Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Have you ever heard the old saying, "Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth" ? That's not the case in our house. Mommy's cooking has only been enhanced by my new found interest in her cooking. I now want to "Help Mommy" do almost everything, including cooking. I push over my chair and stand on it, watching her chop and stir. I say "I try it!" and want to taste things, which Mommy always hopes means I'll start expanding my diet a bit, but I usually don't like it. Today Mommy was chopping up some sweet peppers and I wanted to "try it" so Mommy gave me some. I declared that it was "cold" and put it down. I always want to eat the cheese when she's shredding though! And all fruit.

This week I got to give Clifford a hug finally after last week's mix up. Mommy had a moment of panic when we went down the elevator at the mall and saw the rotunda full of the "cars" from the Disney movie "Cars". Mommy said out loud, "You've got to be kidding, I thought it was Clifford!" and another Mom told her that they moved Clifford to the smaller rotunda. Whew! Then when we got to the Clifford line they had already cut it off for the 10:00 Meet and Greet. It was 10:15 and the next Meet and Greet was at 11:00 so Mommy wasn't very confident that I would make it in line for 45 minutes. But I had a full cup of fishy crackers so Mommy thought we'd give it a try. Lucky for us, the line went quickly and they were able to sneak a few more of us from the 11:00 line in for the 10:00 line and I got to give Clifford LOTS of hugs. In fact, I didn't want to let go. Mommy had to pick me up. Then she put me down and I ran back to Clifford and hugged the back of his legs. Mommy said I needed to move so I didn't end up in another kid's picture.

Another shot of me and my pal Clifford. This week I got a few new Clifford books from the library. One is about manners. I actually have pretty decent manners for a 2 year old. I'm excellent at saying "thank you" or "thanks" when you give me something, I often will say "Sorry Mommy" or "Sorry Daddy" without being prompted when I do something wrong or make them sad. I also am good at saying "excuse me" unprompted.

After giving Clifford lots of hugs, I went over and did the art project. It was coloring and decorating a dog bone. I stuck to just coloring which Mommy was glad about as they had regular glue (not glue sticks) and it would be a big mess.

Mickey Mouse was the theme of school this week so that was fun. I started my last session of dance for the year. Mommy was a bit nervous as when we showed up, our class was in a different studio and there were a lot of new kids. Last time this happened, I refused to participate in dance for a couple weeks. But this time, I seemed fine with the new kids and the new studio and did a good job. Miss Kathy (my teacher, I like to just call her 'dance') told me I did a really good job and gave me a high five again. And we got Minnie Mouse stamps on our hands this week which was really cool. Is it some sort of Disney anniversary this week or was it just coincidence that it was Mickey Wednesday and Minnie Thursday?

Last week's thaw was nice and all but I was super excited to see all the snow we got this week. I was the only person in my family that was thrilled. I came downstairs, saw all the snow outside and said, "oooooooh preeeetttty!" The nice thing about March snows is that it is a lot warmer outside so Daddy and I got lots of good snow playing in this week.

I really wanted to build a snowman but the snow was not good for it, so we mostly played on my play equipment. I had a blast swinging as you'll see in the video at the end of the blog. This weekend we didn't do anything exciting. Just did some shopping and visited two pet stores. I love going to the pet store so it was a real treat for me.

What else is new with me?

• On weekends my parents designate one day where one of them gets up with me in the morning, and the other one sleeps in a bit. Usually the "sleeping parent" gets about 45 more minutes of sleep until I become really loud and there is no more sleeping. Anyway, on mornings that Daddy gets up, I become a real Daddy's girl. In fact this morning, Mommy was taking me upstairs to change my stinky diaper and I said, "No! Daddy do it!" Mommy was thrilled!

• Daddy can't tell me that Mommy is upstairs sleeping as I'll want to go wake her up. One time he said Mommy was getting her hair cut, so now I think every time she is gone, she is getting her hair cut.

• Mommy and I still have our little arguments during the day. I always win them, although Mommy never concedes that she is wrong. Here are two examples of where we disagreed this week. First, I declared that the animal on my favorite blanket was a bunny. Mommy said, No it's a mouse. I said, "No bunny!" and Mommy said, "No it's a mouse." Then I said, "Mouse!" and Mommy thought she had won...but then I said, "No..bunny." The second argument was very similar. I heard the loud noises coming from the laundry room and declared that the dryer was noisy. Mommy said, "No it's the washer". I said, "No dryer!" and Mommy said, "The dryer isn't on, it's the washer." I said, "Washer?" and Mommy, again (stupidly) thought she had gotten through to me, but then I said "Nope, dryer!"

• One day this week we went to Bed Bath and Beyond. I saw a really cool bubble bucket that was "spill-proof" and really wanted it. Mommy thought it was a good deal, and liked the no-spill aspect so we got it. I was SOOOO happy. Mommy reminded me that we'd have to get some bubble soap for it, and that we didn't have any at home, so we couldn't do bubbles until we got the soap. Not a problem, I thought and I told Mommy that church had bubbles. Mommy said that we couldn't take the bubble soap from church and that we'd just buy some next time we went to Target.

• I was also very charming with the checkout lady at the store. I was really proud of my bubble bucket, and when we were done, I said "bye, see ya soon!" and blew her kisses. She thought I was the sweetest thing.

• No bubble soap was not a problem for me. I just took out the bubble wands, pretended to blow bubbles, and then pretended to pop the imaginary bubbles in the air. I have a very good imagination. And Mommy appreciated the no-mess aspect of my pretend play.

• When we got to the car, Mommy was putting me in my car seat and I started sniffing in a dramatic fashion. Mommy asked me what I was doing. I said, "I sniffing, Mommy!" Mommy asked me what I was sniffing, and I said, "Bubbles!!!" I can be so goofy!

See you next week!