Today has been a fun work day. Even though it started way earlier than it should have, which seems to be a new trend around here. It started with Calvin singing to himself when he woke up, which is such a nice thing to hear. Normally he cries when he wakes up, sad wails and then he begins the calling out for Mommy or Daddy. What a delight to wake up to a singing baby!
We got up and counted blueberries and grapes for twenty minutes. We ate peanut butter on toast. We played cars and trains. We wrestled in the play room. We coloured with crayons: squares, hearts, diamonds, triangles, blue, pink, green, red, orange, white, black, brown, sheep and pigs.We spelled out our names and the date. We cooked up some apple and lemon juice in the play kitchen, drank it, stirred some car soup, baked Lightning McQueen in the microwave then washed all our dishes. We heard a crow cawing outside so we ran to the window to look for them flying in the snow.
After all this activity it was nearly 9 am (insert a tiny cry from Momma here), and Calvin requested a TV show. Figuring we got in a lot of fun already, some TV wouldn't hurt so we set Calvin up with his TV blanket, some water and a snack.
After TV got boring it was time to make some empanadas. Well, more like the crust for them, but we'll be making them into Irish beef hand pies that are square. All the same, we got busy. Out comes our learning tower and a bunch of ingredients to make the dough, and exam gloves for me. Since having Calvin I've learned that when you are cooking and also responsible for ensuring a toddler doesn't a) hurt the dogs, b) hurt himself, c) hurt the environment it's best that you wear some exam gloves so you can whip them off fast and go intervene as needed. Trying to wash off dough or wash your hands after handling raw meat or whatever simply takes too long. This way you can save a toddler from himself quicker than quick.
Calvin likes to help with the prep work. He was busy pouring the flour into the bowl, and mixing the dry ingredients. While I was chopping up the butter he decided the sink obviously needed some flouring, so he went ahead and did that.
But in the end we managed to make some dough balls that are ready to be turned into delicious food. However the process of making dough with a toddler takes something like one hundred and fifty nine percent longer than normal, so after the dough was ready, he was starving and needed a snack. Of two bowls of cereal.
And at the end of a long morning, nearing 12:30 in the afternoon, I decided to torture the poor child by insisting that he nap. In the midst of protests he fell asleep, and gave me 50 minutes of peace in which to document our fun filled day.