five weeks

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but you are so very delightful!

Phoebe Jane is now five weeks old and she smiles! And also makes a lot of other funny faces as she discovers the world… It’s so gratifying when your baby starts to smile, isn’t it? They are oblivious to the dust bunnies, mountain(s) of dishes, ubiquitous spit-up. They are just happy to be cozily snuggled up with a full tummy. Aah, if life could only stay so simple… Thanks, Phoebe, for brightening up these gloomy early winter days!

Gingerbread Friends

We’ve had a lot of fun with this book Gingerbread Friends lately. We’ve read it at least once a day for the past week and were inspired to try the gingerbread recipe that’s illustrated throughout the story. It’s a really good one – I was surprised that Wren liked them because they are a bit “spicy,” but she does. Or maybe it’s just the act of biting off their heads and limbs that she likes. Regardless, we’re getting our required holiday share of ginger and cinnamon these days. Oh, and butter. It’s really no wonder why I’m not shedding the baby weight very quickly this time around… sigh.

I love a book that inspires action or creativity, like when we planted our bulbs in conjunction with Planting a Rainbow. What is your favorite book that inspires you to do something? Green Eggs & Ham, anyone?

Christmas Countdown!

Happy December, lovelies! Although it’s just gray and wet outside (no snow yet!), it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our nest. A certain toddler is VERY excited about all things Christmas and Chris and I are both getting into the spirit of it as well. It’s hard not to with Wren’s infectious enthusiasm for Santa, the reindeer, Christmas cookies, decorating the tree, candy canes, stockings and just “getting started with Merry Christmas!” Yesterday I was upstairs with Phoebe and Wren was downstairs doing who-knows-what when I heard her yelling up to me. I couldn’t understand her so I came to the top of the stairs and yelled for her to come closer and tell me what she was trying to say from across the house. She said, “I SAID, Mama, Merry Christmas!!!!!!”

The problem is that a toddler’s sense of time is so vague (yesternight, lasterday) and she thinks that Santa will come and bring presents–to good boys and girls–tomorrow. Whatever tomorrow means. So I thought it would help her to understand that we’ve got a little while to wait in a fun, visual way. I made a quick trip to the dollar store (thanks, China!) today and grabbed a bunch of these tiny stockings and strung them out while she was at school. We put little numbers in them and voila! A Christmas countdown calendar. I told her that if she took a good nap, Santa would come and leave a tiny present for her in the first stocking. It worked! Let’s just see how long this will work…