Author: Amy

Celebrating Love

Posted on by Amy
In the past few weeks, we’ve been Valentine-ing a lot. It’s amazing how much I could get into the Valentine-Love because of having a (very-nearly) two-year-old to do it with. We have been crafting.
We made these heart-shaped sun catchers. I got this idea from Mama V at Six and Still Sane. We used wax paper heart cutouts, put crayon shavings between, and ironed to melt the layers together. I should have read Mama V’s directions more carefully though, because the way she described setting up the craft involves having the crayons already grated and ready to go. I had the hearts already cut, but some insane part of my mind thought that maybe it would be fun for Miss to watch me grate the crayons. Probably the same part that thought grating crayons would be just like grating cheese. This is the dumb part of my brain. Of course crayons are much harder than cheese, thus much harder to grate, especially when trying to do it quickly. NOTE: A two-year-old does not have the attention span to wait for something exciting to happen while Mommy struggles to get the wrappers off some crayons (seriously, this was the longest part, they were really stuck), then bites her lip to keep from cursing while grinding crayons and knuckles against a cheese grater. But, the sun catchers did turn out sort of pretty and Miss thought it was fun to see what happened when I ironed them.

We made a couple of Valentine’s Day cards. Here’s the one she did for Daddy.


We made a few batches of cookies. With red frosting of course.


We did lots and lots of snuggling. But we do that all the time anyway.

Today I made Miss french toast for lunch, with a heart-shaped cutout. It turned out not very nicely heart-shaped. This was my first-ever attempt at making french toast, and it was kind of ugly actually. But it tasted good! Though Miss preferred the strawberries.
Lass was snuggly. She’s always snuggly.
Miss loved her Valentine’s Day dress and shoes.

Really loved them!

Lass loved on her Daddy (and her monkey).


My hubby sent some beautiful flowers to me and the girls, and Miss and Lass both had a great time looking at, smelling, and feeling them. We celebrate love every day in our family, but we had a lot of fun with Valentine’s Day this year too.

Sisters

Posted on by Amy
With every day that goes by, I love to watch my girls together more and more. I love to see how Miss adores Lass. I love to hear her say, “You’re so cute!” I love seeing how Lass watches her big sister’s every move. I love this:



I know I am in danger of being repetitive in my writings. I know this is not the first post where I have gone on about how much I love to watch them together. I guess it’s kind of like how I mentioned at Christmas time that I would probably gush for the entire month of December about how amazing it was to watch Miss experience various aspects of Christmas and really be able to appreciate them for the first time. Consider this your fair warning in this case: for the next 20-30+ years I will probably blather on like a fool every few weeks or so about how much I love to see my girls grow with and love on each other. And I know there will be many less-than-loving moments, as there are in any sibling relationship.
Shirt-grabbing.
Maybe even some hair pulling.
Appeals to me as the Mom (“Make her play with me!!”)
But I also know that there will be lots of love. I hope that my girls will grow up to be best friends (Miss already calls Lass her best friend). I have visions of them doing each other’s hair, sharing clothes, talking for hours about all-things-that-sisters-talk-about. I don’t have a sister, so this is probably a bit unrealistic, at least during some of the growing-up years. But in between the fights and rivalries and “she-wore-my-brand-new-shirt-without-asking!!!” dramas, I hope there will be laughter and confidences and support for each other. I hope they will teach each other and stand up for each other. I hope they will have the kind of relationship that I have with some of my closest friends, only better, because they’re sisters.
Today there was some great sister time.


My Little is Getting Big

Posted on by Amy
Lass is growing like a little weed. An adorable, snuggly, kissable weed. She is changing so fast I swear I don’t want to blink and miss something. She is rolling all over the place now. If I put her down and turn my back for a minute, when I look back she’s halfway across the room every time!

She is doing so well at sitting up. Just today I had her sitting in front of me on the floor and she hardly bobbled at all.
She smiles all the time and laughs so easily. She’s super ticklish and will laugh like crazy when you tickle her belly or sides. And she snorts when she gets to laughing really hard. I can’t help but crack up myself when she giggles.
Somehow it seems like time is flying by even faster with Lass than it did with Miss at this age. She’s almost 6 months old!! Before I know it she’ll be starting solids and becoming mobile and getting into all sorts of mischief with her sister. So I take an absurd amount of photos (anyone else a second or later child and have hardly any photos of themselves as a baby?) and try to document everything like crazy so I can always remember and come back to this amazing stage later. I love it here.

A Photo Tribute

Posted on by Amy
My very favorite cloth diapers ever will soon no longer be produced. After today, new Nifty Nappy diapers can no longer be ordered. This makes me sad. My love of Nifty Nappies started out a little over a year ago with one Nifty Nappy, two Woolie Wraps (wool diaper covers made from upcycled sweaters) and two pairs of wool longies (wool pants made from upcycled sweaters). You can see that my stash has grown (the photo below shows most of my Nifty Nappy items, but there are a few not pictured because of being in the laundry).

These are truly the best cloth diapers out there (you might remember that I raved about them here). They can’t be beat for softness, absorbency, and of course cuteness. And not only are the diapers top quality, the owner of Nifty Nappy, Vilate, is a very kind and helpful WAHM who has run her business with integrity and style.
The following is my little tribute to the Nifty Nappy with photos of my girls in their NN fitteds, woolie wraps, and longies.


















New Look

Posted on by Amy

This s just a quick post to mention that the new look of my blog was done by Jessica of So Stylized designs. Check her out! Her blog designs are currently FREE (though clients need to tip her an amount of their choosing after the design is completed to their satisfaction). I think she did a great job and was very fun to work with. Thanks Jessica!

I’ve been absent a few days, dealing with a stomach bug (fortunately it was just me who got sick, after my husband, and not my girls) and then having a great time at one of my book club meetings last night. I’ll try to get in another post very soon.

Super Victory and Some Randomness

Posted on by Amy
I must start out today by saying, “Yay Packers!” We aren’t die-hard Packers fans in our house. Neither my husband nor I are greatly into professional sports (except maybe golf on his part). I have always sort of liked the Packers though. They just seem to have more tradition and spunk than other pro teams. And since we live in Wisconsin now, well, it’s hard to resist the Packers fever around here. Packers fans are just fun. I mean, what kind of loyal, kooky fans would sit out in freezing cold weather week after week with big foam blocks of cheese on their heads but these hearty, happy Wisconsin folks?
I did dress my girls in green and gold yesterday and today though. And we watched the game. And cheered for the home team. And we’re happy they won. Here’s Miss in her green shirt (Her shirt that is a more appropriate shade of green is too small now). She was much more interested in getting her shopping cart as full as she could than in watching the game. She did say, “Go Packers!” though. Unfortunately she was also saying, “Yay Hawkeyes!” (my husband brainwashed her on the one football Saturday when I took some time away for myself to go to a book club meeting during football!!).

Oopsie-Doozy!! I think she actually said, “Oh noooo!!” when half her stuff fell out.
We just put it all back in (check out the doll’s head).
We do “Cheese Head” a little differently at our house. Go Pack!
Lass wore Packer gold yesterday.
She is getting much more interested in and capable of playing with various toys. I love watching her curiosity.

Now some randomness:
Miss got a new bathing suit for our upcoming trip to Florida. I bought a size bigger than her usual size to make sure it will still fit her this summer, and wanted to try it on her when we got home from the store. Naturally, she would not let me take it off and wore it over her onesie for the rest of the day.
I posted a little while ago about how Lass’s hair stands straight up so adorably. Well, it’s getting longer, and this outfit has a hood that she was wearing up in her carseat, so it was flat for a while the other day. I’m so used to the hair standing up, I think she looks like a different baby!!
Finally, right now my house smells deliciously like banana bread. I tried again to make some this morning. I remembered to grease the pan. I adjusted the oven temp (my oven does not get to the true temp it says it does, so I have to adjust it a bit to try to compensate; last time I had it too hot). And I managed to produce this perfect, yummy goodness.
It came out perfectly, all in one piece even. Slightly crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside. Very banana-y. And not too vanilla-y, even though Miss dumped a bit too much vanilla in the batter. I am so proud. I may become a baker after all.

Fun in the Snow

Posted on by Amy
Today it wasn’t windy and it finally warmed up enough that Miss could go outside and play in the snow with her Daddy. Based on her other experiences with playing in the snow, I was expecting her to want to come back in pretty quickly, but she had a blast!

She got a little taste of the snow.

She had a bit of a hard time moving around in it as it was over her knees.

But she did not want to come in, so Daddy got dressed more warmly and gave her a ride.

And then they just rolled around in it for a while.


One last ride before coming in.

Miss was not happy about having to come in. But she soon forgot to be upset and got good and warmed up by, what else? Dancing!! Lass had a lot of fun dancing too.

Then we made some cookies for the big game tomorrow. Miss didn’t eat dinner well enough to get to have one tonight, but she’ll get one tomorrow. Go Packers!

To Cut or Not to Cut?

Posted on by Amy
Miss’s hair is beginning to get a bit unruly.

It can be a bit hard to handle at times.
I have been debating for a while now whether or not to get it cut. Or to cut it myself. Several months ago I gave her a tiny fringe bang trim when her wispy bangs first started to grow into her eyes. Now her bangs are seriously getting into her eyes again, but I don’t want to cut them because I want to let them grow out.
For now I’m trying to keep her hair in pigtails a lot with the bangs combed over to the side.
Or I use a barrette to pull the bangs away from her face.
Both of these options work quite well and look pretty darn cute. A problem only comes in when she decides to repeatedly pull out her barrette or when her winter hat smooshes and makes a mess of her pigtails. I typically redo her hair several times a day. And sometimes Her Toddlerness just refuses pigtails or barrette. Period. This usually isn’t too much of a big deal as it generally only lasts a little while. I do still wonder sometimes if I should just go ahead and cut it. But I know the temptation to cut while growing out a hairdo can be overcome.
And I don’t want to cut it yet. Even when we aren’t sporting a barrette or pigtails, these locks are still precious I think.

For now, we’ll stay the course.

A Little Cabin Fever

Posted on by Amy
Other than to go take Miss to gymnastics yesterday afternoon, we haven’t left the house since Monday. You might say we’ve got a bit of cabin fever, but not in a bad way. Being cooped up in the house has forced us to keep busy with crafts and projects. And it also prompts me to bring out my camera. When we are stuck in the house all day, I take photos. A lot. Taking pictures makes me happy.
Yesterday we brought out the finger paints again. Miss had been pointing to her paintings on the fridge from the last time we painted, proudly saying, “I made that.” I wanted to let her try painting with a paintbrush, but I couldn’t find the brushes so we just used hands again. Boy, did she ever.



I love the painting on the right. Not only does it have the first handprints I have of hers since she was born, but it looks like a Valentine’s Day painting with the big red heart. I helped her do the handprints, but I didn’t help her to make the heart-like shape. I actually didn’t even recognize it as a heart-like shape until my husband mentioned it when he came home from work. Love.
She was quite proud of her messiness this time.
And she enjoyed showing off for her sister.


I think she may have been trying to decide if she could get away with painting Lass.
She stuck with the paper.

Well, sort of.


After getting cleaned up we got ready to go to gymnastics. I let her pick out her shirt, and what did she pick but my fave Wonder Woman T shirt. She pointed to the picture of Wonder Woman and said, “Mama.” Weeellll, okay! Then she caught on when I told her who it really was and she kept saying, “Wun Nuh Man!”
In the photos below she is putting the hearts from the other day’s post into her shirt. This is seemingly much more fun to do over and over than to put them on the window. Every time I go to change her diaper one or two of these things falls out of her onesie.

I just love this pic of her talking to our old dog Chica, whose health seems to be declining of late. She’s a good old dog.
Lass is really moving herself around with her rolling, though she’s not terribly precise in where she gets herself to.

Help!!
Miss went grocery shopping in her refrigerator.
She loves her shopping cart. This is a rare photo of her pushing it herself though. Usually she orders, “Mama push!” “Mama do it!” “Mama run.” The girl loves to be moving and loves for me or her daddy to push her shopping cart or baby stroller and chase her while doing it.
Just cute.

Sisters.
I love seeing how the girls interact more and more as Lass gets bigger.
This one looks like they’re already sharing a little secret.

Bad timing on my part, but this was one of many kisses from big sister today.
And one final note, at dinner tonight Miss said, “Razzle Dazzle!!” It took me a few times to catch on to what she was saying, and each time I asked her to repeat it she got this sheepish little grin on her face, which erupted into a huge radiant smile and laugh when I finally got it and said, “Did you just say ‘Razzle Dazzle’?” Then of course we had to say it several times each and laugh every time. She is just a funny, fun little girl.
P.S. “Razzle Dazzle” is the favorite saying of my hubby and I from the show Yo Gabba Gabba. It’s a Muno signature exclamation, in case you’re wondering.

Snow Day

Posted on by Amy
I’m not sure if we’re going to be hit by this big snowstorm heading in this general direction. We might be just far enough north that we don’t get much snow from it. We got a couple of inches last night, but the weather forecast looks like we’ll have mostly flurries for the next few days. Nevertheless, it’s very cold and we have plenty of snow.

So, I declared today to be a snow day at our house. We won’t be going anywhere and are all settled in to stay nice and warm and have lots of fun. Right now it’s nap time for both girls, which is always fun. This morning we had plenty of good times too. What better way to spend a cozy winter day inside than by baking with my favorite almost-two-year-old?

We had some very ripe bananas, or as Miss calls then, “beenahs” that were past the point of eating by themselves. Naturally, they needed to be transformed into Beenah Bread! Miss did a great job mashing the bananas
and maybe eating a little bit too, while Lass supervised.
She helped me measure in the rest of the ingredients and take the batter-filled loaf pan to the oven. I forgot to grease the pan, so the finished product didn’t come out of the pan very nicely. In fact, the bottom of the loaf stayed firmly stuck in the pan while the top half flopped out. I am seriously not cut out for this baking thing! I managed to get the bottom portion out in one piece and stick it onto the top piece so it at least looks like a nice loaf. From a distance. Until you cut it. It tastes good!
Then we moved on to some Valentine’s Day decorating. I’ve not really been much of a Valentine’s Day celebrater (is that a word?) in the past decade or so. I typically think of the holiday as not much more than a way for greeting card, jewelry, candy, and flower companies to make money. Though I usually get my hubby a card and sometimes we go out to dinner or I cook a special dinner at home, we don’t do much else for the day. But now that Miss is at such a fun age, I can’t let this cheesy holiday go by without plenty of fitting activities.
Today, Valentine’s window stickies. Miss loved these by the way. The last thing she asked for when I was putting her down for her nap was, “Play more hearts??” She kept peeling them off and sticking them back on, and has assigned a particular heart to each member of our family (the swirly one in the photo below is Daddy’s).

I don’t know what our next Valentine’s project will be. I did buy more cookie dough, so we’ll be baking and decorating Valentine’s Day cookies in the near future. And probably doing some other crafts. Maybe we’ll make some cards to send. Who knows? It definitely brings more meaning to this holiday though when I can make it into a fun time for my girl. I feel great about celebrating an overly-commercialized holiday when we do it with homemade gifts and treats and make it into just another reason to give extra love and hugs around our home.
If you are getting hit by the coming blizzard, I hope you’ll stay safe and warm!