I made stored dough for the first time in ages last week and use a chunk of it for cinnamon rolls on Saturday morning. I think I'd forgotten just how handy it is to have a big bowl of ready to use bread dough in the fridge and just how good fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls smell. I drizzled a little icing over them just for fun. Rob and I had ours with coffee and Maisie had hers with some apple sauce. She's starting to get the hang of using a spoon. Sometimes she'll just use her fingers to move whatever is on the bowl of the spoon to her mouth but a few times now she's grabbed the spoon and put it in her mouth with most of the food still on it. On Sunday she also used her piece of cinnamon roll as a vehicle for apple sauce. It turns out this is really good and Rob and I finished off the remained of her cup of apple sauce by dipping cinnamon rolls in it. I think I'll plan on putting out a dish a of apple sauce every time I make cinnamon rolls now. They just went together so perfectly.

December kind of snuck up on me this year. Not really in a bad way. I just wasn't expecting it so soon. The end of November was a pretty nice time. I got to do a little sewing and some yarn photography . We've spent time watching squirrels and one morning got to see a fox. It was asleep in the back yard and lifted up its head in response to Abby's barking but decided she wasn't a threat and went back to sleep until lunch time. I thought Abby would make herself hoarse. We got a whole bunch more snow over last weekend. Maisie is now pulling herself up to standing on pieces of furniture. It's very exciting but a little scary to watch. She's also now old enough that I can give her cheese and she loves it. I got out some special pajamas for her to wear now that it's December. I'd totally forgotten that the first pair had ruffles on the bum. They're so cute! Maisie and Rob have both been working on giving me time to work on Maisie's Christmas Stocking and it's now a little further along than in my picture. An unexpected nap by Miss Maisie (taken in her own bed instead of on top of me) was a special bonus.

No, I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet ... I just, at the moment, have what I heard someone recently refer to as "a velcro baby". Maisie has been "all Mummy, all the time" the last week or two and at times it seemed like I'd never get to use my arms for anything else ever again, but this week she's easing off a bit and spending more time practicing her new skill. She can now move around on her tummy and squirms across the floor with a ridiculously excited expression after rattles, dog toys and me. I love watching her go. I must have found little moments to use my hands though because Maisie has a new pair of pants and an almost finished sweater. She was nicely amused by all the hammering to get the snaps onto her new bibs so I was able to finish those too. Crafting in tiny bits is a very different experience and I'm still getting use to it.

Looking back at the pictures I've shared of Maisie eating all her new foods she seems to be remarkably clean. I thought I'd better have at least one picture of her at the end of a meal with oatmeal smeared everywhere. She got to have a bath after her first experience with blueberries (but she liked them so much I added them to her oatmeal the following morning). At least two of her bibs are just the right colour for blueberries and a few others I mentally designate "squash and carrots" bibs.

I picked the last carrots out of my garden just before the snow came. It's the kind that will be sticking around all winter and made for a slippery Hallowe'en. Rob spent a while outside after work on Thursday evening making sure the path to our door was safe for all the little ghouls and princesses that might come by. Maisie was a tiger for Hallowe'en and fell asleep between when I got her costume on and when Rob got home from work but woke up in time to go to a friend's house to trick-or-treat.