Hugs

After church this morning, Janie and I made a quick stop at Safeway. As we wandered the aisles, she sat happily in the cart and kept up a running commentary - pointing out foods (TOAST! PEAS! APPLES!), flowers (RED! PINK! PURPLE!), and the seemingly never ending supply of balloons (POOH! BEARS! ELMO!).

And suddenly, she was quiet for a minute. I looked down to see if everything was okay. And there she was, looking right at me, with a smile and her arms out wide, saying "HUGS! HUGS!"

So we stopped right there, in the middle of the frozen food section, and I leaned into the cart so my sweet baby girl could wrap me up great big bear hug. My heart exploded, just a little bit. And I decided, right then and there, that of all the words Janie has added to her repertoire, 'hugs' is most definitely my favorite.

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Firsts

Over the last couple of days, we've experienced several firsts....

Sunday
Janie had her first scraped knee. Followed closely by a trip to Target for our first box of Care Bear band-aids.

Monday
Our first swim of the summer. And Janie wore her cute new bathing suit for the first time.



After trying it on early in the morning, she loved her cute-bathing-suit-self so much that she wore her bathing suit around the house all morning. She even wore it during speech therapy. Thankfully, I was able to get it off of her with no tears (hers or mine) while she was distracted with a speech therapy toy. But she was all too happy to put it back on after her nap for our big swim. Thanks Grandma for the cute new suit!

Tuesday
Lots of first words...

• Applesauce. Seriously, she said applesauce. All three syllables, and it was totally understandable.
• White polka dots. Because a girl needs to be able to discuss her new favorite fashion statement with accuracy.
• Pink power pill. This is our fun code name for the calcium supplement she takes every day.

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I heart cookie monster

This morning our family enjoyed the musical extravaganza...
Elmo Makes Music.

For details, please check out Rob's recap.

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Rocking chair moments

On Tuesday night I watched the very last episode of my most-favorite-in-the-whole-wide-world TV show... Gilmore Girls. It was bittersweet, to say the least. A really great ending to the story. But now a big hole in my Tuesday nights. Whatever will I do? (I mean, besides the ironing and the floor cleaning and the checkbook balancing that I usually avoid on Tuesday nights.)

I can say with certainty that Lorelai Gilmore is my favorite-of-all-time TV mom. Followed closely by Claire Huxtable and Caroline Ingalls, two other all-time greats. She made me laugh, that's for sure. And during this last episode I cried and cried as I watched her try to say good-bye to her baby girl who was leaving the nest for good.

So on Wednesday morning when Janie woke up extra early and then promptly fell back asleep on my lap in the rocking chair, I didn't mind one bit. I could have laid her back down and crawled back into bed for a couple of extra zzz's. But I held her in my arms for awhile and thought about all the moments - big and small, good and bad, amazing and ordinary - that are yet to happen in her precious life. It was happy and sad all at the same time, and I had to try really hard not to cry so that my sniffling would not wake her up.

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Grab bag

I'm in a bit of a blogging drought. So I'm totally plagiarizing, umm I mean finding inspiration from, some of my favorite blogs. I saw this meme floating around and thought I would give it a try...

The goal: bare your soul, in the form of your purse contents, for all the world (that means the two of you who read this) to see.

So this is my new red purse. Until this point in my life, the only color purse I've ever owned has been black. Because, really, black is easy when it comes to purses. 95% of the time it will match my shoes. And I'm not the kind of girl who moves her stuff from purse to purse each morning. (And seriously, what would be the point of that when all your purses are black?) But I must have been feeling bold, or sassy, or something when I was shopping, because now I am the proud owner of a cherry red purse.



Maybe my inspiration came from this cool wallet my sister sent from Italy.


Apparently, I love my lips. (TM Larry the Cucumber)


And I love to write stuff.


And I find fresh breath to be important.


I know y'all have found this to be the height of blog entertainment. I mean, really, who isn't fascinated by my favorite brand of breath mint.

So in the interest of keeping the party going, I tag Deanne. With three kiddos, she's got to have some interesting stuff in her purse!

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My middle name is Betty Crocker

I tried a new recipe tonight.

I'll pause for a minute in case you need to take a moment to recover from your shock at reading that last sentence.

It was yummy and I'll probably make it again. In case you're feeling adventurous, here it is...

Stuff you need:

• 1 crock pot
• 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
• 1 package (8oz) low-fat cream cheese
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 envelope dry italian dressing seasoning

Steps to take:

1. Put the chicken in the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Mix all the other stuff together.
3. Smear it on the top of the chicken.
4. Cook it on low for about 8 hours.

You'll end up with moist, falling-apart chicken with a yummy gravy to put on rice or noodles or something.

As you can see, it's my kind of recipe - easy. And, double-bonus points, it totally reminds me of something my mom would make.

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A healthy snack

I recently discovered these little bits of yummy deliciousness at my local Wal-Mart.



And I have to say, if you see them in a store near you, do not hesitate to buy them for your self and your loved ones. Chocolate and strawberry, all smushed yummily together. It's like manna from heaven.

Plus, the strawberry filling counts as a serving of fruit (right?), so you can't go wrong.

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