Baking bread as a family

When Michael made bread this week Tovina helped and made her very own loaf.

It was 2 inches in diameter.
Though it is hard to tell from her joyous expression, she was quite proud of the results and forsaking larger bread options, only had eyes for 'her' loaf. She even broke it into 2 parts to enjoy with her meal.

Eventually the camera did convince Tovina to actually express some of her joy.

2 bows

Remember how we said T put 2 hairbands with bows in her hair a week or so ago? Well she managed to do it again. Not quite the look she achieved last time but still a winner!

Aunt Sheila told me I had to remove at least one of them before taking Tovina out in public. Spoil sport.

Resting on Shabbat

This past Shabbat we enjoyed our day of rest. Michael even caught a very rare nap. (Rare because he doesn't like them not because some midget who lives in our house prevents them.) Tovina decided that a napping Daddy needed some extra attention so she selfishly gave him some.


And then Tovina realized that she found quietly resting really boring.

Luckily Michael was able to sleep through it all.

Baby Doll

On our previous trip to PA, Tovina brought back a slighly aged baby doll. Yesterday she started carrying it around, feeding it bottles, changing its clothes, and in general giving it all kinds of love and attention. Today I went and dug out the doll swing for her.



Poor Tovina was kept up all night by the doll and was left so exhuasted that she ended up pushing it while laying on the ground.... or maybe I am projecting some personal recollection as T really only pushed the doll for about 10 minutes.

Red tailed Tovina

Tovina was prepping for a rousing rendition of grey squirrel. The actual performance will hopefully be recorded and presented here for your pleasure at a later date.

Nice kitty

In a fit of random energy, Tovina spent time chasing some poor kitties that ran from her in shear terror. Eventually, using their stealth, speed, and 4 strong legs versus T's 2 our pets were able to escape.
Thwarted, Tovina turned instead to her stuffed kitty and gave it some love and attention. (She may have been trying to show Roxanne and Cyrano that such love was her only intention. The cats did not seem taken in and I must say that I agree with them.)
This was followed by T spending significant time pretending to be a cat - which mostly consists of asking for food. No idea where she got the idea that constantly asking for food is what cats do best.

Bows

Tovina has developed a fondness for hair bows. We tend to indulge her.

She was getting annoyed though because we told her we thought 1 bow was enough but she really wanted 2 (see the white hair band in her hands?)

We gave in and I must confess - she was right, 2 bows was definitely a good look for her.

Trapped at McDonalds

I've been mentioning the local cousins a lot so here is a picture stolen.. oops, i mean borrowed from Dan and Cindy's blog.
Here is some of the bunch crammed together and mugging for Sheila's cell phone.

You should have seen Emma and Brendan pulling and pushing (respectively) Tovina up the indoor playground/jungle-gym 1 1/2 foot tall steps. When they got bored of doing that Tovina found a 5 year old stranger who was excited to shove Tovina up the stair-like obstacles.

Productive weekend

This weekend, in addition to spending some quality family time with each other and cousins, we
- modified and hung a book shelf in T's room (she helped level the shelf, drill the holes with her toy power-drill, and supervise in general)
- cleaned out the ashes of the fireplace (T did not help with this one)
- caught some household rodents (this was all Michael - my brave husband)
- sealed some leaky (as in air) windows and doors
- mended clothing (T was allowed to hand me buttons and play with the thimbles)
and in general feel pretty smug about actually accomplishing something.

But we won't let it go to our heads as we are unlikely to repeat this anytime soon.

Quality time

T and Zaida shared a lot of activities over the holidays.

To be fair, the reason that Zaida was so tired was that T ran him ragged.