Mittens and fallen snow

When I was in first grade we read the book "the Mitten" by Jan Brett. The beautiful story and enchanting illustrations have stuck with me my entire life. It is about a mole who finds a mitten and crawls in... and he is followed by every animal in the forest until ultimately a tiny brown mouse is the straw that breaks the camel's back... or mitten. I now own this book for Anastasia and have read many of Jan Brett's other books courtesy of the library and have not been disappointed by a single one of them. In fact, I love reading them... even when I am having to read them over and over and over again. They are also great for Anastasia because she LOVES animals and enjoys pointing them all out and naming them.

I decided today that Santa would bring one of Jan Brett's books for each of the girls for Christmas. The books are so magical and comforting, most with a wintry theme so I thought they would seem like something elves would send to little kiddies for Christmas... if they are good of course. Anyhow, I was thinking the other day how nice a calender of Jan Brett's illustrations would be. I ended up at the author's website: www.janbrett.com where I found a free printable calender and a million other wonderful things like coloring pages and games, etc. I highly recommend you read her books, which you can find as little as 1 cent on Amazon (plus 3.99 shipping) and go to her website.

I also think I might have solved Isabel's fuss problem. I cut out milk and cut back on coffee already and it seemed she still got really upset in the evenings usually within 10 minutes of me nursing her. It seemed that when she ate again, she would get even angrier so I knew it had to be something I am eating. Well I think it is eggs! Weird huh? Eggs have become my lunch of choice since I can't have cheese or anything slathered with delicious cheese. At least I don't have to completely give up coffee, my most favorite beverage in the world.

I have been pretty lame about blogging lately, but I have had a lot of company lately (which has been great!) and have been trying to craft in my spare time. I did want to share a quick story: I was walking out of the library last week and this 70 year old woman commented on Anastasia's curly hair. First she asked me, "is her hair naturally curly?" which I have been asked about 20 times by people. If I wasn't a nice person I think it would be funny to just say, "no I torture my toddler by curling her hair everyday!" I assured the lady that it was in fact naturally curly and then she turned and looked at Isabel and her eyes got huge, "That baby has red hair!! I have never seen a baby with red hair!!!" She seemed really excited about that. I guess at 70ish it is probably rare that you come by something you haven't seen before.