Ya know those days as a mom when you go to bed and think “Whew! Somehow I survived this one.” Well, thankfully, yesterday was NOT one of those days! From the moment she woke up until she went to bed, we had no major incidents! YAY! Typically grocery shopping days are not this way. Bless her heart, there’s just something about HEB that brings out the worst in my princess. But today? Today was golden.
When we arrived, we got her typical blueberry muffin from the bakery, and instead of eating it on the go, mommy hadn’t had breakfast yet either, so I got one too (banana nut), and we went to the little restaurant area and sat together and ate. It’s not really a place equipped for kids, so she sat in my lap. This was my view:
Her “big girl” hairdo makes me smile, and yet catches my breath all at the same time. When did she get big enough for her hair to be pulled back like this? And when did it get so long? I swear, I’ve been here the whole time, but somehow I missed how quickly she really is growing up.
But I digressed. We ate our muffins, and did our shopping. She’s getting pretty good at pointing out produce and telling me what it is, even if we aren’t buying it. Although I did get a pretty good chuckle when she saw a head of cabbage: “dat gape?” Bless her heart, it sorta did look like a box of GINORMOUS green grapes! Hahahaha. I said, “No, sweetie, that’s cabbage – it’s sorta like lettuce.” Her response: “oh…(long pause)… yuck.” HAHAHAHA. One of these days, my dear, I’ll feed you coleslaw, you’ll love it, and I’ll remind you of this moment.
My lil grocery helper is also getting pretty good and putting things in the back of the cart for me! Though sometimes she gets a bit over zealous. On one particular occasion, she just tossed over her shoulder, and suddenly our pepperonis were slip sliding across a freshly mopped floor and into the next aisle. Oops. Our convo:
Me: Boo, you gotta be careful when you put stuff back here – if you don’t look where you are tossing, it doesn’t go in the basket and Mommy has to get it off the floor.
Boo: Baket fuh. Ah out. (SERIOUSLY? Not quite 19 months and already making excuses!)
Me: No, it’s not too full and it did NOT fall out. You weren’t careful. Be careful where you put the food, or Mommy won’t let you put the food in the cart. I’ll do it by myself.
Boo: I hep.
Me: Ok, but you have to be a good helper, not make more work for Mommy.
Boo: Ok. (long pause) I hep.
And she did! Nothing else fell out of the cart the whole time.
When we got home, she went into room time, which she LOVES. I never know what I’ll find when I go in to get her for lunch, but this is pretty typical from my little bookworm:
Toys and chaos all around her, her nose stuck in a book. Even when she knows I’m there. Then she starts reading out loud to me: “Eh-tehs. C, E, R. Turle.” Yes, baby, that book has letters. C, E, and R are all letters, none of which are on that page, but they ARE indeed letters. And yes, that, my dear, is a turtle. She wants to learn so much. It just blows me away, and warms my heart all at the same time.
So after her nap, (which she woke up entirely too early from!) I decided that I would be brave and finally let her actually HELP me with a baking project. I was making these Banana Berry Muffins (her recipe linked here is for bread, but it made 24 great muffins, too!) and I told myself, ok what’s the worst that can happen? Usually when I ask myself that question, I live to regret it. But this time, I was pleasantly surprised! She sat in her chair at the table and truly helped (she held the spoon/masher, I held her hand) stir the dry ingredients, mash the bananas, stir in the other wet ingredients, and then while I went to the mixer, she played with the salt box (CLOSED!) and took the towel and decided to give George a nap, drummed on the table with the spoon (I washed it off after the raw eggs, don’t freak out, moms), and just generally was very happy and a really great helper! Note to self – this sort of activity is BEST completed right after nap time when she’s super happy! 🙂
It’s not the easiest thing ever to haul a ton of ingredients to the dining room table, mix them up there, carry them all the way back across the kitchen to the mixer, then back to the table to fill the muffin cups, and then to the oven, but I got some extra exercise, and she truly got to help. She was so proud of her muffins! I made the mistake of telling her she could have one with dinner… and she determined in her mind right then and there that was all she was going to eat for dinner. SO… with a few grapes, a container of yogurt, and a few sips of water, she ended her day the same way it began – with a muffin.
P.S. Tried this recipe for Chicken and Rice Casserole for dinner and it was really good. 🙂 Served with carmel carrots. She missed out. Our deal was to eat all her yogurt, and she did, so she got her muffin.
And all was right in the heart and mind of my little baked-goods-lover. It was a good day.
Butterbees and Bumbleflies 