To get away from the winter and have some quality time with our friends and neighbors we went to the Cape Codder Resort on Cape Cod the weekend before last. We first went two years ago for our anniversary. Last year we invited Christina, Chanh, Zach and Ethan and had another great time. This year we all drove down on a Friday and had a really bad trip for some reason, traffic had just been awful around Boston with the snowstorms and despite leaving at 2:30 we sat in a ton of traffic until we got far south of Boston, not arriving until after 5pm. This year we had one extra family member, or at least one more family body as I was actually just barely pregnant at that point last year.

I wonder how old Celia will be when she wonders why she doesn’t have a doggy like the rest of the kids? It was a great weekend away. We spent a fair amount of time in the pool but each of the kids at various times just weren’t feeling it and ended up sitting in chairs while the rest of us enjoyed the water. Josie was enthusiastic at first and then her interest dwindled each time. Hopefully she’ll be more excited next year. Celia liked the water fair enough and tolerated us bringing her in and out and getting splashed.

We had some nice meals and rode the merry go round at the Cape Cod Mall a few times. Most importantly we got a little grown up time to whisper to ourselves while the kids slept and we played a board game at night. We had ice cream sundae’s, fruity blended drinks, and yummy fried food (not all in one meal) to make it all really feel like a vacation. We stopped by the beach on the way home and got a few pictures that I’ve already published, and capped it off with lunch on the way home at Panera, Josie’s favorite. On the way back through Boston we actually hopped off 93 and went to the aquarium quickly since we have a membership now. Both girls really enjoyed it and we liked having an easy quick visit without the extra effort of schlepping downtown. A rare moment of spontaneity from this planner!

Next year we need to remember to bring smore’s supplies for the nightly bonfire.

Happy Valentine’s day to you, I hope you remember to give extra kisses to those you love, even if they’re being difficult two and three year olds. Last week we made heart shaped crayons to give to our buddies at Friday playgroup, but then we were too sick to go. We’ll try again this week to share them. Today we made some valentine cards, even though Josie doesn’t quite get the idea of the holiday, it turned out to be more of a farm picture.

Wow, no subtlety with today’s theme on valentine’s day! I had Josie take ahold of my mom’s wedding band since it’s more interesting than mine. I will not be handing anything that small to Celia even though I don’t think she could get it in her mouth. Josie was not terribly cooperative today but I liked the expression I captured.

The job was to take a photo showing their aspirations and dreams. Josie’s plan right now is to be a doctor when she grows up. Celia will be her shot nurse. The nurse was not on duty today for these photos. Josie was playing the part of Dr Cohn from the story Madeline, her doll was Madeline.

Today’s assignment is to capture a routine that they do. This was easy today because most weekends Jordi and Josie (and sometimes the rest of us) go to our local bakery and get a spinach and cheese croissant. Here’s a shot of them walking (Josie riding) out the door. They put their hats on once I got the photo, don’t worry.

While we don’t see the developmental advancements at the rate of a newborn with Josie, she certainly has been making big strides and surprises us.

She has been memorizing books like crazy. She read The Cat In The Hat to my mother over the phone the other day and she knows most of the words. She will often correct us if we make a mistake. Even though it seems like she isn’t paying attention when I read  to her sometimes, she clearly is listening closely. She’s also been listening to books on cd during quiet time which has given her some more stories to learn; we just checked out a huge pile from the library last week.

Josie has continued to be very kind to her sister in general, although she’s getting a little more reckless with climbing over her or playing nearby, she doesn’t understand the size difference. She does clearly feel bad though when she makes Celia cry.

Physically, she likes to climb things which is rough since we’re mostly indoors right now. I’ve been trying to watch her to understand what is reasonably safe for her to climb and what is beyond her reach because she definitely is getting stronger in this department and deserves a bit more freedom. Still I really don’t want a trip to the ER.

The last three months have been tough as Josie has been getting increasingly frustrated at the world not doing what she wants it to do. Sometimes it’s just physically one thing will not fit someplace, other times she’s just unhappy that she can’t just play all day doing what she wants because other people have needs (like grocery shopping, or diaper changes) or even just her own bodily needs (like going to the bathroom and eating). She’s been digging her heels in and fighting us but we’re starting to find ways  to work together better. For the last week or so she seems to have calmed down a bit and choosing to do things herself by herself. We’ve also settled into more of a routine lately which has helped too I think.

Part of that routine change has been Josie dropping her nap. Instead we now have quiet time where I theoretically get time to do things, that is, if Celia isn’t awake and wanting attention at that same time and Josie actually stays in her room. This has made Jordi and I switch his schedule for leaving for work earlier in the morning so he can make it home for family dinner time, which is now at 6. I think the added time between when Jordi leaves and we need to leave the house for morning activities has made the transition easier on Josie as she gets to process them separately as opposed to being sad that Jordi is gone and then having to do what I say to get going too. We’ve also cut back on the number of activities we do out of the house too, trying to have a few more play dates where people come here.

For playtime Josie loves pretend, she pretends the doctors office, cooking, a hotel, gymnastics classes and I’m sure she’ll be pretending about the cruise we’ll be taking in a few months soon too! We otherwise spend our time reading and doing a few art projects when I can get things pulled together and Celia napping at the right time. Art is usually a short-lived time though, it doesn’t seem to hold her interest all too long. She likes to make collections of little things and use them at money, or stack them up in tall towers, or pretend they are groceries.

ETA (edited to add): She is also now clearly thinking faster than she can speak. Like me. She’s stumbling and stuttering trying to get the right words out as she jumps ahead of herself in her mind.

• Size/weight: 4T, don’t really know the height and weight right now, maybe I can update later
• Favorite food: breastmilk, cheese, pasta, yogurt – fairly wide variety, willing to try most things
• Favorite toy: baby dolls, doctors kit, anything with lots of little pieces that can be pretend things
• Favorite books: Dr Suess and anything by Kevin Henkes
• Favorite activity: Acting out scenarios with herself
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:30; gets up ~6:30am
• New skill: reciting books from memory
• Teeth: 18. 10 on the top and 8 on bottom. Finally some molars!
• Vocalizations: Voracious story teller, non-stop talker and why’er

I brought my camera along to Zach’s birthday party and had fun hounding other kids in addition to my own for some more photographs. I got more funny looks from them too as they notice me with the camera.

Or is it better in black and white?

You might notice I skipped day 11. I’m still working on that photograph. Today’s assignment though was eyes, trying to capture the light in them. I really like this one of Celia, makes me want to wipe the drool off my screen. She’s making funny faces as she’s working to sit up.

Or maybe you like black and white better? I’m never quite sure when to do the black and white, I feel like I always like color, but I am often so pleased when I see other people’s photographs in black and white.

Josie mostly refused to look at me today with the camera. I got this one while she was busy eating cake at Zach’s birthday party. I shouldn’t really call it cake. She just picked up the volcano made out of icing on her fork and ate that while I ate the actual cake.

For Christmas this year my parents got me a slow cooker. I had no idea how much it would change my cooking habits or at least infuse some new recipes into my life. My stash of pre-made frozen food ran out right around Christmas (although I can still find a few things of soup or chili). I’ve been trying to figure out how to make food for dinner that is healthy and doable as all mothers of small children know, late afternoon is not the best time for focusing on something other than your kids. Enter the slow cooker which I can put the ingredients into in the morning, or throughout the morning if it’s really one of those bad days, and have something ready to eat when Jordi gets home that is healthy and yummy and to boot the kitchen isn’t a total trash pit from having just finished cooking. So here’s some of the recipes I’ve tried and our experiences:

• Macaroni and cheese. Oldie but a goodie standard. We liked this one a lot, although I find I want to put better cheese into it than just my massive bag of shredded costco mexican cheese blend. We recommend trying it.
• Vegetable tortilla soup. We had this with cheese quesidillas. It came out ok, a little thin as we tend to like pretty thick soups. It may appear in our house again with less broth.
• No noodle lasagna. Why would you want lasagna without noodles? I guess if you’re gluten free or otherwise sensitive. We like our pasta around here. But I also liked the dish, Jordi and Josie were not so thrilled. The eggplant turned out sponge-like, which didn’t bother me, because I dislike slimey eggplant and this was not at all slimy. We had it on pasta.
• Lentil Stew. This looked like it had the right ingredients and it was certainly healthy but did not taste particularly good. We won’t be making that again. It needed more flavor.
• Potato Leek Soup. It was tasty enough, but again not a big ‘wow’. I think it needed more garlic. With a lot of these soups it’s nice to have something different than the normal ones I make.
• Indian Spinach with Tofu. You should make this, for dinner tomorrow. It was very yummy and quite easy. We had it with the frozen garlic naan from trader joes.
• Sweet and sour tofu. This was a recipe that clearly was being forced into the crockpot as opposed to using the crockpots strengths, but it fared well. We liked it although the sauce was very sweet.
• Broccoli and three cheese soup. This was ok, at this point I can’t remember what kind of cheese I used but I’m not sure I believe that broccoli does all that great being cooked a long time. Makes the house smell a bit funny.
• Quinoa casserole. This was a big win and it was the second time I’ve ever cooked quinoa, the first time was good too and was only earlier this month. It was a light dinner with nice subtle flavors, Jordi went back for several servings.
• Refried beans soup. Nothing out of this world but a good solid bean soup that was yummy and different from my normal ones.
• Honey tofu with broccoli. Another recipe forcing a stir-fry into the slow cooker, I think this one I actually started too late and just made it a normal stir fry. It was good and Josie even ate her fair share, but lots and lots of honey.
• Crockpot corn chowder. A light soup that was yummy. It might have been a little more to my liking if I had taken out some of the corn and pepper before I pureed it all up, but Josie is much more likely to eat things with a totally smooth consistency. We’ll be making this again.
• Scalloped potatoes. This was awful, and I certainly didn’t try it with vegan cream cheese. I threw out the leftovers. Got to use my mandolin a little at least.
• Black bean soup. I have a standard black bean soup recipe that I’ve always made for us, but it’s a little spicy for Josie and so this one was much more to her liking. We liked it too, I think we’ll try it again.
• Vegetarian curry. Nothing too fancy, but it was dinner and yummy. Got even better the next night and a good way to get to eat Trader Joes garlic naan.

That was the new stuff for January. I’ve been working to keep menu planning at least a week or two in advance so that when I find time to go to the grocery store it’s not hard to make up a list of what we need and I’m also not left standing there at 5pm with two cranky kids and no ideas for dinner. February has yet not be so successful as January with the slow cooker, we’ve had some travel and celebrations that have us eating out, I’ve got some soups on the menu for next week that I’m hopeful about. The only trouble with the slow cooker is that most recipes call for broth or stock, which I think is drastically increasing the salt in our dinners since I generally cook with very little.

If you’ve got any vegetarian slow cooker recipes you love, please share! I also made these two recipes for friends as a gift, seeing as they have meat I obviously didn’t eat them, but the recipients said they were good.

• Sausage barley soup
• Shredded (Chicken) Barbecue. The recipe uses turkey, but I used chicken as recommended in the comments.

Today’s assignment is to photograph their spot in the house, where they are comfortable. While Josie has never been a frequent or great sleeper (the nap is already gone *cry*) she enjoys spending part of her time playing every day in bed. Our bed, her bed, no matter. They’re all still on the floor since we co-sleep and Celia will eventually be getting herself out of bed and we don’t want it to be a big fall. Today’s shot also shows my first pictures of Celia sitting up, she only gets a few seconds now before she topples but she’s on her way, as of last Saturday she couldn’t sit up at all.

These were taken in our bedroom after Josie decided that immediately following quiet time it was her birthday party in our bed. Hence she is wearing her ‘birthday’ dress, better than her bathing suit that she had on earlier.

I know this photo is opposite of how people usually want it, the mirror imagine is the one out of focus, but it just captured my eye.

And I just continue to play around with the camera some. Josie is sulking as I take photos of Celia, can’t leave her out of the shot, but she doesn’t want to cooperate either.

Here are some photos of Josie from a similar age. They really look very similar still, Celia’s just definitely got some more chunk on her.