A Good Day

There is a new little sou chef in the kitchen! Keeping with the momentum of having Liam in the kitchen, we made graham crackers together yesterday.  Monday is usually baking day for this little mama, but yesterday a baking project was chosen with the intention of inviting this little guy in to help me.

Liam's first picture, taken with my little Cannon PowerShot while we rolled out the dough. Future blogger perhaps? 

Catherine McCord's book Weelicious had the perfect graham cracker recipe for us to do together.  There is no egg in this cracker, which was really good because I saw Liam eating the dough several times. But oh it was so much work  fun helping him to use the rolling pin, cut out the cookies and place them on the sheet.

I love that picture above! He is checking out his pictures on my old camera all the while sporting a flour mustache!

While they were baking I set up a play dough station for him so that he could practice what we had just learned.  His little rolling pin is new to his little basket of kitchen things,  a yard sale find for a dollar.  Don't you just love those?

I don't know what made me do it, but I was so inspired from this experience with him... watching him touch the dough with his hands, watching him concentrate on a task with such amazing focus, it didn't feel complete to set up a quilt on the floor and have our regular floor picnic.  So I loaded a tray with snacks and we headed outside to the lanai, or porch.  And sitting there, watching him eat the fruits of his labor with the birds singing and the wind blowing our hair around us just made sense. It felt really really right. Eating outside, is a really big thing for this mama that tends to cower inside in fear of those dreadful tropical mosquitoes! But they stayed away so that we could enjoy ourselves.  We looked for geckos but they were being shy.  The birds came for a visit on the trees outside and Liam laughed as he watched them glide. We counted four trucks and three cars during our little alfresco snack time, in of course Hawaiian and English.  And we enjoyed the sun and the wind and the discovery of a broom.  This mama was inspired to put some love into this unused little corner of our home and went inside dreaming of a container garden space to grow flowers, a table and chairs for when Liam is older and we can really have lunch or perhaps afternoon tea.  

Afterwards Liam helped me with the Monday chores, (well Tuesday actually, but all that baking and flour play really messed up the floors) of vacuuming and mopping. We vacuumed the house together and then he rode in the sling while I mopped.  Doing things with Liam seemed to take three times as long, but the experience that he got out of it was so worth it.  Not only did he fully engage in an activity, but he helped me take care of our home, and I think that lesson has so many layers of meanings that we can explore.

The nap that he had in the afternoon was wonderful.  It was one of those tired but happy naps.  A nap that felt earned by this mama.  Isn't it wonderful when our children are tired because of all the experiencing that they have just had?  Nothing makes me happier.

And his little sleep was so deep that I got some prepping in to continue a WIP that has long needed attention.

Looking back it was a good day.  A very good day if I must say so myself.