It doesn't get much better than this

To say I'm rarely in front of the camera would be a ridiculous understatement. What can I say? For as long as I can remember, I've just been more of a behind-the-scenes type. But for at least tonight, I changed it up though.

In my adventures of motherhood, I've ventured into the world of cooking. This is a huge deal for me as I've never been much of a cook. As a single lady, I was notorious for cooking random assortments of food and eating personal buffets of just side dishes. It wasn't until D came along that I learned that a proper meal was comprised of a protein, a starch or potato, and a vegetable. D is actually the primary cook in our home because he naturally makes a more well composed meal. I've made a point to try and learn more to be a little better domesticated though.

Of my childhood there are a handful of recipes/meals that were favorites to my brothers and me. One of them was stromboli. And because D and I are trying to stretch dollars as far as they will go and because stromboli is very delicious and filling, it was decided that now was finally the time to try my hand at it.

I've called my mother (Nana V) no less than three times in the past two days trying to make sure that I understood the recipe properly and got all the ingredients right. And because new endeavors always require me to hold someone's hand to get me through, Miss A got to be the lucky little love to help it all come together.

It's nights like these with Miss A that I know I will always cherish the most...

Miss A was very timid at first but reluctantly touched the dough toward the end. After a could of rounds of kneading she decided to just watch me and snitch from the lunch meat and cheese piles that I had put aside for the fillings. :) Having her just keep me company was more than enough for me!

I put Miss A right into a bath and then into pajamas not long after we finished the strombolis and she wasn't able to make it to see them be baked and then sliced for sampling but I think we did a pretty decent job with them.

The best part of them? Well... they were filled with so much more than just yummy fillings and really it's the TLC that made them as delicious as they are.

The mini-est Minnie mouse this side of the Mason-Dixon

I'm not gonna lie. Despite the fact that Miss A might seem like a most perfectly pleasant and cooperative little lady most of the time, she's really not always like that.

I tried to dress her up a couple of hours before she needed to be dressed so that she could 1) get used to the outfit and 2) I could ensure getting some decent pictures of her while there was decent lighting. At first she was OK with the whole idea and then it just took a downward spiral that I can attribute only to fact that she was almost on the verge of missing her afternoon nap.

Poor sweet girl!!! Not to worry. She managed to catch a little nap on the way down to my parents' house and she was well rested and in a much better mood once we got there. And then by the time it was time to go and show off her outfit? She was peachy-keen, jellybean!

Miss A was OK between houses but once we got up to the front doors, she got very shy since she didn't know/couldn't remember the people that well. We managed to visit all of three neighbors before the towel was officially thrown in. We spent the rest of the evening with my parents and a few neighbors sitting at the beginning of their long driveway saying hi to all who came through. Part way through, Miss A was changed into her piggy pajamas and piggy mask (you may remember it from previous appearances on the blog) and she was much more tolerable of that outfit but we didn't bother with pictures of that.

In any case, we had a lovely evening and the whole time I just kept thinking about how we needed to scheme for future years' activities to happen above the Mason-Dixon in a certain "Burgh" that we all know and love.

(D was thrilled with the idea and perhaps next year we will be able to pull it off!)

Note on the outfit: The hat was crocheted by me without a pattern and ended up being slightly small at the crown which is why I think Miss A was not thrilled to keep it on. The outfit was from Carter's in an 18-mos size and was a gift from Aunt H, Uncle D, and Cousin V at Miss A's 1st birthday a few months ago. Miss A happens to LOVE Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the moment the outfit was opened at the party, I knew that Miss A was going to have to dress up like Minnie Mouse if even for no reason at all. Sadly, she's still too young to make the connect between her own outfit and that of Minnie's on the show.

Our Canis lupus familiari

Before Miss A, the baby of the household was our sweet shepherd, Magnus. Who knows what kind of "crazy dog people" we might have become if God hadn't given us Miss A to fuss over all the time. I would probably be trying to dress him up in costumes and clothes and maybe even coordinating his collars and leashes to match our outfits! Perhaps we would be the type of folks who wore clothing of our dog's likeness and hung out with other people who were "shepherd people" too!!

Anyway, once Miss A arrived, Magnus has kind of taken a backseat to her. I mean, we still love him and fuss over him but it's hard for him to be the center of attention when you've got Miss A doing cool things like spontaneous dancing (see the last posting for video of this).

As it turns out, Miss A has decided that Magnus is one of her best buddies. She LOVES to cuddle up to him, pet him, follow him around, and talk to him. Within the last few weeks she even learned how to say his name instead of just referring to him as "dog."

Miss A definitely can't get enough of him sometimes! He (obviously) loves her but usually just tolerates her way of loving him in return. :)

Dancin' queen

Is there anything quite like when someone just breaks out an busts a move with no care in the world? If you ask Miss A, she thinks you should ALWAYS dance like no one is watching...

Life with a toddler

The one thing that people told us before we had Miss A was that she would change everything for us. Life would be completely different with her. Nothing would ever be the same! Now that Miss A is here and definitely the center of our lives, we can agree that this is the absolute truth. The thing that nobody ever told us though is that the changes that Miss A has made in our life also changes constantly and almost daily at that! Confusing? Yes! Try living it like we are! These days there is no telling what Miss A will do.

A couple of weeks ago, household management was so much easier for us. We could divide our time between looking after Miss A, while she was in the living room, and cooking dinner in the kitchen. Nowadays? You pretty much can't leave Miss A anywhere unattended. And if you look away from her for even a second? She literally disappears and we have to go and find her! AND(!) at times it's so far from easy to do so.

Last week D was home all by himself with Miss A. While he was doing something, she skittered away and D almost couldn't find her. He looked everywhere for her and she was literally gone. You want to know how she was discovered? Well, because he heard her giggling to herself. And the giggling was coming from under the bed in our room!!!! That's right. Miss A has already learned the game of hide-and-seek!

Thankfully, she's already abandoned impromptu games of hide-and-seek since (I suppose) her toddler-sized attention span is bored with it already. Her new thing is expanding her vocabulary. Everyday there's not just a new word but at least half a dozen new words! Granted, she's still learning the meanings of things and is just echoing things most of the time but still - she's quickly moving away from just babbling for the sake of babbling.

Here is a list of some of the things that she has said and/or repeated and definitely knows so far:

1. Mama
2. Papa
3. Bow - our cat
4. Dog
5. Puppy
6. PopPop
7. Nana
8. No
9. Book
10. Amen
11. Yeah
12. Wow
13. Yay
14. Baby
15. Cooperate
16. Sit down
17. Mickey Mouse
18. Hello
19. Hi
20. Hug
21. Bye-bye/Bye
22. Nigh-night
23. Car
24. Juice
25. More

And though this seems like quite a list already, I know that it's not exhaustive and doesn't include the things that she knows/says for sure or the things that she will definitely say today, tomorrow, and the rest of the week.

Another thing that she is doing is understanding more of what we are saying to her. Last evening I gave her a three-step direction to go someplace and get something and then return to me. She took the directions and did them - without hesitation or obvious misunderstanding or confusion! It was truly amazing! And though she is still doing silly and crazy things like playing in the dog's food and water bowls and trying to put various things in her mouth, she's openly expressing her own curiosities with one word questioning or body language. Things like, "Where's Papa?" or "I don't know" are illustrated with both hands and arms out or even a little bit of a shrug to punctuate things.

Miss A keeps D and I on our toes these days not just because we're trying to keep track of her mess making and trouble finding but more because we cannot wait to see what she's going to do or say next. Miss A is absolutely amazing. And being parents is so much more than what everyone ever said it would be because of it.