just baby

Some "just because" shots ... because she's six weeks old, because we're not doing anything at all today, because it's snowing and cold and the perfect day to strip down your baby just for fun (??), because she's just so sweet and kissably soft and I have to share her a teeny bit.

tannenbaum

We decorated our tree over three days this weekend.  It's funny how busy we feel even without leaving the house much.  I usually savour the process and cling to perfecting the spacing of ornaments, even to the point of kicking Levi to the curb.  But this year I brought up the boxes and told Avery to open them up and see what she would find.  It was so sweet to watch her face light up at each new ornament (or "ordament").  She merrily clogged the bottom right corner of the tree, which Levi and I discretely rearranged later - and it was much easier to release the control-freak in me than I thought it might be.  She's just so sweet!

She got her one Christmas wish to put the star on top.  She was determined that we shouldn't have to wait until the very end and kept asking us until we were both ready to snap ... and then in the end she was too frightened to be lifted up so high and chickened out.  

I love the cozy lighting of the Christmas tree in the evening.  Happy first week of advent as we remember the hope of the awaited Saviour, the hope for today, and the hope for his coming again.

playing around

We've been doing a lot of playing around these days.  Avery's imagination is taking off like wildfire.  She hops in and out of imaginary scenes and activities all day long, sometimes too quick to keep up with.  She skates on frozen ponds, buries food like a squirrel, makes cakes at her bakery (and once chocolate dumplings -yum!), exercises with her "flexer machine" and cools off with imaginary water.  She even controlled Levi's singing tonight by fiddling with an imaginary sound board, making it louder then quieter with various knobs and switches.  Where does she even get that from??  She plays with her solid toys really well, too, and flits around to different activity choices all day, making big messes everywhere she goes, but at least she's happily occupied (right?).  Loves her kitchen and dishes, her dollies and softies, her lego and leap-pad, her books and painting and drawing, her dollhouse ...

Absolutely anything is subject to becoming animated like little people.  She'll be coloring quietly, only to eventually realize that her markers have become little girls that have a lot to say to each other.  She also introduced us to the first children that have shown up in the invisible, a boy and a girl named Lisa and Boy.  The cutest naming she's provided lately, though, is a little white bear that was gifted to Ella by one of our college friends.  Avery named him Jesus.

Levi and I have been playing around with a new toy of our own this week.  We'd been talking about trading in the camera we recently bought for the one we were originally really interested in (a Nikon D3100 DSLR) and decided to go for it.  We were originally scared away by the price, but that was when we assumed you had to buy multiple lenses, which you don't.  Now that we've had the new one in our hands for a week we've been really happy with the quality and have found it easy to get comfortable with quickly.  We'll sell the old one and consider it a fair trade!

Littlest girl isn't playing around as much as working hard at growing and getting stronger.  She's eating like a super star, sleeps really well, doesn't need much cajoling to go down for sleep, hates tummy time (but look at that head starting to raise up!), and the best thing of all - she's started to show us glimmers of her first smiles!  Love this baby girl!

sprinkles

 Say hello to the new Sprinkles spokes-girl.  

Edit: Hi Frieda - I used this icing recipe: 

1 1/2 cups icing sugar (add more to thicken)
1 tsp butter
Cream or milk to thin (add more to thin)
Drops of food coloring, if desired

little things

:: For the first time in a long time I'm hearing reports of others putting up their Christmas trees before me.  I always feel like I jump the gun and then feel a little silly when my curtains are open.  This time I've held restraint, and now I feel a little behind.

:: Against my determination not to, I've signed up at Pinterest.  It seemed like such a black hole of inspiraiton that I thought I had to stay away (I'm an inspiration addict).  But now, as I'm beginning to reduce the hundreds of saved bookmarks in their hundreds of bookmark folders and subfolders (and so on), it's making a lot of good sense.  To justify my time already sucked into the void, I made something.  Not sure how I'll feel when my vision of redoing all my Christmas ornaments doesn't happen, not to mention matching sister dresses for Christmas ... or those adorable felt trees and peppermint garland and advent countdown.  Breathe ... and let go.

:: I suppose I have a pretty lovely reason to use as my "pass" and not make a single thing.

:: My days are actually starting to feel a tiny bit more manageable and organized.  On my to-do list for a few weeks has been to bake sugar cookies with Avery (with new Christmas cutter-outers) and then decorate them another day. We tackled part one today during Ella's afternoon snooze and Avery had a ball rolling in flour up to her elbows.  It was really good to have some one-on-one time with her.  I find myself saying "not right now" way over the good mom quota these days and some days I feel so bad about how little time I've spent doing something with her.

:: Of course, finding my days becoming more manageable doesn't necessarily mean I'm acing everything on my to-do lists.  It's all about prioritizing, and today sugar cookies beat out hair combing.

:: Thank goodness for Levi because if I didn't have him in my life I wouldn't be learning anything.  As I type, he's filled me in on why we have wisdom teeth.  Ever wondered that?  I didn't ask ... this is just what happens on a regular basis.

wish list

We're starting to put on our thinking caps for what we'll make and give for Christmas gifts this year.  Feels like time is already whizzing by.  I was curious what Avery would say if I asked her for her Christmas wish list and this is what she came up with:

A couple candy canes to eat for a snack
A couple crunchy things … for a mouse
Stars
A dolly… a cherry dolly
Some castle toys
And a thingy that has the button on it that makes noise
A star on top
A couple airplanes
Some couple bags to put the airplanes in
I want to do an email on mine-self
And some bouncy balls to bounce-bounce
Some couple babies
And some blankets for them
And some cars

I quizzed her again while we painted together and asked her what she'd most like to see under the tree for her at Christmas.  She made it easy on me and said she wanted a ballerina dolly and agreed that I could wrap up the same one I made her for her birthday.  Wouldn't that be memorable?

All this one wants for Christmas is to be snuggled up and never put down.

one month

Ella is one month old today!  

snuggle

snow

Winter has arrived.  Avery couldn't wait to get outside and make a snowman and a snowangel and snowshoes, but most of all to eat the snow. 

This little one stayed inside with mama, dreaming of snow instead of tasting it.

I think I'm okay with the start of winter.  It's going to be a long season, but having a new baby to snuggle makes for pretty cozy prospects.  Here's to warming chilis and hearty soups!  Here's to the fireplace (dvd) and mugs of hot chocolate.  Sweaters, scarves and mittens, sparkling snow and frost thickened branches, and ... Christmas.

doogie

Avery's still pretty keen on playing doctor, maybe even more so since she fell and broke her leg.  When my parents were here they were a prime target and were frequently asked to lie down on the floor and "let me examine your body".  She takes it very seriously.  If anyone protests to a more thorough examination than they're willing to take, she'll protest right back "these aren't 'tendin tools" (meaning, they're not for pretending).  Then she'll lay an elbow on your gutt and continue to force her tools on  you.  She calls herself Doctor Woo.

It seems I'll have to be Ella's advocate since Doctor Woo has found her to be a very willing patient.  

happy things

:: a perfect fit for a perfect head.  I knit this diy snow hat for baby before her arrival, using an old dolly for a guess at sizing.  Quick and easy and kind of addicting.  There might be more pointy little hoods in our future.

 :: a bare left leg.  The cast is off!  Levi took Avery in yesterday morning to get rid of her pink shell.  She came home beaming with pride for having survived the trauma of the "buzzer tool" (and the jaws of life and a wound from the cast cutter).  Red polish is for celebrating.

:: sisters ... matching, no less.  Avery likes to rock Ella in the bouncy seat, rather sweetly at first but eventually faster and harder as she protests against our requests for her to rock gently - "I don't want to be gently!!".  

:: remembering Gramma's visit with new games learned and pockets of frozen meals, muffins and cookies tucked away for us to enjoy over these days of adjusting to our new normal.  We're so blessed!

:: remembering Grampa's stay with us with a hilarious video of Avery and him playing truck driver on the couch.  Lots of sharp corners (or "shark orners"), moose on the road, bumpy trails and speed bumps ensued.  I'm doing surprisingly okay with Avery now that her source for 100% attention has gone home.  A miracle, I'm sure.

:: listening to great new folk-style children's music over breakfast.  Laura Veirs is new to me, but she's right up my alley and the happy new album Tumble Bee can be heard in full here.

:: bright eyed baby.  This little girly has such strong and alert awake times.  Speaking of which, she's starting to grunt-yell at me through the monitor, so it's time to go have breakfast together.

my book

One thing on my to-do list to complete before having the baby was to get started on printing my old blog into a book for our home.  I don't scrapbook and rarely print photos anymore, so the time and cost it takes to create books seems well worth it to me.  

I'm using Blurb, which is a bit clunky and tedious at times, but I like having the freedom to design each page to make each blog entry fit how I want it to fit.  I decided to go with thicker quality paper and split my old blog into three books, so when I'd reached the max page numbers for this one I sent it off to be printed so I could see how it looks and decide whether I'd do the rest or not.    

Part One arrived in the mail at the beginning of October and I'm really happy with it.  There were quite a few times when I would have liked to edit what I originally said in my posts, or delete entries altogether, but I decided to keep it as is and let it be the journal of my days, pointless dribble or not.

The rest of the books will be finished up slowly, I'm sure ... especially considering how just typing this post means a quick scramble of thoughts and photos slapped down before the littlest one wakes up completely and wants to hang out ... but I am pretty motivated to do it now that I see how nice it looks.