Recipe for Sugar Cookies

1. Put out butter to soften. 2. Get self and toddler ready to head out to the playground. This will take approximately 30 minutes. 3. Cream sugar with softened butter. Let toddler help. Clean up butter and sugar that is now liberally scattered around kitchen. 4. Beat egg until light, add vanilla extract and mix into butter and sugar while explaining to toddler that this is a stage that needs to be done by mommy. 5. Measure out baking soda, salt and flour and let toddler dump each measuring spoon or measuring cup worth into the bowl and stir it up. Be sure to include a little extra - there will be spillage. Mommy mixes all of it together and put in fridge to chill. 6. Head out to the park and playground. 7. Roll out onto well floured cutting board. Let toddler cut out shapes. Mommy puts them onto baking sheet. When toddler gets bored and wanders off Mommy puts colored sugar onto cookies and bakes. This is a good time to clean up the spilled flour. 8. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. 9. Serve with milk and big toddler smiles and hugs. "This is the best cookie day ever!"

Color Walk

Today I cut the top flap off of one of those pulped paper egg cartons, and the Overlord and I colored each cup a different color. Then we went for a walk, well I walked and she sat regally in her stroller, which was NOT my idea. **sighs** As we walked, we looked for natural things in each color. Our rule was that we had to pick it up off of the ground - we couldn't pick it. Well, we did pick one dandelion out of a yard but I didn't think they would mind us picking that. We used a clump of clay for orange, which was otherwise surprisingly difficult to find. The other colors we didn't find were black, gray and blue. We did see a blue bird, but we couldn't find any feathers. I suggested that she draw a picture of the blue bird when we got home, but she had a different idea. She knows that you can mix some colors to make new colors. The problem is that she thinks you can mix up any color. She was quite insistent that we should mix blue. I finally mollified her with a blue berry. She was very excited to share "The Collection" as she called it, with her Daddy when he came home.

Sing to Fish

Tonight as we put the Petite Princess to bed, I started singing a song to her, as I do every night. She said "Shh, don't scare to fish. Sing to them." So I sang the song quietly, sitting next to her but facing the fish.

Fish Clock

Tonight as we were getting the Overlord ready for bed, her night light burnt out. As a quick fix, I turned on the light on her fish tank, which we don't usually do. The fish usually just get light from the windows during the day. When I turned on the bright overhead light in their tank, they panicked and rushed around, running into the sides of the tank. I explained that we had scared her fish and that I was sorry to have scared them. She walked over to the fish tank and said "Sorry fishies, didn't mean to scare you." I explained that they didn't understand us, but that we were very proud of her for being nice to the fishies. Later she was playing with her new favorite toy, her clock. She picked it up and brought it over to her fish tank and showed them her clock. She came back over to us with a dejected look, saying "They didn't understand me." We told her that fishies just didn't understand, and that it was nice of her to want to share her new clock. She ran back over and showed them again. This time they swam closer. She ran back to us, saying excitedly "They understood me! They understood me!" She brought the clock back over to them to show us.

This morning I was showing the Tiny One how to do somersaults on a well padded air mattress. She was laughing and excited. I explained that they were called somersaults. After she had played for about 5 minutes, she turned to me and said "Okay, now you do Mommy saults!"

Familly Traditions

We're trying to include as many of the family traditions we grew up with as we can. On Christmas Eve, we read Christmas story books and watched some Christmas specials on TV (one channel is playing A Christmas Story, back to back, nonstop for 24 hours!) We tracked Santa through NORAD, watching him deliver toys across the globe, slowly coming closer to us.

We ate tacos for dinner, a practice that started when I was still dating Steve. His family used to go to a friend's Christmas Eve party every year, and needed a quick dinner that was easy to make but filling. Three years in a row it was tacos. We dubbed it Feliz Navidad and continued the tradition. The friends have since moved away and the party no longer happens, but Christmas Eve tacos live on.

Before bed, we cleared the space in front of the fireplace, and left out a plate of home made cookies and milk. Now I'm looking forward to her first real Christmas morning!

Paging Doctor Summer

She came up to me and said "Your shirt hurt you, Mommy," and patted my arm. "You need medicine. And bandage." So I gave her a piece of tape and said "This is a pretend bandage. Will you put it on my arm, Doctor Summer?"

She did, then said I needed medicine. So she grabbed one of her wooden spoons, declared it be "pretend medicine" and rubbed it on my arm. She said my other arm was hurt and rubbed the spoon on it. I asked her if the medicine would make me feel better.

She replied "Of course. I doctor."