May your 2010 be filled with an abundance of laughter, love and dancing — I'm pretty sure ours will be.
Travelingjenny
Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood
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Awwwwww….. That's all I have to say. (And did I pick a good man, or what?)
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We've been in a baking frenzy here all month. It started with the school craft fair and bake sale. Besides the art wraps I sewed, I made dark chocolate peppermint bark (YUM!) and honey-molasses-ginger cookies for the girls to decorate. They love holding the measuring spoons for me and helping me stir. What they love most, though, is the decorating. And they must be pretty good at it, because all of the cookies had been sold halfway through the bake sale! (Those are Tess's cookies on the left, above, and Grace's on the right.)
Today they decorated cookies to give to their teachers. This time, I messed up the dough and had to roll it into a log and slice it, but the girls weren't at all bothered by the absence of cute, seasonal shapes. In fact, Grace was thrilled to be able to make a kitty face (see photo below), and a rainbow. Both girls also made cards for their teachers using stamps — Tess even cut her own paper and wrote her name!
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This morning, while the girls were eating breakfast and I was making their lunches for school, Grace was telling jokes. So Tess came up with a joke of her own.
Tess: "Where does the flower go to get him own stem?"
Me: "I don't know. Where?"
Tess: "To the garden!"
Me: "Where did you learn that joke?"
Tess: "I learned it from my lunchbag."
Hmmm… I think I just figured out why I'm no longer able to carry on an intelligent adult conversation.
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The other day, Tess inexplicably started asking for a cape. So Adam dutifully tied a blanket loosely around her neck. Tess then ran around the house for a while, saying "Super Tess to the rescue! Na-na-na-naaaaa!" Not being one to miss out on an opportunity to run around, Grace joined her and promptly made up a game. They were superheroes who could rescue people from a variety of situations simply by waving their arms around. And they were aided by Super Grace's trusty sidekicks — the momma seal and her baby. It was pretty cute, and I love it when those two come up with a game they can play together (their newest is Santa and his reindeer, stay tuned for more on that one as soon as I can get a photo).
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Today we finally visited the Christmas tree farm down the road from us to choose and cut our tree. We can't help but think about and look forward to this day all year long, since we drive by the farm at least twice daily. We brought our sled so that we could pull Tess through the fields, and this year (thankfully!) she actually thought it was fun. This year we also were forced to traipse to the far reaches of the farm because we had a hard time finding a tree that was big enough. And then, out of the blue, another Christmas miracle occurred. Perhaps I was tired of pulling Tess all over creation, or maybe I had just given up on finding a tree that I was excited about. But after listening to our very grown-up six-year old grumble about not being allowed to choose the tree, I decided to let her do it. Now, I'm not sure if I should feel proud that I triumphed against my genetic predisposition to control the tree selection, or if I should be slightly scared that my oldest seems to have received the same gene. But either way, making her feel included — really included — made our little girl's day. It certainly is not the straightest or fullest tree we've ever had, but I think it's the most meaningful. After all, 'tis the season for spreading joy, right?
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I had no idea what Tess was doing at this moment, as we walked into the coffee shop, but she insisted that I take a photo of her. Later she told me that she was making a "smile" with her arms. Three-year olds are funny (and yes, she's holding a balloon).
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Tess completely surprised me the other day when she sat down at the art table and made a snowflake all by herself. She cut the edges of the paper, then decorated it with dots of color. She even wrote her name (if you look carefully, you can see all 4 letters). Beautiful!
Later, she taped pieces of paper to her feet to make ice skates. Uh-oh, hide your scotch tape, people! Apparently this one got the crazy taping gene, too!
Travelingjenny 