, so he suggested an "ice mermaid" with a pet penguin. Heck yes!

And since our beloved auntie Cressa has long, flowing red hair, we had to make a Cressa mermaid too :) 

The last outfit is all things girly- pink and sparkly! Charlotte calls her "Princess  Pink". 

My favorite part about this craft is that I already had everything on hand, which is helpful since I have like zero desire to go to the craft store with 3 kids. Ha.

Another good thing about this project is that it's perfect for quiet play in Sacrament meeting. We always need more of those kinds of activities :) 

Charlotte loves it, too. She goes through all the outfits then mix-matches them up. She will always be my most favorite little mermaid!