5 Months and 2 Years

Kate is growing so big! She turned five months on the ninth. She smiles and rolls and laughs the days away. She just brings us so much joy. One of her favorite moves is flying: She gets on her tummy and raises her limbs in the air. It's completely charming. And she still has such an easy-going personality. She will just play quietly on the floor while I make dinner or be toted around as I do chores around the house.

Maggie still adores her. She loves to push Kate in the stroller, have Kate join her for baths, or have Kate sit on her tummy so they can interact more closely. She joins Kate on the floor for tummy time and calls all her baby dolls "Tate" (she used to say "Kay," but now the focus seems to be on the end sound). If Kate needs something and starts crying, Maggie is often first on the scene with coos of,"Ohhh, bay-bee, ohhh. Ii's o-tay, Tate" ("Oh, baby, oh. It's okay, Kate"). Though of late, I will admit Maggie is starting to understand the concept of "mine." I'll be making dinner and hear: "Mine...[snatch]...dank you, Tate." At least she's polite, if a bit greedy. :)

And Maggie had quite a special month. She turned two years old! After a couple practice rounds with grandparents, Maggie finally had her big day. She was overjoyed for another opportunity to blow out candles, eat cake, and open presents. In addition to the goggles and swim toys from her Wanlass grandparents and a darling Snow White dress-up doll set from her grandparents Gotfredson, Maggie got a couple books she loves, some alphabet puzzle tiles, a DVD (her first!--I loved The Swan Princess as a child--hope she does too), an outfit, and...dum-da-da-dum...her very own, fully loaded purse complete with cell phone and lipsticks. She loves purses, phones, and make-up, and I knew she would love the lipsticks that came with this purse as their lids were removeable. I had been so excited to give her this purse, as it was kind of hard to find exactly what I wanted--unthemed, interactive fake make-up, and not overdone on the lights and noises. Her reaction did not disappoint. She carries her purse around with her all the time, constantly is reapplying her lip-stick, talking on the phone, or using her keys, and wanted to sleep with her purse for the first week after she got it. (We woke up to her cell phone ringing rather than cries of "Mama, Dada.")

How grateful I am for my little friend! She is growing much too fast. I can't begin to put into words how much Mike and I love our Maggie. She is so sweet. She does her share of unrolling toilet paper rolls and emptying drawers, but she also does more than her share of brightening our lives. She loves to be happy and wants everyone else to be as well. Whenever I am looking serious or concentrating on something or otherwise not wearing a smile, she tilts her head, beams up at me and says "Happy Mama?" with an encouraging look. How could I not break into a grin at that invitation? Could you resist it? Even if she had just pulled out every wipe in a 250-count package while you were changing the baby's diaper for a minute? I didn't think so.

Here are a few of many things we love about our little girl:

-how she loves us and her baby sister Kate--Maggie loves to sing "We Are a Happy Family" and makes sure none of us are left out. And no one can doubt her love for Kate. She sometimes smothers her with it...literally. :)

-her preference for Primary songs--Maggie goes to sleep listening to her "songs" every night and is often found plunking on the piano and singing one. "Temple" (as in "I Love to See the...") and "Circle" ("As We Gather in a Circle") are her current faves.

-that she is our little imitator--I hear and see myself in the way Maggie interacts with her dolls, Kate, and even Mike and me. She says, "Hmmm...let's see..." when we ask her what song she wants to sing or snack she wants to eat. She loves to walk her stroller around the house, purse on the handle, baby on board. She drops everything to change her baby doll with cries of "Oh no! Messy, yuck..."

-her cute way of expressing herself--Grapes are "ovals" (she noticed their shape one day at snack), orange juice is "yellow juice" (Mike thinks this is because I dilute her juice :) ), "hold you" means she wants to be held and hugged, "I-youuu" is "I love you," "help you" means she needs some assistance, and she still uses a few of her signs from her early days (drink, please, and lipstick). But every day she is getting better at verbalizing her thoughts. Too soon many of these cute expressions will be mere memories.

-her ribbon-dancing skills--Maggie loves to turn on our digital piano's demo songs. She then runs to get hair ribbons from my bathroom and comes back to put on some moves. She usually makes sure we each have a ribbon to dance with as well. And she dances well sans ribbon as well. Our favorite moves are her straight-arm spin and her fast-feet hip-hop.

-how she loves counting and letters and shapes and colors--Maggie often finds opportunities to use her talent for counting, though sometimes she counts a little differently than I would: "two, three...two, three" or "one, two, three, four, eighteen, eighteen..." though she is getting pretty good at one through ten these days. And she loves to spot letters and numbers in her environment and gets excited anytime I am wearing any. She says letters at random much of the time, but recognizes a bunch of them as well, A, E, O, Y and M among others. I know she has known O since she was about eighteen months. Isn't it amazing how kids just pick things up according to their interests? It's not like I've been drilling them since, c'mon, she's two. And she is always pointing out colors and shapes as well. We have a lot of fun conversations: Mag: "Pink, mom?" Me: "Yes. That's pink." Mag, pointing to something else: "Green?" Me: "Yes. The apple is green. Good job!" Mag, pointing to her cup: "Purple, mom?" Me: "No, not purple." Mag: "Blue!" Me: "That's right. You're so smart, little girl." We don't really get too deep yet. :)

-most-of-all her unbounded enthusiasm--Maggie just lights up our lives. She is so happy. She is always smiling and humming cheerfully. She loves to have fun, to do things, to go places. She often requests to go "out-sie" (outside) or on a "wok" (walk). She loves going to church and the library. She never wants to leave the park where she can go on the "side" (slide) or on the "wheee" (swing). And she loves to get out the Family Home Evening manual (we use the nursery manual, "Behold Your Little Ones") and says "Ah-ha" to get things rolling. (The Gotfredson family has always said "Aloha" to start their family nights since their Hawaii days.) She loves to bake, do activity verses, and read books from dawn to dusk. She loves fruit and all things sweet and rejoices with cries of "ohhh, mmm, yuuum" when we take out a tasty snack that meets with her approval. She follows me from room to room and helps me with chores. And when Daddy comes home she is glued to his side and out helping in the garden. She is the best little tag-along we could ever hope for.

Maggie, it is impossible to name all the cute, adorable, and endearing things you say and do. We just love the whole enthusiastic little package that you are. Thanks for being ours!

Salad and Breadsticks

Made this for dinner tonight. Gotta love salad weather!

I was first introduced to this Taste of Home recipe when my sister-in-law Lisa made it for a family function last year. Found the recipe online and had to pass it along.

The version I made was nearly identical and found on Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog (where I see a lot of other fun dishes I want to try). I just made a third of the recipe and served with toast. It was the perfect amount for Mike and I. (Maggie had a little, but was more interested in some leftover spaghetti.) I also lessened the amount of oil a tad, left out the water chesnuts (as I had none) and pepper (didn't seem necessary), and replaced honey-roasted peanuts with toasted almonds. Alternately, you could leave out the chicken for a nice side salad. (I think that may have been how Lisa served it.) Anyway, I have some leftover dressing and can't wait to use it on a salad for lunch tomorrow!

I love cooking fresh and from scratch. "I'll take good food over bad food any old day of the week"...anyone else ever watch The Ghost and Mr. Chicken starring Don Knotts? It was a childhood favorite. (Mike always teases me that I was in some sort of time warp in my tastes in movies and music as a kid, because I know all these oldies and don't remember the stuff that was popular. I've always blamed it on having no older siblings, but maybe I was just oblivious, because my younger sisters are the ones that have to introduce me to new stuff.) Anyway, I thought every once in a while I'll post a recipe that's worth sharing. I had several soup recipes I meant to post this winter for my sister and mom, but I guess I'll get to that next winter.

Spinach Chicken & Pasta Salad with Teriyaki Vinaigrette from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/

Dressing:
1 cup canola oil [I liked less]
1/3 – 2/3 cup bottled teriyaki sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup cider vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Salad:
16 oz. bow tie pasta, cooked al dente, drained and cooled
1 bag fresh spinach (9 – 10 oz)
6 oz. craisins
2 (11 oz.) cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 (8 oz.) can water chestnuts, drained and slivered
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
4 green onions, thinly sliced (white and green parts)
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
6 oz. honey roasted peanuts [I liked the almond substitution]
2 cups cooked chicken, tossed with 2-3 tablespoons teriyaki sauce

In a blender, combine all the dressing ingredients and blend until well combined and smooth [I just whisked mine in a measuring cup with a mixer]. Mix about 1 cup of the dressing with the cooked pasta in a large bowl and marinate for at least one hour. Combine the remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl. Just before serving, add pasta and toss. Add dressing to taste and toss. Serve immediately.

Also, I found this breadstick recipe this winter. I think it's terribly fun and easy and make it all the time now. If we hadn't had leftover artisan bread we'd been needing to use up, I would have served these with the salad.

Easy-Peasy Breadsticks from http://www.makeitdo.wordpress.com/

•1 1/2 cups warm water
•1 Tbsp. sugar
•1 tsp. salt
•1 Tbsp. dry active yeast
•3 1/2 cups flour
•1/2 cup melted butter
•1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•lemon pepper (or seasoning of choice)

Mix together warm water, sugar, salt and yeast. Allow yeast to activate (about 10 minutes). Add flour and stir in with a fork until dough holds together. Turn out onto floured board. Knead lightly into a ball. Divide into 32 equal portions [I don't usually get quite this many]. On floured board, roll out into bread sticks. Dip into melted butter and then into Parmesan cheese. Place onto greased cookie sheet (16 per bakers half sheet.) Sprinkle with lemon pepper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. This gives the bread sticks about 10 minutes to begin to rise. Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

May be made in the morning and kept in the refrigerator unbaked. Remove from the refrigerator about 30 – 45 minutes (depending on how warm your house is) before baking.

They can also be reheated on a cookie sheet then next day at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes.

[I've also used leftover homemade pizza dough for my breadsticks (I use a recipe that came with my kitchenaid stand mixer), then shaped and baked as intructed in this recipe.]

We're Ba-ack!

It always takes me at least three weeks to take a vacation--a week to prep, a week to be gone, and a week to recover. We went to see my family on the East Coast a couple weeks ago. Consequently, although my life did not stop this past month, my blogging did. But here we are again. Alive and kicking and happier than ever. Our trip East to see my fam was a success. Kate turned five months, we saw family and some friends, my little sister Rachel turned eight and was baptized, and we celebrated Maggie's second birthday a couple days early. (We flew home the day before Maggie turned two to optimize our plane ticket expenditure.)

Somehow we made it through the airport with two lap children, two carry-ons, a diaper bag, a Strawberry Shortcake backpack, a carseat, and a double stroller. Actually the sit 'n' stand stroller made it all work. Thank goodness for gate checking strollers. Though I don't think anyone wanted to be behind us at security. And the girls were unbelievably good on the plane.

We rented a Dodge Calibur during our trip--our first rental! yay for Mike being over 25--and it was fun to have a bit of independence.

One of our first stops was the small, family friendly, and free(!) Cohanzick Zoo. We took my sister Cat with us. It got freezing cold and started to drizzle just as we got there, but we still enjoyed seeing the white tiger, peacocks, and wallaby, among other animals, and we had the zoo to ourselves! Cat took a rather funny picture of Mike and I reenacting the bear statue. I asked her why she didn't take it from the other direction so that the statue would appear closer to us. Apparently, she was trying to get Kate (covered in the far-away stroller) in the picture as well. And, since Maggie wanted us to hold her, the bear imitation wasn't coming off well anyway...haha.

Another fun day, my parents took a day off work and we went to the beach to take a walk on the boardwalk and feel the sand through our toes. How I miss having the ocean near! It was a little cool and breezy, but beautiful nonetheless. And Maggie LOVED it! No surprise. That girl loves to be outside.

Mike, the girls, and I stayed at a fairly inexpensive hotel near the shore that night, mainly for its indoor pool. It ended up being new and very nice. My family hung out there with us after our beach excursion. Then the next day we got to see my old roommate Jenny and her darling kiddos. (That's three wonderful college friends I've gotten to see in one year--Amy and her fiance, now husband, dropped in back in October and Julie and her fun fam came in February.) Jenny and I enjoyed catching up and our kids enjoyed the park. Mike was nice enough to be on kid duty most of the time. =)

The majority of the trip was low-key, just spent visiting with family or playing at the park. We went over to my cousins one afternoon, my grandma gave me an impromptu cello lesson (my first!), my sisters enjoyed holding Kate, and we made sure to get Philly cheesesteaks since we were in the area.

One of my favorite un-pictured memories is singing a trio at church on Mother's Day with my mother and sister Cat, composed and accompanied by my sister Rebecca. My family is amazing. And it was fun to be with my mom on Mother's Day for the first time since I was nineteen.

And of course there was Rachel's birthday and baptism. Rachel's birthday was a fun day. We ate cake, played games, opened presents, and...the lights went out, luckily, just long enough to be fun (hence, the flashlight). And Rachel's baptism was beautiful. She looked radiant and I was so happy to be there. It was neat because she was baptized on our Grandmother Mayse's birthday and I was baptized on my Grandfather Wanlass's birthday. I am sure both those grandparents, though they are now passed on to the other side, are honored and pleased with Rachel's decision to be baptized. I was honored to give a talk on baptism. It sure brought back memories of my own special day and how clean and new I felt. It's wonderful to know I can still feel that way each week as I partake of the sacrament and renew that covenant to take upon me the name of Christ, that through him and his miraculous atonement I can continually repent, be made clean, and eventually perfected.

And, before we left, we celebrated Maggie's 2nd birthday a couple days early and my 25th birthday a couple months early. My mom got me my favorite pistachio and vanilla ice cream cake. Mmmm. And Maggie got some sweet goggles and pool blocks from my parents for her birthday. When we went swimming together, Mag was all about the goggles and kept calling them "eyes," so she was thrilled to get her own pink, "Hello Kitty" pair.

Getting Brave

Here's our overdue potty-training update:

I had this naive idea in my head that I would perfectly potty train Maggie in diapers and then switch to underwear and voila, no accidents, no ruined furniture or carpets. Well, my plan started out well. As I mentioned in a previous post, a little over a month ago, Maggie was catching on to potty training quite quickly. We had a few "dry days" and Maggie even told me a few times when she needed to go. But, as time wore on the potty was losing it's newness and Maggie and I didn't have the motivation to get her to the potty as often. I finally came to the realization that whether we potty-trained now or later, there would probably be a few accidents, and since Maggie seemed to show most of the signs of readiness, we might as well go for it.

So, in a rash and impulsive mood, the Saturday before our big trip, I called my sister-in-law for some tips, looked at some online articles, and...switched to training pants. Okay, actually I wasn't really brave yet. I made Maggie wear a plastic pant (like the ones you use for cloth diapers) over her panties the first couple days. But that made it feel like a diaper and when she had an accident, neither she nor I realized it. So then, I got truly courageous and switched to underpants. We stayed on the tile a few days (potty-training really helped me to be a better mom for the week because to keep her in a contained area I really played with her constantly), I encouraged her to go every couple hours (one method said every half-hour, but that was too often for her, I think because she already knew how to go on the potty, we were just trying to learn to go only on the potty), she had a couple accidents, we did some cleaning up and practice role-playing (as per suggestion from my sis-in-law's book), and by the end of the second day in panties she was telling me when she needed to go or heading to the toilet herself!

AND it even held throughout the trip! I guess she really was ready. She only had one daytime and one nightime accident the whole time. She has had a couple since arriving home, but I guess that's to be expected. I'm just so proud of her. I never knew I would derive so much satisfaction from another person's bathroom habits. And now that we're going to save approximately $600 in diapers over the next year, what should we do with it? Maybe Maggie's college fund....

Good Things Come in Small Packages

How come I'm so lucky to have an amazing friend, who happens to also be a NYC fashion designer, that sends me suh-weet, like-new, hand-me-downs? I got a package containing these darling duds on Monday. I've been wearing them all week. They are so comfy, but still cute. Maggie and Kate are relieved they don't have to be embarrassed of me anymore...

except for the fact that I spend a Friday night taking pictures of myself with the self-timer. This is probably a little weird.

And having found out how handy the self-timer is, I got Mike to pose with me for a couple pics. How I wish I would have thought of using this more when we were dating or for anniversary shots...oh well. We're young yet. =) Expect to see our stairs in family pictures from now on. They happen to be opposite our bookcase/tripod.

Thanks again E!!

P.S. In case you're wondering, yes, it is a rush to pose in 2 seconds. There is a setting for a 10-second timer, but that was too long and I started to feel really awkward.