The other day, I had put my hair in Velcro rollers while Elliora was napping in the hope that I could coax my two-days-since-washing hair look a little more lively. When she woke up I had yet to take them out. Her reaction to seeing them when she woke up was pretty funny. First she was a little scared. Then, she realized it was still Mama under there.

See how she’s patting my chest? She does that when she’s happy and I’m holding her. It’s like her way of saying, I got my mama riiiight here, it’s all good.

I see these things on your head, Mother. Whatever could they be for?

And there you are in the mirror, with those funny things still on your head.

Wait, am I freaked out by this? Hmm, perhaps I am….nah, I’m not. It’s just funny.

The crocheting around here, it never ends! This batch of balls was a custom order. I was only asked to make nine, but I made a bonus black-and-white one, so there are ten. They’re listed in my Etsy shop whenever you’re ready, Karen.

These balls were a custom order for someone who was going to use them to make a baby mobile.

My mom was telling me a while back how my 20-month-old niece loves this metal butterfly ornament of my mom’s, but she doesn’t really like to let Aurora play with it because she’s afraid she might cut herself on it. So I offered to crochet her a butterfly toy. It was fun to figure out how to do it!

Of course when Annalie saw Aurora’s, she asked if I could make her one too. I was expecting the request so I just told her to pick out the colors she wanted and I’d get right on it. Aurora’s is the dark purple one; Annalie’s is the light purple.

I crocheted this green-and-gold baby blanket at my mom’s request, for her godson’s baby boy. They’re big Packers fans.

Would you say I’ve crocheted a PLETHORA of coffee-cup sleeves?

I crocheted this potholder a while back just for fun. Then when my friend Deborah came to visit rather unexpectedly, I knew it would be the perfect gift for her. Then I completely forgot to give it to her while she was here. I mailed it to her with the mug she painted while she was here.

Her first dottery! Didn’t it turn out nice? I love how every time I teach someone how to paint dottery, they run with it and make it entirely their own.

While we were in Oregon, Erin picked out the yarn I’m using to crochet Indira’s blanket. I used it to make a little sampler to give to her at the baby shower, which happened while we were there. And then I forgot to take a better photo of it. That’s okay, because I’ll take a better photo of the real blanket when I’m done with it.

Annalie is going to be a peacock for Halloween this year, and she was musing that none of her trick-or-treat bags will match her costume. She was delighted when I offered to crochet her a new bag (because it’s not like I have enough to crochet, what with the half-dozen baby blankets I’ll be working on in the coming months). We found this lovely peacock-colored wool on KnitPicks which should felt up nicely, but when it arrived I realized I don’t own a winder and swift, and it’s kind of a long trip to Jen‘s just to get her kids to wind my yarn into skeins for me. So I found another way to do it, using a paper-towel roll. I was pretty proud of my finished skein.

Now that it’s autumn and temperatures are falling, I expect I’ll find myself crocheting even more. Crocheting and knitting always seem like such fallish crafts to me. What about you? What are you working on these days? If you don’t craft, are you writing a novel? Perfecting your apple pie recipe? Training for a marathon?

Look at me, blogging about something the same day it happened. It’s almost like I have a 10-month old now instead of a newborn.

Oh, right. I do have a 10-month-old! As of today, in fact. I do believe she’s going to be walking before she’s another month older.

Anyway. Today we had a fun visit with Carrie and her kids! We were originally planning to meet at a park between our two towns, but it rained last night and we weren’t enthused about the idea of trying to keep two babies entertained at a wet, muddy park. So we scrapped that plan and decided to just meet at Carrie’s house.

Annalie and Erik didn’t care much. When we got there, they immediately headed to the playroom in the basement and must’ve had fun because we didn’t see them again until we told them it was time to go get lunch.

We could walk to the Amish market from Carrie’s house, so that’s what we did. It was a pretty nice day, despite the drizzle we ended up walking through on the way home. The big kids ran ahead of us and got some of their wiggles out, while we pushed the babies in the strollers and enjoyed the mild weather and the fall colors that are just starting to show.

The market itself was quite interesting. There were a bunch of different stalls, selling all kinds of delicious things to eat—cheese, baked goods, produce, preserves and baking supplies like flour and nuts, candy, soft pretzels—as well as a restaurant, a meat counter, and a furniture showcasing a variety of beautiful wood tables, chairs, dressers, beds, and bookcases.

It seemed a little incongruous to me see all these men and women in plain dress (the women in long, modest dresses with their hair parted in the middle and pulled back under crisp white caps; the men in plain pants and button-down shirts with suspenders, most of them with beards and a fringe of hair cut straight across their foreheads), which is usually adopted by those who forsake the modern world and its conveniences, blithely using electronic scales and credit-card readers and cash registers. Carrie said it’s even funnier to see them outside on a break, using their cell phones.

We stopped at the deli counter and bought fried chicken, potato salad, and cucumber salad. We also bought half of a chocolate cake for dessert, then took it all back to Carrie’s house to eat. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that it was all completely, utterly delicious. I’m already plotting when I can go back and get more of that fried chicken.

After lunch Annalie and Erik went to the little neighborhood park to play, and Carrie and I hung out in the living room with Elliora and Elsa. It was probably a lot more fun for them that we were in a house full of toys instead of at the park, where Elliora probably wouldn’t have been able to crawl on the wet ground and Elsa would have been continually frustrated at not being able to keep up with the big kids. They are a bit too young to play together yet, but they got along pretty well, considering.

Elliora seemed to look at the living room full of toys she’d never played with and think, Right. I have a lot of work to do before we leave here! Then she set out to play with as many of them as she could.

Well, with as many as she could before Elsa grabbed them out of her hands, that is. I don’t blame Elsa one bit, though. Who was this young upstart coming into HER house and playing with HER toys!? At least Elliora took it good-naturedly. She just moved on to the next toy. By the time we left she was grabbing toys right back out of Elsa’s hands.

Then Elliora did something that kind of startled me: she imitated Elsa. Elsa had put a pillow on the floor and laid down with her head on it. When she got up, Elliora crawled over to the pillow and looked at it, looked over at Elsa, looked back at the pillow, and then laid down in the same position Elsa had just been in, with her head on the pillow. She sat up and grinned at me and Elsa, then laid back down and patted the pillow, just like she pats my chest when she’s snuggling with me, clearly quite pleased with herself. She’s growing up at the speed of light, that one. She’s got a big sister to keep up with!

We left not long after lunch, since it was naptime for the littles, waving good-bye and promising not to wait so long between visits next time. Thanks again for having us over and taking us to the Amish market, Carrie!