Making The Yummiest Applesauce

I've been having a fun, busy Fall Break with the girls this week...busy enough to fill up a couple of blog posts, I'd wager. This post, however, will begin with an announcement...I'm ALL DONE with my canning for the year! Rejoice, rejoice! How appropriate that my final canning project should be a food my kids are crazy about--applesauce!

I bought many many apples; they took up a lot of space on my counter

This week, I was flattered to hear a friend call my applesauce "legendary." It was very nice of her to say, but I think she is overstating the matter. I think anyone can make "legendary" applesauce, because applesauce is actually one of the easier foods to can at home. Sure, it's a bit time-consuming, but not at all complicated. So this post is mostly for canning "newbies," or just for people who like applesauce...because trust me, my applesauce is not special. I hope this mini-tutorial will show you how easy it is to do!

The reason I canned applesauce this particular week is that the Jonathan apples were on sale at the local Sunflower Market (69 cents a pound...hooray! A great deal for any apples, let alone Jonathans). I like to wait for the Jonathan apple sale to start my canning, because Jonathans make (in my opinion) the best applesauce hands down! Granted, I like my applesauce a little bit tart, so that's where I'm coming from. However, if you prefer your applesauce sweeter, then I recommend using Fuji apples. They are sweeter than Jonathans, but are also nice and crisp and thus hold up well under the boiling/canning process (plus, they're usually easier to find on sale).

The following canning instructions will be the same, regardless of what type of apple you use. First, wash off all your apples:

Here are all the apples I bought. I hoped to can about three batches (each batch is about 6 pints). First, you have to boil the apples and add some seasoning. To make boiling a little easier, I like to core and cut the apples.

Using my Pampered Chef apple slicer makes cutting the apples a lot easier. You'll notice the apples aren't peeled, contrary to what a lot of recipes recommend. I don't peel my apples for several reasons, the most important of which is that I'm lazy and peeling apples is time-consuming. When I'm canning other apple products (sliced apples, apple pie filling), I will peel the apples, but since I puree the cooked apples anyway, I figure leaving the skins on just saves time. In addition, the apple peel will add color to your finished applesauce; this is another reason I like using Jonathan apples, because their red skins give the applesauce a beautiful rosy color. On a nutritional level, leaving the peel on will probably add some needed fiber to your finished product. Either way, I've never peeled my apples for applesauce and my kids have never complained, so I'm not about to start now.

After cutting the apples, I throw them all into my deep cooking pot (it's 20 quarts). A full pot will yield one batch of applesauce; you'll need about 8 pounds of apples (18-24 apples or so) to make one batch.

When the pot is about half full, I throw in a bunch of cinnamon (my original recipe calls for a few "cinnamon sticks," but I never have those laying around, so powdered cinnamon it is!). I admit I rarely measure the amount here, but I'd estimate that about one to two tablespoons of cinnamon will be sufficient for the batch, depending on your taste. I like to add the cinnamon in the "middle" of the pot so it can distribute the flavor faster through the whole pile of apples. Sometimes when I'm feeling extra ambitious I even add a teaspoon or two of nutmeg, since that's what my mother always put in our applesauce when I was growing up. For this recipe, though, nutmeg is optional. Cinnamon is not!

After adding the spices, I keep piling the apples in there until they're just about to overflow the pot. Then, I put in about three or four cups of water, to keep the apples on the bottom of the pot from scorching.

Then I put the lid on the pot, and turn the heat onto medium high or so. You'll need to stir the apples regularly (at least every 5 minutes or so). It will take a while for the whole pot to boil down (45 minutes to an hour, depending on your stove). At this point, your house will begin to smell really nice...just like fall! This smell is one of my favorite parts of the applesauce-making process.

Keep stirring up the apples until all of them are evenly cooked (when not stirring, keep the pot covered). The apples should all be soft and slightly mushy (but not disintegrating or falling apart) when touched. There will be lots more liquid at the bottom of the pan when it's all done.

After the apples are all cooked down, it's time to puree them. I use my handy-dandy Ninja blender; before I got the Ninja, though, I still preferred my blender to my food processor. In my experience, the blender gives the applesauce a smoother texture. You may have to experiment with your appliances to see what works best. My original recipe recommended running the apples through a food mill or sieve. I only did that the first time I made applesauce and I have to say, I didn't like the results. I've preferred the blender style ever since. However, don't be afraid to try different methods, depending on what's available. What doesn't work for me may work very well for you!

Be sure to add some of the liquid to the blender along with the apples and blend away! You will probably have to blend the apples in batches. Pour the pureed apples into a large, wide container like this one:

After you've blended up all the apples, you need to add sugar. My original recipe called for about 3/4 cup to 1 1/4 cups of sugar. I usually use right around 1 cup, maybe a little less if I'm in the mood for tarter applesauce.

 I've heard you can make canned applesauce with no sugar at all, but I've never tried this method, since I feel sugar is helpful in preserving the applesauce for a longer period of time. For this reason, I also don't recommend canning with sugar substitutes like Splenda or aspartame either. Has anyone out there ever used Stevia brand sweetener in canning? Has anyone canned without any sweetener at all? If you have, please let me know...your input is very welcome!

Once you've stirred the sugar into the applesauce, it's time to pour it back into the cooking pot and start reheating the applesauce:

You will want to stir the applesauce constantly, so it doesn't burn. After just a few minutes, the whole mixture will be nice and bubbly (be careful the hot stuff doesn't splash all over you!); at this point, the applesauce will be ready to go. Time to get out your clean jars and lids!

Carefully fill your jars, leaving about a half-inch of space at the top of each jar. Once the lid has been tightly screwed on, it's time to process the jars in your canner (remember, mine is a steam canner; a hot-water-bath canner will also work well).

Pint jars need to be fully processed for 15 minutes; quart jars need to be processed for 20 minutes. A perfect time to clean off your counters and dishes from all the sticky apple juice laying around everywhere! After the processing time is complete, I like to leave the jars inverted for a little while, just to make sure the hot applesauce helps seal the jar. Probably not a necessary step, but I'm paranoid that way.

Look at that beautiful pinkish color! And the taste...mmm.

I ended up with four pint jars and nine quart jars; approximately 22 total pints. In other words, just a little more than a full triple batch, based on my original recipe. If I'd had more cans left empty, I would have bought more apples! However, I have Fuji applesauce left over from earlier in the year, so I think we're set on applesauce for the next several months, at least.

Here's how many apples were left over after making all that applesauce. Into the fridge they went, to be used for snack time later! And into my pantry went the jars of applesauce, to be greedily devoured sometime in the future. There was a little leftover applesauce that didn't make it into any jars...let's just say it didn't last long!

I hope this helps out any beginning canners who are frightened of making applesauce. It's a slightly sticky job, and may require a few hours to finish a couple of batches, but the results are very delicious. Let me know how your batches turn out!

I Love To See The Temple...I'll Go Inside Someday (In TUCSON!)

This morning my family sat down to watch the LDS Semiannual General Conference. For my non-Mormon friends, General Conference is a televised series of meetings (which happen twice a year) in which the leaders of our church give talks on a variety of gospel-related subjects. Church business is also taken care of at these meetings, such as announcing newly called and recently released church officers, and occasionally announcing new church policy as well.

And there were a couple of doozies announced at this conference...particularly if, like us, you live in the Tucson, AZ area.

The largest bit of news (the news that will most affect the church as a whole) was that the eligibility age for all missionaries has been lowered. In other words, young men are now able to begin serving their two-year missions once they turn eighteen (previously, the minimum age was nineteen). Young women can now become sister missionaries when they turn nineteen (the previous age was twenty-one); to me, this was a bigger adjustment and a pleasant surprise.

This tells me a lot of things about the church. For one thing, the church is getting serious about getting lots of young men and women worthy to serve missions. The church wants parents and families to start spiritually, socially, and mentally preparing their children earlier and better than they may currently be doing. The church wants to get more missionaries serving in the field, and this is a great way to do it. Apparently, the MTC sojourn for all missionaries will be reduced by one-third as well, which will further accelerate the entry of young men and women into the mission field.

This also tells me the church wants to shorten or eliminate the potentially dangerous "waiting period" between the time a young man graduates from school, and the time he is eligible to serve. I know one young man who cooled his heels for the year after his school graduation, waiting to go on his mission--he would be the first missionary from his family. Then, just weeks before he was to enter the MTC, he slipped up, had a moral transgression, and sadly had to delay his mission by another whole year. I suspect lots of people know young men and women in very similar situations! Luckily, my friend was ultimately able to serve a full, honorable mission. However, many other young men in similar situations are lost along the way and fall prey to various temptations of the adversary. Enabling young men to begin their adulthood immediately, by serving the Lord on a mission, will set these elders on a righteous path as soon as possible and teach them right away how to be responsible priesthood holders and mature adults.

As for the age reduction for sister missionaries...well, I am very excited about that news too, for many reasons! First and foremost, I think it will encourage a lot more young women to serve missions. Having sisters wait until 21 was not necessarily a bad thing, but it implied that women needed to do "other" things first (like get an education/get married/etc.). I would humbly submit that serving a mission can be just as essential in helping a young woman prepare for her future as any of those other things. Having a constant companion, living away from one's childhood home, serving her fellow men and women, and teaching the gospel...all these things prepare a young woman for life as a married woman and as a mother. Serving as a missionary also teaches young people how to stay focused mentally, and improves his or her work ethic and goal-setting skills. Such things come in very handy when someone is planning on attending college, and will certainly give returned missionaries a leg up on other, less prepared students.

I realize that women are not under an obligation to serve an LDS mission (young men, as priesthood holders, are strongly encouraged to serve, while sisters are welcomed but not expected to serve). However, letting women serve at 19 opens up that option to a lot of sisters who may be "on the fence" about it. Some of my college girl friends were dead-set on serving missions...then school, jobs, and marriage got in the way and not all of them made it. None of them regretted the course their lives took, but if they'd been allowed to serve at 19, I have no doubt they would have made it...and they would have been awesome missionaries, too! Now, women like my wonderful friends will get that chance. And maybe my own daughters, someday, will also have that chance. I don't want to pressure any of my girls to go, but I definitely want them to at least consider going. I have no doubt a mission would be a wonderful opportunity for all my daughters.

Speaking on a totally personal level, serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of the best decisions I ever made. I was one of those "on the fence" girls as I entered college, who had a negative opinion of sister missionaries (for some reason) and who wanted to focus on finishing college and getting married, not necessarily in that order. Back then, I thought about myself a little too much, and I was full of aspirations, attitude, arrogance, and drama. Then, I made many friends at BYU (smart, beautiful, talented friends) who wanted to serve missions, and I wondered why. This made me start thinking about what would be best for my personal development, and what would make me a better person (see how this is still all about me?). Gradually, I realized that a mission would be both an adventure and a wonderful opportunity to do some good.

Of course, serving a mission in Moscow, Russia, turned out to be all that and more. I am not a perfect person at all, but the mission helped me be a darn sight better. I learned to forget myself, go to work, and serve others selflessly. I learned to stand up for my beliefs, and learned to rely more on the Lord. My testimony of the living gospel was forged through struggle, trial, and triumph. I saw first-hand the way the gospel of Jesus Christ changed lives for the better. I learned patience, faith, perseverance, hope, tolerance, optimism, organization, diligence, compassion, and more. I learned how to be a better listener. I learned how to deal with many different types and kinds of people. I learned how to cook, clean, and sew better. I learned to stop being an impatient control freak, and start being a patient tool of the Almighty.

Not to sugar-coat things...serving a mission was hard. And there were days I hated it. But I have never regretted doing it, because it made me a better, more Christlike person. The mission enabled me to help other people and serve them, in ways big and small, and it helped me to always seek out the good in others. If those are the very least things a missionary gains from his or her mission, than that mission has been a success, and that person will come home ready to make their community and their family better and stronger. I wish all future missionaries that level of success, and I hope these new, (slightly) younger missionaries can have these same beneficial experiences.

So, the missionary announcement was the "big one" at conference this weekend. However, there was an announcement just before that one that was even more exciting--at least in our household. President Monson announced the building of two new temples...one in Peru, and one in TUCSON, ARIZONA.

Big YAHOO! As you can imagine, this sent up a huge cheer all over the Old Pueblo. We had some friends over that morning, and they stood up and cheered out loud at the announcement. I actually kept quiet...mostly because I was in shock. Happy shock, but still! I couldn't believe the church was finally remembering our little corner of Arizona.

We've lived in Tucson for more than nine years now. When Nathan and I first moved here, we had no kids, no home, no friends, and no job. We barely knew anybody down here. We were also surprised and a  little disappointed to find out how far away the temple was from here. It usually took us at two hours to drive the 100+ miles from Tucson to the temple in Mesa, Arizona...in 2003, that road was a narrow, crowded freeway with little more than desert in between the two cities. Even a "short" temple trip was at least 7 hours (the drive up, the temple session, and the drive back).

In our nine years in Tucson, Nathan has gotten his master's degree and now has a good, stable job. We've had three wonderful children. We've bought a beautiful house in a neighborhood we love. Ironically, these many blessings also make getting to the temple even more difficult. Over that time, the freeway has been widened, but we've moved further south to Sahuarita, and our commute has increased by another 20 minutes or so. The kids don't enjoy the long ride, and it's hard to figure out what to do with them once we're in Mesa (we don't have many friends up there, and in the summer when the weather is hot we can't just wait outside with them while one of us is in the temple). Add onto that the ballooning gas prices over the last couple of years, and our increasingly busy schedules (not to mention the fact that the Mesa Temple is often overcrowded and slightly stressful). We confess that a trip to the temple has become a rare, daunting endeavor that we only do two or three times a year. We know many wonderful, faithful families who make it up to Mesa on a monthly basis. We are grateful for those families, but we are not as awesome as them! It has become easy for us to make excuses and miss out on more regular temple attendance.

As the years have gone by, and as the church has announced two new temples in the Phoenix area ("overlooking Tucson," as we saw it), we became resigned to the fact that long temple trips were going to be the way of things for the rest of our lives. We tried to put a positive spin on it, but in the back of our minds, we've always been a little sad and wistful, hoping that maybe someday we'd be remembered by the leaders of the church. Now, at last that day is here! I realize the temple won't be finished for a few years, but just having a goal to look forward to is incredibly exciting and inspiring.

This announcement has reminded me of how much the temple has meant to me throughout my life. The day I went through the temple was one of the most peaceful (yet powerful) spiritual experiences of my life. Since then, I have always relied on the temple as a special place where I could escape from life's craziness, and find time to spiritually commune with our Father in Heaven. I have had prayers answered in the temple. I have done family history work in the temple. Most of all, I was married to my beloved husband in the Denver Temple and made covenants there to follow Christ forever and raise my family in righteousness. Now that a temple is coming to my hometown, I feel like I've been given a new tool to inspire myself and my children to live Christlike lives.

We have had a lot of blessings come our way lately. After four and a half years in Sahuarita (and more than three years after the formation of the Sahuarita Stake), our stake center is nearing completion. It will have an Open House and dedication in November, and we are very excited to have such a large, beautiful building to meet in. And now, we have two more Open Houses to look forward to! The temple in Gilbert, Arizona (another Phoenix suburb) will probably be sometime next spring, and then our community can begin preparing for its own House of the Lord to be constructed.

So, in summation...this General Conference has really gotten me excited for the future. I don't know exactly what I plan to do with myself once the kids are all in school all day...maybe go back to school for a master's degree, maybe find a part-time job, or maybe even a combination of both. However, I know one thing I definitely want to do...I want to be a temple worker!! I hope and pray this goal can come to pass once Tucson's temple finally opens its doors.

Wake Me Up When September Ends...

...Isn't there a song about the end of September? It's on the tip of my tongue...I'm sure it will come to me eventually.

Anyway, September tends to be one of my least favorite months in Arizona, mostly because of the weather. Although I've grown to (usually) love my adopted state, I still get frustrated at how long summer takes to end. Today is the last day of September, and the high temperature's going to be in the mid-90s. And the temperature's going to remain in the high 90s for the whole rest of the week--we're talking about October, now, and it still won't let up!

As you can imagine, this makes it hard for me to get into the "holiday mood." When all the leaves are still green (or when the tree has no leaves at all!); when I try to put up the Halloween decorations on our house and end up sweaty and hot; when I think about hitting the pool just weeks before my birthday; when the A/C is running in our house while football is on the TV--all these things make me annoyed at Arizona and its pathetic excuse for "fall."

On the more positive side, the weather has been cooling off a bit (especially in the morning, which has been wonderfully mild and balmy), thus enabling some pretty fun activities. We've managed to cram the last week full of stuff, and we're ending the month on a high note.

Last Saturday had its highs and lows. Celeste begged to play with some sticky "goo" that she'd received during a science project activity over the summer. I'd kept the goo hidden above the fridge for several weeks, but I finally relented, because what could happen?

Um...that. Turns out, the goo (a mixture of Borax, glue, and water) bonds remarkably well to hair. Aurora tried the same trick, but luckily only a small section of her hair was affected. I frantically managed to comb Aurora's hair clean, but the goo was very tenacious; the comb I used lost several tines and was warped beyond further use. Looking at the rubbery pink mass hanging from Celeste's head, I began to quietly panic and started imagining my beautiful daughter in a buzz cut...

By the look on her face, you can tell Celeste is thinking the same thing.

Luckily, I have friends who know a lot more about hair care than I do. I took her to my friend Tawnya's house (she cuts & styles hair out of her home), and she was able to calm me down and come up with a solution. We put Celeste's head under the kitchen sink, turned on the warm water, and applied lots and lots of shampoo. It took several minutes and much patient, gentle massaging, but Tawnya managed to work all the goo out of Celeste's hair, without needing to cut any hair! Whew...what a relief. The goo, needless to say, is now off limits once again.

Later that night, our family headed to the church building to set up for the Primary's second activity of the year...a Family Dance Party ( pretty much what it says on the flyer above). This was a great activity because planning it was super easy. We already had a two-hour-long playlist left over from a similar activity the previous year; all we needed to do was borrow an iPod from our previous primary president! We decided to sweeten the deal by serving ice cream to everyone as well. Setting up tables and chairs took maybe ten minutes; after that, all that was left for the presidency to do was keep kids from running riot through the building (that, and serve up lots of ice cream). We had kids' dances (like the Hokey Pokey), line dances (Macarena, anyone?), and recent radio hits (Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" was a particular favorite). The turnout was bigger than we expected, and we were happy to see so many families. The kids had a wonderful time, and many of the adults were out their shaking their stuff alongside their children. Our bishop even suggested we do it again next year! Here's hoping.

Primary was much on my mind the rest of the week as well, since my presidency spent its time finalizing the annual primary sacrament meeting program. We put the finishing touches on the script this week, then spent a long Monday morning in the chapel, trying to figure out where all the kids were going to sit.

I spent a lot more time later in the week copying the program and organizing it to hand out to all the teachers and students in church on Sunday. Sigh. Organizing a sacrament meeting program is always more work than you anticipate. This year, our first counselor is writing her first sacrament meeting program ever. Naturally, the second counselor and I have helped out more than we otherwise would, so the program has been in the back of my head constantly. We're scheduled to present the program on Sunday, October 28th; we'll have two full Sundays to prepare. Two long, grueling Sundays, in which the out-of-routine kids will no doubt get very wiggly and our patience will be frayed to the breaking point. Double sigh. Fall is not my favorite time of year as Primary president.

Last Wednesday, we were able to have dinner with the missionaries...and we didn't even have to cook anything! The reason? We went to Grandma & Grandpa Barrett's lovely new home, and they fed us some delicious manicotti they'd made. We were stuffed afterwards; Sandra is a really good cook, and eating everything on your plate is par for the course at their house.

We've only been over to their new home a few times (they only moved there in early summer), so I'm still impressed by its beauty every time I see it. Of the (several) houses Glenn and Sandra have bought in Green Valley, this is by far the loveliest. The location, the interior, the furnishings...everything screams "retiree heaven." The girls love having their own dining table too, right in the huge Arizona room!

They love the big patio, too, and the golfing green beyond the wall (they call it "the valley," and love to run out and go exploring. We have to constantly remind them to stay out of the sand trap, and to be careful with the grass!)

Grandma and Grandpa are headed to Mexico for a week on Monday; we're glad they were kind enough to have us over before then!

We finished up our weekend on a *ahem* much less spiritual note; we attended the eighteenth annual Fiesta Sahuarita. It's basically the "birthday party" for the Town of Sahuarita, and the whole town is invited. Vendors from all over set up shop. There is food, dancing, games, music, demonstrations, and lots of activities for the kiddos. Oh, and trains too:

My girls can't get enough of the little train! They also enjoyed the many bouncy houses, as well as the fire safe house:

I have no idea why Lorelai (who is terrified of candles, let alone any open flame) loves running through this safe house. Essentially, it's a small mock-up home which has smoke alarms blaring and "smoke" pouring through all the vents, in a simulation of a burning house. The goal is to "go low" and crawl your way to safety out the back window. I went through once, and the mist in the air, the smoke alarm, the screaming children, and the general claustrophobia convinced me that I never needed to go ever again. But my kids love it. Go figure.

However, the best was yet to come...

...GIANT INFLATABLE WATER SLIDES. Yes, that's right...

...GIANT INFLATABLE WATER SLIDES. As you can see, I was a little excited about this new addition to Fiesta Sahuarita. They opened up a whole new section of the Fiesta this year...an inflatable water-park with several of these inflatable slides (not all of them quite so large). Admission was 2 canned food items per person, to benefit the local food bank. No problem! I confess: in order to ride the water slides, I skipped out on the broadcast of the LDS Church's General Relief Society Meeting, since it was being held the same time  (don't worry, I listened to the meeting on the Internet this morning; I'm not a total heathen!). I wanted to hang around and help my girls have as much fun as possible at this new attraction...and I wanted to have a little fun myself!

Boy was Lorelai excited to go down those slides!

After we paid our canned food admission, there followed many many minutes of waiting in long lines to climb a swaying, rickety wet piece of blown-up plastic, then sliding down it again very fast while getting wet. Nathan--and, as it turned out, Aurora--were not fans of this particular form of entertainment. They waited patiently with the stroller while Lorelai, Celeste and I braved the heights. Nathan is not a fan of "splashing" activities (he doesn't like log rides at amusement parks, either), so this was not surprising. Aurora, however, wore her swimsuit all afternoon in anticipation of the water-slides...and then she burst into tears every time we tried to take her on one of them. Poor kid was probably overwhelmed by the crowds, noise, and heat. Maybe when she's older.

Lorelai seemed okay the first trip down the hugest slide, so I suggested that she go down again with Celeste and I. Suddenly she freaked out and tried to go back down the stairs. Crying and screaming, I managed to drag her to the edge, and we all went down together!

Thanks Nathan for capturing the excitement on camera!

After our long afternoon at the water park, we headed home, heated up some pizza rolls, and watched our newly bought "Avengers" DVD. Nathan and I loved the super-hero action flick just as much the second time through, but we were awaiting Lorelai's seal of approval. Halfway through, she said, "It's not as awesome as I was hoping." We held our breath. Luckily, by the time the Chitauri invaded Earth (and Celeste and Aurora were fast asleep), Lorelai was fully invested. She was imitating the Hulk the rest of the night and into the next morning.

So now September draws to a close. Will October be as interesting? Knowing us, the answer is probably yes. We've got birthdays, camp-outs, Disney on Ice, Fall Break, a Primary program...and that's just for starters.

Baby's Got A Brand-New Bed

My baby girl is not much of a baby any more...especially after last week. After letting her sleep in the crib for the last two and a half years, we finally decided to transition Aurora into a "big-girl" bed. Luckily, we already had a box spring, frame, and headboard from back when Lorelai first got her own bed; all we needed to do was buy a mattress (well, that and a mattress cover...we do potty-train on these mattresses, after all!)

As you can see, Aurora was pretty pleased with the results:

Even with the twin bed, all three girls still fit easily into one bedroom (Lorelai and Celeste are still using the bunk bed). Nathan and I think we will keep them together in one room for a while longer, and see how they like it! It's nice that the girls still enjoy one another's company.

Aurora chose the bedsheets herself; that may explain why their colors clash with the other girls' bedsheets, not to mention the pink walls! Oh, well, we have never been a "high-fashion" kind of family; our home will never make it into Martha Stewart Living. What matters to us is comfort and enjoyment.

Aurora's been in the bed for a week now; to the best of our knowledge, she hasn't rolled out of bed yet! We have some pillows on the floor to cushion the fall, just in case. There have been a few nights (like last night, ugh!) when Aurora wakes up in the middle of the night and comes crawling into our bed to go back to sleep (sometimes multiple times!). Granted, Aurora often did this before she got her bed, so it may not be a huge factor. Perhaps it's because we've started leaving their windows open at night, and she's awakened by outside noises. It may be because she's not used to sleeping "out in the open," without the walls of the crib surrounding her. Regardless, I suspect the transition will continue to go fairly smoothly.

On the potty-training front, Aurora is also doing very well...ridiculously well, even. I've often heard people talk about their kids "potty-training themselves," and I never understood what that meant. Lorelai took a few months before I felt really comfortable taking her out in public. Celeste's potty training was a year-long, tearful, raging war, that brought me to the edge of my patience and beyond on many occasions.

Aurora, however, just gets it. She has essentially potty-trained herself. She understands what she needs to do, and she does it. She learned her body's signals very quickly, and is quick to alert me or any nearby adult when she needs help. She wipes; she flushes; she gets new clean panties when necessary. Aurora is her own cheerleading squad, joyfully shouting, "I DID IT!!" after each successful trip to the bathroom. She hasn't needed any bribing, threatening, or pressuring at all. On her own, she started removing all my strategically placed towels from chairs and couches all through the house. "I don't need these," she would tell me. What confidence!

She's not perfect yet, of course; "Number Two" is still an issue and probably will be for a while. Luckily, Aurora has bowels of iron; she can "hold it" for HOURS on end, so the chances of getting to the potty in time are much higher than they were with my other girls. At this point, she's almost too much of a perfectionist; once her nightly diaper is on (we're going to finish off the diapers before we put her in Pull-Ups at night), she often bugs us to take it off, because she needs to "go" again.  Apparently, she has forgotten that diapers are designed to catch nightly accidents; still, I can't be angry at her for wanting to always use the potty from now on!

Cute new portrait of my three favorite gals!

All the growing-up that Aurora's been doing lately has both thrilled and saddened me. I am so proud of her; she is a clever, happy, strong-willed girl and I am happy she is growing up and learning new things all the time. On the other hand, all these new changes have just reminded me that my cuddly little "baby" is not a baby any more, but a little girl who's getting bigger all the time. It's getting harder for her to curl up inside my lap, and her sweet kisses are getting less frequent. She is my youngest kid (and maybe my last kid, too!); it's hard not to feel bittersweet about her growing up, as I grow older. But I am so happy for my three girls. I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, no matter their ages!