Reading

For my birthday I received the book A Picture Perfect Childhood.  I have received, read and browsed several other books and sites with lists of great books for kids, but this one either hit me at the right time or was especially accessible to me and I am doing it.  This is the second month that I requested a bunch of the books from the library and purposefully selected numerous others off the shelves to bring home and read to Mara.  Some she likes, some she doesn't (or doesn't give a chance), and some are way over her head (the grammar ones are especially funny).  But today I wanted to tell you about one book and experience in particular, Cranberry Thanksgiving.  The first time we read it Mara couldn't have cared less, but I was very excited to see a recipe at the end.  When we first started it I had remembered I had just purchased a bag of cranberries at the store to try so I got a few out.  Eww, they're sour by themselves and we didn't really enjoy them but hey we tried them.  I patiently waited a few days to have the ingredients on hand, her to be well enough to care and have a chance sans baby to bake.  So today after lunch Mara and I whipped up a batch of cranberry bread.  Her favorite cooking step by the way is leveling the measuring cup, which she is way better at than pouring so I'll take it.  Now I just took 3 small loaves out of the oven, we'll enjoy one for dinner and the others will go in the freezer for impromptu tea party treats (and not Mom's naptime snack) I think.  But even more exciting was then we read the story again before naptime and she was delighted by the story because she had a connection to it.  And that is preschool by Mom for this week.

Ladybugs!

We had a fantastic Halloween at our friends party. Mara was set with the perfect 2 year old costume that would still work if she refused to wear part of it. We were in the clear until the night before when she learned her friend was going to be a princess, but mom saved the cute costume she worked so hard on with the promise of ladybug spots on her cheeks. Thank you make-up! Mara even warmed up to "Trick or Treating" after a very icy start at Dad's office on Friday afternoon; however, you still won't hear a "Trick or Treat," you'll have to be happy with "Happy Halloween." As for pictures, I have no good ones of Audra and the Jack-o-Lantern rotted before Halloween. But without further ado here is a mighty cute ladybug.

 

 

 

Forgot to add the costume was further enhanced at the last minute to have glasses like daddy's costume.   And she made mama proud when she got to choose one last treat before we changed into pajamas to head home from the party and she picked the teddy grahams.  (And both kids were asleep (in their pjs and carseats) before we made it to the highway on the way home).