dinner!

how many kids do you know cheer for dinner? mine does. not all the time, but often. i ask, will you help me make dinner? "dinner!" with arms raised, is the response from nissa. sure, it's just another example of potentially misplaced emphasis, but it's still a lot of fun. i get the same reaction for ride (car or stroller),walk (sometimes), pool, bath, park, maybe more. that's all i can think of right now.

we made chicken cacciatore last night and nissa helped! the last time i made something with mushrooms, i showed nissa how to slice them with the egg slicer (thanks, alton!). she took to it right away, and this time around knew exactly what to do. i'll help pull the mushrooms off after they're sliced, but otherwise she can do it all by herself. too bad the mushrooms were a bit aged yesterday; they were harder to slice. too bad nissa was hungry- cuz she kept eating them!



that happens often while i'm preparing dinner, though. nissa is always reaching over and helping herself to whatever veggies i'm cutting up. bell peppers and mushrooms are always popular (and get eaten). she'll take carrots and broccoli, but those end up getting spit out after a few minutes. while i was finishing up getting the chicken dish prepared, she was making her pepper bites jump, then was jumping herself. then we both would jump, and she added a "ready?" and she'd squat low, then i added a "1, 2, 3" after the ready, so we could jump at the same time. so fun.



while the chicken simmered and the pasta cooked, we decided to go into nissa's room to read a book to pass the time. we read books that had puppies in them, by request. the one book about animal babies has puppies on the first page, but a bunch of different animals too. the last page has a seal pup and an adult. no sooner did i turn the page, did nissa make a seal sound (aru aru) and clap her hands together. she picked up that little trick from riley doing it a couple of times in the pool saturday. i was impressed that she remembered that the seals on the page were the same that riley were imitating. maybe that's not that impressive? it seems like a lot to put together to me. not to mention, hilarious!

we sat down to dinner and nissa really put it away! i guess it's been a while since i made something she really liked (and she hadn't eaten a full banana right before dinner) so it was nice to see her enjoying dinner at the table. of course it did get old with her exaggerated chomping noise after each bite, but she's eating nicely otherwise, so i let it slide. she also announced most of her bites: noodle, pepper, mushroom, chicken. after cleaning her plate, she still had room for more when daddy came home. daddy does have a hard time eating around nissa- she is insistent for a "bite" at all times.

after dinner we went for a walk and nissa pushed her stroller down richmond and up half a block down belle plaine. that's the farthest she's walked (at a decent clip too) that i can think of. she even walked a bit at the park too. like gibson, nissa has been doing a good job of walking by me, but occasionally she will wander off. not the end of the world, but at the park, where there's joggers, bikers, little league games, i'd prefer her close to me. we're getting there.

just before bed nissa started playing with her blocks box (colored, shaped blocks that go into shaped holes in the box). it seems whenever we mention "time for bed" that's nissa's signal to rock on her horse, slide down the slide, play with any toy she can get her hands on. i was impressed to see her put the oval shape into the oval hole (previous interactions involved me showing her what hole a piece goes into, and nissa attempting to shove it in, usually successfully). she picked up the clover shape next, but that is on the lid (on the floor behind her) so after i put it back on the box, she put that shape through too.

i'm excited to report our friends had their baby! carina grace joined the world earlier today and we can't wait to meet her.