Christmas

Christmas morning I ran downstairs first to turn the lights on and start water for coffee and warming milk, then back upstairs so we could all come down together. The first thing she ran for was her Snowdrop Deer that I made for her, and while I make her things as much because I enjoy the process of making them as for the end result, I love that my not quite 1.5 year old loves handmade things so much too.

She was excited about everything she opened, but the biggest hits this year were this Horse and Rider from her Nana (which I expected and requested be opened last in case she wouldn’t be into other stuff after it), Owl, Pout Pout Fish, her Narwhal and Daydreamers from Santa, Otter from my brother and Stormy Weather. She also got a big bag of socks with pictures of animals on them and had fun all day moving them from room to room and into and out of various containers. We joke that her favorite game right now is moving commodities.

She loved her stocking and unpacking it. When I was pulling the pictures for this post, she came in and saw the stocking picture and squealed with excitement, pointing and laughing and babbling at the picture. We then went to find the narwhal to play with and that was also very exciting. She likes carrying him around by the tooth and making him swim. She likes to pat and feed the pony, but absolutely will not sit on it for anything so it’s really more a toy for her to grow into.

My family came over in the afternoon and we did more presents and had an early dinner together that my mom kindly brought over and cooked for us – steak, cheesy scalloped potatoes and pomegranate pear salad with raspberry vinaigrette. We then thought we’d play cards, and I remembered that Santa forgot them for the stockings, and husband went out to get some so we could.

We had a really lovely Christmas, and hope that everyone else did too.

Stockings are the best part

Almost ready

I’m so excited to give Christmas this year and am trying somewhat unsuccessfully to reign myself in on gifts. K is getting only a few new gifts from us and everything else is handmade or bought used, but I also don’t want to overwhelm her with quantity and that’s my challenge.

She is getting this deer (calling her Snowdrop Deer instead of Dandelion for Christmas connotations) and an ornament version, this owl puppet (Hedwig, clearly), this book, this book and this book, these pjs (old navy black Friday clearance), and this Grimms blocks set from Wooden Wagon. I had planned to make her some custom books with pictures of family using old thrifted board books, but I don't think that project is going to make the deadline at this point.  

These tangled lights PJs just arrived from my black Friday order and I love them so much I wish I’d bought some for next year too.  

Preparations

I didn’t realize until this moment that my gift wrap theme this year was “lumberjack.”

Snow Day

We had a snow day on Friday that was exactly what I’ve needed. I had the day off already, so when it started snowing the night before and continued off and on all day Friday it just added to the coziness. K liked the snow, but hates having anything on her head so it was hard for her to handle having a hat or hood for more than a few minutes at a time. We had a lot of short trips outside, and enjoyed it from the windows (every window in the house has hand and nose prints at toddler level now). The first trip outside, she looked and pointed and repeated “wha da?” (what’s that) over and over.

She learned how to put ornaments on the tree herself - every time she gets one she smiles and claps and often also says “I di ih” (I did it). That said, we’re also really getting into a phase (it is a phase, right?) of testing boundaries constantly and the tree is becoming a big one. I thought we were in the clear after a week of having it up and playing with it and the ornaments gently but she’s taken to ripping the lights off and trying to run off with them. If we have any pine needles left on the bottom three feet of the tree  by Christmas I’ll be happy!

When we came in from the last trip out in the snow where it was coming down in great big fluffy clumps, she sat herself down by the tree, picked this book and opened to this page on her own - so cute! She studied that page for more than a minute (very rare). I think she got it that the book had snow and she had snow.

16 Months

At almost 16 months, K has hit a window of rapid development in her expressiveness and engagement with the world. She loves books, animals (especially birds, monkeys, cats and dogs), quilts, and going outside. She recognizes a lot of animals and objects and can point them out in books when I ask her to find them (dog, cat, bird, zebra, tiger, cheetah, bear, fox, bunny, mouse, raccoon, ladybug, bumblebee, car, boat, plane, train, house, tree, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, banana, etc).

She is crazy about birds, especially the ones in the back yard, and is learning to tell some types of birds apart in books and pictures – mostly owls, puffins, parrots and chickadees (if there are multiple kinds of birds on one book page, she can pick these ones out when asked). She also knows some colors and can find red, blue, yellow and orange when asked (sometimes also green and purple).

She isn’t talking much, but when she does her main words are “mom” (which she says with varied inflections to communicate most things “mum / mom / mama / mam / MAM / MAM!!!), nana, dada, and bap. I’m not entirely sure what bap means but it seems to mean “up” “book” and “I really want something and you aren’t listening” depending on the situation. She says what’s that fairly often “wha da?” while pointing. I’ve heard her say dog, bird - “baod,” and bye-bye but not many times. I have heard her also say I did it – “I di ih” a few times and wasn’t sure of my hearing until others reported hearing that too.

Mostly, she points and makes complex little noises with inflection and diphthongs to communicate. They don’t translate well to writing, but are similar to “uunng-uhh” and “ung-uh-uh?” and sound a little like a penguin.

She just learned how to nod her head “yes” on Monday (11/21) and does so with such conviction, she shakes her whole body with an expression of intense focus as if she is trying to communicate by will power alone (which I expect she has been for a while and is now happy to find it is working).

She understands language well and follows directions (not to be confused with orders, or requests against her preference – these are most definitely not followed), like “where’s the red ball? Is it by the window next to the tiger?” and she will look to the window, then the tiger, then run for the ball.

For the last month or so, one of her favorite things has been pointing out eyes, nose and ears on herself, me, anyone around, and all toys. She’s starting to point out mouth too. I try to encourage pointing out nose and ears over eyes as I have been poked in the eye more than once with this game. She is very careful to not poke herself in the eye and points out her own eyes a good inch off to the side.

This level of detail is likely interesting only to me, but it’s nice to have a place to note things and moments. I expect to remember everything as it happens, but she changes so rapidly each new phase runs together and it’s like she’s always been the way she is now.

Thanksgiving

I definitely overdid it for thanksgiving this year – cooking and hosting for 9 adults and a toddler, but it was fun to do one time and will scale back the cooking next year. For the turkey, I used elements of this recipe, and this one, and paranoia that my old oven temperature was off and it was going to take approximately 18 hours to cook and so I randomly turned the heat up after only an hour in. At 3 hours, I took it out of the parchment and added butter, chopped rosemary and thyme, and lemon zest to the skin. It came out pretty well for a first try I think, but was a little overdone. The parchment still kept it from getting dry. 

For sides, I made stuffing/dressing, sweet potatoes with pecans and marshmallows, green beans with mushrooms (this didn’t come out well, which was too bad because the mushrooms were excellent), mashed potatoes, caramelized onions and criminy mushrooms as potato toppings, two kinds of glazed carrots – whiskey glazed and a batch sans-whiskey, and creamed corn which I could eat all day everyday especially with pepper jelly on top. I also made a cranberry pecan pie which I overcooked but it was still good.

Next year we’re going simple. For sides, maybe just stuffing, sweet potatoes in the skin, mashed potatoes and caramelized onions and a fresh salad. And whiskey glazed carrots. I’m still crazy about the creamed corn, but that has been added to the everyday rotation so we’ll leave it off the holiday list.

Rose

I will be the first to admit my rose fairy costume came out a bit odd with the weather induced addition of the bear sweater and rain boots, and the necessary addition of the monkey (she loves monkey, we go nowhere without monkey). But we aren’t perfectionists and I thought she was the absolute sweetest running wound with her wings fluttering behind her.

We went to the zoo the day before Halloween and met up with friends. We all enjoyed seeing all the other kids in their costumes at the zoo. One of my favorites was a little girl, maybe 3, dressed as a city bus made from a painted cardboard box complete with a Barbie bike hooked to the front.

October

We went to the local pumpkin patch with friends and had a great time. K’s favorite was running around in the field of pumpkins and grabbing handfuls of dirt and small rocks.

River

We went camping this weekend with two families with babies that we know from our neighborhood. It didn’t go to plan, but reiterated what I think we all knew – that we are lucky to know each other, and that we are grateful for this little tribe we are building.

Listening to: Sweet Jane

We read

The last few weeks have been hard on all of us as we readapt to the routine of both working and commuting, but we let the dishes go undone to play with books and read them and spend time together and that inevitably becomes the highlight.

Most of our books are thrifted or gifted from friends and family, but I am loving the babylit series and slowly buying them up. Keira just got two new ones for her birthday from her Aunt and Uncle and they are my two new favorites. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has actual passages from the play and I love that there is original text instead of just “inspired by” for the full content (babylit, please do more of this, it’s great! Or maybe you have already, and I just haven't bought them yet, in which case... carry on.) and the Secret Garden is a flowers primer which is really sweet. I have a few more on order to save for Christmas and Easter (and Paris might be for Valentine’s day?).

Places

A few snapshots from a short work trip to Colorado, because I thought they were nice.