Summer Week 1 - Baking with my girl!

So, like so many people these days, I'm totally obsessed with Pinterest.  Unfortunately, when I'm working I don't have the time to do most of the things I see.  Since I've been out of school (about a week), I have made about 5 recipes and a few crafty things.  So fun!


One item I made this week was the Skinny Monkey Cookies everyone has been repinning.


Here is the recipe if you are interested: http://onceamonthmom.com/skinny-monkey-cookies/


In a nutshell, they only include peanut butter, bananas, apple sauce, oats, cocoa powder, and vanilla.  Super nutritious and yummy too!  The directions were very simple as well so I decided this would be a great start to what I can only assume will be years of fun times in the kitchen with Soph.

We pretended that it was SO HARD to smash the bananas.  "Grrr...ARGH!"

 I let her pour in a cup of the oats, she poured about half in the bowl and the other half on the floor.  She was so upset!  "(Gasp) Oh NO!!"

 Then she got right to work cleaning it up...

 After we put in all of our ingredients, there was a little applesauce left in the cup and peanut butter on the spoon so she made a quick snack of it.

 All done!  (Note:  This is a Mommy's blog so if you are squeemish...don't read the next lines)

While we waited for them to bake, Soph did a little "business".  I told her that we would change her poo-poos then our cookies would be done and we would get to eat one.  So she repeated over and over "Poo-poo then cookies...poo-poo then cookies!"  

This was one of the most fun things I've ever done with her.  I think every age is my favorite and this is no exception.  It was awesome that she could actually understand what we were doing, why we were doing it, and looked forward to the outcome.  I can't wait to cook some more with her this summer.


Week 2 of our break will take place in North Carolina.  Yay for time with Papa!

Oh Mel.

Wow, it's seriously been a while since I updated here.  Life has been positively insane.

Our Sophia continues to amaze us everyday.  She seriously cracks us up!

Here is what she has been up to:

• Oh Mel!  One day I noticed that Sophia was repeating something over and over and I had no idea what it was.  She would say "Oh mel."  Finally I realized that I tend to say "Oh Man!" a lot... like seriously a lot. So I asked her to say "Oh Man!" which she replied "Oh Mel!!!!"  LOL  She has since fine tuned this to be a true Oh Man.  We also found out that "Swiper" also says Oh Man.  
• Sophia hearts Chuck.  Ok, so she has ALWAYS been fond of Chuck but now she actually asks for him when we are out and really plays with him.  Her new favorite game is to steal Chuck's baby (which if you know Chuck, you KNOW is a really mean trick) and run around like a crazy person while he chases her. She acts like such a victim through the whole process.  
• Dance!  This girl loves to dance!  She has some pretty serious moves too.  Her favorite song is "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees.  She asks for us to play it again and again...
• Sophia Habla Espanol.  She asks for "papas" when she's hungry, "mas" when she wants more,  and tells people "adios".  My after school tutoring regulars have nicknamed her "Pancha"  which is really a nickname for the name Francisca and I have zero idea why they want to call her that but I think it's funny.  
• Sharla=Wrought Iron.  After a week-long trip to Albuquerque we came home and I asked Sophia where Sharla was.  She pointed at the wrought-iron wall hanging we have in our breakfast nook.  She has done the same thing daily since then only now she also says "Shah-ra".
• For my  birthday we were trying to teach her how to correctly say "Happy Birthday Mommy!"  She thought "Happy Cupcake Mommy!" sounded better.
• She knows all of the letters in the alphabet and can more or less recite them in order.  She counts to 6, skips 7, then goes to 8, 9, and 10.  She also can identify nearly all of the letters and numbers if they are written.
• She loves to blow bubbles in the back yard.
• She is a blooming artist.  She is musical, loves to dance, and loves to paint and draw.  
• We are still working on the potty training.  I had things going pretty well during my spring break but didn't really have a lot of help when we went back to school.  We'll try again this summer.  She gets the concept but without constant reinforcement, she doesn't initiate her own bathroom trips.  
• She is so cognitive!  We love to watch her figure things out!
• She is preparing to make her 6th trek across the country to visit Papa (grandpa).  He's not doing well so even though we were just there in March, we felt it was very important to get out there again very soon.  She now recognizes his photos and his voice and asks for "Papa" on her toy cell phones.

I fully intend to continue updating this post as I remember more of the crazy things she does these days.  I'll also be adding some pictures soon.

XOXO
Jeni