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."

Bedtime Routine

We usually eat dinner around 7pm. After dinner, Summer usually plays a bit with Daddy while I clean up the kitchen, pack lunches and breakfast and in general get ready for the next day. At 7:30 we head upstairs. She is generally enthusiastic if we pretend to be bird climbing up our tree to get to our nest.

Once upstairs, we brush her teeth. This used to be fun and easy, until she decided she didn't like it. That was solved by making up a Tooth Brushing song. Now however, like many other things, she has decided "Do it MYSELF!". We can usually get her to compromise by letting her brush her front teeth, which she does a good job of, and then I guide her brushing efforts for her back teeth, with varying degrees of success.

We change her diaper and put on diaper ointment and then begins the battle of pajamas. Some nights it's easy as pie, other nights it involves her running around the room like a diapered banshee while Daddy and I try to reason with her, and finally just grab her and hold her down while we wrestle her into soft, comfy night clothes.

Diapered, brushed and clothed, we begin the winding down portion. We all snuggle together for a few moments. Some nights she had a drink of milk, either in a cup or a bottle, other nights she just wants a snuggle. When she's ready for bed, she gives Daddy hugs, then I pick her up and sing to her while Daddy heads downstairs. We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, then I lay her in her crib. She gets comfortable and I cover her with a blanket and give her either her Bunny or her Whale Shark to snuggle with, then I sing "Hush A Bye." She gets a kiss on the head, I tell her that Mommy and Daddy love her very much and I assure her that if she needs us, she can call for us. Then I head down stairs. About once or twice a week, she calls for us once, but most nights she goes right to sleep.

Let's Play

What an imagination she has! So far this week she's been a princess, an astronaut, a pirate and a chicken. When we play princess, I have to dress in a "princess dress" which is actually my pink houserobe, and she needs "shiny armor." This ranges from my chain mail shirt to the remote to her Moon light (which apparently runs on gas, as she frequently tells me that it's out of gas).

Yesterday she told me that she wanted to dress up like a doctor. So I grabbed her lab coat and her stethoscope and she had a doctor costume. I'm pretty happy that so far we've been able to help her with all of her costume requests. We had to improvise a bit more with her pirate costume, since she's outgrown everything that we had already. I used a bandana as her pirate hat and her Daddy made her a pirate sword out of cardboard. She runs around the house waving the sword, looking for treasure and yelling "Ho ho ho!". It's supposed to be Yo ho ho, but she's getting it a bit mixed up with Santa Claus.

Oh, and she's got a big cardboard box that she uses as her sailboat.

Toddler Logic 2

Little one said her doll needed a bandage. I gave her some tape. She looked at it, looked at me and said "That not bandage, mommy. That tape."

Pixie Dust

Little one told me that I needed pixie dust, so she sprinkled some on me and said "Here you go, Mommy." I'm informed I can now fly.

Fun Day

We had such a fun day with the little one today! This morning, the Overlord and I played hide and seek. Then she told me "Dress like princess, mommy!" So I grabbed my pink robe and declared it to be a princess dress. I got one of my summer dresses and tied up the spaghetti straps so that it fit on her, just barely. It was ankle length on her. She was quite happy. When her daddy woke up, he looked at me with puzzled look, so I explained that we were dressed like princesses. He said "oh, that makes perfect sense."

Next she declared that she needed water for garden in the kitchen. Apparently the cat furniture is actually her plants. In the afternoon, we went to a jump house. So tired now!

Funny Colors

Summerism of the day: I asked her if she liked different colors - red, yellow, blue, etc. She said Yes to each of them. So I asked her if there was a color she didn't like. She was silent for a moment, then said "Gray. Gray not funny."

New Summerisms

"I a cutie pie."

"Where are you, cats? Where ARE you?"

"Can't find my letters anywhere!"

One morning, I asked her if she had good dreams. She replied "Play bouncy ball on Moon. On Moon, have big hats! Go there with rocket ship!"

This morning, she wanted to touch the Moon. Daddy told her that it was too far away, then asked "How can you touch it, if it's too far away?" She replied "Hmm, don't know. Maybe use rocket ship!"

Owl

Tonight Summer was an owl; instead of "flying" around the house saying "tweet tweet" she flew around saying "whoooo whoooo".

Croup

Little one had a slight fever a few days ago. Yesterday she was fine in the morning but SO grumpy and cranky in the afternoon!

Her daddy took her to the doctor and turns out she has croup. We have two medications for her, we're running her humidifier. Croup is usually not serious, but when it turns bad, it does so quickly, so just to be safe we're taking turns sleeping with her, on the advice of the doctor.

Update: after three days she's much better.

Little one wants to wear her Tinkerbell dress this morning. I offered the suggestion that she wear her pajamas to Ms. Sharon's house and change into the dress there. She told me "Good idea Mommy."

Ah Ha!

Yesterday, as Steve and Summer were driving home, she said "Summer have idea! Look at Moon through goggles!" So when they got home, Steve gave her a pair of binoculars and we all looked at the Moon together. Her response? "Wow!"



She then walked around the house, looking at things through the binoculars. "Ah ha!" she would exclaim. "What did you find?" we would ask. "Kitchen!" she replied proudly, or "Couch" or "Mommy!"

Toddler Logic

Steve pulled a blanket over his head and tried to sneak up on Summer. She said "Clearly Daddy."

Trick or Treating

The Overlord has had a Tinkerbell costume for some time now. She wore it at Dragon*Con and we're planning to have her wear it for Halloween. The weather has turned cold, so we bought a white long sleeved shirt and white pants. We were more excited than she was, at least at first. The first house we went to was a bust; the person walked away when we rang the door bell. It turns out that having your porch light on is a code 'round here that you participate. No porch light, no candy. Most of the people on our street are Halloween Scrooges and had their lights off. But between walking the whole street and a few houses on the main street in our neighborhood, she had fun and figured out this whole trick or treating thing.

We came in when we realized how cold she was getting. She was having too much fun to tell us that she was cold. She got to eat one piece of candy and then to bed, although she had a bit of a meltdown when she couldn't take the light sticks and a pumpkin into bed with her. Hopefully she has fun trick or treating dreams.