Not-so-dreary January and February

January and February are usually my least favorite months of the year because the weather is cold and dreary, but this year we've been having a lot of fun despite not being able to go outside much.  Having a (usually) cheerful two year old around makes even the most mundane days more exciting!

The other day, I was looking for a fun indoor project for TongJie and decided to let him play with some dry noodles.  The only type we had were spaghetti noodles so I broke them up a little and he had a great time moving them into different containers.  It didn't take too long to sweep them up when he was done, but we kept finding noodles for a few days after that.  Since then we've gotten shell noodles, which are a lot easier to keep track of.

Last week at dinner, Jeff put on one of TongJie's bibs, much to the delight of TongJie.  When I tried to get a picture, however, TongJie was more interested in eating than he was in Daddy's bib.  He still loves to eat.

Speaking of eating, we finished the "Whole 30" at the end of January, so now we're eating more of a variety of foods again.  We decided, though, that we'd like to stick to a diet of less processed (more natural) foods, at least at home.  So we got rid of our sugar and flour.  We still have things like oatmeal and rice around, mostly for TongJie, but we're using only maple syrup and honey for natural sweeteners, and almond or coconut flour as substitutes for wheat flour.  Awhile ago, we saw a recipe for homemade marshmallows here and have been wanting to try it, so yesterday we did.  It was fun to make and turned out really good.  TongJie had a good time watching the process, and then licking a beater after I was done using the mixer.

  

We had to let the marshmallows sit for several hours to dry out before cutting, but now they're all done and cut into squares and look like this:

Me and Jeff are planning to try roasting a couple over our stovetop after TongJie is in bed to see if they react the same as store-bought marshmallows!  It's 8:45 and Jeff is still in TongJie's room trying to get him to sleep.  We've been taking turns staying in his room until he's asleep lately.  He didn't sleep well last night and then took a really long (and late!) nap this afternoon so we purposely put him to bed later than usual tonight, but it's still taking him awhile to wind down and fall asleep.

In other news, TongJie has been loving baths lately!  Filling the entire tub with water is still a little much for him, so we continue to use his plastic tub that we bought at Shopko last summer - we just fill up his little tub with water inside the bathtub and sometimes he's happy playing in there for over an hour.

TongJie has been having a great time at Grandma's on the days I'm teaching.  When I get him up in the mornings, he can tell now if it's a day that I have school, I think because he notices that I'm wearing nicer clothes (ha ha!) and I have my school ID badge on.  Then he usually points to me and signs "work," and when I tell him that he's right and I have to go to work, he signs "Grandma," and then "play."  He's got it figured out!  He's been helping Grandma make bread,

and cooking with his kitchen set that's at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

I love this picture where he's trying to feed the dog a piece of meat that he cooked:

Grandpa saved a nut container for TongJie, and you can tell how serious he is about opening and closing it.

Here is a picture of Jeff and TongJie at Starbucks last week:

And enjoying an apple before bed