Alida update

The little gal is sleeping (which is the only reason I can sit here typing) and what am I doing - blogging about her and watching little video clips of her. I guess we don't get enough of her in her waking hours...  She is one busy girl these days.  She now has a full mouthful of 20 teeth, her vocabulary has exploded and she has quite the sense of humor as this first video will show.  Her little "what?....ahhh" routine is a current favorite:



She is loves to stand on things - small things.  And in the case of the toy pictured here, she found a new way to play with it without her hammer.



And, finally, Kali's birthday (which I hope to at least report on briefly in my 3rd post of the evening) could have been Alida's birthday as she was quite fond of the county fair. We even paid for her to have an armband to go on the rides, though she was too short for most of them.  When we finally went to the barn with the cows in it towards the end of the evening, we realized that that was where she would have gladly spent her entire evening, running up and down the long hallway pointing out all the cows to us.  Here she is petting the cows from the very herd where we get our milk. 



Thankfully Alida still very much enjoys doing things with me in the kitchen - if that ends, I'm in trouble (or let's hope it hits in the winter and not canning season).  She is quite the "helper" peeling garlic or better yet taking things to the compost for me.  It's still a bit of a balancing act to start AND complete a canning project with her in tow, but we are finding our way, and normally all feeling pretty cheery throughout. 

This week I put in a 50-60 hour work week due to new student orientation for the graduate program.  It felt like LONG days.  Most evenings (into the night) were spent canning and freezing.  This week we've put up pesto, salsa, peaches, peach rhubarb jam, green beans, pickles, and okra.    We've been grateful for some extra adult hands around every now and then, for chopping or playing with the girls.  I had a hunch I would enjoy community living again, but I'm even surprised how fulfilling and fun it has been!