Beautiful Eyes

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Amy

There is a website I love called I Heart Faces. It has lots of tips and information about photography, and each week they have a themed photo challenge. I have considered entering the challenge several times, but each time either chickened out or didn’t get around to it. This week the challenge is Beautiful Eyes.

With my two gorgeous girls, the hardest part was picking just one photo to enter.

A Photo Tour

Posted on August 14, 2011January 4, 2023 by Amy

We’re home. The trip was tiring, but fun. Here’s a photo tour of the week.

Baby girl – sweaty, but still oh-so-cute.

After attending a few wedding-related events, we went to my in-laws’ to spend most of the rest of our trip with them. My girls loved this little table there. Lass sure thought she was a big deal.

We need to get a little girl sized table, I think.

We traveled all over the state of Florida during the week, from the Gulf coast to the Atlantic and back again.

The girls did a great job.

The crazy traveling was for the purpose of seeing my Grandma and Grandpa.

The girls had a fun visit with their Great-Grandma. She pulled out all sorts of fun stuff for them, from a bin of Easter decorations

to hats and colorful golf balls,

and of course the musical instruments. There’s always music at Grandma’s house.

Somehow I didn’t get any photos when we visited my Grandpa this time, about which I’m quite disappointed. I think it must have been because it was pouring when we got to his place, and we just ran in with the girls, forgetting the camera. I hate forgetting my camera.

Miss really worked on her swimming this week,

and her, eh, use of multiple floatation devices.

She thought this raft was the coolest thing ever, and spent a good bit of time “sleeping” on it,

and sleeping,

and then…

“Tickle me, Daddy!”

Looking for lizards.

No trip to Florida would be complete without a day on the beach

with shelling and playing in the sand.

She loved the sand but longed to try out the water.

It was fun to watch my little one showing her fearlessness in the water,

and my big girl overcoming her initial fear of the crashing waves.

I used a new sunscreen that didn’t absorb into my skin very well and left me looking more pasty white than usual. I had to chuckle when a man and woman walked by Lass and me playing in the sand, and the man said, “From how far North do you come?” That obvious, huh?

The plane rides to and from the sunny state were pretty uneventful. Snacks, coloring books, an Ergo carrier, an iPad, and the magazines and other handouts in the back seat pockets of the plane made for happy little ones.

Tonight I’m snuggled up on the couch with my hubby. He’s watching a really bad movie and I’m writing. It’s chilly here, relative to the sticky heat of Florida. It almost feels like fall is upon us. We’ve got windows open and are wearing jackets in the evenings to play outside. As always, it’s so good to be home.

Flower Girl

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Amy

We came down to Florida on Saturday so Miss could be a flower girl in my friend’s wedding. I was a little nervous about how she would do, since she wasn’t able to be at the rehearsal, and my friends are not people she sees often. I showed her You Tube videos of flower girls and had been asking her for a few days what a flower girl does, to which she always answered, “She drops the petals on the floor.”

She was absolutely perfect.

She was all about business as we were getting ready to go to the ceremony.

Very focused.

Getting in her zone.

I was nervous about leaving her at the end of the aisle, but wanted to be up front so I could coax her forward if necessary. I kept telling her that she would walk down the aisle and drop the petals and then Mommy and Daddy and Lass would be waiting for her up front. I was seriously nervous that she would freak out a little bit. In addition to her inexperience with the role of flower girl, I was also a bit worried because I had woken her up before 5 am to catch our flight, and then she napped for only about 30 minutes on the ride from the airport to the hotel. Plus it was crazy hot and humid and buggy at the ceremony, so I was concerned that she would be cranky. I should know better than to underestimate my girl.

She started a little bit slowly.

Then she got going and did a beautiful job.

She dropped her petals just as she was supposed to.

She was absolutely precious and I was in tears watching her.

Though I was squatted down at the end of the row of seats at the end of the aisle, she never did see me until she was right near the front.

She kept going though.

When she got to the front, she seemed to notice that she had a bunch of petals left in her basket.

So out they went! Priceless.

I was incredibly proud of my big brave girl.

I Have a Princess Issue

Posted on August 5, 2011March 1, 2013 by Amy

When I first learned that Miss was a girl, I was so excited. I had all sorts of thoughts about being a mom to a little girl. Things I wanted to teach her and show her. I remember some family members teasing that she would be “such a princess” and having a yucky gut reaction to that statement. I guess I’ve always had a little bit of a negative feeling towards the “Princess Attitude.” That’s how I think of the attitude of some girls and women that they are entitled to things, that the don’t have to work hard, that they’re better than others, that they can’t get dirty or play rough or do things for themselves, that they’re helpless but that others are obligated to help them, that the most important things in life are having fancy things and having others cater to their whims, etc. I’ve known people like this. I do not want my girls to be like this. This is my “Princess Issue” and what I reacted to negatively in my gut when others teased that my daughter would be a princess.

However, somewhere along the line, my dislike of the “Princess Attitude” turned into an aversion to all things “Princess.” Part of this is that I really don’t like how absurdly commercialized the “Disney Princess” brand has become. Everywhere you look the Disney gals are plastered on toys and books, clothing and everything else. So my reaction was to not buy anything for Miss or Lass with these girls on it. I started feeling annoyed with Snow White, who, let’s face it, is pretty vapid and not too smart (what kind of a dummy would take anything to eat from that scary old woman??). I scorned Sleeping Beauty. I admit I don’t remember the whole story, but didn’t she just sleep through it and look pretty until some guy came along and kissed her? Puh-lease. I even avoided Cinderella and Belle, who at least had a little gumption in their stories. But, over time I started realizing I was being a little extreme. I was trying to avoid the annoying overly-commercialized “Disney Princess” junk, but in doing so I lost something.

I was missing out on the fun part of playing princess with my little girls and reading them the stories that the Disney movies were based on. I almost even forgot that the stories didn’t originate with Walt Disney and in fact are very old and rich tales, told by many different authors, probably most notably the Brothers Grimm. The problem is, these days it’s not easy to find an old version of these fairy tales. I’d even settle for the Little Golden Book version of them, which are based on the Disney movie versions of the stories and are what I remember having as a little girl. The last time I looked in the book section of Target they didn’t even have any Little Golden Books and the princess story book they did have was some weird compilation of spin off-tales of each of the characters. Not what I was looking for.

My point is that I have had to remind myself from time to time that “princess” does not equal “Princess Attitude.” My girls are not prissy. They’re not afraid to get dirty or play rough. We try to teach them to be the opposite of the attitude I described above. I’m not worried that they’ll develop the attitude, so I probably ought to lighten up on the anti-princess campaign around here. Okay, I don’t really have a campaign, I just tend to avoid Disney Princess crap, which is mostly what is out there for princess stuff.

When Miss’s flower girl dress came a few weeks ago and I took her to have it fitted, I mentioned to her that it was her “princess dress” and she looked just like a beautiful princess, and so on. When we went to pick it up the other day I almost cried it was so adorable on her. She twirled and pranced in front of the gazillion mirrors in the David’s Bridal alterations fitting room. She even ran into one of the mirrors because there were so many they confused her! She didn’t want to take the dress off, and it made me smile that she loved it so much. She doesn’t really have a super interest in being a princess, since I’ve not really gone there with the princess stuff. She hasn’t seen the movies. She only has one toy (a purse) with Snow White on it. She’s played with some stickers of the Disney princesses and she has a plate and bowl with pictures of them, but that’s about it. I really would like to read her the fairy tales though. And yes, eventually we will watch the movies too.

I hope that my girls will be well-rounded. Maybe partly tom-boy and partly girly-girl. Or whatever the heck they want. They can play swords, they can play princess, they can play warrior princess with swords, whatever.

I think my job is just to let them try all sorts of things, from making mud pies to baking real pies, playing kick ball to playing dress up, and everything in between. They’ll let me know what they love and that will make me happy.

Check It Out

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Amy

I did a guest post on the CSN Stores Blog today. It’s called “Finding a New Use for Old Things,” one of my favorite topics. Check it out here.

Doing the post really made me want to get out and do some good old junking. I used to get up early every Saturday morning in graduate school (and that was in the days when I regularly slept until noon!), pull out my trusty laminated city map, grab the classified section of the paper and go yard sale-ing for hours. I also made regular trips to the architectural salvage store and various antique and junk shops around town, trolling for treasures. I made some fantastic finds in those days. In fact, I pretty much furnished my entire graduate school apartment on yard sale stuff. Most of it was junk when I picked it up, and I managed to turn it into something fun. Everything was mismatched, but it worked.

Nowadays I still love a good yard sale (they call them “rummage sales” here). I still enjoy a good stroll through the architectural salvage store we have here and the antique stores. Unfortunately, my adventures in junking are few and far between these days. In fact they’re mostly limited to driving slowly by a yard sale to see if it looks like it’s worth getting both my girls out of the car (yes, I’m that person, and no, I usually don’t bother to get out) or cruising through the architectural salvage store when I’m already walking downtown for the farmer’s market and looking for a good spot to get out of the heat for a few minutes.

I have been really feeling the junking itch lately though. One day recently I actually went to a website listing all sorts of local yard sales for the following day, printed a list of those I wanted to check out, consulted my map and planned my route, only to find that the website was pretty much bogus and two of the three “big sales” I tried to go to were not where they were supposed to be. The third one was not big, and consisted mostly of crocheted barrettes, old baskets, and a rack of clothes for an elderly woman. I was discouraged after that and gave up on that trip. However, I am not to be deterred. The next two weekends will be taken up with travel, but maybe I’ll get back out there when we get home. I’d love to score some good junk for my house or for my girls. Heck, I’ll even get out of the car this time.

Big Steps

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Amy

One of the hard things about moving around the country for school and other stages of professional training is that you end up making wonderful friends and then missing them when everyone inevitably moves on to the next stage of life (the real job stage). I’ve lived in Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Carolina, before finally settling here where my husband found a great job. I miss my friends from all the places I’ve lived. I don’t see them often enough. Fortunately this past weekend we had a fantastic visit from some of our closest friends we met in North Carolina. It was so fun to see them. It’s always good for the soul to spend some time visiting and talking in the comfortable way that old friends do. The girls really enjoyed playing with our friends’ kids too. It was a special weekend.

It was special in more ways than one, since Lass took her first steps on Friday!

We tried to get photos and video footage, but naturally as soon as my husband grabbed the camera, she stopped stepping.

She’ll be walking all over before we know it. I’m planning her first birthday party, which is so hard to believe.

Little sister is getting so big.

And big sister is too. She will most likely be starting preschool twice a week this fall. I say most likely because I am not completely sure I’ve managed to fully commit myself to the idea. I found a fabulous preschool. I really like the owner and her vision for the school. I love the way they teach there. I really think Miss would love it, but it makes me a little anxious to think of leaving her somewhere else for three hours twice a week. I think it will be a great experience for her, so I know I will get over myself and enroll her. I’m pretty sure… This is a big step for me.

I’m also thinking of enrolling her in a dance class in the near future. This girl loves to dance, as you might have noticed from my multiple posts about family dance parties and videos of her dancing. This weekend we happened to have the TV on when “Angelina Ballerina” came on PBS. She had never seen the show, but she was fascinated.

Right away she asked me to get her a tutu and she started trying to imitate the dance steps.

Plie

Pirouette

Arabesque

Not bad!

We’re gearing up to go visit some more friends from my graduate school days in Kentucky. Two of my friends are getting married and Miss is going to be their flower girl. We’ve been getting her dress fitted and watching You Tube videos of flower girls so she’ll have some idea what to do, since we won’t make it down in time to go to the rehearsal. I can’t wait to see Miss as a little flower girl! And I can’t wait to see my friends on their big day.

Tofu Chocolate Pudding

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Amy

We went to PetSmart today to get some dog food and I happened to see some fancy “chocolate” dog treats. I got a package of them for our dog, and Miss immediately started saying, “I want some chocolate treats too!” I explained to her that the treats were only for dogs, but that wasn’t quite going to cut it with my chocolate-loving two year old. I remembered a recipe I have for chocolate pudding with tofu, so I told her we’d make that when we got home. She wasn’t happy about having to wait a while for it to chill after we got it made (though she was pacified a bit by being able to lick the leftover melted chocolate from the bowl), and it was the first thing she asked for when she woke up from her nap. It only took a few minutes to make, and it was fantastic.

I even let Lass try a little bite.

She had to think about it for a second.

She liked it.

Tofu pudding sounds kind of weird, but it really was delicious. I had never used soft tofu before (I’ve only ever used tofu once before, in fact). I ate a portion of it and so did my husband. He called it, “Ridonkulous” which means super-awesome fabulously yummy. Here’s the recipe, which I changed a little bit from a recipe in the July issue of Parenting magazine.

1 12-oz pkg shelf-stable soft silken tofu

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

1/2 cup ultrafine granulated sugar (the recipe called for powdered sugar, but I didn’t have any)

2 tsp vanilla

a pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until creamy. Put it into small cups or bowls and put into the fridge to let it set up. Done.

I was really happy to give Miss a snack with nutritious, protein-packed tofu in it. Of course, this pudding is also sugar-packed, so it is certainly a treat. I’ll make it again, but only once in a while, and next time I’ll probably cut the amount of sugar in half. However, I am now convinced of the wonders of this soft tofu for use in puddings, smoothies, etc. I’m thinking of all sorts of other, less sugary things I can blend with it next time, like bananas, berries, orange juice, honey, and on and on.

And speaking of tofu, my next at home “Chopped” ingredients are plantains, bacon bits, and yes, tofu. It has taken me a while to get going on this one because I’ve not been able to find plantains in a store here, so I just ordered some and will get on it when they arrive. I think I know what I’m going to do. I have to redeem myself after my pickled herring failure. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Homebodies

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Amy

Today we stayed home. After our weekend away, I just wanted to be here. The weather cooperated enough that we could get outside for the girls to have some fun and new experiences. Like roller skating.

She held on to my hand for about 30 seconds before saying, “I want to do it myself.” And she did.

She fell down several times, but didn’t seem to mind too much.

She just got back up and kept on going. Doesn’t she look so grown up?

And this little one is so close to walking. Today I saw her take one tiny step forward before grabbing on to something. Outside she was most definitely the master of this lion.

She pushed it sideways in circles instead of standing behind it and rolling it.

There is a circle of grass around a big, gorgeous oak tree in our front yard. It’s my favorite place on our property. I used to spread a blanket there and sit outside with Miss during her first summer. I take the girls out there now and we blow bubbles and take our shoes off to feel the grass on our feet. Today, like every other day, we were drawn to the circle. Miss calls it, “The Hole” or “The Rocks” (it’s mostly sunken below the level of our driveway and surrounded by rocks).

The girls decided to take a little rest in the shade from all their hard work.

Under the tree it’s cool and the grass is soft. There are usually treasures to be found like leaves, pieces of bark, sticks, bugs, etc. Miss marvels at them and Lass tries to eat them.

It’s a peaceful spot to sit.

And the view from under the tree is amazing.

After naps we went outside to try out the new sand in the sandbox. Miss enjoyed it, but we had to take a break from it because she kept trying to dump the sand outside the sandbox.

I put the cover back over it and she begged me to let her go in the “baby swing.” I convinced her to try out the big girl swing first (which she has enjoyed greatly but fell from when playing with her cousins on Thursday) and told her she could go on the baby swing after that if she still wanted to.

She didn’t want to.

Just Some Weekend Stuff

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Amy

My big girl had a big weekend with her “Kids.” This is what she calls her many cousins on my husband’s side of our family. Some of them came to visit us last Thursday in preparation for a big weekend at the Wisconsin Dells. Miss was so excited to see them. As always, she had a blast playing with them.

Her judgement of the time spent with her kids? A wink and a thumbs up! Sort of.

Another try at the wink. My girl is funny.

Friday we went to the Wisconsin Dells, where Miss and Lass saw the rest of their cousins on my husband’s side of the family. Everyone met at the Dells so that my husband, all of his siblings, and two brothers-in-law could run an event called the Tough Mudder. It’s a race about 10 miles long with several different obstacles to complete along the way. Here they are after finishing. They all completed every obstacle and finished in one piece. My hubby is the one on the far left.

While I was glad that my husband had a blast participating in the mud run with his brothers and sisters, I have to say I was really not impressed with the Dells. Though I really try to make the best of any situation and have fun wherever I go, I just didn’t have a good time there. There were too many people. The one water park I took the girls to was kind of lame for little ones (a lot of the attractions for really little kids weren’t even turned on). The food was outrageously expensive and not appetizing. And on top of the lackluster nature of the “resort” itself, my girls were super tired, Miss had a few meltdowns, I forgot to bring snacks for Miss (though I remembered tons of food for Lass) so I felt like a big Loser Mom, and Lass woke up this morning at 4:30 am. I was seriously ready to come home today. On the bright side, Miss did have a great time playing with her cousins. And that’s what really matters anyway! We have decided we might try to go back when the girls are a little older for a winter getaway weekend. An indoor water park would be a blast for them then.

In other news, someone is 11 months old today. So big!!

In the car on the way home this morning I taught her how to do “high five.”

She is such a ticklish, giggly baby.

She’s just so darned cute (even if she is sleeping like crud right now).

Today I made tacos with my homemade taco seasoning. I always use ground venison to make tacos or any other recipe that calls for ground beef. Before I added the seasoning I set some of the venison aside for Lass, who had her first taste of it at dinner tonight. She loved it!

When I was growing up, I ate venison rather than beef almost all the time, I think. I never really even notice the difference. I’m thankful that my husband hunts and that he gets at least one doe (rather than a buck, at my request) each year for us to eat so my girls will grow up knowing venison as the norm as well.

Today my hubby started the process of making sauerkraut. It takes a while to do whatever sauerkraut does while it gets made, but I’m eager to try it on some of his homemade brats when it’s done.

He’s pretty handy to have around.

Speaking of handy, my husband minded the munchkin (who napped for less than an hour this afternoon) so I could take a little nap this afternoon. I’m still pretty tired after being awakened at 4:30 though. My bed is calling me. Goodnight.

Hot Rod

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Amy

Check this out:

She’s still working on learning how to make the pedals work, but she does love her trike.

She especially loves her helmet

and the bells on her handlebars.

It’s been a little hot this week for being out riding, but it makes me so happy that she loves this tricycle. Every time she sees it in the garage she wants to sit on it and ding the bells. She calls it her “big girl trike.” I can’t wait until she’s able to work the pedals and steer herself.