Cookie Time

It Might Get Messy
One of my fondest memories from my childhood is decorating sugar cookies with my Mommy. She used to bake them for holidays and I would help her cut them out (getting flour EVERYWHERE) and decorate them. It always seemed like a long process but I was little and time seems so long when you are little. I know I always ended up with frosting and things everywhere and quite honestly I'm not sure how my mom kept her sanity with all that crap everywhere. I remember it well so when I saw her picture of Halloween sugar cookies on Facebook the other day I thought to myself "Why haven't we made any this year!?" So I fixed that... and Link helped.

We absolutely LOVE Halloween but since we are in a place where the A/C is still running and the high is still in the mid-80s most days I was hoping that making Halloween sugar cookies would help get us in the spirit!

I'm not going to go into precise detail about the entire process because I don't want to bore anyone. We made the dough, we cut the dough, we baked the dough and then we decorated. Oh boy did we decorate. Last time we made sugar cookies was with Nicky, Alex, Kristina and Ivie last Christmas and the kids could care less... except when it came to eating them.

[this was last year after we made the cookies]
Link, however, made sure he knew where those suckers were and begged like a fiend to eat them. We'll see how this batch treats him and his little begger self!



Here all all the ingredients ready to make some delicious cookies... also as kid-proof as I could manage for help from my sous-chef.

My little sidekick ready to help me out.

Adding a few eggs...

"What the heck is that thing doing Mommy?!"

One of my favorite parts of baking with a small person is that no matter how careful you are they will most likely end up with a bunch of flour on their face, most specifically the nose. Link didn't let me down either. Within two minutes of beginning to mix the cookie dough he had baking powder and flour on his face and he told me it was yummy.

And now for the best part of making cookies... the beater. Yes, I am aware there are raw eggs in there. Guess what? I ate the dough as a kid and I'm alive... just like ALL the rest of you who did the same thing.

Let's get serious about this dough eating.

Next to cut the cookies.



S*** got crazy with the flour! But he was damn good with that rolling pin.

There is no doubt that this kid belongs to me. He was cutting out the cookies and cut off one of the cat's legs. He then said "Oh no, I broke it" and proceeded to eat the "broken" cat dough.

And then the decorating. Oh God the decorating!


Sprinkles are almost as bad as glitter.

This is me laughing it off. Can you SEE all the sprinkles in front of my child. Breathe....


Delicious.

I live with these people. They are cute and cheesy and make me smile.

Again, I live with these people. Here's D feeding Link sprinkles from the jar.

And here's Link with a mouth full of freakin' sprinkles. He was hanging from the ceiling an hour later.

And finally here are our masterpieces. I don't think I have ever had a batch with so many sprinkles on them. Then again I have never had a two year old helping me either! I just gotta say though, they are so gooooooood! Must be the secret ingredient: dirty toddler helping hands!


A Time I Had

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Worm!

Half Way Through Two
Today is Link's half birthday and he's exactly 2 1/2 years old. Excuse me, didn't I just stumble out of the car with an infant car seat fresh from the hospital? Where did the time go?

This was the worm at 6 months. He loved to chew on blankets, hated pacifiers, drooled a lot and had awesome hair!

This was him at 1 1/2. He was a big ladies man. His best friends were Alex and Ivie. He loved playing with the dog and climbing on everything. It's nice to have D around this time this year. When he was 6 months D was out on TDY, when he was 18 months D was deployed. Now he's 2.5 and D is busy with RPA training but he's here and he gets to play football and read stories with him when he gets home and really, what more could you ask for!

Now he's 2 1/2!

He's very into the following:
trains (we hate trains now!)
cars
any vehicle of any sort, really
Triceratops
guitars and music
dancing
building things
sports of any kind
angry birds
Super Mario
Anything that has to do with the water



His vocabulary blows me away. I'm not even going to attempt to write down everything he can say but he does include words such as
dilapidated
uncomfortable
disgusting
ridiculous
"funky gunk" (hehe)
When he gets upset and cries he tells us "I has tears!"
His favorite word is "no."
His favorite color is green (I swear he's two and has a fave color!)
He likes to "play baseball" by throwing a football "in the basket"
He's so important that he refers to himself as Linky in the third person about 30% of the time.
He tells the family he loves them (including Bowser and Baz)
He still sleeps well in his full size bed. He insists we cover up his huge dolphin with a blanket many nights.
He thinks he's a ninja warrior and he jumps, climbs, hangs and flips off of things.
He eats peas like they are candy.
He likes the Jayhawks AND the Tigers.
He's almost 27 pounds and around 36 inches tall.
When he is upset and can't have mommy or daddy he asks for Lovey.
He's a freakin' rockstar!

Happy 1/2 b-day worm!



A Time I Had

"Craft" time

It's the thought...
Recently I have been trying to do many more crafts with Link. Not only is he a total sports junkie but he has also been showing a lot of interest in creative endeavors as well. I figured since he is young I should nurture those creative tendencies and set up some craft times a few times a week for him. We ventured to a couple different stores and got a plethora of supplies (as well as an over the door shoe hanger for the closet door to store everything in). Through the month of October we have been doing a lot of projects involving pumpkins and Halloween themes. I did a little browsing on the net to find some project ideas and came across quite a few cute projects. I have no idea how old the kids were that did these crafts and I have to tell you, anyone that claims their two year old did any of these by themselves and even did 70% of them themselves is a Big Fat Liar Face. I post pictures on Facebook of all these cute projects we have done and I post Link in the process of making them. What I don't show you is the true experience of crafting with a two year old.
Let me demonstrate what I mean.


Craft #1: Tissue Paper Pumpkin

Cute right? I think it came out wonderful. We hung it up on the wall right near the door when you walk in. It was a fun one to do because Link enjoyed tearing up the tissue paper. What people saw was this:Link happily gluing the hell out of the cardboard pumpkin I had cut out for him. They also saw pictures of him putting handfuls of the paper on the board.

What they didn't see was this:Link screaming, launching cars into the paper and then throwing all the tiny pieces all over the playroom at the dog. They also missed out on the glue that got EVERYWHERE including the table, my shirt, all over my hands and all over his hands. We had to stop creation so he could wash his hands because he was screaming "Mommy! What's that?! What's that?! We need to wash our hands!!" They also missed out on pictures I conveniently forgot to take that included Link pouting when I wanted him to wait to glue the green paper on. Nice eh? Next craft!


Craft #2: Jack-o-lantern paper plate craftA fun paper plate jack-o-lantern with pipecleaners and foam stock. What people saw was this:

Link proudly displaying our pumpkin with scissors in hand. They also saw him painting on a green piece of construction paper in the same batch of pics.

What they didn't see was this:Link fanatically obsessed with cutting the crap out of the construction paper we used to make the stem. In fact, for the majority of this craft I was constructing it. He spent most of his time getting paint all over his hands, the paper, the table cloth, and mixing all the colors by dipping the paintbrush into each container over and over again. To his credit he did twist the pipe cleaners and sort of cut out the stem! He also, of course, helped glue the hell out of the paper plates!

What they really should have seen was this:
because that was his true masterpiece for the day. I actually had nothing to do with creating this piece!


Craft #3: Pom Pom Pumpkin PatchA cute little pumpkin patch made from foam stock, pom poms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners.
What people saw was this:What they didn't see:
Link making a run for it when the pumpkins weren't ready to go on fast enough. They also did not see me trying to keep the googly eyes on the pom poms because Link just "needs the eyes" or all the pom poms everywhere because I had Link help me sort the colors out. He thought it would be fun to throw "all these pumpkins" at the dog and into the sink, which he deemed a basketball hoop. Also missing from our fun craft were pictures of the glue all over the both of us from gluing on the "feet" (leaves) for the pumpkins. You will also notice the scissors in the above picture because Link is convinced that every time we do a project that we have to have scissors.

I would talk about craft #4 but really it pretty much didn't involve Link at all... aside from squeezing a whole lot of glue into a plastic cup. Ah hell...

Craft #4: Orange yarn pumpkin
I don't have a picture of the finished product because quite frankly, it's still not finished because I know it will be crushed when brought out. This was a failure of age appropriateness on my part!
I didn't really leave anything out of my picture post on this craft because this was the only real picture we had of Link participating. The next step was to blow up a balloon, dip yarn in a glue/water mix and wrap it around the balloon, let it dry and pop the balloon and pull it out. As you have probably figured out, all Link wanted to do was play with the balloon and he got mad when we ruined his green balloon. He just wanted to party!

I'm not going to stop crafting with Link. I love every second of it. It's always an adventure but I have found my idea for what to do with the materials usually differ from his. The finished products are always cute and I love the time we spend together... I also get a my exercise doing crunches as I continually pick up fallen materials and arm stretches as I constantly wipe up glue. It's also time to invest in a buttload of Elmers because man does my kid love glue.

A Time I Had

Time Goes Fast

This week in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Sometimes I look at my tiny little boy and think "I'm so glad I can still pick him up and move him somewhere" (this thought mostly occurs when he's terrorizing the dog or rubbing Vicks Vaporub all over our pillow cases before bedtime -like last night). Other times I look at him and think "Oh my gosh my tiny boy is not so tiny anymore!

This is a picture of my little worm the first week of October in the year he was born -2009:

This picture makes me laugh because I am positive that the pacifier may have been in his mouth long enough to take this picture. You would think there was poop on the paci they way he used to react to those things! It's weird to look back and see him in an infant car seat.

In the first week of October last year -2010:


Dan had just gotten deployed this time last year. I'm pretty sure that we handled it decently gracefully the first week (by this I probably mean we cried, ate chocolate, thought about drinking, cried because we couldn't drink because "what if I get drunk and it's late and Link falls out of his head and starts bleeding to death and I can't drive and have no one to call because D isn't here and we have to call 911 and go in the ambulance and then what will I do with the dog and the ferret..." and on and on! I swear I'm mentally stable and equipped to handle all the responsibilities of being an adult!) He liked to sit between the wall and breakfast bar while I checked my email and ate breakfast. I think he was munchin' on some Cheerios.

And the first week of October this year- 2011:

I took my cheesy little goofball to the Pumpkin Patch this morning. When I sat him down by the pumpkins and told him to say "cheese" this is what I got. And I love it. We've come a long way from a tiny little ewok that fits inside an infant carseat.

Even though I sometimes miss him being so tiny, I am savoring every second of his toddlerhood now. I am also savoring the fact that I can still pick him up and get him out of things because as I worked on this post I heard "We don't play in the doggy water. We has cars. Cars need a water. Cars need to go swimming," and like a good mom I ignored it... until D goes in the laundry room to find Link. My sweet boy has taken it upon himself to have all of his cars go swimming in the dog bowl (that has a jug attached to the top). He's soaking wet and his cars are now drying on the counter. So, thank goodness for trouble being in a small, easy to carry size.

A Time I Had

The Perfect Toddler Meal

Dinner: Impossible
It is a constant struggle, as I'm sure it is in most households (especially with children), to figure out what to have for dinner. Yesterday was no different. We have gotten more responsible lately in making a weekly menu plan and sticking to it. But for some reason this weekend we completely messed that menu up and made two of the meals planned for this week. Like a well adjusted adult, I freaked out around 4:3o PM trying to figure out what to make. So I turned to my trusty sidekick.
"Link," I said "what should we have for dinner tonight?" and I opened up the pantry. He came up behind me, looked inside and said "Hmmm. We should have.... POPCORNS!" as he spotted the can of the unpopped popcorn kernels just slightly above his eye level. Next he found the Gerber crunchies that he loves so much. "And we need, uh. We need some crunchies!"
"So you want popcorn and crunchies for dinner?"
"OK!"
Let me tell you about my child for a second. He will come up with what he thinks is a brilliant idea (i.e. having popcorn and crunchies for dinner). He will then tell you his plan. When you repeat whatever he just said to you in the form of a question he will then reply with "OK!" like it was your idea and he loves it.

The problem with letting a two year old decide what your family is having for dinner is this:



When you tell him that his choices are less the adequate as far as a nutritional meal is concerned (aka "No. No popcorn and crunchies for dinner") he cries. Big fat tears. My dinner plans have broken his heart. In conclusion, never ask your toddler what they want for dinner.

A Time I Had

Ruh Roh.

This is what rivalry looks like:

VS

I liken this to raising your child in a home where one parent is Catholic and the other is Mormon or Jewish. There is no doubt in my mind that my child will grow up confused and torn! In fact, he most likely won't go to either school and will end up rooting for someplace like Baylor or something. It's like what happens when your Daddy is a KC fan and your Grandpa is a Broncos fan. You can't, in good conscience, choose either of those teams (in this case, mostly because both of them suck) because you can't choose which loved one to give your loyalty to... and so you, at random, choose to root for the Steelers. Why not!? So in conclusion

If this:+ this:
=this:


What are we really doing to our kid?! =P