Cookies!

Robin and I made Valentine's Day cookies this week!  They're heart-shaped cutouts.  I hadn't been sure how he would do with this--or rather, how much patience he would have.  He only made it through one tray when we made cookies at Christmas, but he made it through almost the entire process this time! 

 

We spread this over three days.  On day 1, we made the dough.  He was very proud to wear his daddy's apron.

 

He liked helping to measure ingredients

and using the mixer.

His patience lasted all the way until I had to start mixing the flour by hand, by which time he really wanted to lick a beater so I let him. 

On day 2, he saw me pulling my hair back before starting and wanted a ponytail of his own, so he got one.  He looks like Pebbles.  On that day we rolled out the dough,

cut the shapes, and baked them. 

He really liked the cookie cutters, though we butted heads a little as I tried to prevent him from making his cutouts overlap.  When we got to the end of the dough, instead of mushing it back together multiple times to get a few more cookies out of the scraps, I just let him overlap as much as he wanted and baked the strangely-shaped pieces.  It was much faster, fun, and easier on both of us, that way.

He also liked playing with the flour.

On day 3, we decorated.  I made white, red, pink, and purple frosting.  The white I left in a bowl and I spread it over the faces of the cookies.  I put the colored frostings in sandwich bags, sealed them, mushed it all to the bottom, and then

used a twist tie to hold it down.  Then I snipped off the corner to make my own, kid-friendly frosting bags (this way nothing could come out the back while he's squeezing.)  It worked really well.  The white guaranteed that all cookies have a uniform amount of frosting, and Robin got to make them pretty.  We only had to stop and wash Robin's hands one time after he put his fingers in his mouth, (though he also claimed three cookies as his own as we went, by taking bites out of them.)

He lasted until I was running out of white, at which point there were only about a half-dozen cookies left.  I took the bags away from him and told him it was okay to lick his fingers.  (Yum!  I've been waiting for this for a long time, Mama!)

Of course, it made a huge mess, but it was worth it. 

Crafts!

If you'd like to see all the crafts Robin and I have been doing to stay occupied while it's freezing outside, check out the post I made at Science Fiction Mommy.  Fun stuff!

New Baby!

Meet KalEl

Yes, Superman's Kryptonian name is the baby's IT-name.  Dean kept lobbying for Kal as a name or middle name for a boy and I vetoed it, not wanting to name my baby after Superman.  So Dean decided to call the baby KalEl while we don't know what it is, and it stuck.  We also call it Number 2, but you have to get the voice right--you have to say it like Dr. Evil in Austin Powers.

Anyway, here are the ultrasound pictures.  We might post more later, but these are the good ones they printed out for us.  If we do more, we'll pull the frames from the video Dean made.  These are 3D images which are much more distinct than those we got for Robin.

And for good measure, here is a photo of the big brother after sticking his face into his macaroni and cheese.

Updates

We got to see my extended family, who came to visit, a few more times after Christmas was over.  This was taken at a Macaroni Grill, which we drove all over to find.  We were going to go to Cinzetti's, but the wait was over an hour so we drove all the way down the road looking for another italian place.

Robin and I did a lot of Christmas crafts last month.  You can see the pictures of them where I blogged about them on Science Fiction Mommy.

We also decorated the driveway with sidewalk chalk for Christmas, including tracings of Robin that became elves.

We went to Zoo Lights a few days after Christmas.  Going by ourselves turned into meeting Dan and Theresa there, which turned into Dean's entire family except Kathy.  It was a nice evening for it--it was still relatively warm before the cold snap.

These are the foxes that tried to move into our yard before the snow really started to fall.  We chased them off (and have only seen them a few times since.)  Robin really likes them, and keeps looking out the window and calling "fox!!!"  I wouldn't really mind, except I'm worried about them really setting up house here--I was concerned that one might be female and pregnant--and I don't want a protective mama nipping at us (especially Robin.)

We finally got some snow to play in!

Robin has really been enjoying his trains, and has discovered that his creative abilities to build tracks are much better when not hampered by keeping the tracks on the table.  He'll make tracks that go all over the place, and he seems to enjoy making them more than running the trains on them.  They don't last long before he salvages pieces to start building another.

Dean and I have joined in a bit, helping him connect separate sections into big loops, and we enjoy trying to make everything connect--though it's a losing battle, since Robin just wants to take them apart and do his own thing again.

Snow Vulcan, or Snow Yoda, depending on how you look at him.  The neighbor rang the bell the other day, and it was quite warm out and thawing like mad.  The snow had been too dry and cold to pack well when it fell, but the thaw made it perfect.  Robin wanted to run around outside in bare feet, but after a few minutes of chatting I insisted we go inside for his shoes and snowpants.

 

We'll have the ultrasound for the new baby next week!  It's been moving like mad, and I felt it much earlier this time (probably because I knew what I was feeling.)  Dean has even felt it a time or two.  I'm looking forward to when it'll be big enough for Robin to feel.  He knows that Mama has a baby in her tummy, but I know he can't really know what that means yet.

Christmas!!!

We all had a good time this Christmas, and for the first time ever, we opened our gifts to each other first thing on Christmas morning!  (Usually we haven't done that until all family stuff is over.)

Santa brought Robin a Thomas the Train tent, which he played with while we prepared the traditional sticky buns for breakfast.  Robin l-o-v-e-d the sticky buns and wanted to eat his weight in them.

Here we are opening our family gifts

After breakfast and gifts, we went to my parents' house for Christmas dinner.  I didn't take many pictures there, I'll have to steal them from somebody else.  I did get a couple group shots, though, before people dispersed.

We also got "4 Generation" photos for each side of the family.  It's probably been a year or more since we did that.

Then we did a gift exchange with my family.

We took the train tent with us so Robin could play with it some more (and so my engineer Dad and uncle could help us figure out how to fold it.)  Ama and Poppa even joined Robin inside!

I was sick on Christmas, and was pretty worn down by day's end.  I had to have Dean drive home, and both Robin and I snoozed along the way.  Robin insisted on wearing his sunglasses even though it was after dark.  Here he is, asleep in the back seat.

Then, the day after Christmas, the festivities continued!  Dean's family came over, and we exchanged gifts with them.

Our haul

Lastly, we went to Dean's parents' house for lunch.  What a full holiday!