More of Grace's Favorite things!

• Sitting in Daddy's computer chair and playing with the keyboard and mouse
• Stacking things - especially her giant blocks we made and Mama's Rice a Roni boxes.
• Hiding things - we play peek-a-boo with anything and everything! Most often while Mama's folding laundry.
• Putting things in containers, and out again - One day this week, I found she had taken the lid off a big tin box, and filled it with Caleb's tea packets. Very neatly done too!
• Dancing to music - her little CD player and airplane from Pappy & Mimi are particularl favorites for this one! Last night, Caleb started singing the song from the airplane, and she went and got it from her room.
• Helping Mama - she loves to help me sweep, and if I give her a rag while she's in her highchair, she'll wipe her tray. Yesterday, she even wiped out her little bowl!
• Pushing strollers - she calls them "di", though I have no idea why.
  

Grace's Favorite Things

Caleb thought it'd be fun to start a list of Grace's favorite things. So here we go, in no particular order...

• Bananas
• Dogs
• Grapes (she knows the sign for this one now too! Unforunately, they were 4.99 a pound last time I checked... :-( She still asks for them almost every day though.)
• Bubbles! Often while Caleb changes her diaper at night I'll blow bubbles for her, and now she can sign (and say!) "more", so she'll keep asking for them, then throw her arms in the air with a little squeal when I blow a bunch for her. It's pretty darling.
  
• Soap suds - She calls these bubbles too ("bah", that is), and sometimes after her lunch while I'm washing dishes, she'll see the bubbles in the sink and ask for them, so I'll scoop her up a handful and put on her highchair tray. Her hands and tray get cleaned (and her mouth!), and she has a blast trying to eat them! (I tasted them once to see why she finds them so appealing, and the suds feel like eating pop rocks, so I can't really blame her. I figure she doesn't get much of them in at least.)
• Jumping on our bed - closely monitored, of course!
• Walks - she'll go over to our back door and "hug" it, asking for a "wa".
  
• Water - Another "wa"! She loves to stick her hands in Mama's glass.
• Her doll, Lily. She loves to stick Lily in her exersaucer, or stroller, or sit her on her little box-seat. And she also loves to try to wear Lily's shoes.
• Shoes - "sho", and she tries to wear everybody's! Especially Daddy's giant A&M house shoes or Mama's crocs.
  
• Books - I've started putting a few in her crib when I put her down for a nap, and she'll sit and look at them till she falls asleep. She's gotten really good about not tearing our books now, so I've started reading her some of my old Little Golden books my Grandma gave me when I was her age.

Ok, I'm sure I'll think of more later, but our little one is just waking up and Mama has some laundry to go grab first.

My First Cheese

So I made my first ever attempt at homemade cheese today. Paneer, actually, though it sounds like you can make mozzarella in a very similar manner. It sounded so easy, I've been curioius to try it for awhile, and as we had a bunch of whole milk (bought for Grace, who doesn't like it) that was about to go bad, I figured I'd go for it.

Just in case you're curious, you basically bring the whole milk until a very foamy boil (you better catch it fast though or it'll be over the pan in a matter of seconds!), remove from heat, and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice. Stir a couple minutes until it starts to curdle, then let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Then you basically strain the liquid out from the curds. The directions I was following said to use cheesecloth to strain it, but I didn't have any and used paper towels instead. Then press it between two plates stacked with cans for, um, I forget how long, but I left it several hours, before cutting into squares.

And apparently you can make ricotta from the leftover whey, but I'll save that for another day.

More Adventures of Gracie

Grace has discovered where Mama keeps her cereal!

She does love her books! And Mama and Daddy's books too.

Unexpected Joys of Motherhood

Fun times from today:

• Grace brought me her diaper to put back on her. At least she recognizes that it's not supposed to be off now!
• We're transitioning to one nap a day, so I put her down around 10:30, but when I peeked in to check on her around 11:15, she was just lying in her crib, singing to herself. I'd never heard her do that before, but she was asleep before I could get the baby monitor and camera ready to record her. :-p
• We had a blast playing on the big bed - rather, Gracie playing while Mama folded clothes. And then we played hide and seek in the pillows, and jumped on the bed until somebody was pooped.
  
• We had a slight temper tantrum as Grace wanted to go play outside, but it was raining. I would have taken her actually, but once she fights me for it, I can't. I wonder if this is how we appear to God sometimes when He's waiting for us to stop fighting so He can give us something good?
  
• Grace is finally grasping the sign for "more" - I was washing dishes while she was eating her lunch in the kitchen, and once she saw the soap bubbles, she started asking for some ("bah, bah!"). After they'd dissolved (ok, she might have eated them...), she signed for more "bah bah's".

After all this, she was getting tired again, so I just put her back in her crib with a book and had to come post this before I forget. :-)

Mama's Little Helper

Grace loves helping Mama now - today she helped me pick up all her (clean!) diapers, one-by-one, and put them back in the laundry basket. And when we were done, she gave me a big hug! It doesn't get much better than this. :-)

The Pay-off

You know, baby hugs totally make everything all worth it.

:-)