By Self

LB's shirt is on backwards and inside-out because she put it on all by herself. She worked so hard at getting it on; she even took it off a couple of times when it wasn't going well to start over and give it another shot. There was not one bit of help from Mama nor from Papa, even though she put up quite the struggle pulling it over her head. It was a real challenge getting it over that big noggin, and she even started crying, but when I tried to intervene and lend a helping hand, she said firmly, "No help. By self," and pulled and yanked until she got it over. Tom and I are so proud of our Lilybeth, her accomplishment, and her perseverance.

LB was so pleased with her new found independence that she decided to try a couple of other things by herself, like reading her own bedtime story,
and putting on her pajama bottoms (which she got on backwards, but not inside-out).

I told her I wanted to take a picture for Grandma, so that G could see what she did all by herself, so she made this face for the photo,
but then decided that she wanted to take the picture "by self" and got angry when I said she was too little to take a picture of herself.
Today, she also got to work on her "paper," proving that it is never too early to get started on one's dissertation.

And now that my own dissertation is so very, very close to being done, I can start to do more things that I didn't have much time for before, like cooking. My goal is to try out one new recipe a week, and so this week's recipe was spinach frittata. Tom and I tried to make a frittata before, but it didn't cook properly (all gooey on top but burnt on the bottom). But then, when I was visiting Sheila in May, I saw that she put her frittata in the broiler to finish cooking it and melt the cheese. Putting it in the broiler made absolute sense and worked perfectly, and so the Alliance had a delicious dinner.