Will Stand for Puffies

Whobody There?

[Setting - Jumpy Gym yesterday, with Noah in a little playhouse]
    Me: *Ding-Dong*
    Noah: Whobody There?
    Me: (supressing laughter) What?!?
    Noah: Whobody come in!

[Later, reading a lift-the-flap book before bedtime]
    Noah: Whobody hiding under there?

I think my kid just creatively filled a gap in our English language.

Baby Kilroy

Submitted to Wordless Wednesday.

Playtime!

It's so sweet to see them playing together. Dave caught a few seconds on camera before they noticed and started saying "CHEEEESE!!!" (Noah), or waving and grinning for the camera (Amelia).

And that part is kind of cool in itself, to catch a glimpse of how kids react to a photocamera when they don't know you've been videoing all along...

Feeling Crafty

Apparently, when holidays roll around, I get on a kick to make things. And one of the perks of my internet addiction is exposure to all kinds of new projects, ideas, crafts, recipes, and tutorials. I figure by linking back to some that I've especially appreciated, I can let the other sites know how much they're appreciated and inspire someone else to try something new.

One of my long-time favorite sites is No Time for Flashcards. I couldn't even imagine attempting crafts (beyond "here's some crayons and white paper") with my two-year old, but Allie's tutorials have taught me that a little bit of adult prepwork with scissors and glue can go a long, long way. Her Puffy Paint Ghost inspired these Snowmen on a particularly cold morning last week, and the wreath and tree were similarly inspired by her site.




I have Babycenter moms to thank for a yummy toffee recipe those ladies like to call "Christmas Crack." If you're lucky enough to taste some, you'll know where it got its name. In the directions of the recipe I linked, I'd modify "boil for 3 minutes" to read "Heat slowly until soft crack stage, or about 275 degrees on a candy thermometer."



And even though I will never be as artistically gifted as Bakerella with her fancy cupcake pops and cake balls that were featured on the Martha Stewart show, ...

...my humble snowballs were gobbled down pretty quickly at our family Christmas gathering! These beauties start with a mixture of crumbled cake and frosting, so one of my sisters had the brilliant idea of making them out of an already decorated (i.e. leftover) cake. I made a batch before and after David's birthday, and while the consistency might have been a little different, my voracious nieces and nephews didn't seem to notice the difference.


Oh, and I almost forgot the homemade baby leg warmers, made from ladies knee-high socks. I'm a little late to jump on the BabyLegs fashion trend, but it was cold when I wanted to start potty training Noah, and it's not like we were leaving the house or anything. ;) Just don't tell his fiancée down the road that he wore Mia's pink ones too. Conceptually this project was really easy, but I found it difficult to keep all the edges lined up when stretching the socks over my sewing machine, so using a huge seam allowance (and hence a narrower cuff) worked for me.


There were a couple of other projects caught my eye, but now that Christmas vacation is over, chances are slim that I'll be adding to this list anytime soon. Heck, it took me a week just to put together and post this wrap-up!

Back to the grindstone

Today was my first day back at work. It was a rough one, for lots and lots of reasons, but someone left a beautiful surprise on my car this morning, which really helped make everything better.





I like to think they're snowflakes frozen in time. I'm probably wrong, but it makes me happy to think so. We don't see daytime freezing temperatures around here often, much less snowflakes.

MMX

Mia finally inched her signature pose:



up higher and higher, until she sat herself up on New Year's Day for the first time. I don't remember Noah ever sitting like this:



That's why old photos are so nice to jog my foggy memory. Sure enough, Noah never did sit, he just paused mid-crawl: