And then I had a kid. One whose little face lights up when we I suggest just about anything. Wanna go help me sort laundry? Sure, mama! Want to put away the clean silverware from the dishwasher? YES!! So when she asked me a few weeks ago if we could decorate cookies again, what was a mama to do?
We made cookies for Valentine's Day. Since she was cleared to have milk in baked goods, I made real sugar cookies and they were amazing. The recipe made around 30 medium sized cookies, with perfect sharp edges. The dough was delightful and easy to work with.
We invited our friends C and J over to decorate them with us and had a blast.
This was a great project for a 2 year old (with minimal work for Mama):
1. Raided my scrap paper for pink patterned papers to match the pink envelopes I had, cut them all to approx 4x6" and rounded the corners.
2. Cut a bunch of smaller rectangles from solid paper and asked T to stick them to the patterned paper (for that random look!)
3. Cut many hearts from white cardstock with my Silhouette SD machine, and asked T to decorate them. She used oil pastels, stickers, crayons, rubber stamps and colored pencils.
4. Asked her to pick hearts for each card and helped her adhere them to the cards (this was mama directed so that we didn't have any overhanging hearts). When T got bored, I did the rest by myself :) Wrote a short note on the back. I had fun using my "new" typewriter to address the envelopes.
We sent them to close relatives and a few friends. She insisted on choosing one specifically for TJ, and I told her she should say "Happy Valentine's Day Daddy!" when she gave it to him.
I got a blank look. She refused to try saying it. So we broke it down, and practiced.
Me: Happy
T: Happy Birthday!
Me: Valentine's
T: Happy Birthday Valentine!
Me: Day
T: Happy Birthday Valentine's Day!
Me: Daddy
T, after several tries, sounding like a robot and trying very hard to get it right:
Happy (pause, thinking hard) Valentine's (pause) Day. (pause) Daddy!!
TJ was suitably impressed and was surprised to learn that we practiced saying it. Just like the pumpkin farm, I'm all in on Valentine's Day!
T cracks me up! Of COURSE "birthday" is the proper suffix for "happy." Adam did the opposite--"birthday" ends with "cake," so he would wish people a "happy happy birthday cake!"
ReplyDelete@Rachel - yeah, it's awesome to see how the toddler mind works. And 'Cake' is equally good to follow birthday, I agree :)
ReplyDeleteValentine's is definitely a bigger deal around here with kids. I've never been that big on V-Day; I'd rather J spent his time and energy preparing for my birthday next week. =P I'm just glad that this year G was able to write her friends' names on the cards pretty much on her own. It was pretty painful last year, when she wanted to, but didn't have the writing skill yet (though she still needs more practice, for sure).
ReplyDelete@Di - Oh man, I can imagine the frustration of a kid who wants to do something that time consuming but just can't. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteOh man, those cookies look delicious, and adorable, and hilarious, all at once. Hope your valentine's day was super happy birthday!
ReplyDelete@Lynn - thanks! I love how the cookies still taste awesome, despite looking exactly like a toddler decorated them :)
ReplyDelete