C turns 2! (May 2016)

C's second year absolutely flew by at light speed. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was pregnant, or that she finally slept at night and had a predictable nap and daily schedule, but year number two was so much easier and therefore it went by so much faster. 

We celebrated her actual birthday in North Dakota with Gigi and without Daddy (who was away at training). It was also the day before we left ND for good, although C didn't know that. 

I actually remember a lot more about the day before her birthday. It was 90 degrees; unheard of for May in ND! We all spent the entire day outside. Gigi got the glider and put it on the back patio and held JM. C and I played in water, ate popsicles, went to the park, generally had a blast and totally ignored the fact that I had a million things to do (moving prep, packing us up for 2 months away from home, etc.)

On her actual birthday I hung up her banner. And I found super cute polka-dot balloons to blow up. She was thrilled with the balloons. It was hard to get her to stop moving all day to get a decent picture because she was dancing with, and chasing balloons. 

She and I went to Dairy Queen and got special ice cream for her dessert. This girl loves ice cream. She picked out pink sprinkles to go on it and ate the entire thing!

So what is C like at 2? She wakes up happy and talking and singing; and is content to lay in her crib to wake up slowly on her own for quite some time! She's not a huge breakfast eater; but she makes up for that at her other two meals. We go to a music group and play group once a week; she is very outgoing and loves to sing, dance and play with other kids. She gives everyone hugs. She loves getting out of the house and going to town with me. She also is great at eating out at restaurants. She naps in the afternoons at 1 o'clock for 2-3 hours. Bath time is at 6 o'clock and lots of fun. We read a few books, sing a song and then go to bed by 7 o'clock. A lot of times she lays in bed singing and talking to herself for nearly an hour before falling asleep; perfectly content. 

She still doesn't have much hair and it is dark blonde. Everyone comments on her big, gorgeous blue eyes and eyelashes. She weighs about 30 pounds, wears size 5 diapers, 6 toddler shoes and 2T clothes. She is very verbal and speaks in small sentences. She loves to read. She also recently has started watching Daniel Tiger and Little Einsteins and really loves them.

She loves her brother. She always wants to know where he is, she wants to hug him, hold him, and help him. 

She is truly a joy. I can not believe she is already 2!  

C at 20 months

I haven't done monthly posts since C turned 1.

Honestly it was nice feeling like I didn't have to do that regularly. But I love that I did. I already look back at them sometimes and marvel at how much she's grown and changed. I'm really hoping if nothing else this year, I can do a post each month for baby #2.

I thought it'd be fun to do a C update too. I can really not believe that she is 20 months old. She is almost two. What?! She was just born! There is no way we've been a family of three for almost 2 years. Once babies sleep through the night, get over the worst of teething, and stop breastfeeding time really does fly!

So our beautiful, determined, blue-eyed, sensitive, slightly less bald girl at 20 months old:

• She is getting more teeth; specifically her canines. These have been worse than her first set of molars, but her top 2 are finally thru. They've made for cranky days, upset tummy and some missed naps. But it's only woken her up once at night. 
• She generally is sleeping 11-12 hours at night. Bath (with daddy is he's home) is at 630, bed 7-715. She usually talks and sings for awhile to put herself to sleep
• Naps from 1pm -3pm or 4pm most days. 
• She is finally getting hair. It seems dark, not as dark as J's, but not the white blonde of my childhood. 
• Everyone says she looks like dad. 
• She's putting together tiny sentences "bye bye daddy."
• Most of the time she says mommy and daddy now. (Instead of mama and dada.)
• Her vocabulary is rapidly expanding. She repeats words we say a lot now. She's very interested in colors, letters and numbers.  
• She absolutely loves to sing and dance. When music starts she'll stop and start swaying, moving her arms or getting up on her toes to dance around. She likes to be held and dance with J and I. She'll also hold her dolls and bears and dance with them. She hums along to music a lot as well. And she knows several songs on her own. 
• Favorite movies: The Sound of Music and The Muppets. 
• Favorite books: Little Blue Truck, Babylit Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. And her new big sister books. 
• She asks to call Abbie and Gigi almost daily. 
• She can Recognize lots of people in family pictures. 
• We go to play group and music group weekly. She is quite social. She likes to say hello and give hugs!
• She loves playing with her baby dolls now; hugs, rocks, pats, gives them bottles, changes their diapers, pushes them in the stroller. 
• Loves to hug stuffed animals. 
• She is still in her crib and only sleeps with blanky and lamby. Although on occasion, just recently, will want to take a bear or her soft doll to bed with her. 
• She still loves to be outside. When we can we play in the snow. 
• 26 lbs. on the home scale last time I checked. She's getting taller!
• Size 4 diapers
• Starting to wear 24 months/ 2T clothes. 
• Blue eyes and gorgeous long eyelashes. I am jealous of those perfect lashes.  
• Favorite songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Do Re Me (sound of music anything really). 
• Favorite food: Tacos! She's usually a very good eater (teething aside). She likes meat! And homemade bread. And berries. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

She is pretty much my favorite ever. And I can only say that for a couple more weeks. 

Baking Cookies

Getting ready for Thanksgiving I decided to let C help with mixing up some cookie dough. I discovered two things. This girl loves to help in the kitchen. And she also is happy as a clam provided she can be perched on the stool.

I've been getting so much done lately just by giving her a few kitchen tools and "ingredients" to play with, or by simply letting her sit up on her stool to watch me wash floors/do laundry/vacuum/dust/etc.

We started out making chocolate crinkle cookies and were having so much fun we kept going and made peanut butter cookies too. The amount of flour that ended up on C, my kitchen floors, and the sheer volume of equipment we got dirty (things went in her mouth and then I had to get another item out to replace that thing) was huge. But having such a happy little helper and watching her smile and hearing her laugh and seeing her learn new things was completely worth all the mess.

This was an impromptu event, but it may have turned into one of my absolute favorite days since C was born.

The recipes (both courtesy of King Arthur Flour)

Chocolate Crinkles Cookies 

*Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cups (7 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• confectioners' sugar* (for coating)
• Note: For a peppermint twist, substitute 1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil for
the vanilla.
*Directions:

*We often call for our glazing sugar to be substituted for confectioners'
sugar, as it's a "purer" sugar: it doesn't include cornstarch. However, in
this case, go with confectioners' sugar; the cornstarch keeps the sugar
from melting atop the cookies as they bake.

Dough: Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan or microwave-safe
bowl, and heat or microwave till the butter melts. Remove it from the heat,
and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, vanilla and espresso
powder. Stir in the chocolate mixture, baking powder and salt, then the
flour. Chill the dough for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight; it'll firm up
considerably.

Shaping: Put about a cup of confectioners' sugar into a shallow bowl. Using
a teaspoon-sized cookie scoop, a spoon, or your fingers, scoop out heaping
teaspoon-sized portions of the dough; they should be roughly 1 1/4 inches
in diameter. Drop the dough balls into the confectioners' sugar as you go.
Once about five or six are in the bowl, shake and toss the bowl to coat the
balls with the sugar. (If you try to do this with too many balls at a time,
they'll just stick together.)

Baking: Place the coated dough balls on a lightly greased or
parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them. Bake
the cookies in a preheated 325°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes

Peanut Butter Cookies

*Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup supermarket-style smooth peanut butter

• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

*Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

2. Beat together the shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth.

3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the peanut-butter mixture, beating gently until everything is well combined. It may take awhile for this rather dry dough to come together; and when it does, it'll be quite stiff. Only if necessary, drizzle in enough water to make the dough cohesive.

4. Drop the cookie dough by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets (a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here), leaving 2" between them.

5. Use a fork to flatten each cookie to about 1/2" thick, making a cross-hatch design.

6. Bake the cookies for 12 to 16 minutes, until they're barely beginning to brown around the edges; the tops won't have browned. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

7. Yield: about 2 dozen cookies.

October

Hanging out in some super comfey PJs on Saturday

She loves her cats.

A warm day meant a trip to the park before dinner. J hadn’t seen her at the park since June and was amazed at how she climbed up things herself, went down the slides, etc. He just kept saying “such a big girl!” 

Rough day. She’s been working on 3 molars this month. And she also got a shot which had a bad local reaction. She is a huge fan of the Muppets, so we watched a movie. 

Chilly and windy but still trying to get outside whenever we can. 

She was totally enthralled by the bobcat that was planting trees the other morning. I wish they’d come by every day!

On Halloween she “cooked” with her puffs while I made spice cookies. 

Eating pumpkin seeds and totally enthralled in Holiday Inn. If there is singing and dancing she’s over the moon; forget cartoons.

Second Halloween

We aren’t Halloween fanatics by any stretch of the imagination. I have in fact never in my life even dressed up in a Halloween costume. But it’s fun to have something to celebrate as winter looms. An excuse to buy candy, bake cookies and carve pumpkins.

While J was on nights I took C down to the local pumpkin patch. We took her last year, but she didn’t care. This year she loved looking at the goats and chickens (making the appropriate animals noises) running in the baby corn maze, and generally just being outside. The pictures aren’t great because it was just the two of us. But it was a fun time. And we picked her first pumpkin out!



We carved her pumpkin on the 29th. J went out of town the next day and was gone over the weekend. His Grandma Mary passed away in September and her memorial service was in Ohio on the 31st. So he and his brother had a whirlwind 48 trip back.

Back to the pumpkin carving. C was very unsure. She doesn’t like to be dirty, at least have her hands dirty. So pulling out the “guts” was my job. J did the carving. Once it was all done she was interested, but not enamored. But once we took her out later that night to light the candle inside she was thrilled with it!


We watched The Great Pumpkin several times in preparation for Halloween this year.


On Halloween night there were never any plans to go out trick-or-treating. I’m glad because it was a dismal day with high wind, rain in the morning and a very chilly and gusty night for the kids. There were a lot of cars out because kids were going up one street and being driven to another. I don’t blame them with the wind.

Anyway, C and I had homemade spice cookies (her first cookie) and handed out candy. She loved it. She would watch out the window and when people knocked on the door would yell “hi!” and help me give them candy and tell them “bye!” She even gave a very impressive growl to a little boy in a werewolf costume. I had many compliments from parents and older kids alike about how sweet and adorable she was. We had lots of fun!


And thus our Halloween is ended. And very slowly (because otherwise J would be quite unhappy) we’re getting into the Christmas spirit. But yes, Thanksgiving is first! I need to order our turkey from the butcher in town and make some things to put in the freezer. Otherwise it’ll be here before we know it and I’ll be too tired to do anything!