Our Week
We have awesome snow! Just enough to get a good play in. It snowed Wednesday night and Friday evening. So soft and fluffy! Everyone had a blast including Kenzie. Though it wasn’t enough to make a snowman and it wasn’t packable snow, so no snowballs either.
Since we were pretty much stuck inside I fixed up an easy notebook for Miette so she could practice more on her Alphabet. All I did was dot all the letters on cardstock paper and stuck them in paper protectors. Now she can do them over and over again. I sit with her and we name them and repeat what sound it makes as she traces them.
One thing about being stuck inside is that it makes me cook special treats. My favorite cooking show is The Pioneer Woman and on one of her episodes she made delicious looking Banana Boats. So we recreated them and it was as delicious as it looked on the show.
I loaded ours with marshmallows, chocolate chips, and heath bits! So Good!! You slit a banana down its middle move the banana inside to the side and stuff to your hearts desire. wrap it up in foil and stick in the oven for about 25 minutes.
MacKenzies eats include spaghetti and strawberries. The spaghetti was tolerated but the strawberry was demolished in seconds. I love the fact that when I gave her the spoon and bowl of spaghetti she was put the spoon on the bowl and then bring the spoon to her mouth. Babies amaze me of how observant they are!
When she couldn’t get any spaghetti on the spoon to eat then she opted to try to get it by eating the bowl.
Then she figured out how to get those chubby little fingers in there and grab what she wanted.
The strawberry was by far the messiest food I’ve given her so far. 
Whenever I pull out the camera Miette has got to be sure I at least get several photos of her (several meaning about 100 of her doing silly faces and poses).
The Baby Food Question
I remember when Miette turned 6 months and started eating baby food. I completely went by the book. One new food every week starting with veggies and ending with fruits than meats. I didn’t mess around at all or stray from what the doctor told me and from what my baby book told me. When it comes to MacKenzie its a totally different experience. She is such a big eater! She has been downing 6-7 ounces of milk every two hours (like clockwork) for the past two months. We started her on the oatmeal when she turned 5 months then very shortly after that the pediatrician gave us the go ahead to give her baby food. Green Beans was the first choice. She took to the spoon and the whole eating immediately. I didn’t follow any guidelines really due to the fact there is no food allergies on my side or Kyles side of the family (though her cousin on her Dad’s side did turn out to be allergic to eggs when introduced) We started on peas and sweet potatoes within the next week. Next was the apples and bananas and pears. Miette and MacKenzie both prefer the veggies over the fruits. Kenzie will down a container of green beans or squash in a matter of minutes but when it comes to pears or apples its slow going and only a little bit (Miette was the same way and is still to this day a veggie eater)
Just recently we started to take more of a Baby Led Weaning approach. Our first dabble in that was a big wedge of banana (don’t have any pictures just video) Here is a great leaflet about it. Kyle and I decided to do a mixture of the two (mainly because I’m a big baby and I hate the gag reflex–makes my heart jump lol).
Keep It Moving
This week has been a tad bit crazier to say the least. Earlier this week Miette and I made winter cupcakes after dinner. She helped give me all the ingredients then after they were cooked she helped frost them and decorate. Such a blast. Not the most prettiest cupcakes I’ve seen but they were delicious!
I set up a counting game using a egg carton and pom poms. We started practicing 1-5 which I was surprised of how confusing she found it. Usually she is really good at counting but when it came to me telling her she needed to put 3 pom poms into the section she had a hard time. I’m sure she’ll get better the more we do it. What great math practice!
Yes, she is in her favorite princess dress. She was preparing for a friend from preschool princess birthday party the next day but she ended up missing it. Both her and her sister were running slight fevers so better safe and sorry especially with all this flu. She was not a happy camper when I told her we wouldn’t be able to go. Such a hard thing to do.
Our neighboors beagle has puppies that just turned 6 weeks so before they gave them all away we went over and saw and played with them. One thing about me is that I am a huge animal lover and of course I couldn’t leave without snagging one of them adorable pups. She’s too tute!!!
There is a little jealousy between the puppies (I have to keep reminding Sy that he is no longer a puppy but he just will not listen) so the first night was a bit difficult. Usually Kyle and I have no animals (some night Jack Frost (our kitten) will sleep with us on and off throughout the night) in bed with us but Friday night we had all animals in bed. Puppy, Lab, and cat piled in with us. Not very comfy at all.
Saturday was stuck in the house with two girls who slept most of the day. So a lot of cleaning and wiping noses for this tired mamma.
Sunday though was beautiful outside! Such nice weather in January. All we needed was a jacket and we were outside most of the afternoon.
Miette was gifted a bike for Christmas from my parents and its been pretty horrid outside since then with all the rain and cold so today was the first time we could get it out and ride. But first we had to work on it a bit (I had to tighten the bolts for the training wheels) so we put on our workin hats and got the tools out.
Tomorrow I have off so I get to enjoy another amazing day with my loves!
Story of Our Week
It was a pretty slow week here in La Casa Lally. Miette was gone this past weekend visiting her father so it was a very quiet house. But some highlights of the week include:
Some Painting
Rockin Cornbread Muffins with a hidden surprise. Miette called them “Surprise Dog Muffins!!!”
More Peas Please Mom! Someone likes her veggies more than her fruits. She will down a container of green beans or peas faster than apples or bananas. Some way with Miette.
Lots of reading is involved in our day to day life. Both girls love to read just like their Mommy and Daddy.
More painting with shaving cream. Such a cheap way to have fun. Miette loves getting all messy and writing her name and drawing pictures in the goop.
Meanwhile Kenzie drew pictures in sweet potatoes.
Pinterest Shminterest
We have been pretty crafty over here in La Casa Lally. I’m pretty obsessed with Pinterest as is most everyone I know and this weekend I tackled some of the cute crafts I saw on there. My favorite thing about getting artsy fartsy is getting to spend that time with Miette and MacKenzie and engaging their imagination. With every craft we do (and really everything we do) is a teachable moment that opens up questions, answers, and knowledge. Here is a countdown of our crafty selfs:
At school we have had the same welcome banner hanging up since I don’t know when and I thought it was time to change it up. I made my mom a new wreath to hang up by super gluing crayons to a foam wreath I had wrapped in a cute design ducktape. Then I made some cutouts with the circut cutter (that I had borrowed from the school–perks of being a teacher) and then super glued them to the crayons. It took some time but it was so worth it! Miette helped by picking out the crayons and handing them to me as I super glued them on. Sparked a conversation about colors and color families.
Our fridge has been desperately in need of some magnets. Saturday we set out to change that. I bought a small pack of large colorful buttons and a pack of magnetic strips and we just stuck them on and ta-da. Sparked a conversation about magnetism.
Miette and I had a talk about being a big girl and what were some ways we could add chores to our daily routine. So while I surfed the pinterest I found this awesome FREE downloadable chores list that was perfect for what I needed. I just printed out on a purple cardstock paper. slipped it into a page protector and put those magnetic strip magnets on the back of that and posted it on the fridge.
After all that crafting we settled down with a nice cup of hot chocolate (I put a bowl of mini marshmallows and chocolate chips so Miette can make her own).
Coming Back
I’ve been off the radar for so long. Mainly due to the fact I have two kids (3 year old and a now 5 month old) and am working 45 hours a week. With the new year I’ve been thinking a lot about changes I want to make this year and one is to definitely blog more. Then I started thinking about why I blog.
I blog because I love to journal and keep all these memories of my family. I didn’t know it until recently how much I’m missing by not blogging. I started to look back at all the old posts and remembering all those little fun joyous forgotten moments when Miette was little. I want that with Mackenzie too. Remembering is not my strongest suite and having two kids did not help my memory. I forget things in the blink of an eye. I literally have to carry around a little notebook where I jot things I HAVE to remember down before it flies out my other ear. So here’s to a new year of staying on top.
What we’ve been up to this week.
* This sweet little cutie pie is sitting up at 5 months! When we took her to the doctor this week (she’s been battling a double ear infection–thanfully all gone!) she was 17 lbs 3 ozs. Phew! Can you tell who never misses a feeding?
* Miette and I did paper maiche balloons then painted them. We talked about colors, what happens when you mix the colors (she was amazed they made different colors) and why that is.
* Doll Playing. Though Miette gets mad at MacKenzie won’t play right with her and keeps eating the Lallalopsy. Poor Girl
Lots of things to get done this week so little time
Recap
This is what we’ve been up to this week
I ordered the Baby K’Tan for Kenz and absolutely love it!
Its not one of the wraps that has a bunch of crazy fabric that you have to somehow wrap around your body. It does have fabric, definitely, but its just two loops you put your arms through and put your baby in. Super easy to use. This little girl loves it too. Always close to Mommy just the way she likes it.
We spent some time at the playground. Mackenzie’s first trip! It was pretty sunny and it got a little hot so we only spent about an hour before I packed them up and headed home. The kids enjoyed getting out of the house though, we’ve been stuck in a lot because of the baby so an hour was just what they needed.
And today I made a batch of edible playdough which turned out to be a lot of fun Easy recipe and it made a crap ton in just one batch (they chose green).
