Perfect Puzzles

A few years ago I posted here about Kid O puzzles, the most aesthetically awesome and most practical puzzles on earth. But when Freida was actually ready for them, they seemed to be discontinued and I couldn't find them anywhere! On my latest trip to Scottsdale I scored the "fractions" puzzle for $3 in my favorite kids consignment shop "KID to KID" (seriously, I think about driving to Arizona just to shop there!!), and Freida is now totally hooked on fractions!

Seeing how well-made and kid-loved this puzzle is got me searching once more for the rest of the original Kid O puzzle family  (on the Kid O website there are plenty of puzzles, but none even come close to the greatness of their originals!). And so, after a wild web hunt, I managed to track down most of their versions somewhere online. Here they are, grab 'em while you can:

Narrow to Wide Puzzle, Short to Tall Puzzle, Fractions Puzzle, Shades Puzzle. Enjoy!

She sure does!! :)

Fall Soup

Fall tends to bring with it a myriad of colds, flus, and generally runny noses. My kids have been sick non-stop this season! Freida's teacher keeps telling me it's because it's her first year in preschool, subject to so many different germs and bugs etc. but when it's late at night and the coughing ensues, again!, I find myself wondering about her immune system capabilities... And Hudi naturally picks up whatever big sister is carrying. It's been messy. And while they've been on a constant round of Vitamin C, Sambucus (thanks Rachey!), Multi-Vs, Echinacea, and Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark Syrup :) the sniffles are still as elusive as ever. So we've been trying some "healing through food" via organic autumn garden bounty.

I've been sautéing up (any seasonal goodness I can get my hands on at the farmers market or in the organic section at Trader Joes), boiling, blending, and seasoning all month long. Seriously anything goes. Start with onion-y things like garlic, onions, leeks etc. and make your way through any variety of autumn root vegetables like squash, pumpkin, yams, turnips, parsnips etc. throw in some apples, break out your immersion blender and add a shot of curry, maple, or cinnamon. Serve up hot with a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds, toasted croutons, or even some raisins to get little palates tasting!

And of course, if you're not feeling the random spontaneous ingredient mashup, here is a link to 10 wonderful fall vegetable soups!

Sisters, Girls, Cousins

To me, there is really nothing quite like having sisters. I know I've posted about this before, but I'm just so grateful for the relationship and friendship that I have with my sisters. (And now, with my sister-in-laws as well!) And that's just the beginning. When my sister and I were pregnant together during our previous batch of children, I gave birth to a girl and 7 days later she had a boy. It was so wonderful and so much less lonely raising these kids together (even though we live apart). We would call each other about each and every stage of teething, colds, walking, biting, weaning etc. And it was never boring since everything about it was so relevant to each of us! And for me, being a first-time-mom, the experience of sharing was priceless. Getting together was always so much fun since our kids had a perfect playmate - same age, same stage - here's an example. But! When we got pregnant together again, and both gave birth to girls... well, this is just a completely different story!

Our recent trip home to Skokie was just a little foresight into the future. We had such a great time hanging out together, showing off our little ladies while shopping the local fashion joints, sharing their clothes, splitting boxes of adorable little baby socks and other unnecessary sh*t. :) I'm so much looking forward to watching their pint-size friendship blossom, and helping cultivate its growth via lots of trips through the desert and plenty vacationing together. Sisterhood is such a wondrous thing, and I hear having a same-age, same-sex cousin is just as glorious. So! Here's to sisters, girls, and cousins!!

P.S. How delish is Hudi's perpetual bedhead? And Rivka's little sky resort gettup? :))

Wild in Bed

I had been coveting this image of a chic black, white, and natural nursery since I pinned it about a year ago! And (thanks to SwissMiss!) I've finally discovered where one can get their hands on this actual bedding! Hit up this Danish shop to check out some seriously rad bedding for kids and home goods for adults. Seriously, is this not the most awesome boys bedding ever??

Daylight Savings

Early mornings come a dime a dozen in this household. There's this thing I have about sleep-training babies; when they wake up anytime after 5am, I go and get them and start the day. Trying to put them back to bed at 5:30 always seems to backfire (either they continue to cry until 6 - which usually means they were ready to rise, or they fall back to sleep for a few hours - shifting their naptime further into the day, defeating the entire sleep-training purpose of a scheduled routine!), and so  when my little loves wake at 5:45 I'm at their bedside with a bright (fake!) smile and good morning hugs and kisses.

The months leading up to the hour "fall back" were dark, dreary, and dreadful; I despised having to wake up and play with Hudi when the black of night was creeping in from the window! It didn't matter how warm and rich my coffee was, or how many hours of good sleep I got, it was miserable to be up in such a state. It was at least an hour of pitch-blackness before I could even open the blinds and let in the first little rays of sunlight...

So while everyone was busy complaining about how early their kids would be waking up, I was so excited about the light the morning hours would be graced with that I just didn't care about the fact that 6 was really 5 - I just wanted to open those blinds and wake to the daylight! To me, there's nothing yummier than warm golden sunshine streaming through the slightly-frosted windows, illuminating the little tuft of bedhead on the back of my babies sweet little head as she crawls around the playroom searching for the mornings most exciting toy, while I sip a freshly-brewed cappuccino and listen to the mellow stream of my kids Pandora playlist, waiting for Freida's bright morning face to appear in the doorway. Priceless.