First Time Cooking with Mommy

It's getting cold up here and our outdoor activities are now pretty limited. So I'm coming up with some new things for Tali to do indoors. One of my ideas is for Tali to start cooking with me. Her nursery school teachers tell me that she loves cooking in class so I figured I'd try it at home. Plus, it's about time she pulls her weight around here. She's almost two - no more free ride.

Tonight, we made cottage cheese pancakes for dinner. She had a blast helping me mix everything together and she then devoured 5 1/2 pancakes in a matter of minutes. So now I'm on the hunt for recipes that Tali and I can do together. I welcome any suggestions with one request: I'd like to try to keep them as healthy as I can.

Teaching mise-en-place at a young age.

Tali mixing the "wet" ingredients.

Cleaning her table.

Yum!

Yum!

Potty Update

Since Friday night, she has asked to go pee pee in her potty each evening at the end of her bath. She's actually peed in the potty two out of those three times. On Sunday evening, she didn't pee. But she was determined to sit there until she did. I explained to her (over and over again) that it's okay if she doesn't pee in the potty. After about 10 minutes, I finally got her off. Tonight I saw her face light up as she was peeing. She definitely knows what she's doing and she's very proud of herself. H and I are still cheering for her each time she does it. (Guess we'll have to stop that sometime before she goes to college.)

I know this process will take time and I do not want to push her into it, but this is a good first step. Hopefully the actual training won't be too messy. I've heard horror stories.

First Pee Pee in the Potty

When: Last night, after her bath

Where: In her potty

Details: Tali's had her own potty (technically a small seat I put on the real potty) for about two months now. During the first month, I put her on the potty every evening when I ran her bath, hoping that the running water would encourage her to pee. It never did. After about a month, she didn't want to sit on the potty anymore so I didn't force her. I figured she'd want to go back when she was ready. Last night at the end of her bath, Tali said to me "poop, potty" so I took her out of the tub, put her on the potty and wrapped her towel around her so she wouldn't freeze. Then she sat, and sat and sat.

After about five minutes, nothing had come out so I asked her if she wanted to get off the potty. She didn't. And then few minutes later, I heard it - she peed! I immediately started cheering for her and telling her what a good job she did. As soon as I stopped, H came in and started cheering for her. Then Jackson came upstairs to see what all the commotion was about. Tali was so excited and proud of herself. She was cheering as well. Now I think she gets it. I know we're nowhere close to being potty trained, but it's a step.

Hooray for Tali!

First Real Sandwich

When H and I have sandwiches for lunch on the weekend, I usually give Tali a deconstructed version. She likes turkey and salami, tomato, cheese, etc. So I just put the pieces on her tray and she munches away while we eat the same items stuffed between two pieces of bread. But on Friday I decided to try and give Tali an actual sandwich. We picked up Subway for lunch and I got her a kid's meal. She had a salami, cheese, tomato and green pepper sandwich. Believe it or not, their kid's sandwiches are actually 6 inches so I cut it in half and gave her a 3-inch sandwich. She ate the first half of the sandwich just like a real sandwich. But then she saw a piece of tomato sticking out and that was the end of it. She opened the sandwich, ate the tomato and then ate the rest of the cheese and salami. I was proud of her effort.

Trip To New Orleans

About two weeks ago, Tali and I went down to New Orleans for a quick visit. We saw Gran, Grandpa, Aunt Cara, Granny and Papa. Tali had a blast and is still talking about the trip. Here's a quick recap:

Tali on the plane, in her safety restraint and listening to the TV.

Plane ride down: The flight wasn't that full so Tali had her own seat - hooray! The day before, I bought her a seatbelt/aviation restraint that mimics her car seat straps and it held her in pretty securely. Unlike last time she had her own seat, she couldn't easily get out. But, it's a long flight and my very active daughter couldn't sit in the seat the whole time. A very friendly flight attendant came over to chat with her and Tali took that as her cue to entertain him for the rest of flight. He saw her "happy feet," met her stuffed animals (lion, puppy) and her blanket, and she told him all about her life. There was only one meltdown the entire flight and no nap.

Tali playing with Grandpa at the zoo.

New Orleans: Tali had a blast. The weather was great so she spent a lot of time outside. Gran really wore her out and she took some pretty long naps while there. Tali had a lot of fun with Aunt Cara, Grandpa, Granny and Papa as well. But the best part of the trip was taking Tali to the zoo. New Orleans has a great zoo and a fabulous petting zoo area. That was the first place we took Tali when we arrived at the zoo. Unfortunately, about five elementary schools had the same idea and it was packed. So Tali played there for a little while and then we went to look at all the animals she sees in her books. After lunch, we returned to the petting zoo and it was pretty empty - she was the only kid there. Tali had a blast petting the goats and sheep (which she could tell apart). She hugged them, kissed them and sat next to them while they napped. The adults that came in were so amazed with how comfortable this little girl was with all of the animals. When it was time to go, she had no problem telling us goodbye so that we could leave her there with the animals! I actually had to carry her out, kicking and screaming.

Petting a sheep.

Chatting with a goat.

Kissing a goat.

Plane Ride Home: The ride home wasn't as eventful for Tali as the ride down. We flew during lunch time so she spent most of the flight eating. I brought some food with me and ordered two boxes of food for us to share - one cheese combo and one salami/cheese combo. The flight home was full so Tali sat on my lap and was pretty good. Near the end of the flight, she did get up to walk around the plane a bit but we spent most of the time in our seat. I was hoping she might nap on this flight, but no luck.

Ears

On Thursday morning, Tali figured out how to plug her ears with her fingers. We were in her room listening to music and while I was changing her diaper she stuck her fingers in her ears. She smiled, took them out, then did it again. She then did it over and over again for about five minutes, pleased with what she had discovered. Since then, she's been doing it often. She thinks it's very funny. So do I.

First Ride in the Front Seat of A Car

When it comes to Tali's safety, I'm a stickler for the rules. But yesterday I had to make an exception.

We were on our way to meet her friend Eloise for lunch when a light came on in my car and told me to check my engine coolant. I had no idea what that meant but was about 5 minutes from our destination so I drove, parked and started to look in the manual. As I'm reading, someone knocked on my window to tell me that there was smoke coming from the hood of my car. I knew there was a problem.

After 30 minutes of phone calls and Tali screaming in the restaurant the whole time, I had arranged to have my car towed to the Audi service station for repair. This is where the front seat comes in. I had no way of getting to the service station myself except to ride in the front of the tow truck and Tali would have to join us. So the driver kindly installed her seat into the middle spot and he and I sat on either side of her while we rode the 25 minutes. She loved it! Tali had such a great time that she didn't even notice there was no music (a must for her in the car). I'm sure she'll talk about and remember the ride for quite some time.

New Pada

Last week, Tali put on my shirt and immediately proclaimed it "new pada" (Tali speak for new pajamas). As if saying that the shirt is now hers makes it so. She proceeded to wear it the rest of the afternoon/evening and refused to take it off to eat dinner. I managed to get it back when it was time for her to undress for her bath. But now I'm kind of afraid to wear it again. She might get upset that it's on me and not in her pajama drawer.