Baking Cookies

At Christmas a neighbor gave us one of those homemade jars of cookie mix that you just add butter and eggs, mix and bake. I set it aside at the time as we had more sweets than we knew what to do with.

Anthony noticed the jar on the counter earlier this week and asked what it was. I told him it was for making cookies and said we'd do it this weekend.

I have to say, it was the best baking experience ever. Three ingredients to measure (1 stick of butter, one jar of mix, one egg). Then we got to use the mixer and my cookie dough scoop. It made one dozen (large) cookies and then we were done. Perfect for Anthony's attention span.

The only bummer: the cookies came out round instead of flat. Cue temper tantrum about wanting flat cookies. (Yes, Mom, you can remind me about my tantrum at this age about my sandwich being cut on the diagonal instead of into rectangles.) They were pretty tasty, though.

Ellery's Birthday Party

Anthony's pal Ellery had a gymnastics party at Goldstar gym last Saturday. Anthony had a great time!

Good Dentist Appointment

Anthony's dentist appointment yesterday went stunningly well, I was so proud! He walked in, climbed right up into the big chair and settled in. The hygienist showed off her tools, we put Wizard of Oz on the DVD player and she got to work.

He had his teeth cleaned and a fluoride treatment. Anthony loved the vanilla toothpaste, which made the cleaning a little tricky as he was licking it off his teeth faster than she could clean. He did not like the fluoride nearly as much but he tolerated it nicely.

Dr. Maria said that his bite looks good and he has nice healthy enamel. There was some nonsense about trying to brush better, but we do what we can.

At the end of the appointment Anthony slid down the chair, got his prize and we headed home. What a pro!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Anthony's love of "The Wizard of Oz" is even greater than his love of Mary Poppins, if you can imagine such a thing. He's not even afraid of the flying monkeys!

We've been acting out various scenes from the movie for quite some time, his favorites being have a bucket of water dumped on him and having a flying house land on his prostrate body. To go with his pretend play I made Anthony his very own witch costume. Its basically a long robe with flowing sleeves (pattern calls it "unisex wizard costume") and I used black and gold metallic material and gold trim. I think it came out pretty darn snazzy.

I used Anthony's Christmas money from Aunt Jessica to purchase two presents that were instant hits, the DVD and a Wicked Witch of the West action figure (aka doll). I love the additional features on the DVD, especially "Read to Me" with Angela Lansbury reading a shorter Wizard of Oz story, and the sing-along feature which is just the musical numbers.

Shoes with Lights

The picture doesn't do this justice. We're talking pure, unadulterated joy!

Anthony has wanted shoes with lights for a LONG time. I bought his last shoes in August, they were cute, and he especially liked the pair with laces. Then two days later W came to daycare wearing shoes with lights. Anthony looked at me sadly and said that his shoes didn't have lights. Darn near broke my heart. Ciaran and Robert both have new shoes with lights and Anthony wanted them BAD.

I told him Sunday that his new shoes (I ordered them on-line) would be arriving soon. Tuesday night I told him they'd be here tomorrow night. Then Wednesday morning when we went to get the paper they were on the porch! We put them on right away and he had so much fun stomping around making the lights go. It was so much fun.

When I picked him up at daycare that night he came running to me, then stopped in mid-run to admire the lights. Jessica told me he'd been doing that all day.

For those who care, they are Stride Rite Eoraptors. They are modeled after dinosaurs and even the dinosaurs eye (on the velcro) strap lights up. They were also the least ugly of the light-up shoes. Oh, and size 9 1/2.

Scissors

Anthony has been coming home from preschool with projects showing scissor cuts. Usually its a round circle or something with lines drawn on it and random cuts nowhere near the lines.

I had been driving myself crazy trying to find blunt tipped Fiscars left handed scissors to try at home and I finally gave up and bought a simple pair of Crayolas instead. Anthony enjoyed cutting with them, though I had to keep repositioning his hand so that the thumb was on top.

You can't tell from this picture but he's chopping away at a page from Daddy's airplane magazine.

Big Boy Bed--Day 2

Day 2 in the Big Boy Bed went MUCH better. He went to bed reasonably easily and slept until a little after his clock turned yellow.

I came in for some snuggle time but first he had to arrange everything just so--his windsock, his airplane, his pile of books, lovey. A place for everything and THEN we could read stories.

Big Boy Bed

He's not a baby anymore. No more diapers and we finally took apart the crib yesterday. I wasn't really in a hurry, he was perfectly happy in the crib and I didn't want to disrupt his sleep any more than it has been since he figured out how to get out.

We spent a few days talking up the big boy bed ahead of time and Anthony wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the idea, he liked his crib. However, once we got his bed made up with his favorite blankets he was happy to try it out.

Bedtime went as smoothly (or non-smoothly) as ever. Middle of the night was another story. He woke up around 5:00 (probably earlier) upset because his clock was dark--he'd unplugged it and the battery ran out. I got the nightlight going again, then he kept coughing because of his cold. Did the nebulizer, went potty, got a drink of water... I finally ended up in bed with him and neither of us got much sleep. I can't decide if I should try and pat and smooth him or just lay down and play dead. I generally prefer to play dead.

New Jungle Gym

Last week I got an email that a former neighbor was giving away her kids' old jungle gym. I leaped at the opportunity and it was a score! Its a great toy, it has several ladders, a door to enter, two slides and a tube to crawl through.

Getting it home was a bit of a trick, took me three trips in the Highlander to get all the pieces home. Bob set it up this morning and Anthony was climbing on it before he even had all the pieces put together.

Of course, Anthony went down the slide twice and then asked to go to the park! He played on it more after lunch, though.


















Before Anthony came I remember seeing yards full of molded plastic toys (faded, of course) and shaking my head. Now I have the yard full of them, and I love them! Little Tikes toys are all made in the USA and they last forever, easily through 2 or 3 families.

El Dia de Los Tres Reyes Magos

Okay, I accidently deleted the photo of Anthony with the Three Kings. Whoops!

Grandma Kay gave Anthony a membership to the Discovery Museum for Christmas, what a great gift! Today we went for their El Dia de Los Tres Reyes Magos celebration. Anthony LOVED watching the ballet folklorico dancers. They had several different groups performing while we were there and he was enchanted. He got a present from one of the Reyes Magos and had a sample of La Rosca (King Cake).

Exhibits we enjoyed on this trip included pushing the button at the intersection in the middle of the museum to cross the "street", the water play area and the sand table. This was the first time Anthony really enjoyed the sand table and we were there for nearly half an hour as he poured sand through funnels into flasks and then from one flask to another. He easily outlasted several round of other kids.

We thought it sounded quiet

Yes, that is my lipstick on Anthony's face.

He climbed on top of the cat's litter box cover and then onto the vanity to get it out of the medicine cabinet.

Happy New Year

We had a nice little celebration last night with the Warners. Anthony and Jack played together fairly well and the adults had lots of time to talk. At some point in the evening I got out the tattoos leftover from Anthony's birthday party, intending them to be for the children. I think the grown-ups had even more fun!

The only bummer is that DirecTV would not give us the east coast feed from Times Square. We had intended to watch the ball drop at 9pm (PST) and then call it a night. No ball drop and Anthony was up partying until almost 10:00!!!













Karyn brought the kids grape juice from the Navarro winery in Mendocino. It was amazing, like drinking liquid grapes.