springtime giddiness

The other night Jeff and the gals and I went to the river after dinner and we had so much fun walking in the woods.  I think little Astrid fell down four million times during the outing.  Each time, as she was getting back up (sticking her bum in the air....head down...walking toward her hands...jerking her body upright) she would always ask "kay?".  At first I was wondering what the heck she was saying...then after thinking it through I realized one of my frequently used questions (each time she falls): "Astrid, are you o-kay?"...the "y" always swooping to a high note at the end.
On one of our morning hikes up Blue Mountain this week I brought my camera. 

"see" "see" she was saying....wanting to look at herself in the camera...

I let A out of the backpack on the homestretch to the parking lot...all was great for a while...


until it wasn't...

After several kisses of each tiny hand that skidded hard on the trail (when her little legs couldn't keep up with her desire) she was smiling and chasing Skagit down the trail again!
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Easter is coming up and I don't usually send out cards, but I was inspired since I have a toddler in the house that just happens to love coloring with crayons.  In fact, she's so good at it she has already decorated our back door and her new white desk using crayons.


chunky hands and wrists...

putting on finishing touches...


I sent out cards for the first time to family last year with this image on them:

The little budda is not such a budda anymore.
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We have also been inspired in the kitchen this week.  It is so fun (and also very difficult).  For some crazy reason I thrive at this challenge to put a recipe together with little hands grabbing everything in sight on the counter... egg yolks squeezing through fingers... measuring cups with flour in them banging against bowls...flour flying ~ sifting through the air...mixing things together that probably ought not be mixed together for a desired result.

I found that as long as her hands were not idle I could buy more time to do the "actual" recipe on the side...  For instance, while making the "boo pie" (Boo PAH-ye) (oh, god, I just LOVE the way she says boo pie!  It cannot be described on a blog it must be lived)...  I let Astrid eat all the blueberries she wanted.  She was grabbing sugared berries out of the pie crust so fast her little hands were a blur.  When she came to a berry that wasn't quite ripe it was prompty spit out and carefully placed back into the pie.  It was awesome.  She was not happy when I put the top crust over her treasured prize... I was forced to put her to work again "painting" butter and poking holes in the top.


Yesterday, while making cookie dough, I kept her busy eating chocolate chips...  and the result of my masterful "sleight of hand" was rewarding.  I'm not kidding when I say they are the best batch of chocolate chip cookies I (ahem, WE) have ever made.

"Gookies!"

This afternoon they are quite brilliant with my 8 hour old cup of warmed up coffee.

I hear the wind chimes outside calling.  Astrid and I bought a kite this week and we may fly it when she wakes up.  I am planning to get a book on kite "making" soon (my sister's great idea)..maybe when we go back to the library to return the 21 books that we checked out this week!  I know, I KNOW, it may seem excessive.  Jeff was mortified when I first showed him saying 'did you leave any for the other kids?'.  The librarians encouraged it - happy to hear that I have a girl that LOVES to read.  In the few days that we have had these books I have read each at least twice.  It is so refreshing and Astrid is already finding her favorites.  Most likely we will have these for two months (I always renew atleast once) and I'm already discovering my faves, too.

"Ree a book." (said as if one word), "Ree a book, peas."

Astrid + Books = Happy Camper. 
Astrid + New & Different Books = Mama and Daddy are Happy Campers.

Happy reading!