Kitchen Helper

The little guy loves to help out in the kitchen (Me: Do you want to help me in the kitchen? Him: Yeah!), so tonight we made mini pesto pizzas. He helped press down the dough and spread the pesto. Then he did a great job putting tomato slices on each mini pie.

I really was very careful with the knife-- the angle is off in the above photo.

After we sprinkled them with cheese, I put them in the oven and we sat down to watch them bake.

It was a lot of waiting for a two-year-old, so he laid down to take a nap...

... but dinner was eventually ready!

The pizzas were misshapen and messy, but delicious.

Wow, Look at That!

The little booger has been saying "Wow! Look at that!" for a while now.

But now he wants me to take pictures of the things that make him say wow. One of those things is his left shoe (followed by the right shoe):

Another is his set of legos:

After I take the picture, he always says "Thank you!" What a gentleman.

Sad Dragon

This photo struck me as a little wistful even though the little guy was perfectly happy. He loves wearing his dragon suit.

He's also been muttering "No problem, Bob" to himself, which is cracking us up. This kid is a riot.

In heartbreaking news, the little guy was apparently really scared by the fire drill they had at daycare last Tuesday. He won't play in the room where he was when the fire alarms went off. He's been sitting with his teachers and talking about how loud the alarm was. Gah. This kid-- he kills me.

Almost Hunting Season!

We met up with Nana and Pops today to do some tree-stand business before rifle season... It was a beautiful fall day.

After wandering around in the woods, we had a nice picnic back at the cars. The little booger sat and ate with his Nana.

But then he hung out on the bumper with the boys.

He slept all the way home.

All Better!

The little guy was cheerful and played well with others today at daycare, so that was a nice change from yesterday. We had a quick dinner and then went for a nice walk with the dogs. The little guy got a piece of Halloween candy before his bath. Yum!

"Where did the candy go?" "It's in your belly!"

After he ate the chocolate, he asked for some milk... which he drank out of a real cup like the big boy he is.

A New First!

We were just talking about the lack of new "Firsts" the other day. The last two years have been full of big firsts: first rolling, first crawling, first steps, first food, first word, etc. We were laughing that even though he keeps learning new things, they aren't as momentous these days... but I think we spoke too soon.

Daycare keeps these nice daily logs for the parents. There's a section about diaper changes (times and textures), one about food (when and how much), one about attitude, and a short narrative about their day. It's really nice-- here's a typical attitude section for the little booger:

And here's a typical narrative:

Today, however, was a big first for us. We've only ever gotten two variations of the attitude report: Content or Cheerful. According to his teachers, he's always playing well with others. I really didn't think they ever used those other boxes... until today:

I should have known that the thoroughly marked "Not listening" box wasn't going to lead to a good narrative. And, here it is.

The all caps and exclamation point on the 'he would tell them "NO!"' part really makes this an achievement for the little dude. Today he enjoyed... misbehaving. 

Learning!

Here he is, saying "It's a triANGle!"