4/52: Nursing Baby Dolls, Bagels, and Buttons

I walked in on Edith the other day, sitting in front of the wood stove, trying desperately to wrangle her baby doll into nursing position while simultaneously lifting up her dress... It just wouldn't work. She unceremoniously threw her doll headfirst onto the stone floor, lifted her dress, picked up her doll, and "latched" her one. It took every last ounce of willpower not to start laughing right then, because to Edith this was incredibly, absolutely serious. What does one do, after all, when one's wardrobe malfunctions and the baby is just not cooperating? I suppose there's a reason 3-year-olds aren't put in charge of real babies.

Edith's perch on the counter is such a regular sight (and was never a thing I did with any of the other kids but she is just so incredibly careful that I can trust her up there!), it will be weird when she's finally big enough that I can't let her sit pleasantly on the counter while I cook or do dishes. She finds whatever little odds and ends she can, often a saint statue or some measuring cups, and acts out elaborate scenes with them, none of which I'm allowed to watch openly or appreciate verbally. No, that would spoil everything. I must watch out of the corner of my eye and be very very careful not to smile or laugh lest she become self-conscious and cease her play!

I bought a little jar of buttons at the dollar store to put in her Christmas stocking, and she loves getting them out and making little "button families" to act out more very important scenes such as: going to Mass, going to atrium, going to the grocery store, going to the library. You can see what tops her list of "important places we go!"

I'm trying to decide if I have it in me to start baking all our bread, instead of baking about half of it and supplementing with cheap sandwich bread and bagels from Aldi. On the one hand, I don't think it would result in any money saved, because you really can't make a loaf of bread for cheaper than the $.85 they charge at Aldi. On the other hand, I'm fairly certain that the bread I bake is probably nutritionally more worthwhile than cheap bargain loaves so... We'll see. It does require the kids to not eat like the bottomless pits that they are, and to be more intentional about their consumption because once I've baked, that's that, and there won't be any more for several days so they'd better eat what's available!

I have noticed that this results in certain children who were never quite hungry enough to finish their dinner suddenly having bigger appetites, and we're definitely going through jam at a slower pace! Maybe this will be the year that my fervent summertime jam making is finally enough to sustain us until strawberries are back in season? They seem to have been making up the difference by eating more carrots, which is not a bad thing at all!

Do you have a favorite bread recipe that I should try? I've got sourdough and crusty bread down for sure, but we're still trying to find our favorite sandwich bread... So far the absolute favorite has been this brioche recipe but it's a little bit of a long process and seems far too decadent for anything but a special occasion!