The rain has stopped

Now that the rain has stopped I took Lizzy to the park and she had so much fun!

Lizzy Update

A quick update on Lizzy. She is cutting two sets of teeth! Two on top and two on bottom! The molar she has coming in still has not broke through, she has 4 teeth and 5 more coming in! So far she's been pretty good about teething. I hear lots of horror stories from other moms of baby's teething hopefully she doesn't have much discomfort.

She's learning so much right now. She learned to give kisses and she imitates words and actions. She also gets into everything and explores all day.

Taking pictures of Lizzy has become more difficult now because she wants to play with the camera. She's doing so much now and I would love to take movies but it's almost impossible if she sees the camera. Here she is attacking the camera.

Rainy Day in...

It is raining here in Houston again, like last week it is expected to rain all week. Last week it rained most of the week and it stopped on the 4th which was good because we got to enjoy the day and watch fireworks. When it rains we usually stay in and that's what we did today.

Lizzy had a pickle, she loves pickles and anything sour!

Lizzy loves playing with magnets, I had let her play with some magnets I had but she's so rough with everything I figure she could get the magnet part off and maybe swallow it. After a little searching I found these magnets for kids that are safe to play with, they are wooden and come with 48 animals. Lizzy spent a good while playing with these today.

Lizzy has been doing a lot of stacking lately. She loves this stacker, and stacking cups.

Every time she stacks a new piece she will clap for herself

Lizzy is climbing on anything she sees is climbable. Here she is on her chair, it looks dangerous but she does this quite often. The chair has been cut down to be her size so she can easily get on and off it alone. She can get into some trouble so like any toddler I constantly have to watch her at all times.

Candle Making

I have a collection of baby food jars that I've been wanting to use for candle making and this weekend I finally did that. I've been wanting to make aromatherapy soy candles because I want to be able to make the combination of scents I want and and be able to add extra oil to them for smell. These candles were very easy to make I used soy chips and melted them using the double boiler method.

Once the wax is melted you can add coloring and essential oils. I made some sleep candles using Lavender and Vanilla essential oils and I also made romance candles using Black Currant and Vanilla essential oils.

I used baby food jars and premade wicks

Then, just filled them

Wait 2 or 3 hours to harden

And then, you have a candle to use

This was very easy and made 10 baby food jar candles all at once. We always use candles so I'm going to continue making and using these from now on.

Happy 234th America! Happy Birthday Dad (Grandpa)!

Here is Lizzy wearing a bow with the small amount of hair I was able to gather on her head.

Lizzy with grandma and grandpa

Lizzy with her Daddy

Happy to be out!

Family

Lizzy watching the fireworks, she really enjoyed it!

Here's what she was watching

Happy 4th of July!

Saturdays

On Saturdays Mike gets up with Lizzy in the morning while I sleep in just a little and get dressed. Then, I usually make breakfast and get Lizzy bathed, dressed, and down for a nap. After that we have the rest of the day together.

Today we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and to their country store. Afterwards, we can home and Miked watched the world cup game and watched Lizzy while I went out for some errands.

Later, we made homemade pizza for dinner. Mike cooked the sausage and Lizzy and I put all the ingredients on the crust. I usually have Lizzy in my maya wrap when we cook together that way she is at our level and can see and participate if she wants.

Here are some photos of Lizzy today:

Doll play

This is Lizzy's first doll she doesn't have a name yet but I'm sure she will have one soon. Growing up I had lots of dolls, these dolls had names, personalities and were companions to me at a young age. Doll play is important they teach how to empathize and love, they allow the child to be creative in play and dolls soon become part of the family. More than just mere playthings to be discarded I would like Lizzy to have just a few dolls that she truly loves as oppose to piles of plastic dolls that get forgotten and eventually thrown away. I chose this doll for Lizzy's first doll because she is soft and cuddly, simple, and will grow with her as she gets older.

Right now Lizzy loves to take baby doll for a stroll

Lizzy decided to get into the doll buggy, she's a little too big for this buggy but she still is my baby.

I plan on making a Waldorf style doll like the one pictures bellow for Lizzy this Christmas. I would like her to have a handmade Waldorf doll made with love.

What constitutes a “Waldorf” doll? Waldorf theory recommends that we surround a child with open-ended, beautiful and natural playthings. As this pertains to a doll, they suggest that he or she be made of natural fibers like cotton and wool. Unlike hard plastic or clammy synthetic fabrics, a doll made like this will be soft, cuddly and warm to the touch. Another key feature of the Waldorf doll is a fairly neutral facial expression. Why not a big smile? We want the child’s imagination to be free to impart the doll with many emotions, from happy to sad to angry. This type of play can help a child work through current issues and try out a multitude of behaviors in an appropriate way.

Box of Stuff

We have been staying in these past couple of days due to the extreme amount of rain we've been getting thanks to hurricane Alex. It looks like it will continue to rain until who knows when, we may not see any fireworks this year.

Lizzy loves to play with random things that are not her toys so I decided to make her a special box of stuff to explore.

In the box of stuff is a keychain, cupcake liner, passport wallet with credit cards inside, tissue paper, ipod case, clothespin, cookie cutter, baby food jar lids, massager, bandana, and some other odd things.
Here she is exploring, this kept her occupied for a while. I will have to change the stuff out to give her new things to explore and keep her attention.

3 years ago today

Lizzy's Library Trip

I took Lizzy to the library today, the mom's group I joined meets here from time to time because they have classes for babies like story time and sign language they also have a section for babies and toddlers to play and check out board books. We can't make any of the classes because they are too early for us but we decided to go later and check it out. Lizzy loves books but she was way more interested in all the people there at the library...she would run away from me and go to other people any chance she could so we decided to leave and go to the park across the street to play.

Here we can run

First loaf of bread

This is my first loaf of bread. It was quite easy and relaxing to make. I enjoyed kneading it and the smell of yeast. This is the recipe I used called beginners bread. It came out pretty good, light and fluffy. I spread some organic strawberry jelly on it and it was good. I think I will continue making bread and try some new recipes.