Favorite Things: Lena's List of Faves

One of the fun things about knowing a toddler is getting to know their little developing personalities, idiosyncrasies and quirks, and likes and dislikes.  I've compiled a list of ten of Lena's most favorite things:

Chick-Fil-A Nuggets with Chick-Fil-A "Dip"

 Lena will eat this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.  It is her favorite food.  She loves dip like her Mama!  We eat this at least once a week and sometimes more often.

ABC by Dr. Seuss

Lena asks for this book EVERY SINGLE NIGHT at bed time.  

Art Supplies: Crayons, Colored Pencils, Markers, Chalk, Paints, Etc.

We go through art supplies and notebooks pretty fast around here.  Lena has an art station set up in her room and we always have some on hand.  This girl loves to draw!  Her Sunday school teachers comment just about every other week on how much she loves to color.

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Stamp Set 

Lena has developed a very strong love for letters and numbers.  I bought several stamp sets off of EBAY for her and I might as well only bought this one because this is always the one she wants to use.  She loves calling the upper case letters "Big" in a really low voice and the lower case letters "Baby" in a tiny high voice.

Birthday Cake Pops from Starbucks

I am responsible for feeding this obsession.  (They are two pops for $2.50 so I get the other one!)  She calls them "Pop Pops" and actually now chooses them over ice cream as a treat.  One time I went through the drive thru at Starbucks and they were out of cake pops so I ordered a cookie instead.  I tried to warn her before we got to the pick up window that we were not getting "pop pops" because they were all gone but she couldn't comprehend such a tragedy.  When we got to the window and she saw the pink pastry bag she shrieked in joy, "There it is!!!!"  This quickly turned to sobs the whole ride home as she discovered the cookie and not her precious pop pops inside the bag.  It was funny, ridiculous, and sad all at the same time.

Mater's Tall Tales

I am not sure why this is her favorite TV program/Movie right now but she loves this 30 minute collection of Pixar shorts.  She will choose it all the time!  Seriously, we have probably watched it more than 25 times...at least!

Mc Donald's Sweet Tea

Lena's Daddy is responsible for this recent obsession.  She used to call it "Donald Juice".  It started just by getting a sip from Daddy's tea and then now she asks for it all the time when we see a Mc Donald's.  She wants it more than an ice cream cone!

ABC Song on You Tube

Grandma was the first to show Lena this 50 minute ABC song compilation.  It is pretty cute but dangerously catchy.  It gets stuck in Lena's head really easily and for hours she will randomly start singing, "H,I,J,K- La La La!" and it drives us bonkers.  It also has a lion for the letter "L" that freaks her out.  She is so scared of it and I can't figure out why but she still loves this video.  The dancing letters are pretty cute.

Pirates Booty or Trader Joe's Puffs

If it is cheesy and crunchy Lena likes it.  These are her two favorites.  

 

I can't say that I was too happy to discover this mess on our bed when Lena literally tore through the bag to have easier access to her puffs.

The Beach

About every other day Lena asks to go to the beach.  It is a good thing we live near a beach.  Sometimes we settle for playing in Grandma and Grandpa's sandbox instead.  I still can't figure out why kids like sand so much.  

Mother's Day 2014

Lena Joyce: Two and a Half!

On an early morning walk at Crystal Cove Beach

This month Lena Joyce turned two and a half!  She is growing into quite a lively and lovely little lady.  She reached several milestones in the last six months: she participated in her first soccer class, she moved into her new big girl bedroom and now sleeps in a queen sized bed, she played her first board games (Candyland and Hungry Hippos), she is learning to use the potty, and learning to ride a bike.  Her biggest change has been in her interest in the alphabet and counting.  She LOVES anything that has to do with the alphabet.  She knows all the letters in and out of order and both upper and lower case.  She loves calling out letters as she sees them on signs everywhere we go.  

Taking her balance bike out for a spin in the park.

Lena continues to be very social.  She enjoys spending time with her cousins and playing with strangers and friends alike.  She asks to go to "church" because she loves her Sunday school class so much where her teachers comment that she never cries and loves to color.  We tried two community classes for tots this Spring: dance and soccer.  She loved them mostly but we will probably wait until she is three years old to do that again.  She gets so into playing with other kids that she doesn't follow directions so well.  In fact she even got "kicked out" of dance class a few weeks ago for not listening.  

Getting ready for her first soccer class.

I would say the "terrible twos" arrived right around 20 months old for Lena.  We are having to begin to deal with various discipline issues as all parents do at this stage: crying when she doesn't get what she wants, getting mad when Dan and I are deep in conversation and she isn't part of it, purposefully doing the opposite of what she has been told to do.  The word "no" is heard a lot in our household.  The redundancy of parenting a two year old can make a body wearisome and there have been times in the past few months where for the first time I have begun to question my capability as a parent but never have I wished for life to be other than what it is right now.  Some of the BEST parenting advice anyone ever game me was to "appreciate the good things about your child at every age".  It makes me crazy when people say, "enjoy them now because when they get to be "such and such age" then life will be "awful".  The terrible twos are terrible for LOTS of reasons (and I heard the threes aren't much easier) but there are so many awesome things about living life with a two year old.  I love getting hugs and snuggles from my girl.  I laugh a loud multiple times a day at the funny things she says.  I enjoy watching her knowledge of the world grow as she learns to sing, read letters, draw, dance, and do numerous other activities for the first time.  I love her enthusiasm for the little things like eating popsicles on the porch, getting cake pops from Starbucks, making it on her bike all the way around the park, seeing her cousins or grandparents, seeing a snail, watching an airplane fly overhead, riding the train, showing off her most recent art creation....I could go on and on.  These moments...these little things...they are the reason I wanted to be a parent.  When I get a little perturbed when Lena yells "Mom!!! Mom!!!" a thousand times in a row, I just quickly remind myself of how desperate I was just a few short years ago for someone to call me "Mom".  Perspective is a wonderful gift.  I will never take for granted how special and miraculous it is that Lena is our daughter.  

Riding the train at the Santa Ana Zoo

Lena likes to pretend to cook.

 So Lena came up to me with great enthusiasm and vigorously stirring this pot. She declared,"I'm making eggs!!!! Mom! I'm making eggs!!!" How cute I thought, since I know she likes to help me make her scrambled eggs in the morning. Then she forcefully replied after I commented, "No Mom!!! Look look! I'm making 'eggs'!!!!" I looked in her pot and found that she wasn't making "eggs" but making "X". She had combined two of her favorites: cooking and the alphabet! Pretty funny!

Here she is "making X"!

Two and Half Year Stats:

Size 2T-3T clothing

Size 7/8 Shoes

29 pounds

Still not an adventurous eater

Hanging with Grandpa in the backyard

Lena loves spending play time with her fellow toddler cousins.

Her daily dose of fresh fruit in veggies in the form of juice.

Riding the escalator (over and over) after dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.

Lena's idea of relaxing

Lena has become quite a big fan of hats.

Visiting the pigs at Amy's Farm near our house.

Helping Mom make cookies for Easter.

First night in her big girl bed! 

Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos

Easter 2014

Edible Easter Project: Egg Yolk Painting

Lena's first masterpiece.

A few days ago Lena and I did a fun edible art project that I remember doing every Easter when I was growing up: egg yolk painting on sugar cookie dough.  She loved it and it was a simple and fun activity we could all do together.  Here is what we did:

First Lena and I mixed up a batch of Ethel's Sugar Cookies from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. (See the recipe at the end of this post.)  While the dough was chilling I prepared the edible paints by cracking some eggs and separating the yolks from the whites.  Each yolk is put into a dish and mixed with food coloring.

Egg yolk paints ready to go!

Once the dough was chilled Lena rolled out the dough with her little rolling pin and we cut out shapes.  I rolled out thick cookies this time but if you like crispy cookies you can roll them thinner.  We chose an egg, butterfly, bunny, and cross for our Easter themed cookies.  I always bake on parchment paper which gives the cookies a nice even bake.

Raw cut out sugar cookies ready to be painted.

Then it was time to get creative!  Lena, Dan, and I each got a row of cookies to decorate.  We used little craft paint brushes and spoons to create our designs.

Daddy and Lena

Lena favored blue and green for her painted cookies.

From left to right: Daddy's cookies, Mama's cookies, Lena's cookies

Then it was time to pop the cookies in the 400 degree oven to bake.  Don't EVER follow the baking time in the cook books and don't ever cook sugar cookies until they are slightly golden brown.  They will be hard as a rock if you do!  Sugar cookies only bake until set (not glossy).  (Thinner, small cookies take 4 min and thicker large cookies take 6 min.)  They will be very delicate when they come out of the oven but just wait!  Let them sit and as they cool they will set up and be super soft, velvety, and totally baked.

Baking at 400 degrees for 4-6 minutes depending on thickness,

You can eat your creations at this point but I wanted to add a touch of sweetness with a simple glaze frosting.  It also helps keep the cookies nice and moist if you store them for a few days.  (See the glaze recipe below.)  I like to simply brush on the glaze right over the cookies.

Ready to apply a simple glaze to the baked cookies.

Lastly, we ate our cookies!  They are Lena's most favorite cookie that we bake together and I think she loved the added fun of painting them.

Mmmmm...good!  Lena picked Daddy's egg as her favorite cookie.

Ethel’s Sugar Cookies

adapted from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book  (copyright 1977) with my changes

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla (I like to use 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond flavoring)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly.
2. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. Blend butter mixture and flour mixture.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
5. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
6. On a board that has been lightly floured with a mixture of flour, roll dough until it is 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with your favorite cooky cutter.
7. Place on an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper
8. Bake 4 to 6 minutes, or until cookies are not glossy
9. Cool on a wire rack.  If desired brush on a glaze or spread on a thicker icing of your choice.

Makes 2-4 dozen cookies, depending on the size of the cutter and thickness of dough.

Glaze

1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond flavoring

1-3 Tablespoons milk

1. Blend sugar and vanilla.
2. Add milk 1 tablespoon at at a time until icing reaches a spreadable consistency.