My lovebuckets

Well, after a week of pitiful popsicle peddling…

Thumbelina managed to mostly kick her fiesty cold to the curb. Yay!

We spent Saturday outside, enjoying the Springtime…

I love how she takes his face in her hand when she’s about to go in for the kiss.

Aren’t they cute?

Aside from our water adventures, Thumbelina and Topher decided to cut out the alphabet this weekend and arrange them in our upstairs hallway. Pretty exciting. If you’re two, that is, or a daddy who loves delighting his letter-loving daughter.

(I love their cute little bums. Shhh. Don’t tell Topher I said that.)

And here is Thumbelina, crackin’ the whip. “More letters, Daddy!” (Except it comes out as “Mo ledduhs, Dah-ee!”)

She’s so cute. So is he. Ahh. I heart them.

a happy day - and yes, I’m “Happy” again

Our new parent educator from PAT came to visit today and I heart her! We had a great discussion about letting children develop at their own pace and not buying into the hysteria of societal expectations. She quickly understood Thumbelina’s temperament and was so supportive and encouraging about the way in which Topher and I are parenting. She also put Thumbelina’s speech delay into perspective for me and said that as important as it is to get early intervention, she is not so delayed that we should have any significant concern at the moment. Yay. A little validation is always reassuring.

Thumbelina hasn’t taken a nap today, and I’m beginning to notice a trend. A pattern that I so don’t want to be true! She seems to be nixing the habit of a nap, despite us even staying home and attempting to keep sacred the time in which she used to sleep peacefully. I’m hoping it has to do with being sick recently and sleeping too frequently - so maybe this is merely a rest hiatus. Because I really miss nap time - and she needs one, even if she doesn’t want one. She’d rather play.

Since sleeping wasn’t on the agenda, we baked an applesauce cake today. It is so yumtastic that I have to share the recipe in case anyone else wants to experience the goodness of “sauced apples” (as my sister used to call the jarred stuff). I found a basic recipe a few months ago, online somewhere, and tweaked it to fit our needs:

Applesauce Cake

1 c white flour

1.5 c whole wheat flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1.5 c sugar

1 stick melted salted butter

2 eggs

.5 c water

1.5 c applesauce

Melt butter, cream with sugar. Add water, applesauce and eggs. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Create a well in the dry ingredients, pour in wet. Mix well. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan, bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let it cool before cutting - the cake is VERY moist. It’s also very sweet, so reducing the sugar is easily done (and what I’ll do next time - or replace with honey).

I woke up this morning and found all the crayons stuck neatly into our glass candle-holders on the kitchen table. It made me smile. I love Thumbelina’s penchant for re-purposing. Her ideas are more useful than mine most of the time, too.

(Thumbelina is entranced with this picture. She keeps coming up to the laptop and asking to see the cullies. So cute.)

we all scream for ice cream

Oh, Thumbelina. You do so love your ice cream, a recently discovered delicacy that inspires ravenous greed and demands for more, more, more. Ordinarily I indulge you with half an ice cream sandwich. But you, my smart little bear, have figured out that I put half back into the freezer - a fact which at first troubled you, and now provokes sorrow and rage.

Today, given my snafu involving a fleece blanket, a distinct lack of coordination and my knee subsequently crashing to the floor - I wasn’t particularly in the mood to cheerfully suggest orange wedges or carrot sticks. So when you asked me for the other half, I said okay. But then you wanted more. And even I, in my pain-induced generosity, could not agree that a third round of halved ice cream sandwiches might be in your best interest. You disagreed, smiled charmingly and asked, once again - quite confidently - for more. But when you were denied, a tragedy unfolded… real tears and all:

I was immediately reminded of a certain picture from early days, nearly identical in nature, but chronicling your (quite understandable) objection at having been induced into the world:

At least there is no doubt, dearest Thumbelina, that you belong to me - considering that expression of protest certainly hasn’t changed since the moment you were born.

Fortunately, being a resilient soul, dress-up time quickly restored your good humor. I love how you’ve chosen to wear my stylishly furry red flip-flop slippers (from Target, of course). On your ankle! So innovative.

As much as I admire your passion for unique clothing choices, I do think your talent for arranging adored items upon your desk is genius. It reminds me of Oprah’s Favorite Things show, except this is a Thumbelina version.

Of all the things that rotate onto your desk - anything from an old keyboard to my underwear - I love that the picture of you and Daddy has never left, except when you carry it around the house and ask for him.

just an ordinary day

Pay no attention, I’m merely documenting that dinner was ready and on the table at 6:00pm tonight.

I love how Thumbelina looks slightly dazed, as if contemplating the absurdity of a meal being on the table. (She’s wearing a Halloween sweatshirt, by the way. Yes, we like to celebrate seasonal holidays throughout the year at our house…)

Recently I’ve been slacking on the dinner front, since Topher has been working late and I’m less than inspired when the evening drags on and the only other person in the house would prefer to simply nurse and snack on Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies. But, tonight Topher was home in time for dinner and even Thumbelina managed to devour her portion of lasagna. She’s been an eating machine, today - a bowl of cereal with whole milk, a piece of whole wheat toast, a slice of homemade banana bread, a bowl of blueberries, half an apple, a few carrot sticks, an entire banana, a vanilla yogurt and then finally dinner. She’s never eaten that much in her life, trust me! I think she’s in the midst of a growth spurt, so I’m wondering if she’ll get even taller or start filling out more. She just hit 22lbs (with a full diaper on) and will turn two in March.

Today was a great day. Thumbelina and I did some organizing and decluttering, baked banana bread (finally) and spent lots of time reading together and playing. She is turning into a very serious Betty Crocker. Whenever I get the mixing bowls out, she immediately reaches for the smallest and asks me for a ‘poon. She dumps her own concoction together, mixing and measuring and stirring. Decorative sprinkles seem to be an integral part of most of Thumbelina’s recipes. Cleaning the kitchen is probably her favorite part of the entire baking ‘experience.’ I sweep, and Thumbelina patiently waits for her turn to ‘mop.’ We have a mop we’ve never actually used (…not that I don’t mop the floors) with the plastic still on it, so after I’ve gotten the remains of our project swept away - she dashes all over the kitchen floor, ‘mopping’ with a fervor I can’t quite fathom.

Some of Thumbelina’s latest words are beginning to replace my own. Like, she calls crayons, “cullies.” For some reason I find this to be ridiculously adorable and I invent any reason to bring up the word crayon. We’ve had several conversations about cullies today. She also calls birds, “cheeps” (I think because we told her they say, “chirp, chirp!”) - so we stood for quite awhile at the window today looking for cheeps. I also lurve the way she whispers certain words and will pause in the middle of her boisterous jargon to barely breathe out a word, like the holy name of Barney. Or “g’dnight” when she starts worrying it might be naptime soon. “Light” seems rather sacred to her, too - the word is always whispered. She likes to take my thumb and lead me around the house while pointing out all the “yights.”

My sewing machine arrived! Yay. Topher is putting it together and then this weekend I’ll spend some time figuring out the basics, I hope. (I’m not very naturally crafty.) I have finally found the perfect use for plenty of ugly bedding that my MIL pushed on us after we got married. I think I’ll just practice on that fabric until I have some idea of what I’m doing and then I’ll pick out a few projects to explore.

Topher’s great ideas: an ipod and smoothie

My enterprising husband woke up yesterday and told me he had an errand to run. I didn’t pay much attention until the phrase “free ipod shuffle” came out of his mouth. What did you say? I asked. He explained that a bank down the street was gifting new ipods away to anyone opening up a checking account. And that he just called and they still had two available. I gasped.

Some of you may recall my unfortunate catastrophe a few months ago involving my washing machine and the tragically departed original ipod shuffle. Yes, the one I so devotedly used for every workout, walk and otherwise tedious task. It got stuck in a pocket of my shorts during laundry time and alas, never soulfully greeted me with repeated renditions of my favorite tunes, ever again.

We all piled in the car despite the snowy afternoon and drove the short distance to a bank I’d never heard of before. No matter. Topher went in, and fifteen minutes later came out bearing my new baby. The dearly departed was silver. My new one is pink! Yay! I love pink. She’s perfect!

Topher has been quite the thoughtful gift-giver this Christmas. He got me a new, 8ft long ‘project table’ so I can keep better track of what I’m doing. (The kitchen table was beginning to lose all sense of purpose.) He lugged the entire 70lb wooden utility table up to our third bedroom and put it together against the back wall, then helped me move all of my project ’stuff’ into the room. Voila! A place to do my thing. He also bought me a new rotary cutter and cutting board, which was quite thoughtful of him. Plus a digital picture frame so I can immediately see all my pictures upon taking them (which is a very sweet complement to the new camera).

Speaking of Topher, he’s addicted me to smoothies as of lately. I could never really get into the commercialized smoothie shops and therefore always thought I must not have a taste for smoothies. Wrong! How wrong I was. Apparently I just don’t like the fake sugary taste of chemically-enhanced smoothies. Lately we’ve been throwing frozen fruit into the blender at home and creating an assortment of yummy concoctions. It appears that our little creations are so good that they’ve even managed to turn Topher off of his former Robeks addiction. Today we made a mango-cherry-peach-with a wee bit of orange juice smoothie:

Doesn’t just looking at it make you want to slurp it right up? I’m oddly discovering that I fit into the bizarre stereotype of people who crave cold snacks in winter time. Do I eat ice cream during the sweltering heat of July? No. But give me sub-zero temperatures and a little light snow on the ground and suddenly I’m thinking of TCBY. Strange, very strange.

We’re expecting 3-6 inches of snow tonight. Which means I strategically made my way to Target earlier this evening and stocked up on diapers, wipes and random grocery items. Winter only started just this week and yet I’m already sick of it. I think this is the first year where I’m genuinely annoyed at the freezing temperatures and cooped up feelings. Maybe it’s the difference between having a 9 month old last Christmas and dealing with a speech-delayed almost-two-year-old this year. She is easily frustrated with the mundane and not being able to get outside or drive somewhere is tough on both of us. Maybe winter will pass with only a few snowstorms, but it seems like we’ve had plenty already.