Fun Times

MMan is changing so fast and is becoming quite the little personality.  He wants to do everything the rest of us do: no more eating with his fingers, food goes on forks and spoons.  He has a great Spiderman move he uses when he wants out of the tub:  think both feet and fingertips on the edge of the tub.  Because of his lightning quick movements, there are no photos.  He has recently taken a liking to music and will motion for us to turn music on, climb on the ottoman and start bopping.  If it's live music, dancing on the floor will work too.

He is now regularly signing to communicate. Eat, drink, change, more, please and all-done come fluently and he is quite proud of his progress.

His  smiles light up the day! 

GGirl is also maturing in leaps and bounds.   She loves school and riding the bus.  The first couple weeks of school she did not like to ride the Headstart bus in the morning.  "I hate it!" she would exclaim and after investigation, it was because there were shoulder harnesses she did not like.  But, when they decorated the bus for fall and put her name on a pumpkin on the wall, that changed everything!  The grin that lights up her face when she gets off the bus is priceless.

In the evenings we snuggle a little longer, linger over bedtime stories and enjoy earlier bedtimes.

Ravioli Night

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/213131/homemade-four-cheese-ravioliLast night was ravioli night at our house.   A friend came over to play and we cooked up a pretty yummy meal.  I have pasta rollers for my Kitchen Aid, a small ravioli press that [is supposed to] make 12 small raviolis and a large Pampered Chef press and cut thingie intended for sandwiches, but worked awesome for extra-large raviolis!

GGirl helped too-she did a great job helping to mix up the cheese filling and licking off the cream cheese wrapper.  Some of the ravioli [mostly the ones that failed to seal correctly] were baked in sauce and held their integrity surprisingly well. Others were boiled and smothered with fresh sauce.  And for dessert, we had some just filled with ricotta and cream cheese.  We fried those up and topped them with homemade jam and powdered sugar for dessert.   Mmmmmm.  Crispy,  cheesy, fruity goodness!

The only complaint camefrom MMan when I served HIS ravioli onto MY plate to cool.  He shoved his plate at me and made it known that I had put them on the wrong plate and that he wanted them NOW.  He even signed a "please".

I used these  as base recipes, but with creative cooking, I tend to wander from the recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-marinara-sauce-yet/detail.aspx

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/213131/homemade-four-cheese-ravioli

Will Sign for Whipped Cream

We have been trying to do basic signs with MMan for communication since he isn't really talking yet.  Signs for more, please, sleep, milk and drink have all been introduced and used with some frequency.  But over time it seems that little MMan has discovered that he doesn't really have to communicate to get most of what he wants.  Yes, he has trained us well.  And it worked until lunch today.

I was eating a piece of pie with whipped cream.  MMan did his usual squawk and point.  I demonstrated the 'more' sign.  He mimicked,  I gave him a bite.  Within three bites, he was signing more AND please with broad, look-what-I-can-do grins.

Now if only he would communicate what he got into, leaving his face looking like this:

September

Summer came to an end and September took off, full speed ahead.  GGirl started Pre-K and she loves it.  She is making new friends and some of her favorite things are the tricycle s and dress-up clothes. Shelikes riding the big bus home and on HandyMan's day off, weather and schedule permitting, he picks her up on the bike.  They are a sight to be seen around town.  MMan is off and running, quite literally.  He also woke up this weekend needing his 18-month clothes.  Sometimes kids really do grow overnight.