If Gretal had a day job...

Gretal's escaped the wicked witch and got a job teaching preschool. I made 30 cracker houses for our gingerbread week at school. I told myself I would not do it anymore. Too much work. But the rewards came the next day when I helped the kids make their houses. OK, I'm in for next year. I will just have to get more done in advance so I am not crunched for time. What a jolly project it was!

This is a picture of Lylah and some of her classmates with their houses. See the joy? I love these cuties!


This past week at school we made gingerbread houses. I made them f graham crackers. Super easy! ( took a chunk of time for the mass quantity, though). Each house takes about 5 crackers. I used royal icing to "glue" the houses together and then I mixed a little cream of tartar into canned icing to allow the kids to glue the candies on their houses. I read somewhere that the cream of tartar helps the icing to harden and, therefore, hold the candies on the houses. The project was a hit and all the kids really enjoyed decorating their houses.

It was funny to see the difference between the age groups and their thought processes. My morning group had several shades of decorating philosophies. They are 2. My younger ones mostly just saw piles of candy as the most awesome buffet ever and later caught onto the concept of putting the candies on the houses. The older 2's wanted to make houses pretty "for Mommy". I love this sweet stage where everything they do is for Mommy or Daddy to enjoy (I , being Mommy appreciate her creations and enthusiasm.) My 4 and 5 year olds had a few different philosophies too. There were some who wanted to make houses that looked great and so they added chimneys, and widows, and door knobs, and Christmas lights. These houses would go home and be proudly displayed. Then there were others who wanted to pile as much candy on their houses as possible so that they could take them home and eat them. Their houses were about 10 lbs and not a speck of the crackers underneath were visible. But they were all proud of the houses and super excited to show parents at pick up time.


Lylah had a mixture of philosophies going on too. Being 2, she was way into eating the candy rather than decorating the house at first. I took several pictures of her and her cheeks look as though she has either had her wisdom teeth extracted or has turned into a chipmunk. But really, she was a candy glutton...I guess I should let her have a piece now and then and maybe she would not feel the need to stuff her face because she will never see the stuff again. Anywho, after filling her mouth full of candy, she began to be willing to put a few pieces on the house and ended with a cute finished product. She really loved holding it on the way to the car and into the house so she could steal little licks from the peppermints that adorn the roof. It now sits safely on a shelf beyond her reach. She proudly showed Daddy her house first thing when he got home (and took a little sneak-lick).


Cheeks packed to the hilt. One for the house and sneak 3 for me...

Proud of her work! "Can I have just one more lick, Mommy, and then that's it? No more after that. OK? " Seems like she might have heard those words before. My negotiator.

Snow and Song, a Video

Here is my snow video of Lylah in the big snow.

Um, No thank you , Mommy...

I figured it out! I wrote last about the doll I am making for Christmas and how Lylah saw the head and was not impressed. She asked if it was an octopus. I thought when she said it that "octopus" was a strange thing to say since there were no legs ( the really octopus-ish thing about octopuses ). But then it hit me. She has recently seen Toy Story for the first 50 times. She loves it. But there is the part where Buzz and Woody are trapped in Sid's room, the bad kid next door. His room is full of toys that he has put together in a Frankenstein's Monster kind of way. One of the toys is a doll's head with spider-like erector set legs. She calls it an Octopus.

Here is my doll head...




Here is the "Octopus"...


I guess you can see why she is not too exited about the doll yet. Poor thing. When she saw it I even had a needle sticking out of the top of the head. CREEPY!! No wonder she told me not to ever leave it out ever, ever, ever.

Sharing the favorite chair

Lylah and Henry are here sharing the favored chair in the house. She was a little put out the he was in her chair to start, but she quickly changed her mind. She said, "oh well...I will sit with you, Henry? OK?" When he said nothing, she sat down. When she got a little too loving he had to vacate. She said to me today that Henry was "Just so cute." She tries to give him things all the time and help him to be "cozily" with the addition of blankets and pillows. Poor Lylah...he just gets up slowly and walks away while she follows after him saying,"But it's 'por' you, Henry, to be cozy."
Tonight I made the mistake of giving Lylah a couple of marshmallows before bedtime. Crazy!!! Who gives their kid sugar and then says it's time to sleep. She has been really excited about camping and having flashlights, tents, and marshmallows. She has read a few camping books from the library and has seen a camping episode of Kipper the Dog. So she was really into having a marshmallow. I gave her the bedtime sugar and you should have seen her. She was dancing and singing and imitating a buffalo ( have to see it to really do it justice---It involves finger horns and ramming into things.) She sang all the songs she knows and was so silly. We were in stitches and trying to get her to calm down too. do you remember the SNL skit with Mike Myers and Nicole Kidman where MM was the "Hyper-Hypo" Kid ? Hyper-active and hypo-glycmic. He totally spazzed out and uprooted a whole thing of playground equipment. Lylah was the hyper-hypo tonight. we laughed and laughed. She was quite the performer for us in her sugar-induced frenzy. I have learned my lesson. She did crash pretty hard pretty quickly after hitting the bed. Last I looked she was totally nude as were all the previously dressed dolls or stuffed animals in her bed. I suppose she was having a hot flash again.
No pictures of the event, but we took Lylah on a carousel for the first time. She smiled the whole ride. It was so sweet. She woke up from a nap the next day and said she was riding a fast horse and Mommy was holding on to the horse and it went really fast, fast, fast. Although she has been telling us she has good dreams when she wakes up, this it the first real dream she has been able to retell upon wake up. Obviously a fun time she needed to relive. I wish you could have seen her shining face going around the ride. It was so sweet. I will hold the memory of giving her the experience forever. She called to Daddy every time we passed him and said, "oh Daddy, Daddy, Look at this" "I'm riding!!!!" She told me this was her "best ever EVER ever ever ever eeever" Precious.

So quit acting like a two year old already...

I have reflected on how much I am like my two year old in my spiritual life over the past few days. Here are a few examples. The other day Lylah was sitting in her car seat all strapped in and wearing a snowman purse that my mom gave her for Christmas last year. She loves to have a purse to fill with rocks, acorns, and other valuables. In this case, she was wearing the purse and decided to try to get it off as I was driving. She was tugging with all she strength to get the thing off, turning red in the face, and getting so frustrated. I saw what she was doing and told her that we would be at our destination when we turned the next corner and that I could easily get it off for her. I knew that it was a really simple solution and that she was trying to get the thing off in such a way that the only way she would have success would be if her head could detach first. She, however, in her "Do it Myself" stage, was determined and never stopped trying until I helped her, quickly and easily, when we turned the corner. I thought then that I am so much that way. I want what I want in exactly the way I want it and in exactly the time frame I want. And God is right there saying to me, in the same words I was using to my little girl, " I can fix this in just a minute, sweetie. Just let me get to the place we need to stop and I will fix it for you. You can't do it that way. You will just hurt yourself and still not get it. I promise I can fix it. Just wait just a minute." And I, like my own girl, continue to struggle and pull and turn red in the face so I can do it in my own strength, even though I don't know how to fix it. I hope, however, that I will always respond as she did by saying, "oh 'tank' you, Mommy," as soon as she was out of the bind.
The other example happened today in preschool. Poor Lylah had to be woken up to go to school today so she was not in the best of moods in the morning for class. She had been sitting in a chair and had gotten up to do something else. When she got up, another child took her chair. She came back and wanted it again but was denied. She tossed herself on the ground, fully extended and face in the ground, and cried bitterly. It was very, very dramatic and pathetic. A therapist had come in the room to work with a child and tried to speak to Lylah. She responded by saying, "Please don't talk to me right now because I am trying to cry about it." Again, so me and Jesus. I can't seem to get over myself long enough to move on or allow Jesus to console me or give me exactly what I want but in a little different form. Oh, the things our little ones show us about lives and ourselves!
I did have a good laugh about the "fit" and her heartfelt expressions, though. How could I not!? It reminded me of what she said a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to give her cream of wheat for breakfast and she said, " I'm sorry, Mommy, but my mouth is closed." I am sure I could draw some symbolic or metaphoric analogy to this saying too. I mean, I didn't start college as and English major for nothing (or end it as a psyc major, for that matter.) But I won't make any more analogies tonight. I will only say this: I am glad God has patience, and goodness, and mercy, and kindness, and so forth. He needs it for the likes of me and my stubborn ways. I am so blessed daily that he has not brushed me off or tossed me aside as a hopeless cause. Oh,"Tank" You, Jesus!

Baby likes Butter

The other night I gave Lylah a bath right after dinner. She was squeaky clean and lotioned and ready for PJs. I thought I had left them in the living room so I carried her into the room (wrapped like a baby in her towel-just the way she loves it). But I forgot that I had left the PJs in her room so I went to get them. I returned about 30 seconds later to this:

She saw me coming and tried to shove as much butter in her mouth as she could. See the cramming look on her face?! We had eaten dinner and I left the butter dish on the dining table where she found it and (literally) dug right in. Look how the 1/2 stick is practically demolished! I always have to keep the dish high up and away because she will drag a chair to the counter top for a butter snack if she sees the opportunity. It is not uncommon for me to open the dish, turn around, and turn back to find a finger scoop missing. Often when I am cooking she will ask for, "Just ONE bite of butter please Mommy." I will agree that butter makes it better but I don't go this far.