Sorry for the long blog break. It wasn't intentional. I thought it had only been a week or two but when I pulled the pictures off my camera last weekend I discovered it had been a month. There were 1469 photos waiting to be downloaded! How do I summarize 1469 photos? I've been trying all week with little success so this morning I decided to just pull out a dozen or so and make a list to go with them.

1. Maisie now has 12 teeth. Crazy. She can also climb onto the rocking chair, follow simple instructions ("Go get your robot shoes."), and express her opinion about things (No, she doesn't want a bath). We're pretty sure that yesterday she was coming out with a word for squirrel (sounded like "curl"). She loves to see the ducks and goats that are on our way home every day.

2. I made a blanket  for Maisie. It's just a light weight one. Flannel pinwheels on one side and yellow minky on the other. I put one of her name tag labels on one corner. So far she cries when she sees it. I don't know why. I'm sure she'll like it eventually.

3. The last of the snow disappeared, the birch tees came into leaf, the weeds came up, and our garden went in. I did it over a couple of weeks and a little later than usual but we've got peas, beans, squash, radishes, nasturtiums and turnips all coming up. I got three tomato plants and a hot pepper from a friend who had too many seedlings. The tomatoes already have flowers and I'm looking forward to the fruit whenever it arrives.

4. Maisie has developed a firm love of the out of doors world and gets at least as excited as Abby at the suggestion of a walk. She'll bring us our shoes and drag us to the door.

I just looked over and Maisie is playing with her clothes (she's still in pajamas) in the animals' water dish. We got the clothes out so we could put her in something dry (she's been playing with the water dish for a while) and they are now sopping wet and being waved around like flags.

5. We made strawberry ice cream. It was a really good. The hardest part of making ice cream seems to be deciding what kind to make. We were thinking of trying chocolate peanut butter chip next but the rhubarb is ready for picking and I think vanilla rhubarb gelato would be delicious.

6. Maisie experienced rain. We all get pretty excited about rain at the beginning of the summer. It's so novel after eight months of snow. I especially love falling asleep to the sound of it hitting the roof. Few things are cozier.

7. We tried fiddleheads for the first time. I found them in the grocery store one day and decided it would be fun. They look pretty cool. I steamed them, then sautéed them in some butter and garlic. I thought they would taste like asparagus but it was more like spinach with a firmer texture.

8. I grew sprouts. I don't know what got me thinking about sprouts this spring but suddenly I was really into them and completely unsatisfied with the choices in the grocery store. I got some seeds and a little mesh lid and tried sprouting in a mason jar. I was ridiculously easy and fascinating to watch. I took pictures every day for the week. Unfortunately I didn't have any plan for what to do when the sprouts were ready and they got mouldy while I was thinking about it. Still, the growing of them was lots of fun and I know I need a plan for next time.

9. I started a sweater for Maisie. It's going pretty slowly, especially since for a little while I was going backwards, but I hope to get it finished in time for her to wear it this summer. Or at least before she grows out of it.

10. Identifying body parts has become a favourite game in our house. Socks are removed to reveal wiggly toes, elbows are pointed out with glee, tummies are proudly displayed, and did you know that everyone has ears?

Was last week nice for you? It was full of lovely, everyday moments for us. Maisie has a new trick she can do on her giraffe bike. It freaks me out to see her do it but as long as the bike is on the carpet she doesn't seem to hurt herself when she falls off. Rob introduced her to snow for the first time. She wasn't overly enamoured with the experience but there will be plenty more opportunities to discover how great it is. Right now I'm more interested in water. Last Tuesday we got close enough to zero that things started melting just a bit and this week there is a drip, drip, drip off the house in the afternoon. I'm excited to rediscover my garden and share the joy of freshly picked peas with Miss Maisie. We're going to give broccollini a try this year.

Much fun was had one afternoon last week by putting yoghurt drops into an empty bottle and dumping them out again. Many landed on the floor. Abby and Ollie ate them. I got to drink my tea. We went out for breakfast on Saturday morning. Instead of her usual boots we put Maisie's shoes on so she'd be able to walk around at the restaurant. She really likes the robots and flapped her feet around and smiled at them while Rob got her hat and scarf on. Saturday afternoon was cake and tea to celebrate my recent birthday. I made this cake and it was great. I added raisins and was pretty generous with the icing. It's delicious and not too sweet. And it's great for breakfast the next day.

I managed to get in a little crafting this weekend. Socks for me are finished. Socks for Maisie are started. A little quilt top id finished too. I've got some minky for the backing. I usually like to stick to all natural materials when I'm sewing because they just feel nicer to me but the minky is so soft. I've been warned that it's kind of stretchy to sew with and to use lots of pins. With luck I get it done sometime this week.

Hello extended family: I know you make up a lot of my readership right now and I wanted to let you know that I have (finally) put our most recent family photos up on Flickr for your enjoyment. They were taken by Dave Brosha and, as always, his work is fabulous. What you can't see is that for the few of just me and Rob Dave was holding a squealing and squirming Maisie on one shoulder and using his camera with the other hand. I wish I'd had my camera so I could have taken a picture of him. Memory with have to suffice. If you'd like a larger version of anything for printing off, just let us know and we'll email it to you.

For everyone else a quick quiz: identify all the handknits in the last picture above. I'm not sure what you'll win (other than a happy feeling of accomplishment and renewed faith in your abilities as a sleuth and researcher) but I might be able to come up with something. Bonus points if you can tell me which yarns I used and if any of those yarns are used in other projects.