Dog Food and Baby Dolls

On Valentine's Day, we went up to Madeleine's house for a little party.  We made creations out of clay, ate lunch, played Husker Du and frosted cookies.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  I don't know what it is about Madeleine, but I feel so refreshed and calm when I am around her.  Daniel loves it when I spend time with her because I come home a much happier me.  It is wonderful to be friends with Madeleine.  I feel so lucky. 

Madeleine's dog, Elliot, was eating her lunch and Jane decided to join in.  She got down on her belly, placed a piece of dog food on the floor and licked it up!  She even went back for seconds!  Elliot was good to share her food, and I was good to be calm and let Jane explore.

We decided to cleanse Jane's palette with some sugar cookies.  Jane ate her first cookie, so Madeleine got some frosting on a knife and helped Jane frost her second cookie.  Jane had the knife in hand, loaded with frosting and she decided to forgo the middle-man and eat the frosting right off of the knife!  I wasn't concerned because the knife wasn't sharp at all.  We even reloaded Jane's frosting administrator.  The boys finished off the entire batch of cookies.  They loaded the cookies up with frosting and sprinkles.  They were in a sugar-induced coma on the way home! 

Jane loves to play with her dolls.  Today she was feeding her baby some goldfish crackers.  She would break off a tiny piece and put it on her mouth!  It is a lot of fun to see how different she is than the boys were with the dolls.  She mainly plays with this doll and one that is a bit smaller- they were the boy's dolls when they were little, but they never cuddled with them the way that she does! 

You can't see them really well in this picture, but she was wearing denim overalls today.  There is just something about toddlers in overalls that makes me so happy.  (Aaaaaaaugh!  I just referred to Jane as a toddler.  I mean, she is one, but it makes me so sad that she isn't a baby anymore.)

On Wednesday we went to Living Planet Aquarium.  I was smart this time and didn't bring the stroller.  Jane does better there being held or climbing around on the benches.  We loved watching the otters, but they weren't out for very long while we were there.  Our next favorite exhibit is the penguins.  I loved watching the penguins dive into the water and watch the trail of water bubbles that would follow them.  It was beautiful! 

Seth was excited that he is finally taller than the emperor penguin! He is such a sweet kid! 

We have one more week out of school and we hope to keep busy with a lot of fun things.  We had a small snow storm last night, but still not a good enough storm to go sledding at the park.  Does anyone know of a good place to go sledding that is free?  The boys are so anxious to go sledding!