Rainy day fun

Amelia slept through the night! She slept from 11pm to 7:30am - of course, I was up at 5am, wondering why she wasn't. What's funny is she and Xander both slept through some crazy thunder last night that rattled our windows and caused several brown-outs. I guess that's what qualifies as a winter storm around here.

So, fueled by a full night's sleep, I felt strangely motivated today to do some fun activities with Xander and try to keep us out the funk that can come with a day of storms and tornado warnings.


First up was a craft I've been wanting to do for Xander's room. I saw this neat little piece of art at Pottery Barn Kids a couple of months ago that was just a simple frame with a picture of a car made from construction paper. I thought it would be easy enough to recreate and would look great for Xander's new big-boy room.


I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased with the results; I managed to put the perfectionist in me aside and enjoy making something with my son. He got to use his scissors for the first time, and enjoyed using them to cut up the scraps from our car. He also helped squeeze the glue (He wanted to do it by himself, but the only glue I could find was Tacky Glue. Must buy glue stick.) and press the paper down.

After (an early) naptime, we made snickerdoodles for Brian. Xander loves to help me cook, and I never got to make Brian's favorite cookies at Christmastime this year (plus, he's having a rough week, and who wouldn't like to be greeted at the door with his favorite cookie fresh from the oven?).


Xander's really starting to be a great little helper; he helped Brian tear up basil for dinner the other night, and today he helped crack eggs (he's getting better not just smashing the egg into the counter anymore) and manned the mixer. He did a good job of turning it off and on and dumping ingredients into the mixing bowl. I only had to watch him when he would turn it on after putting in the flour; he wanted to go from OFF to 10 immediately!


After the cookie dough was done, we started a little assembly line (well, I tried to). I would scoop out a cookie and put it in Xander's hand, then he would dump it into the bowl of cinnamon sugar. I tried to get him to roll the dough around to get it coated, but he just wasn't getting the concept. He loved the process, though, and even tried to man the scoop a few times. Of course, he also ate the cookie dough every chance he got.

In the end, the cookies were a bit hit - I'm munching on one right now, in fact. I don't think I can measure up to this level of fun again tomorrow, though.

By the way, why are my pictures so grainy? I've had this camera for a year now, and I still can't figure out how to make my snapshots look as good as on my old Canon. Grr.