Recently Grae’s interest in drawing and colouring (especially colouring) has absolutely taken off. While she’s really into drawing people right now, today she drew her first ever dog. I get such a kick out of these things! ☺
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This happened tonight… Miss G’s first ever ice cream cone. And oh my goodness, did she ever love it. Before we knew it, all that was left was sticky fingers and a drippy chin and dress.
She’s already planned our next two flavours too – pumpkin with cinnamon first, and then strawberry afterwards. There’s bound to be plenty of ice cream in our future.
{Healthier} Creamy Coconut Ice Cream with Candied Coconut Sprinkles
Ice cream:
1/2 cup of whipping cream
2 cans of coconut milk (we used full fat)
6 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon of pure vanilla
Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl, then place in fridge to cool for a couple of hours. Process in an ice cream machine for 20 minutes and put into the freezer for a few hours to set.
Sprinkles:
1/2 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup
Put both ingredients into a jar or bag and shake well. Spread coconut out on a baking sheet in a thin layer. Roast at 250 degrees until crunchy and golden brown.
Watching: Local musician Will Stroet‘s DVD. She first fell in love with the songs while listening to Walk & Roll in the car, and after attending his concert and receiving a copy of his music DVD, she’s hooked. She thinks Henry the Meowing Dog is absolutely hysterical and Full of Beans ranks second favourite.
Singing: 22 by Taylor Swift and Reading Revival by Will Stroet. The funniest part is that if I try to sing either, she generously corrects my lyrics. This girl has a memory like nothing else.
Playing: Right now there is a whole lot of dress-up happening in our house. She absolutely adores her dress-up centre and if we’re at home, she’s most likely in tutu and giraffe mask or a pink poodle costume, with her bedroom floor being absolutely covered in dress-up items.
Talking about: For the past week and a half or so, she’s been talking about when she gets bigger. Constantly. She asks about what it’s like to be an adult and lists all of the things she’s excited to do in the future. So far, her main ones are: crossing the road by herself, having a job, walking in parking lots alone, driving a car, and going to university. Oh, and having a baby. There’s lots of talk about having a baby inside her belly right now. Oy.
Reading:Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Up until recently, she wasn’t a huge Dr. Seuss fan. I found that she enjoyed the first little bit of the story, but would move on before we’d finished the book. Now, she’s really into longer books and more complex story lines. She even ‘reads’ Green Eggs and Ham to me now! The other book we’ve been reading on repeat is the slightly random Biblioburro. She signed it out from the library, and though I normally {sneakily} skip the page with the bandit holding the weapon, it does have a lovely message about giving and the joy of reading.
Eating: Current favourites include asparagus, Babybel cheese, cantaloupe, wholewheat pasta (always pasta), tofu, breakfast banana splits, crackers of any sort, Trader Joe’s apple sauce squeezy pouches, these popsicles, and bagels with cream cheese.
This morning Gracen asked to help me cut out some new activity cards for her weekly calendar, but was quickly becoming frustrated. Her toddler scissors (the ones that pop back open between each snip) just were not getting the job done and she was ripping the paper more than she was cutting it. It was then that she said very matter-of-factly, “Mama, I need BIG, SHARP scissors. I’m big enough now.” With that, my pink poodle hopped off the couch, helped herself to a new pair of scissors from my desk drawer, and began cutting like it was her job. My baby is growing up.
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I’m well aware that many people may think I’m crazy, but recently, I’ve been helping Gracen learn how to safely use sharp knives while cooking. She’s been helping in the kitchen since shortly after her first birthday, and is becoming an expert pourer, mixer, peeler, and grater, so this felt like a natural next step. I fully subscribe to the notion that children, even wee ones, are very capable little human beings… More so than we often give them credit for. So, given her kitchen experience, her ability to follow instructions, and her generally cautious nature, I felt like she was ready. Plus, I sort of feel that being handed a cucumber to cut and a butter knife to do the job must feel a little insulting.
Wouldn’t you trust this innocent little face? ☺
When she’s practicing her cutting skills, I like to give Grae my favourite tomato knife. It’s quite sharp, but it doesn’t have a pointed tip and it doesn’t seem to easily puncture the skin – perhaps because it’s serrated? I also make sure to give her soft foods that have at least one flat side (no rolling) and are long and thinnish (more space for holding).
So far, we’ve been focusing on holding the food at the far end and really being aware of where the knife is in relation to her little fingers.
This morning, while we were at the grocery store, I let Grae pick out what she wanted to cut. First on her list was cantaloupe.
She also selected a dragon fruit and a couple of kiwi fruits…
Perfect for a fruit salad! Overall, she’s doing really well with it. I still always stay close to her and monitor her chopping carefully, and I did ask her to slow down a little bit today, but for the most part, she can safely use a sharp knife on her own.
The best part is how proud she is of herself. Chopping up all the fruit for a big bowl of fruit salad while using a sharp knife = official big girl status.
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Never once have we attempted to teach this little lady her letters, yet somehow she knows almost all of them. The way she hangs onto information blows me away.
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Though we aim for very little screen time in our house, this afternoon Grae asked me if she could spell some words on my computer. Because there was so much potential learning involved, I just couldn’t say no. She cozied up under the covers of our big bed, selected her font colours, and typed her name first. Since she already knows how to spell ‘Gracen’, she did it on her own, even though hunting for each letter was {painfully} slow. After completing her name, she asked to type other words. She selected a new font colour each time, told me her word, and I spelled them aloud while she searched for the letters. Needless to say, her newly found skills left her as proud as a peacock.
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For the last 19 months that we’ve lived in our little old house, we’ve collected mail for the previous tenants and messaged them each time there’s been enough to warrant them making the trip into the city to pick it up. Because there were 6 adults {plus a baby} living where the 3 of us do now, the mail stacks up quite quickly. I honestly don’t mind one bit, but every month they apologize profusely for inconveniencing us. A couple of weeks ago, when the father/grandfather of the family popped by for a pick up, he handed me a pretty red envelope and said, “For the kid”. I smiled, thanked him, and set it aside for when Gracen woke up from her nap.
Later in the afternoon, she opened it up to find two crisp 5 dollar bills. I explained that it was money (poor girl can operate a debit machine like nobody’s business, but has barely seen dollar bills in her lifetime) and asked her what she’d like to do with it. We brainstormed ideas and came up with these options: put it in her piggybank, keep it in her purse, deposit it in her bank account, give it to someone, or use it to buy something. In the end, she decided that she wanted to buy something with her money (“a bath bomb would be nice”, she told me) and Superstore was the place to go. So off we went.
When we arrived, I explained that she had $10, so whatever she wanted to purchase would have to be less than that. She carefully browsed the aisles, inspecting items while asking “Is dis one 10?”
When she announced that she was ready to make her decision, she had 6 options to choose from… A Hello Kitty Easter book, a small collection of bath toys, 3 bottles of glittery paint, a group of squishy dinosaur toys, a bracelet making kit, and a ride-on bouncing ball. We lined the choices up down the middle of an aisle and she slowly started ruling things out. “Not dis one…”, then she’d go and put it away. When she’d cut the selection down to just 3 items, she confidently shouted “I pick the bouncy ball!!!” With that, we tidied up the rest of the stuff, and headed to the self-serve checkout where she scanned her item, deposited her money in the slot, and collected her receipt.
With my little lady having completed her first ever shopping purchase, we headed home to blow up her new bouncer and play in the backyard. She’s bounced around the yard every time we’ve been outside since, so I’d say she’s pretty pleased with her decision. ☺
a pretty little envelope // headed to the store (panda hat required)
happy with her choice // bouncing bubba
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Grae comes back from the kitchen where she was changing her clothes (she’s all about having “privacy” these days) and says, “I had some of my milk!” We’d stopped by a coffee shop earlier and she still had some of her steamed milk left when we arrived back to the apartment, but I knew it had been put in the fridge. What hadn’t been put into the fridge though? My leftover skim latte that was in the exact same kind of cup. Ugh.
At 2 and half, the girl hasn’t had sugar or fast food and eats very few things that are processed, but she’s had her first swig of coffee. Super.
Gracen’s been talking about ‘riding a ferry boat’ everyday since we told her we’d be taking one over to Victoria for part of spring break, and today it was nonstop. While we were getting ready, while we were packing up the vehicle, while we were driving to Tsawwassen, and while were were waiting for our scheduled departure, it was constant ferry boat talk. Mostly of the ‘I want to go on the ferry boat riiiiight now’ variety.
When we were finally aboard the boat, it was all about exploring. The restaurants, the arcade, the kids’ play area, the viewing decks – she wanted to see them all. So that’s just what we did. The trip flew by quickly and before we knew it we were off to find the apartment we’ll be staying at for the next few days. Here’s to spending the week in Victoria. I’m hoping that there is plenty of exploring, relaxing, and outdoors in our near future. ☺
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First ever juice box. Slightly baffled at first (juice?! orange juice?! in a box?!), but after the surprise wore off, she was pretty thrilled about it all.
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Oy. The last couple of weeks have been tough. Until recently, Miss G has been a pretty happy-go-lucky, easy-to-please, easy to reason with little lady. Even in moments of real frustration, getting down on her level and calmly talking out the problem was a sure fix. Even when she was very little. And don’t get me wrong. That sweet, loving little girl is still here and melts my heart on a daily basis. But goodness gracious, have we ever been on an emotional roller coaster lately. Little things, like turning off a light, filling a pink cup with water, or putting away a book can set off a wave of disappointment, whining, and tears. She wanted to do it. She wanted the blue one. She was going to read it again. We’ve had our first temper tantrums, she’s marched to her room and closed the door loudly behind her, and today she pulled out the big guns and shouted “I NO LOVE YOU, MAMA!” (ugh). We’re doing our best, figuring things out as we go (thank goodness for Janet Lansbury), and focusing all of the good times, but it can sure be exhausting some days. Especially given my recent run in with a tee ball bat and a set of stairs which has left me hobbling around with highly unattractive purple and blue swollen foot.
Today was just one of those mornings. It started well, Gracen asked to go to one of our local play gyms, and we began getting ready. All was good until she wasn’t able to put her tights on on her own and I was in the shower instead of helping her immediately. And it just went downhill from there. By the time we were ready and had all of our issues sorted out, play gym was half over and would have been three quarters over by the time we drove there. So what do you do when you’ve spent the last two hours preparing to leave the house, but it’s now almost lunchtime and you know that an early lunch and early nap is the best thing for everyone involved?
An indoor picnic! It was special enough that Miss G wasn’t completely crushed about not making it out the door to play gym, but kept our daily routine moving along and neared us to nap time, which was desperately needed. We laid a blanket out in the living room, gathered a few cushions, and turned on some happy music in hopes of a reset.
Miss G requested a “special picnic lunch” and chose a random assortment of foods cut into small pieces, in true toddler fashion. Her lunch included orange pepper slices, baby carrots, grilled chicken cubes, chunks of aged cheddar, a multigrain mini bun with hummus, kiwi slices and some fruit water.
This mama, on the other hand, needed something more meal-ish, especially after the morning we’d had. For me, baby kale and baby spinach topped with fresh veggies, feta, cilantro dressing, and a few mini chickpea patties (yum).
Grae thought the entire set up was very special and went back to being my happy little sidekick almost as soon as we began putting it together.
And thank goodness for that.
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One of the little traditions we started when Gracen was born was the celebration of her half birthday. Because well, why not really? That extra ‘half’ is a big deal when your age is still in the single digits. It’s nothing fancy… Just a fun day with “cupcakes” after dinner. This year was extra special as it fell on a weekend which meant Papa got to join in on the fun.
It started with Miss G waking up to a doorway full of balloons, ended with chocolate coconut banana muffins topped with freshly whipped cream and candles, and had muffin making, playing in the rain, an awesome presentation of The Cat in the Hat, and a sushi dinner sprinkled throughout the middle.
Oh, and there was this… A bath filled with bubbles, balloons, and a shrieky jumpy excited girl.
Happy half birthday, my love.
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