Free food!

Our local Ikea (Schaumburg) has free meals for kids until the 15th with no adult meal purchase needed! You better believe I was there with Lily today and we'll be going back again soon. I surprisingly enjoy their food a lot, even if it's coming to me in little kid bowls :)

For dinner we had rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods since they're on sale on Tuesdays for $5.99, and that's two dinners for us. I cooked up some collard and kale with garlic and lemon juice on the stove, and roasted some squash, zucchini, bell pepper, and onion in the oven. The collard, kale, squash, zucchini, and pepper were all from our garden! More free food! Okay, I put $100-ish into supplies, seeds, and plants, but that has totally already paid us back in food. I love eating what we grow, and so does our weekly grocery budget!

Why hell hello, morning sun

I haven't welcomed you in a while, morning sun. Mostly I try to pretend you're not there and stay in bed until 9:00 or so with my cuddly sleeping toddler. But today I decided to wake up with you, enjoy a cup of my husband's coffee, and attempt getting some work done before said toddler is demanding my attention. The work was happening in conjunction with some mindless internet'ing until the 30 minute timer went off and the toddler decided she needed some more cuddles. I went back to nursing in bed for a half hour, morning sun, while you lit up my bedroom windows with a golden glow. I didn't bring my iPhone to pass the time, half purposefully, half to my regret, so I just enjoyed the changing light as the toddler settled back to sleep. Now I'm back to the computer work and more mindless internet'ing while you change to the regular day light I'm so used to. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue wanting to see you, morning sun, but maybe I'll try and make this at least a Monday ritual.

Lily's first adventure in finger painting

I was feeling inspired by Meg over at Sew Liberated to entice Lily in a messy art experience. And, well, it was a hit! I looked up a cornstarch finger paint recipe since I've yet to make it to the library to pick up First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos (though it's on this week's to-do list!). I found this recipe and cut it in half and modified it just a touch...

1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
Food color
Dish soap

I heated up the water and dry ingredients slowly on the stove and stirred it a ton. It only took about 5 minutes for it to start to set up, and I could tell that when it cooled it would be even more firm. I let it cool off, divided it into two bowls, added a drop of dish soap to each, and 2 drops of food colors--one red, one blue.



Then I plopped Lily into an old t-shirt of mine and set it all out on the porch, and the first thing out of her mouth was an excited, "ooo!" She LOVED it!









I think I might introduce her to some play dough next!

The Great Lily

I've been thinking a lot lately about how amazing it is to live with a toddler. I can see how so many people view it as an awful challenge, but really, it's got a lot to do with perspective.

We've made a huge effort in providing a safe space that Lily can explore without needing to hear "no" at every turn. I'm thankful that she's got a healthy level of curiosity without the death wish that some kids seem to have, but then again I'm also not policing every open drawer or every over turned box. For the past few weeks she has spent most of her time pushing my laundry basket around, filling it up with everything from bowls to dolls to diapers to every single item we attempt putting the in the recycling bin. I'm pretty convinced we could donate all of her toys at this point and she would be perfectly content with the recycling bin and laundry basket.

Her ability to communicate is growing both with sign and speech. She says: momma, dadda, hi, hello, bye, more, all gone, thank you, fish, food, meow, gecko, cracker, banana, ball, and likely a whole lot more that I'm just not thinking of right now. Of course they're totally said in toddler-speak, meaning Art and I have to translate for most people, but I am so amazed with how much signing has helped her to tell us what she wants--verbally too! If we sign a word she is ten times more likely to try saying it. She signs: more, thank you, please, food, fish, cat, dog, bird, light, fan, ball, banana, water, cracker, milk/nurse, and of course the ever-important iPod :)

Anyway, perspective. Lily is 71 weeks old (according to "Circle of Moms" from Facebook...Ugh...It should be called "Seventh Circle of Hell for Moms That Are Literate"). Okay, so she's going on a year and a half old, and while she's starting to really grasp things we ask of her and is able to communicate better and better, I am constantly reminding myself that she still doesn't have the foresight to know the effects of some of the "trouble" she finds. So, instead of yelling, spanking, or even attempting time outs, I pretty much stick with simple explanations ("Pet the kitty nice!" "Dog food is for dogs!") or just plain redirecting or removing. She's not trying to break her neck; she's using her body to climb. She's not trying to scare the cockatiel; she loves when he squawks. She's not trying to break the doll stroller and get hurt; she wants to sit in a chair her size.

So, in summary, Lily's amazing, and is continuously teaching me more about myself (like my patience!) and herself (like her insatiable curiosity!) every day. And she's pretty cute too :)

What I've been up to

Well, I've been knitting



And splashing



And sewing





And keeping up with this amazing little nut :)