Please read and be sure to comment!
(well, now I guess this makes FOUR posts in one day) 
Three posts in one day…
Cooking with little ones
Usually during dinner time I resort to letting Elsa watch a movie. But lately I decided that she was watching too many movies…even Disney movies should have limits. And on top of that I found that if I did let her watch some of a movie while I made dinner it was always a fight to turn the movie off and get her to come eat when dinner was ready. So I decided that she needs to help me make dinner. Sigh. It is fun but it is a big mess. But I think that I need to get used to the mess and see it as a learning experience rather than a big mess.
I also found a good website for recipes for healthy food ideas for toddlers. It is on my “favorite food sites” page under “Healthy cooking with Toddlers.”
A while ago, Oma (my mom) got Elsa a toy cooking set. And so the other day when I was making banana bread I gave Elsa some flour and some sugar in her bowl for her to mix and cook with while I cooked the bread. I guess we can work up to also letting her actually help me make the bread.
It was a mess, but I don’t mind now. I see how much happier she is when she is with me learning and experiencing rather than sitting in front of a movie.
What have you done to include your little one in cooking? Do you have any good recipes to share for toddlers to help cook or that were fun/healthy for them to eat? Please do share!
Here are just some random cute pictures from the month of June:
School time!
For about a month I have had “make chalkboard and feltboard” on my to do list. I finally got them done, mostly. I had just put the chalkboard wall paper stuff on and left the board on the coffee table while I went downstairs to get something. When I came back upstairs this is what I saw. Elsa laying on the table coloring on the chalkboard. When she saw me she sat up and said “I was NOT pushing kids!” She has had that problem lately in Nursery. I guess she thought that is what I was going to ask her.
So I think it is safe to say that Elsa loves her chalkboard! I wish I could make a bigger one, but for now it is just the right size. I still want to paint something along the top (alphabet or pictures) but along the bottom there is a row of pockets to put chalk and eraser in.
I try to have some school time with Elsa every day…it ends up being only a few times a week where I really do sit down with her and teach her letters or something. It is so fun when I do. She soaks up everything we talk about and she remembers too. On this morning I asked her if she was ready for school time. She was still in her jammies and I don’t think we had even had breakfast yet. But she answered “YEAH, lemme go get my backpack.” She got her hello kitty back pack from our Japanese Grandma, Akemi, when she came to visit us. Elsa does not really use the back pack, she just has to be wearing it when we do our school time.
I was thinking I should put different things in the backpack for each time we have school time. Like fill it with things starting with the letter “a” or put an activity in there to do together. Have kind of a surprise in there for each morning. We will see…
I love this picture. She loves to draw “smile faces” all the time. She makes mommy, daddy and baby smile faces! And I guess Elsa is going to be a lefty.
Elsa also loves to trace her hands and feet whenever she colors.
The zoo or the farm?
Our ward just started an “out and about” group for kids during the summer to get out of the house and to keep mothers sane. This is the first one I went to. The Neunkirchen Zoo…or shall I say farm? It was mostly farm animals: sheep, goats, cows, horses…well I guess they did have the regular zoo animals too. It just seemed the farm animals were more numerous. Elsa was so fun to watch running around with the other kids and trying to be brave and get close to the animals like the big kids.
Elsa and the cows at the zoo.
This is the coolest basket swing I have ever seen…well maybe the only basket swing I have seen, but it was awesome! Maybe this is what I should do with all my leftover materials from that basket making class I took in college.
Elsa and I inside the basket swing. It was really hard getting Elsa to come out of the swing…she wanted to stay in there with all the big kids but they were twisting and swinging around. I was surprised she did not throw up.
This is what Leah was doing while mommy and Elsa were playing in the basket swing…chillin with the bears!!
In the double stroller eating lunch.
A tired baby after a fun morning at the zoo.
Where is the best zoo that you have been to??
Pictures of my TERRIFIC girls:
Elsa with her dolls and Leah on the floor trying to get to Elsa with her dolls.
This is how Leah crawls most of the time…like a little stink bug!
I love that grin! Like her onesie says, she is “too cute”!!!
Elsa wearing mommy’s t-shirt to bed before we bought her some summer jammies. She looks so grown up.
Elsa is finally in her BIG girl bed!! It means a lot more fuss in trying to get both girls to bed at night and for naps, but for the most part, it is a great thing.
I love this picture! Leah giving a little grin while eating puffs…and Elsa very sneakily grabs some puffs off Leah’s tray. Elsa loves puffs and will eat a whole container of them if she gets the chance. (For those of you who don’t know what puffs are…they are baby cereal. They desolve the second they get wet. Good training food for little ones. Puffs are the reason any baby this age can make it through church!)
Elsa and Delfta. Delfta is her baby doll that we bought while visiting Delft, Holland. We were suggesting possible names to Elsa for her new doll and she liked Delfta. Leah has one like it too and Elsa calls it “Leah’s Delfta.” Delfta must be in the bed with Elsa during naps and at night. Delfta is also the reason that Elsa will be quiet and leave Leah alone when it is time for bed but they keep playing around. Just threaten to take Delfta away, and she settles down and goes right to sleep.
My handsome love and my two little loves!
Leah eating a block and reading some good books that daddy brought back from Malta.
I got this container out to put our 72 hour kits in and Elsa crawled right in. She thought I was so very thoughtful for getting out this cool little bed for her to play in.
Elsa inspecting some nature during a walk. I love this green….that is Germany for you!
Elsa running around during our walk. That is our little town in the background.
Terrible or terrific?
…THE TWOS!!
When Elsa turned two I thought to myself, Elsa is still a very obedient girl!! What a lucky mom I am. Maybe Elsa will have terrific twos instead of the terrible. But I think it just took a while for her to get into all of her two year old responsibilities. She has a hard time listening, she likes to be mean to her sister she does not like to eat much of anything but cereal and she is a bully in Nursery some of the time.
Just now as I am writing this, Elsa comes up to me and I can tell she has something in her mouth (she still has not grown out of the need to put everything in her mouth). I asked her what was in her mouth and she yells at me: “Junk food! Ahh!” Oh my.
A few weeks ago we had a FHE lesson on being happy. We made Elsa a sticker chart of three things to work on: Listening, Reverence and Playing nicely with Leah. So far she has gotten the most stickers for listening and the least for reverence. I think that this is just as much my problem as it is hers. I need to learn how to communicate with her and she needs to learn how to communicate with me. I think maybe I should make a sticker chart for me too…I get a sticker if I don’t get mad at the girls, if I am patient with them, if I speak kindly. I had the thought that maybe I should make a million little reminder signs to stick all around our little apartment that says “Love is spoken here” It is not that I yell at the girls, I just forget to always speak to them with love. I think that Elsa would respond to me better, listen better if I speak kindly to her all the time instead of saying things like “Elsa come here now!”
I don’t know. I still feel like I am so very inexperienced at being a parent. I have a lot to learn. Elsa really is a very good and sweet girl. I have countless blessings from my Heavenly Father.
There is one area that I think Elsa and I are doing great…POTTY TRAINING! Well, she was not trained in one day like some amazing people I know, but she is learning and she is not having accidents!I am still working with her every day and I am not a pro in any fashion, but here is how we did it:
We started with just having the training potty around all the time. She would sit on it whenever she wanted to (with diaper and clothes on). Then we started “practicing” to just sit on the potty without her diaper. I tried to make it at the same time every day for just a few minutes, but I was not regimental about it. She went pee once while practicing and we made a big deal out of it, lots of praise, but I just wanted her to feel comfortable sitting on her potty. Every one says the key with potty training is to wait until your little one is ready. So we had the potty, the new panties and the pull-ups ready for whenever Elsa decided that was.
Then one day Elsa saw the package of new underwear in her room and asked me what they were. I explained to her that it was underwear- to wear instead of her diaper- so that she could pee and poo poo in the big potty and not have a mess on her bum. She immediately said I want to wear ‘em! So we put some on! It was about 10 in the morning when she put them on. She sat on her potty and thought it was fun. Then she kept them on most of the day. I would periodically ask her if she needed to go sit on the potty. That first day she had two accidents. I thought that was pretty good for the first day! When she had an accident I would make her practice- meaning she would go stand where she had the accident and then run to the potty, pull panties down and sit on the potty- she did that 10 times fast. At first she was crying about doing it, but by the 3rd time she was laughing and thought it was fun.
Every time she went on her potty, she picked a sticker and put it on her chart. After a whole row of stickers (8 or so) she got a treat…gummie bears. We have filled up three pages with rows of stickers and it still works great. She is still excited to put her sticker on her chart.
On Tuesday this week I put the top of her practice potty on the big potty, just to see if she would try it. (and because I was tired of cleaning out the little potty after every time she peed and…ewwww…cleaning poo out of there is nasty!) She was reluctant at first, but after a reminder that she would get a sticker, she tried it. Now she is very excited to sit on the “BIG” potty. She still has not pooped in there, but soon I think. She still wears diapers for naps and bedtime, but I think she could wear underwear if she wanted to. Now we are on a different chart to work up to getting a new toy at the store! I am so proud of her. She can, for the most part, recognize when she needs to go and says “I need to go sit on the big potty!” She can do everything by herself except flush! What a big girl she is…what a TERRIFIC girl she is!!
My favorite time, and my hardest time with Elsa every day is bath time. She is tired and has her own idea of what she wants to do before bed but we have all these things that she needs to do before bed. (wash your hair, brush your teeth, clean up the toys) But right after she gets out of the tubbie…is snuggle time. My favorite! I wrap her up in her pink towel with a hood and hold her on my lap and we sing songs together or she sings to me. Lately she has been requesting that I sing her “Temple” (I love to see the Temple, the Primary song) Every time I sing it to her she just sits there and looks so happy, no wiggling or wining. That is my pay for the day as a mom.
And THAT makes all the hard work worth it!
Birthday trip
My dad is an OB doctor and he has been ordering some wood artwork from a man in Oberammergau for gifts for doctors that he has worked with that are leaving. You know from reading my husband’s blog here that Oberammergau is the place where the Passion Play takes place every ten years in fulfillment of a vow made there in the city during the black plague. It is through this woodworker that we got the inside special deal on going to this Passion Play this year on my birthday, May 13th. We stayed at a bed and breakfast run by his sweet wife, Margarita. It is there in the living room of this bed and breakfast that these pictures of my two angel girls are taken.
Here are Casey and I in the Passion Play theater just after our break, waiting for the second half to start. The play was amazing. A great reminder of our Savior’s life and his sacrifice for all of us as His children. The music was stunning. During the break, Margarita made us a dinner reservation at a Greek restaurant and she made a point to tell them that it was my birthday. When we got there there were flowers on the table for me…from Manfred! The food was great but our company was better…Manfred and Margarita joined us and we chatted for a while and then they drove us to Manfred’s wood shop and we bought a holy family sculpture, just a small one.
Casey, the girls and I took a drive into the beautiful countryside while Mom, Dad and Anne went to the play the next day. We ate at a tiny Italian place that was amazing…had the best brushetta ever. Isn’t Elsa cute giving her daddy a kiss! She is such a daddy’s girl.
Leah was happy to just hang out in her stroller in the restaurant. What a beautiful smile.
Elsa is eating a cookie in this picture…that is the reason for the funny face she is making.
Here is some woodwork that was displayed in Manfred’s house/bed and breakfast. I wish I could afford something like this. This is a version of the Last Supper.
Margarita was kind enough to give Casey and I a tour of Manfred’s shop. This is a wood copy machine. The woodcarver hand carves the first sculpture and then puts it into one of these contraptions that holds 8 or 12 woodblocks, one of them being the original carved sculpture. Then they put fresh wood blocks into the other clamps and then use the machine to slowly follow the model and at the same time it carves out the other wood blocks. This does not fully finish the sculptures but it gets pretty close. It is amazing.
 This is Margarita. She is very thoughtful, sweet and …high on caffeine. This is the first year she has not been in the Passion Play, she is one of the guards at the main door. I don’t know how these people do this for months at a time. They stay up till 1 every night except for one during the week (when they do not do the play) and then have to be at the theater at 1:30pm the next day to do it all again. Amazing. These people really know how to keep a promise. If anyone is looking for great accommodations in Oberammergau you should look up Margarita and Manfred. I don’t know what the bed and breakfast is called but his woodshop is: “EICH Holzschnitzeri”
My brother…THE MISSIONARY!!
Yesterday, April 18th, my little brother was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. We drove to the church to meet dad and Erik and Casey after a stake Priesthood meeting in the evening. President Allred and my dad and Casey set Erik apart and gave him a wonderful blessing. It was amazing to be there. The girls even listened and were quiet. Even through Elsa crunching loudly on cereal and Leah making funny noises, the Spirit was strong and I could feel that the Holy Ghost was testifying to me that this is what Erik is supposed to be doing and he will be a wonderful tool in the Lord’s hands to do much good in Portland, Oregon. After the setting apart, we took pictures and chatted for a moment with the Stake President. He said “Elder Jackson, I am excited for you…” Then he turned to us, the family, and said: “I am excited for you guys too!” I thought, that is strange, we are not going on a mission, why would Erik going on a mission be exciting for us too. Then I realized. I have always heard that the family of the missionary serving is blessed as much as the missionary serving. But now I get to experience that for myself as my little brother is going to serve the Lord for two years on a mission. And I am excited for that. I know that I have a lot that I need to work on and I have a lot that I need help with from the Lord to improve and become better. And so extra blessings and help from the Lord is always welcome. I will miss Erik A LOT! But I am so excited for the experience that is ahead of him and ahead of us as his family.
I know the Lord will guide and bless and protect Erik on his mission. I know that this Church is true and I know Erik knows it, that is why he is going to proclaim it to the world. Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. He wants them all to know about the Atonement and repentance so that they too can come Home again. Thank you Erik for your testimony and your example. I love you.
Here are some pictures of Erik from our recent Holland and France trips:
Erik plays with the girls…they love him! Elsa calls him “bestuncle” and Leah gives him a huge smile every time he blows in her face. She does not do that with everyone.
While walking around Holland, Erik was very helpful in pushing my huge stroller around the cute towns we visited. He dubbed it the “land yacht”
At castle ruins in France
Making silly faces at Elsa through the window of the house we stayed at in France for spring break.
Erik played with Elsa in her baby tub…using it as a space ship. He would fly her around the room. Elsa would jump in and say to Erik “transport me!” (that green thing in her mouth is Leah’s teething pacifier)
Relaxing in the yard in France with Anne and Elsa.
On the beach with Mom and Anne in France watching the tide come in.
German eggs
Did you know that German chickens have stamps on their bums? They stamp their eggs as soon as they have them…
well, that is what my dad used to tell us. The eggs here in Germany have a pink stamp on them. Is that something unique to Germany or does some other country do that too?
I was boiling eggs today to decorate for Easter. Do you have any fun egg decorating ideas?
Here is a picture of what the girls were doing while I was cooking the eggs…playing nicely together.
Spring fun
Leah in her cute dress from Sister Turney.
When I was learning to crawl, I did a backwards scoot. Leah is keeping up the tradition, I guess. She is mobile…she scoots backwards very slowly until she gets stuck.
I actually did Elsa’s hair cute for church a few weeks ago. I bought some elastic hair ties that she cannot take out by herself, so it stayed in all through church. This is her watching a Veggie Tales movie while I was getting ready for church. If you have not seen the “Little Joe” Veggie Tales movie, I would highly recommend seeing it.
Last week we had visitors from Japan visit us. It was our adopted Japanese Grandma, Akemi and her niece. We went to many cool places during the 5 days they were with us. We drove to Rudesheim one day with the girls and our huge double stroller. It took about 10 minutes to pack the girls and all our stuff into the stroller. I love that thing. I don’t know how we would do any trips without it. Normally we have Elsa up front and Leah tucked into the back, but Elsa was getting winey so we made a tent for her in the back with her laying down. Leah did not mind getting to finally be up front and able to see everything.
This is an amazing little town in France called Riquewir. We hired some professional babysitters (thanks mom and Anne) to watch the girls while Casey and I with our visitors drove the 3 hour trip to walk around this old town. I love the tractor driving by these old buildings.
I love love this wall…I don’t know why. It is in Riquewir. It is begging to become a painting. I just get chills thinking about how awesome this painting would be…will be some day when I get back to painting. Isn’t it amazing!
My little brother Erik went to the Frankfurt Temple to get his endowments on March 20th. It was a wonderful session with family and many people from our ward. How amazing it is to be in the temple with your family. Anne was a wonderful babysitter for us again. She camped out in the van with the girls and even changed several explosive Leah diapers!
