I have been trying to come up with ideas for indoor activities as I
eye the impending winter season with shivers of dread. Last year there
was so much snow I sometimes went days not going outside. And now I
have an almost two and a half year old that is constantly looking to me
for the NEXT GREAT IDEA. Who knew being someone's playmate could be so
tiring.
As a practice run, we were hit by a two day
epic rainstorm that kept us huddled inside. We made this dollar store
craft. Clara chose the jaunty angle of the buckle on the Cat Witch's hat...
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And that was thirty minutes well spent...
So
I decided to try cooking with Clara for the first time. We got the
ingredients for chocolate chip cookies and settled down on the floor of
the living room.
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| Stirring the dough. |
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| Measuring the baking soda. |
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| Measuring the salt. |
It went pretty well. Clara stirred for a while and then realized how good the dough tasted and just wanted to eat it. She measured out a teaspoon of baking soda and got a cup more on the floor. Ditto with the salt.
She liked portioning out the cookies on the baking sheets but kept sneaking huge blobs into her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking.
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| Note the lonely, unused potty under the chair. |
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| Sneaking a blob of dough. |
I was multitasking at the time, doing laundry downstairs, so we popped the cookies in the oven and ran down to put everything in the dryer. When we came back up Clara loved looking at the cookies in the oven and wanted to take them out immediately.
We took them out, let them cool, and then had a tasting together. By together, I mean theat Clara tasted the cookies and thought they were delicious. When I tried to sample one she swatted my hand away and said: "No Mama. These are mines."
The process start to finish including going to the grocery store took a little over an hour. (Not including the hour of cleanup I had after the cookie bomb went off in the living room) Next time I'll make sure Clara helps with the cleanup but this time - she really loved making cookies.
