Arlo turned 16 months old a little over a week ago. He's getting so big!

In the past month, he's gotten really good at climbing down from things on his tummy, feet first. He can climb down from chairs, the couch, and even our bed. He tried to climb down from his changing table, but luckily I stopped him before he let go. He has also mastered going up and down the stairs. When it's time for a nap or bedtime, he'll happily crawl up the stairs to his bedroom (with a few detours into the guest room and bathroom). It's so nice!

He's figured out how to give close-mouthed kisses, and he'll give me a kiss every night before bed, upon request. He also knows how to hug, but he usually reserves those for his stuffed animals.

He has been picking up all sorts of words. He can say "koala," "kangaroo," and "carrier," but he still doesn't say "mama." What's up with that? Most of the time he uses "dada" to refer to both me and Patrick (though he definitely thinks of Patrick as the primary "dada." I just get called "dada" because he doesn't have another name to call me). With some prompting from Patrick, Arlo will sometimes call me "ba" or "baba," and when asked where mama is, he'll point to me. He's capable of making the "m" sound, so I'm not sure what the holdup is. He'll figure it out eventually.

He's getting good at animal sounds, especially his dog and monkey impressions. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning, he'll lay in his crib making monkey sounds until we come get him. It's pretty awesome :)

Arlo also loves listening to music on the record player, especially the Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat. He'll say "gogo" repeatedly until I cave in and put on a record. He'll usually settle for other music (thank goodness!), but the Go-Go's are definitely his favorite.

Without any intentional encouragement from us, Arlo has developed a strong interest in things with wheels--trucks, cars, bikes. We have a couple Richard Scarry books, and he'll always turn to the pages with cars, construction equipment, and fire trucks. The highlight of his week is garbage day. Every time he hears a garbage truck outside, he'll perk up and rush to the window or crawl over to me and beg to be picked up so he can watch the trucks go by.

He's still not walking, but crawling serves him just fine. He used to sit on my lap during his entire nap routine, but now he'll climb down from my lap almost immediately and crawl around his room while I read him a book and sing him a song. He loves to explore--opening cupboards, wiggling doorknobs (can't quite open them yet, phew!). But he'll still happily go in his crib when it's time, grabbing for his blankie and sticking his thumb in his mouth.

His first molar came in a few weeks ago--on the lower right. I assume the others are on their way. He handled it without too much fuss, thankfully.

He continues to be a pretty picky eater. Anything mushy gets flung on the floor, including his once-beloved sweet potatoes. I'm sure he'll change his tune eventually. We had our first grape harvest this year, and Arlo quickly mastered the art of eating grapes off the stem. Our homegrown grapes were small, so I didn't have to cut them in half, which was nice. We could just hand him a bunch of grapes and let him entertain himself.

Arlo loves reading books with us. He especially enjoys poring over our Richard Scarry books, pointing at everything. Patrick has taken him to the library a couple times, and they've come home with a stack of library books, which has added some nice variety to reading time.

Arlo loves going down the slide at the park, and once he's at the bottom, he'll turn around and try to clamber back up (somewhat successfully) so he can slide down again. Patrick took him to the swimming pool for the first time this weekend, and it sounds like Arlo enjoyed it, though he clung to Patrick like a monkey the whole time.

In non-Arlo news, we've enjoyed some home improvements lately. Patrick hired Carl of Vintage Wood Works to fix a few things before winter descended. He de-squeakified our main stairs, rebuilt our basement stairs, installed a new basement window and door, and replaced our front porch railing. It's so nice having the house spruced up. If you're looking for a contractor in Portland, Carl is a good choice. He worked quickly and thoroughly, and he always had a smile for Arlo. Here is our basement with no stairs (luckily, it has a side door, so we were still able to get down there to do laundry).

We also finally bought a new oven and fridge, after living with the old, duct-taped models that came with the house for three years. Our old appliances weren't so bad once we got used to them, but it sure is nice to have a range with a working broiler (and an induction cooktop and convection oven--ooh la la!).

As an inaugural meal for our new range, I made steak au poivre, roasted potatoes, and buttered peas. It was very good, though next time I'd do the potatoes at 450F, since they didn't get quite as browned as I would have liked.

Other recent dinners haven't been as remarkable, but we have had two good snacky cakes recently. The first was an Italian almond cake, which wasn't too sweet and was nice for afternoon snacks. Second, I made a plum torte, which was yummy and a good use for the pretty Italian plums at the farmers' market.

This weekend, I took a fun papercutting class from Nikki McClure at PNCA. (Big thanks to Patrick for hanging out with Arlo all weekend while I was off on my fun crafty adventure!) This was my first time trying papercutting, and I enjoyed it. The materials are pretty affordable, and it's so cool seeing the finished piece emerge from the paper.

I based my first piece on a picture of Arlo and me, from Jon and Katie's wedding. First, I traced the photo and decided which parts would be black and which would be white (all of the black pieces have to be connected, so it takes a little thinking). Then I used graphite tracing paper to transfer the image onto black paper, and I cut out the picture with an Exacto knife. I wasn't going to include the flower pattern on the dress originally, but I'm glad I did--I like the texture and definition it adds to the picture.

I might do something in the top right corner, and I want to make a companion piece based on a picture of Arlo and Patrick, but I thought I'd post these pictures before too much time elapsed, rather than waiting until I'd completely finished the project.

During the class, we took a field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Craft, where Nikki is currently showing a retrospective of her work. She walked us through the show and talked about the techniques she used and the history of the pieces. Understanding more about the papercutting process makes me appreciate her work a lot more--it takes time and skill to create such intricate pieces! I'd definitely recommend checking out her show if you're in Portland. It's really beautiful.

In other crafty news, I finished sewing a summery sundress just in time for our rainy autumn weather (oops!). Luckily, summer briefly returned this week, and I got to wear my new dress for a little while.

This was my first try at making the Colette Chantilly dress. It was a practice dress, so I used a $3 thrifted sheet for the shell and muslin for the lining. I cut the yoke and midriff front on the bias, to add some visual interest. I cut the midriff front a couple sizes bigger than the rest of the dress, to accommodate my post-Arlo waist (I've started doing some exercises to remedy that, but no progress yet). This was my first time installing an invisible zipper, though it turned out that I could pull it over my head without using the zipper--go figure! This was also my first project on my new (used) Bernina 730, and I loved sewing with it!

The dress turned out wearable, but I think it would look nicer (and be less heavy) in lighter weight fabrics, as the pattern recommends. I'm planning on making this dress again (next year, I guess), since it's cute and it has pockets. It uses a lot of fabric, but I think it's worth it. The pattern and instructions were awesome, of course. I love Colette Patterns :)

I also finished knitting a shawl right before our trip to Montana. It's the Stripe Study shawl, made in two beautiful Madelinetosh yarns (more information on Ravelry). Although I love the graphic nature of the finished shawl and the process used to knit the shawl, I'm not 100% sold on the final product. I'm not a big shawl person, and I'm having a hard time finding a flattering way to wear it given its asymmetry and size.

I'm also unhappy with how the blocking turned out, but that could be fixed pretty easily. Maybe I'll give this shawl another chance now that fall is here. Or it might get turned into a new sweater for Arlo--I want to make sure that yarn gets put to good use!

Arlo turned 15 months old on Tuesday and obliged us by smiling for his orange chair pictures.

His 15-month checkup went well--he's continues to be long and lean with a big head. Every time we go in for a checkup, I have to remind myself that it's okay that he's only 25th percentile in weight. All that stress about him not getting enough milk in those first few months left its mark on me, I guess. But now that he is totally weaned to solid foods, I'm much less worried that he isn't getting enough to eat. (I think I forgot to mention that he stopped nursing 2 months ago. It happened shortly after this post. He just wasn't interested anymore, and I was ready to be done too, so we stopped)

He's still not walking; I guess crawling serves him just fine. I don't feel like he has changed that much in the past month, apart from becoming more expressive and opinionated and learning more words. His latest trick is that he'll lift his arms up on request (potentially useful for removing tight sweaters this winter). It's so cool that he understands us and will usually do what we ask him to. What a little person he is!

As I mentioned before, we've been going on all sorts of fun summer adventures. We took a road trip to Montana (the first time any of us had been there) to see Glacier National Park. It was beautiful! The only downside of the trip was that Arlo doesn't like being stuck in his carseat for very long, so there was a lot of this on the drive there and back:

Although vacationing with a 15-month-old isn't very relaxing, I'm glad we got to enjoy the trip as a family. We had plenty of good moments too.

We broke the drive up into two days each way, spending the night in Coeur d'Alene both times. It seemed like a nice town. The bed and breakfast we stayed at, The Roosevelt Inn was great, and it was walking distance to the lake and downtown. We stayed in the Noble Suite, which was perfect for us--we put Arlo to bed in his Peapod in the smaller room, and then we were free to talk at normal volume and watch movies (on our laptop--they don't have TVs, but they do have a big DVD collection) in our room.

We rented this cabin in Hungry Horse, MT, which was pretty close to Glacier's west entrance. It was right on the Flathead River, which was nice--we took the little path down to the river a couple times, and it was relaxing to sit there and watch the river go by (a little less relaxing when accompanied by a toddler who wanted to crawl around and stick his hand in the water). There was even a nest of baby eagles right across the river!

This cabin's kitchen wasn't quite as well stocked as the Mt. Hood cabin, but otherwise we were really happy with it! There was no high chair, so Arlo got to use a grown-up chair for meals, which worked out okay, except he had to stand up to reach his food, which then inspired him to try to climb onto the table. Not ideal, but it all worked out.

We got into town on a Saturday afternoon, and since check-in time for the cabin wasn't until 5pm, we killed time in Whitefish. We bought bear spray at a local sporting goods store (and didn't have to use it; phew!) and then walked around downtown Whitefish. We got huckleberry frozen yogurt at Red Caboose, and Patrick bought a cowboy hat but was afraid to wear it in public, for fear the locals would ridicule him for not being a real cowboy. Authentic or not, I think it looks good on him!

We got some tasty takeout from The Shak and ate it at the cabin, then put Arlo to bed and watched DVDs (we made it through the second season of Party Down while we were there, as well as Michael Clayton and The Devil Wears Prada--I can't believe Patrick agreed to watch that last one with me!).

The next day was our big day for exploring Glacier. We started out by hiking to Avalanche Lake, by way of Trail of the Cedars. We'd packed a picnic lunch to eat at the lake, and the hike was twice as long as I was expecting (2 miles each way; not roundtrip), so I was pretty hungry and grumpy by the time we got there. But I got over it quickly when we got to the lake, since it was so beautiful. And boy, did those sandwiches taste good after all that hiking! We had picked up a used Kelty TC 2.1 backpack at Piccolina before the trip, and it worked well for Patrick (I didn't try it; it's tiring enough for me to hike unencumbered).

Next, we drove along Going to the Sun Highway, which was amazing. I hear it was closed through mid-July because of snow, so I'm really grateful that we were able to see it. Arlo slept through the whole thing, which was okay, since he probably wouldn't have been able to see much from his car seat.

Arlo woke up just as we exited the east end of the park, and we stopped at the Park Cafe in St. Mary for pie (chocolate cream, strawberry rhubarb, and a piece of coconut cream for later). Yum! We also bought Arlo a little mountain goat at the gift shop--couldn't resist.

It was getting late, but we stopped at Logan Pass to squeeze in the Hidden Lake hike before dinnertime. Another absolutely beautiful hike, and this one was pretty easy--it was a boardwalk path most of the way. The path was snowy beyond the boardwalk, and the sun was going to set soon, so we decided to head back without seeing Hidden Lake itself. It was still a beautiful hike!

When we got back to the Logan Pass visitor center, we stopped for a snack, and we spotted a deer right off the path. Pretty cool!

The next day, Patrick hiked the Highline Trail by himself (too hard for Arlo and me). I walked around downtown Hungry Horse with Arlo (it's a very small downtown, as far as I could tell), had a huckleberry shake, and hung out at the cabin. I would have liked to spend another day in the park, but we're going to go back next year, so we should have more time then.

After another overnight in Coeur d'Alene, we headed back to Portland, stopping in Hood River for ice cream. We drove home by way of the beautiful Columbia Gorge Highway and stopped to feel the mist at Horsetail Falls. Arlo wasn't sure what to make of it.

The next day, we repacked our bags and went to Edgefield for the night, to see The Decemberists! Their concert at Edgefield two years ago was wonderful, so we were excited to see them again at the same venue, this time with Arlo. This was his first concert, and he managed to stay awake through the whole thing, including two encores (they played The Tain in its entirety, along with the Mariner's Revenge Song!). I had been worried that he'd have an overtired meltdown around 8:30 (and that one of us would have to take him back to our room and listen to the concert from there), but he sat quietly on Patrick's lap the whole time, sucking his thumb. What a champ. I'm so glad we went--it was a beautiful night!

Also, I totally recommend getting a room at the hotel when you go to see a concert at Edgefield, if you can swing it. It was so awesome to be able to walk back to our room and put Arlo to bed right away, instead of waiting in the parking lot for hours.

We had a block party on our street last Sunday (organized by Patrick and our neighbor Stacy), and it went really well! We don't talk to our neighbors very often, but we should. It's always fun getting the whole street together. A couple of our neighbors have lived on this street for 50+ years, and they said that back then, kids would play softball at the intersection outside our house, and at least one of our windows was broken by a softball during a game. I guess I'm glad they don't do that anymore, otherwise I'd have to be the mean mom who yells at the neighbor kids.

We also got to meet the couple who bought the scary house last year. They're avid gardeners, and it's so exciting see what they're doing with the house and yard. I think they've gotten a very enthusiastic welcome from the whole neighborhood :)

On Tuesday, I biked to the Bagdad Theater to see Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis talk about their new book, Wildwood (quite a Decemberists-heavy week!). It was a fun event--I loved hearing about the process of writing and illustrating the book. I haven't read many books for fun since Arlo was born, so I've enjoyed getting wrapped up in Wildwood for the past few days. I'm excited to read it with Arlo when he's older!

Yesterday afternoon, we drove out to Cannon Beach for a quick beach trip before fall arrives. This was our first visit to Cannon Beach, and I can see why people like it. The beach was windy but sunny (so not too cold), and the sand was really soft. Arlo had a great time crawling all over the beach and getting super sandy, and he only ate a little beach debris :)

I have lots to share--since I last wrote, we drove to Montana, saw the Decemberists perform, and observed Arlo's 15-month birthday! But since it's summer and I'm feeling lazy, all I've got for you tonight is a quick list of recent meals we've enjoyed. Details about our adventures are coming soon...

1. Lula kebabs and bulgur pilaf with Greek salad, which then became bulgur kebab burritos the next day. Everything turned out well, and I enjoyed the novelty of making the leftovers into burritos. I'm not usually a big lamb fan, but I liked it in this recipe.

2. Skillet Spanish-style chicken and rice topped with avocado. The perfect meal for nights when you just want to sit at the table and shovel food into your mouth :)

3. Farfalle with yogurt and zucchini. Found via Alison. Another good shoveling dish, and this one is quick to assemble! Definitely a good recipe to try when you've got lots of zucchini to use up.

4. I made horchata for the first time, to go with disappointing fish tacos. The horchata was good but too sweet for me. I'd try this recipe again with half the sugar.

5. Crispy pan-fried pork chops, buttered spaetzle, sauteed cabbage. This was a labor-intensive but tasty meal. I had a traumatic spaetzle-making experience when I was in high school (stressful cooking process + yucky finished product), but I'm glad I tried again; this spaetzle was good! Based on a tip I found on the Cook's Illustrated site, I used our perforated pizza pan as a spaetzle press, and it worked well. Much cleaner than using a colander, I think.

   

6. A three-salad meal: paella pasta salad; roasted beets with feta and pistachios; and carrot-blueberry salad (salad #7). I'm still not sold on the carrot-blueberry combination, but the paella salad and roasted beets were very nice.

   

7. Peach cobbler. Yum!

   

8. Chocolate sour cream Bundt cake. I made this to take to a quilting bee, and I was really happy with how it turned out--moist and delicious.

   

Arlo at Fourteen Months from Caitlin D on Vimeo.