7 Quick Takes Friday, #33

1. Last week, I set out some butter to make sugar cookies with a cute little pumpkin cookie cutter I wanted to use. I was way into the Spirit of Fall, and Mia was really excited to make pumpkin shaped cookies. Only, I kept running out of daylight. The butter would sit on the counter - softening - until bedtime when it'd go back in the fridge until morning when we'd begin the process all over again.

I set out the butter for 4 days in a row before finally getting the cookies made on Saturday morning. My plan was to make the orange frosting later that afternoon, so I set out more butter to soften for that purpose. You can guess what happened, right? I ran out of time. Other things caught my attention (blogs, books, sleep, the usual), and I didn't get around to it. I kept telling Justin not to eat the cookies - they needed orange frosting! - so he and the girls split one and left the rest. I set out butter again the next day. And the next. And the next. By the third day, I gave up. The willpower of my cookie fiends had run out days ago. There were only 2 cookies left, and they weren't worth making a whole batch of frosting for.

It has come to my attention that I'm a lazy, no good, procrastinating baker.

But this week...THIS WEEK...I'll try again. With a fresh batch of cookies that WILL be frosted if I have to fight off the cookie-fiends with my orange-tinted hands. Maybe it'll all be completed on the same day even. What a concept.

2.  Mia has been playing around a lot with rhyming lately. She just pops off with word combinations whenever the urge hits her, and usually they're pretty good. But then other times, she'll make up fake words just to get a quick rhyme out of the way. (Advise me: should I correct her, or just smile at her imagination?) A few days ago at dinner, she came up with some doozies.

"Dinner rhymes with pinner, mom!"

"Me and we!"

"Playground and a-ground!"

"Grass and a$#!"

"Shirt and turt!"

Justin and I each nearly snorted our forks down our throats in response to her most, um, vulgar rhyme. It sounded so precious coming out of her mouth, and she really had no idea that one of her pretend words was a real one. A really dirty one, at that. As far as I know, she's never heard that word in her life.

Before long, she thought mommy and daddy were laughing at her monstrous wit, so she continued with more unintelligible rhyming words - giggling over each one. Lauren joined in with shrieks and goofiness of her own. It was a good time all around.

3. We are so mature.

4. We've gotten into the habit lately of taking family walks after dinner several nights a week. They're just short trips around a few blocks, but it's been a good time for unwinding before bedtime. And I am a huge fan of unwinding before bedtime.

Last night, Mia brought me a bouquet from our neighbor's yard, and insisted I put it in a glass of water.

I, of course, obliged. Isn't it lovely?

5. On our walks, Lauren has become more and more challenging to corral along with us. It is SO clear that she's 18 months old now - wanting to explore every leaf and acorn and crack in the road. She refuses to let us hold her hand, so keeping her moving in a forward direction is an exercise in madness.

I want to let her wander and discover and touch every beautiful, natural thing that catches her eye, but...I also want to keep up with Mia and Justin who are far ahead, rounding the corner of the block while we are still comparing the merits of wet dead leaves versus dry. Then, when I give up on trying to patiently keep her both out of the middle of the street and away from the drainage ditches, I call out to Justin: "SWITCH!" He's got it easy; he just tosses her up on his shoulders for a high ride and off they go. But then, I've got it easy too, because Mia's a dream to take a walk with and we carry on, discussing the neighborhood as we go.

At least until Lauren starts bucking off of Justin's shoulders and whining about not being allowed to explore the neighbor's trash cans. At which point we start to question our decision to walk in the first place.

How is it that I can so quickly have forgotten what it's like to have a toddler this age?

6. Oh, but how 'bout this: Lauren can now sing her ABC's. She's a handful and a genius.

7. Mia drew a picture of our family this week. Only recently has she begun doing things like this, drawing anything other than random shapes which are supposed to look like the things she's imagining. I find it nothing short of fascinating and amazing.

I always looked at other kids' drawings like, 'Wow. That's...uh...that's really nice. I think hair is supposed to be brown, though, not purple.' In other words, I wasn't impressed. But now I've seen the error of my ways. It is simply astounding that this child - who I've watched learn to hold her head up, roll over, master the pincer grasp...walk, run, play...laugh, speak, sing - has grown up enough to draw a picture of her family.

But I get it if you only see a mass of scribbled lines below.

The biggest head with legs descending straight from the chin is Daddy. The circles on his cheeks are his stubble, or 'sticker face' as Mia calls it. I love how his arms are an umbrella over all of us. Mia and I are on either side of him, and Lauren is the tiny one in the corner with a perfect curly-cue on top of her head, if you can tell.

Isn't it just the most precious drawing you've ever seen?! I can totally see you all nodding your heads in sincere agreement. You're a smart bunch'a blog readers.

Since you're so smart, visit Conversion Diary and check out more Quick Takes to start your weekend off right. Tell 'em Heavenly sent you, and have a wonderful weekend!