Easter 2018

We had a really lovely Easter morning of cozy family time inside, with hot coffee for us and much delight and excitement for K. She ran all over the house exuberantly searching for eggs stuffed with stickers and balloons, and out in the rain with an umbrella for the eggs we dyed together a few days ago. She had so much fun helping me make pancakes, fresh whipped cream and “bunny ears” – cut marshmallows in half and dip in pink sprinkles, but then she didn’t want to eat them and happily went down for nap at 12:30 (uh-oh). Shure enough, she woke up from nap sick and we spent the rest of the day (and the next few days) snuggled  up on the couch watching Curious George and Llama Llama, and trying to keep her hydrated and eating a little bit. She is feeling much better now and we are all so relived. 

Her Easter basket was assembled over the last year from clearance, sales and the dollar store and came in at just over $25 total which was more than intended but she loves everything. She got: new jelly shoes for summer, bubble bath which we were out of, bath crayons (she hates the bath but loves drawing, worth a try!), mini-pool float birds – these are meant for drinks but they are perfect for little toys to ride around in for the wading pool this summer, a wand, ladybug stickers, and a little bag of play makeup.

I struggled a lot with whether the play makeup was a good parenting choice, but ultimately decided that it is not the use of makeup itself that fosters insecurity or gender stereotypes, but the language we use around it. I only wear makeup a few times a week but she is all over mine and tries to take it to play all the time, so I decided to go with it. She LOVES this little kit and has been having so much fun carrying it around and asking family “excuse me, would you like your face painted?” then very gently pretending to brush on the pretend paints. When she gets a little older we’ll get her a kids face paint kit and this is great pretend play to practice. She also loves carefully brushing the pretend nail polish onto her fingernails and mine and that has been a great fine motor skills activity.

Happy Easter and happy Spring to all!

In March

Well, March flew past without any notes taken and documented, but we have been busy, and happy, watching winter turn into spring.

K started soccer class once a week which she loves – she’ll grab her soccer ball from her Bapa from Christmas and announce that she needs to practice and kick it (and throw it) all around the house. She’s also been doing a toddler gymnastics class at a local gym which has been very exciting. It’s a full gymnastics gym, not just for small kids although the littles do get designated classes and play times, so they have some more adventurous options including a few different kinds of trampolines (built into the floor and with great padding around them since they are meant for practicing flips) and a big pit full of foam blocks for landing in that she loves to jump into and “swim” around in.

We’ve also been doing the typical outings – children’s museum, zoo, park, play dates, throwing epic tantrums at the grocery store, etc. I never wind up with pictures from out as my phone is still broken – it had been fading for ages and then I royally smashed it up last summer and have been limping along with a non-functional camera and rather iffy sound quality during calls, but I have gotten my money’s worth out of it and it’s really time to upgrade now.

K is VERY excited for Easter tomorrow and informed me we would be leaving carrots out for the Easter bunny tonight “just like for the reindeer” and has been having a ton of fun with Easter preparations. It is so sweet to see how excited she gets for holidays, I have been trying to step up my game with fun traditions, crafts and foods we can do for each holiday because she loves them so much. For St Patrick’s day, she loved cookie decorating, green balloons all over, and rainbow fruit skewers as well as the family dinner we had. For Easter, cookie decorating was a huge hit, and egg dying was very exciting but it was pretty stressful for me (we made it through without turning either the house or the toddler rainbow colors but I should have known better than to do little cups of liquid dye). She is super excited for tomorrow morning, and then in the late afternoon we have dinner with G’s family.

Valentines

This sweet girl had so much festive fun for Valentine’s Day! Favorite parts included decorating monster cupcakes (totally her idea, I just gave free reign of the sprinkles and she make little pink and red monsters and I looove them), making valentines for everyone, and shaking this foil balloon around (this was a solid hour of entertainment AND the balloon is still going strong – shocked. Isn’t this red jumper gorgeous? A friend made it for her (I’m not sure of the pattern but the yarn is Madelinetosh DK in Tart). I haven’t been able to snap a picture of it on her yet but I hope to soon.

We had a fun day together, and more family time and an amazing dinner (which was eaten too quickly to be photographed) when G got home.

Pink crayons and paper scraps

It took our household a loooong time to let go of Christmas this year because someone really loves holidays. In mid-January when we were packing up the decorations and K was sad to see them go, I started explaining Valentine’s day to her. I told her Valentine’s day is about crafts and chocolate. We’ll color and do crafts, give people cards, and eat chocolates, I said – sold!

For the last week or so she has been talking everyday about wanting to make valentines for everybody, and today we finally did. As she was coloring so carefully, she kept saying “I just want make this valentine sooo special!” and she really did. We have some more to make tomorrow but the ones from today are precious. She put such care into them and was so proud to hand them out.

It is super sweet living with someone for whom every holiday is as special as the next – lots more crafting and baking to do!

Christmas 2017

Christmas morning we woke up to over 5” of fresh snow and one very excited toddler. K was literally trembling with excitement when we walked downstairs to see if Santa had come, but after a brief moment of awe at the new gifts, she got her boots on and wanted to go right outside into the snow- not surprised! We talked her into doing stockings first (in no small part so we could have coffee first), then we bundled up and headed outside for over an hour of playing in the snow, building a snowman and walking down the street to play with the neighbors.

We then worked on presents until my parents and brother came over around 1, and spent the rest of the day snacking, opening presents and playing cards while K napped. She opens presents slowly – tearing into one then wanting to play with it for a while before considering a next gift, so the day had a wonderful lazy pace to it. She got so much new treasure over Christmas that she has been loving - Brio trains, a soccer ball, a doll bed, wooden cakes and slicing fruit, bees, play silks (rainbow from Sarah’s Silks, pink and blue silks from Ginny Sheller’s handmade shop), playmobil from my brother and the feather wands from her stocking. This girl was well and truly spoiled and loved every minute of it.

Not even a mouse

Santa was here!

Before

We had the most perfect Christmas Eve. We woke up to a heavy frost and the promise of snow, so we canceled our plans and stayed home all day listening to Christmas music, wrapping the remaining presents, baking cookies (I iced, K added sprinkles), and watched Elf and Polar Express. Well, also a lot of cleaning and cooking - don’t think I sat down from the time I got up until about 3pm because the house was that trashed and I really wanted it nice for Christmas. My feet felt like they did when I worked retail in college but it was so worth it to have the house all nice.

Just as it started to get dark out, I was looking out the window checking for snow and there was nothing, but I looked a little bit longer and there was one flake, and another - snow! We were all off-the-charts excited and K ran to get her snow boots and was ready to go outside right away so of course we bundled up and went out in the dark to play in the yard. A white Christmas is lovely anywhere but it doesn’t happen a whole lot in the Pacific Northwest and the rarity makes it just that much more magical. All ready for Santa to come!