Baby blog updated

Check out how much she weighed at her appointment today.

Christmas cookie disaster

I don't enjoy baking, and I'm not good at it, so I don't know why I even attempted a new recipe. The only things I can bake are my aunt's sugar cookies, and even those didn't work with all the humidity here. Sigh.

I wanted to make Christmas cookies for the women I visit teach, and I found the cutest reindeer cookies online.

I've always loved peanut butter/Hershey Kiss cookies, but I had no idea there was such an art to making this type of cookie. There really, really is.

Here's what the cookies are supposed to look like. Adorable, aren't they!

Here are mine.

They look like orcs.

The pretzel antlers didn't even attempt to stick, and the cookies collapsed around the M&M noses. And then I moved the cookies to the cooling rack. Disaster quadrupled.

Do you see the antler carnage? Yikes.

So I made better, less cute use of the random bazillion Christmas M&Ms we now have.

Slightly better, but still ugly. I'm not sure I'm going to embarrass myself by giving them away. The cookies taste ok, though they're really dry. How I managed to make too-dry cookies on a rainy Hawaiian afternoon is beyond me.

The first batch got relegated to the Plate of Shame.

The ugliest cookie ever says Merry Christmas. ;)

The joys of babyhood

Do you remember this song? It is one of the few Sesame Street songs I have remembered and loved for years; I sing it to Nadine quite often. She'll be so retro and cool.

It got me thinking about the other things parents do to try to jump-start their kids' learning. In addition to the nerdiness of me singing a Sesame Street song I learned when I was little, we also bought a few toys for Nadine because she is tracking and focusing on things.

We bought these ADORABLE hand and wrist bugs, in colors infants and babies can see. They don't do her much good now, and she doesn't notice them, but they make me so excited for when she'll realize her feet and hands actually belong to her. And that her feet have fun toys on them.

We also got this ginormous peacock to hang from her car seat. I thought the bird was so blasted cute, with all the colors and layers. And though I knew Nadine can't see the colors yet, at least there was something she could look at during the few moments she's awake in the car.

But then we opened the package and saw the back of the peacock.

Genius! "Colors" a newborn can see, with fun patterns. What a cool toy.

So, I'm sure these toys, songs, etc. won't necessarily quicken her progression, but I know it can't hurt to stimulate her brain as much as possible. Plus, it's just so fun.

Do you guys have any "smarty" things your babies/kids enjoy?

Baby blog updated