My little baker!

The other day I was having a playdate at our house, so Hannah & I decided to make muffins. (Well, I decided--she pretty much went along with it.) I got Hannah dolled up in her apron, put her chair up to the counter, and washed her hands--REALLY WELL. ;) I let her stir the batter & pour ingredients in, both of which she did well! I even helped her crack the egg. Now, for a person as anal as I am, having flour all over the counter, floor, the chair, etc., was not the easiest thing, but I realized halfway through the experience that I was actually enjoying myself! Cooking with Hannah CAN be fun! :) We put the muffin paper liners in the tins, which she did most of by herself, and then I ran around the counter to grab the camera. I asked her to put some batter in each cup, and wouldn't you know it...



I continue to really be amazed at all that this little person can do. She is just about 20 months old, and she really has a voice, a mind of her own, an opinion, and the ability to help me with things. It is very exciting!

This is what the muffins looked like when we were done:



She'll make Auntie Senia, Grandma Barb, and Great Aunt Afton very proud! :)

Why is it so quiet??

Yesterday I was doing something in the kitchen, and I discovered that it was suddenly very quiet in the next room. Hannah had been playing with her baby ("Anne"), and she was doing so well feeding, burping & rocking her. The next thing I know, Hannah comes into the kitchen with a kleenex and is blowing her nose (very cute, I must say.) The thought that occurred to me was: "Where did she get that??" Hoping it wasn't from the garbage, I went in the living room to find out...

What I miss...

...is a steaming cup of coffee that I can sit & enjoy while watching something on TV, chatting with a friend, reading, etc. (Remember a WAAAAAAYYYYY earlier post when I said I was just doing that, shortly after quitting my job??) Well, now that Hannah is Little Miss Busy-Pants, I am not able to drink more than a couple sips without the coffee turning warmish--lukewarm--cool--and finally cold. Since I am a mom, I am not above reheating it in the microwave (although before becoming a mom, I would have scoffed at that very idea as disgusting), but I do wonder what happen to the days of having to sip gingerly on my coffee because it was TOO hot. It doesn't take much to cool my coffee (a crashing sound in the next room; a realization that the laundry must be switched over--and when you are dealing with diapers that MUST be transferred to the dryer because Hannah is wearing the last one in the house, it is an emergency situation--; or just that it is too plain quiet & I need to check to see what Hannah has found to play with (see my post "Why is it so quiet?" for more on that.) When I finally get to sitting (or standing) to drink my coffee, I usually have to sort of gulp it down, which is not the most enjoyable way of consuming it.

Needless to say, tonight I am going out with my good friend Kara, and we are going to Starbucks. I am going to be one of "those people" that asks for her mocha EXTRA hot (as in, scald-my-mouth-if-I-drink-it-too-fast-hot) in a "for here" cup & savors every last drop.

The Incident

So Hannah has a habit of throwing her blanket(s), dog, socks, etc out of her crib when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap. (Sometimes she also does this to get us to come upstairs & check on her if she doesn't want to go to sleep--because if that stuff is out of her crib, she'll start crying.) Anyway, whenever we go into her room after this, she says "Uh oh" in a very concerned, panicky voice. So the other morning when she had slept late (or so we thought) and Keith went into her room to get her up, I wasn't surprised to hear an "Uh oh" come from the room. (I was in our room.) A second later, Keith came in shaking his head with a weird grin on his face and told me I had to come see what she had done...

I thought maybe she had pulled the sheet up somehow, or that she had taken her pajamas & diaper off (the other morning she had started to unzip her pajamas when I got into her room).

Well, she had taken her PJ's & diaper off, that's for sure, but I must mention that most mornings when I go in to get Hannah, she has pooped....

...get the picture yet??


Yup, she was naked as a jaybird, looking anxiously at the floor where her diaper lay open, strewing "things" everywhere. She stood behind the poop-smeared bars, on a mattress caked with poop, and her poopy hands were dangerously close to her suspiciously darkened mouth.

Are you barfing yet?? I could tell you about the clean-up process or the laundry mess, but perhaps I should leave that to the imagination, since you are probably already reeling from the facts thus far.

Ah, just another day in the life of a toddler.