Cookie Time!

On Thursday it was snowing and I just didn't feel like going into town for our playdate at the Children's Museum. I'm so tired of the snow at this point in the year, and I just wasn't in the mood to drive in it. I was just plain in a bad mood. Instead, Ellie and I stayed home, and while she was down for her nap I decided we should do an activity together, since I deprived her of playtime with her friends, just because I was in a foul mood. So I decided that we would make cookies together, for the first time ever.

I started by measuring and setting out all of the ingredients while she was still napping. That way they were ready to go when she woke up, and she could help me dump them into the mixer.

When she woke up from her nap, I went into her room and asked if she wanted to make cookies with me. She seemed to like that idea, so I put an apron on her (it was one of mine, so a little big, but it worked nonetheless. I need to make her one of her own now!) and she was SO HAPPY to be wearing an apron! She stood in front of the mirror and said, "Cuuute!" so many times. Then we headed out to the kitchen for some baking.

Ellie had a great time dumping all of the ingredients into the mixer, and she did a good job with it, too. Very little got spilled, though she did snitch a little of the sugar! Silly girl!

Once everything was mixed, I scooped the dough up with my little cookie dough dropper (which is a lot like a mini ice cream scoop) and Ellie would hold onto the handle and say, "SQUEEZE!" and squeeze it as hard as she could. Of course, she couldn't actually squeeze the dough out because her hands are too little, but I was also holding on and could do the squeezing in such a way that she thought she was doing it. She didn't try to interrupt me while I was reloading, or get in the way, she just seemed happy to know that the reloading was my job and the squeezing was hers. And she was delighted to have a job.

Once the dough was on the cookie sheets, I put them into the oven and turned on the light, and she stood there and watched them bake. I was shocked that she stayed focused on the project from start to finish, but she did! This was her project and she was very excited about it.

Of course, once the cookies were out of the oven and cooled, we sat at the table and each had one. What a great time to spend together!