A Little Lighter, Perhaps????

O.K., so I know my last post was a bit heavy, but that's what was truly on my heart. But, for today, I'll post a bit lighter and more fun at the same time.

I haven't mentioned Oliver and Lily for awhile (the two children I watch once a week), and so, here it goes....

It's been cold outside here for the last several weeks, and so, while Lily takes a nap, sometimes I have to be creative in keeping Oliver and Luke entertained since we can't go outside -- keep in mind that these two boys are at different ages and obviously at different skill levels.

I decided that generally speaking, Luke can be fairly independent and entertain himself for a bit (that would a trait he received DIRECTLY from his parents). So, I attempted to bake cookies with Oliver -- I must say that is fairly bold on my part seeing how I'm not really one to try anything too risky. AND, Oliver is a very active 2 1/2 year old boy who is not my own.

But, Oliver was excited when I mentioned it. He immediately moved a chair to the counter and asked to help with something.

Oliver did very well at helping me "dump" ingredients into the bowl. However, he didn't necessarily like it when the mixer was running. He said it "made too much noise."

However, as soon as I pulled out the chocolate chips, he was certainly willing to taste the chocolate chips to make sure they were O.K. I gave him a few to eat by themselves....He approved.



It was at that point that Oliver didn't just want to watch anymore...since all of the ingredients were "dumped" in. So, he offered to help stir the cookie dough.



He did also help place the cookies on the cookie sheets, though I didn't get a photo since I was up to my elbows in raw cookie dough. We did have a lesson, tailored to a 2 1/2 year old, about not licking our fingers after EACH cookie was placed on the cookie sheet. But, I also figure that cookies are baked at 375 degrees in the oven. That should kill off snotty germs, right?

During this whole process, Luke did fairly well finding toys to play with. A couple of times, he came walking in the kitchen -- putting his arms up to me to be picked up. If I picked him up and showed him what we were doing, he was happy. He just wanted to see what we were doing :)

I usually don't like to resort to DVDs all of the time, but Luke L.O.V.E.S. the Praise Baby DVD Collection. So, he did watch one of those DVDs while we were finishing up the cookies. I love this photo -- if you can see it O.K. on this blog. He's leaning against the coffee table, watching the DVD.



After finishing the cookies, I let Oliver put some in a take-home pan. He said he wanted to take some to his Daddy. I hope he shared with his Mommy as well????? I did tell him he needed to do that.

After cookie-baking, we pulled out the MegaBloks -- you know, the cheaper form of Duplos.

Luke has recently figured these blocks out, and I truly believe that watching Oliver is what helped Luke figure them out. So, these two different-aged boys actually played together without annoying each other at all. Granted, they had different projects, but I did capture a photo to remember the occasion. It really was quite cute to watch.



Later on, Oliver found a bunch of new books he hadn't yet looked at. He was perfectly content sitting on a recliner, reading the books. I noticed that his "reading" consisted of a combination of a bunch of stories put together. It looks like a nice place to read with the sunlight coming in the window and all, doesn't it? It's an even better place to read in the evening when Marc has a fire in the fireplace going -- right next to it!



All of these activities were going on when Lily was taking a nap. But, to not leave her out, here's a photo from earlier in the morning. It's Lily -- hanging out on a shelf in our kitchen. And don't worry -- this shelf is completely empty because of Luke -- perfect for Lily!