Trash Walkin

One of Eslie's new things is throwing garbage away in the trash. So why not? It excites her enough to even walk! (FINALLY at 14 months!!) Still crawling, yes, but we are making the transition! :D

Mini Corndog Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2 C. melted butter
1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs
1 C. buttermilk
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 C. cornmeal
1 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
8-10 hotdogs cut into 1" bites

Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk together. Add eggs and mix well. Then whisk in the buttermilk.

In a separate bowl combine the baking soda, cornmeal, flour and salt. Then add the buttermilk mixture and mix well.

Spray your mini muffin pan and add 1 Tbsp. mixture to each cup. Press a slice of hotdog in the middle of each filled cup.

Bake at 350° for 8-12 minutes.

These turned out perfectly and taste just like corndogs, only bite-size! Even the leftovers the next day were great. Definitely keeping this one. Would be fun for appetizers too!

What Does The Fox Say?!

We have been working with Eslie on her animal noises for a while now. I mean, if she can't say a whole lot of real words yet, why not at least know your animal sounds?

Most of the time working on these animal noises consists of Eslie grunting while pointing to an animal. I respond with whatever the animal is, such as "frog" and then make the animal sound..."ribbit." She usually stares at me, grunts for me to do it again, or simply nods her head "yes."

FINALLY this week she has shown that my seemingly endless efforts to respond to her cave-woman speech might actually be getting through! She saw a monkey and when I said "monkey" she responded with "ah ah oo oo!" HOORAY!! Backwards, yes. But its a monkey sound nonetheless! :D

We were practicing her wooden puzzles today and she showed me the piece with the cat, so I responded with "cat" and she let out a loud "eOWW! eOWW!" Yes, perhaps the cat is attacking her and causing her pain, but again, it is progress! :D

Getting to be a part of this little girl's life and watching her learn and discover all the things around her has been the best adventure. Ever.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what the fox says, it barks kind of like a dog. According to one of our books anyway ;)

The real queation is: What does the Giraffe say?!

New Year. 2014

Resolution #1: Keep up with this crazy blog! I always say I am going to get back into it, and it always dies. Within a day. Hopefully changing that to keep people better updated on our lives!

Resolution #2: Take more pictures. I know one day I will be glad I captured more of those special memories, and they always make the scrapbooks more fun to put together.

Resolution #3: More family activities. We haven't really 'tried' to do many yet with Eslie being young and somewhat difficult to cart around and work around her eating/sleeping schedule. But now that she is one and very interested in doing new/different things, we will definitely have to explore our options :)

Resolution #4: Get Eslie walking. Period.