Why yes...

we did give our child a cardboard box for Christmas :)

And she was delighted!

I am not in the least bit ashamed to say that this was her main Christmas gift from us. She loves it! Still. Don't worry, it wasn't her only present. There are more boxes in various sizes in the heater closet. We also gave her the "If you Give a Mouse..." book series.

What do you do when your toddler wakes up at midnight..?

I'm sure there was a very good reason for the Jelly Bean waking up at 12am, not wanting to go back to sleep, not wanting to play and not even wanting to cuddle...I don't know what it was. But this is what we did:

I blogged, did some nutrition research, and dried some sprouted wheat. She spent equal amounts of this almost four hour time slot watching DW-TV (that's the German News) and Food Network. Is she my child? Do you have to ask that question? :)

Note: I don't know how I was with TV as a child. I only remember that I never really liked cartoons. She's never really watched TV. (Though we very rarely have it on - we're not TV people) She is allowed to watch one episode of Baby Signing Time (appr. 35 total minutes) every day. Unless it's an especially hectic and stressful day, in which case she's been known to watch it twice in a row. She's watched the occasional part of a movie with us or the babysitter, I'm sure. We don't mind. But usually nothing keeps her attention. Of course, if I let her, she'd probably watch Baby Signing Time just about all day. She loves it! 

 Well, I don't know that you can call the news educational, but it was surprisingly refreshing to hear the German, and a lot more uplifting than watching the American news. Actually, I started getting homesick for Germany.

I think you get what you give. I hear I was a pretty good child. But since I didn't seem to find a need to sleep much through high school and university, and Conrad can't function on less than 8 hours of sleep a night, I'm thinking she inherited this not-so-stellar-sleeping pattern from me? 

the great escape: attempt #1

"I would really like to go outside. Pretty please."

"Hmmmm"

"This could work."

"See ya later, Mom"

For obvious reasons I didn't get the next picture...

As Promised

Ooh, pumpkin seeds are sticky. This is a whole new level of fun.

One left.

Do you see where she decided to place that last seed..?

And just in case you're wondering. That pumpkin provided: three large pumpkin pies (the healthiest and tastiest I've ever made - I'll post the recipe later) one very large batch of soup, a dozen muffins, a bunch of seeds for stir fry, and 1 hour toddler fun. And there was pumpkin to spare. Oh and it was fresh from the garden in Ephraim :)

excuses

Normally I don't have one. Well, I always have at least one. Her name is Emma Ruth. She's almost as big as me, makes 5 times as much mess as I do, exponentially increases the time required to do just about everything, and has figured out how to miraculously propel us into the future. Conrad calls her our little time machine. You spend five minutes with her, and when you're done, you find you've lost at least 15.

But this time, we've actually been very busy with various things. Conrad is busy with school and work, as always. He has two jobs (sometimes three) and I tutor German on Saturdays. We are working on a nutrition website. At the moment, it's entirely for us. Someday we hope to share it. I'm working on something else. It may will be a while before it's ready.

And---I'm going to get my Master of Nutrition Therapy degree :)

I'll keep you updated. Maybe. I'll try, ok?

Don't worry. It's going to take a long time.

I mean, who needs to rush when you've got help like this?

She was very helpful. Until the pumpkin was finally cleaned. Then she started putting all of the seeds and pulp back into the pumpkin.

a little update

I'll post some pictures later...

For now, a few stats+

Emma Ruth is one year old! In fact, as of today (yesterday) she is 13 months old!! Wow. Crazy!

She is 22 lbs - 49th percentile

and super long - I don't remember her length, but she's in the 98th percentile.

Her hair is crazy long. And just plain crazy sometimes.

She doesn't like baths anymore, but she'll tolerate them if I am in the bath with her. No idea what happened...

She doesn't like to sleep. She would just rather play. She's a very light sleeper. Like me. So as long as nothing wakes her up, we're happy. She talks in her sleep. Like Conrad :) It's pretty cute, actually.

She LOVES to be outside. She signs 'outside please' all day long.

She can spend twenty minutes trying to put on her shoes. She likes her shoes (and my shoes. and everybody else's shoes) because she associates them with outside.

She loves, loves, loves the slide. She loves walking. She took her first (four) steps by herself a few weeks ago, but she prefers to push things around and drag me along. I hold her hand and she walks back and forth through our apartment. Every time she gets to the living room, she walks up to Conrad's chair and says "Hi Papa. Hi!" Then turns around, goes back to her bedroom and does it all again. This can keep her busy for 40 minutes.

She LOVES her Papa!! And she especially loves reading with her papa. When Conrad comes home, the first thing she does, after smiling at him, is point to her little bookshelf.

There has been construction on campus. On the way back from lunch with Conrad one day, we stopped. Emma Ruth went crazy! She just kept pointing and gasping and saying, 'whoa!!' She was especially impressed by the digger.

Favorite 'toys', in order of popularity:

Books: Llama Llama Red Pajama is her favorite and then Skip to my Lou and then all the rest.

Silverware/Cutlery

Die-cast BMW and Audi

Wooden cars, Hot-wheels cars ($.29 each at Saver's!), and anything else with wheels

Wooden sorting cone

Elephant stacking cone, xylophone, and everything that plays music

Oh and she likes balls of all shapes and sizes.

She leads any music she hears. She's been doing this for months. She used to lead in 2/2. Now she can do 4/4 :) Sort of...

Words and Phrases:

HI! (this one is her favorite and gets her all kinds of attention everywhere she goes. She loves to say hi)

Mama

Papa

Nanam (Nana M)

whoa!

yeah

milk

but

buck (book)

I need this - I was sitting on the chair with a package of German Christmas cookies. Emma crawled over to me, moaning and groaning, pulled herself up, reached for the packet and said "I need this!" very clearly... She's said it once since then. I don't know how she picked that up. Obviously, she got a piece.

Signs:

milk

outside

please

up

food, eat - she usually just smacks her lips and signs 'please' when she wants whatever it is she sees

dirty - she thinks this one is hilarious for some reason

where

water - this one is more like an open hand over the mouth

puff - i made this one up. i just do a double 'f'. the first time she signed it, i thought she had something stuck to her finger :)

cereal

no

hot

cold - she also thinks this one is pretty funny

When she learns a new sign, she uses it for just about everything for a whole day.

Whenever she wants something, she does a sign that seems more like what we might do to say 'come here'. It looks similar to her sign for 'outside'. I suppose it's the same with signing as it is with toddlers speaking. Sometimes only parents can understand. Anyway, it's progress. Milk was the first sign she learned and understood. So when she wanted something, she would point to it and sign 'milk'. Sometimes it was funny. I tried to teach her want and please at the same time, but it's kind of abstract, so it took a few days. She picked up on the please and made up her own sign for want...

Favorite Foods:

anything she can eat by herself with a fork and knife

avocado

all fruits, especially berries of every kind

bread

black beans

curried lentils

moon pops

She really likes spicy things, and she loves eating off my plate.

She doesn't like plain sweet potatoes or squash. I don't blame her.

She likes ginger, especially ginger cookies and gingerbread. She loves drinking anything from a glass.

She likes to dress herself. She hates it when I try to dress her. She will try to put everything that slightly resembles an article of clothing over her head. Except socks, of course. Those she tries to put on her feet. She's pretty good at putting her pants on like a scarf. Or getting the waist around her head like a hat. She's also pretty good at taking her pants off. Luckily only her pajamas. I'm still not sure how she gets them off. I've never seen her in the act of removing them. They just are on, and then they aren't...

She enjoys watching me cook.

She is busy busy all. the. time.

That's our baby Ruth. Though, I'm sure I've forgotten loads. We love her, and can't wait to see what this next year brings.

Difficult Math

Natural Directions Salsa Serving Size 2 tbsp

Servings per Container 16

Natural Directions Blue Corn Tortilla Chips Serving Size 15 chips

Servings per Container 10

The Problem:

How do you eat only two tablespoons of salsa with 15 chips? And who only eats two tablespoons of salsa, anyway? And if one did, how do 16 and 10 match?

The Solution:

Eat one bag of chips and one jar of salsa in three sittings. It actually matches pretty well. I suppose that would mean that 3.2 tbsp of salsa is sufficient for 15 chips. But I'm pretty sure that makes a serving size 50 chips and almost 3/4 cup of salsa.

Probably shouldn't have read the label on that one...