It is a rainy morning here in Bern. Thank goodness! I have been loving the sunny weather but the pollen has almost been unbearable. I hope it rains hard enough and long enough today to wash the pollen away! But along with rainy days comes the need to occupy the kids inside more!

Most of you know that Jackson attends a playgroup 2 mornings a week. They call it a playgroup…it’s basically a Mother’s Day Out. They do crafts and learn about seasonal things, they have playtime and music time. It is more structured than a free for all but not a formal preschool. One of Jackson’s favorite things to do at “school” is play with playdough. We have it at home so it isn’t novel to him but he thinks it’s different there. One day when I picked him up the teacher said “I promise on Friday I will get you the recipe for the playdough”. I thought, “hmmm. Okay, no rush. I had no idea we needed it.”  On Friday the teacher made a beeline to me with the recipe. She explained that while Jackson played with the playdough one day he asked all about where to buy that kind. She explained that she made it and he asked her for the recipe. Such a funny kid.

A couple of weeks ago on a rainy Sunday morning Jackson and Seth made a batch! Jackson and Owen have enjoyed it so much so I thought I would share the recipe with you too.  I added a few of my own little tidbits but all credit goes to the English Speaking Playgroup for this fab recipe.

ESP’s Famous Playdough Recipe

2 tsp of cream of tartar

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup of salt

1 T. oil

1 cup water

Mix ingredients into a smooth paste. Stir in some drops of food coloring. Cook slowly on the stove over low heat until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan. When it is cool enough, knead for 3-4 mins. Put water in pan to soak to make sure it doesn’t stay forever!

My sweet friend Amy in Bogota made some for Jackson’s second birthday. I don’t know what recipe she used but I bet it was similar! She made 4 colors and put them into little plastic tubs! It was a super cute, cheap birthday gift that Jackson LOVED and enjoyed for months following!

Hope you and your kids enjoy!!

This morning was the perfect Spring morning. The sun was streaming in the kitchen windows and the house was relatively quiet except for the hum of the load of laundry I had just dutifully started. Owen was down for his morning nap and Jackson was cheerfully waiting to bake cookies with me. I told him after his morning cartoon he and I could make some Easter cookies.  The kitchen was sparkling and smelled of lavender from the homemade cleaner I had tried. I did some Spring cleaning yesterday. Anyone that has been to my house knows that I love to cook and that I don’t so much enjoy or stay on top of  the aftermath. So, this is a RARE morning with a super clean kitchen at our house.

Jackson and I got to work. This recipe calls for lemon zest so I asked Jackson to go on the hunt for the zester. He didn’t know what it was so I described what it looked like and let him look for it in our utensil drawer. I measured the dry ingredients while he hunted…this is a trick I have learned. Send him on a hunt and get some of the messy stuff done while he’s gone. We mixed up our dough, rolled it out just right and cut out the most clean cut bunnies, carrots and flowers.

Now to the real story..The kitchen was sparkling clean but ONLY because I cleaned yesterday. And in the case when you are about to bake with a preschooler it really isn’t ideal to have just cleaned the kitchen! Owen was napping, but only because I had gotten him back to sleep after Jackson woke him up. Jackson woke him up because he ran down in a panic to confess he had gotten too busy and had had a potty accident upstairs.  And our baking didn’t go that smoothly or neatly because, well, it just doesn’t when baking with a little one.

About once a month I get inspired to bake with Jackson. Or let him help me with dinner. I know it’s good for him to learn new things and I know he is old enough to be involved. It all sounds good and developmentally appropriate until we get going. My blood pressure instantly rises and I find myself having to monitor my tone of voice. He drives me crazy in the kitchen. He enthusiastically grabs the spoon from the first bowl, consequently tossing out some of the flour, when I lunged for the spoon before more damage is done he is not disheartened for he is already reaching for an egg. When the egg gets rescued safely from his hands he pushes his finger into the stick of softened butter to see how soft it feels.  Is he doing anything wrong? Nope. Is he listening to my many instructions? nope, not really, but not purposely. He is so excited to be with me and to be learning something new that he cannot control his enthusiasm. And the final product, well, they weren’t clean cut outs like I was dreaming about previously, they were lopsided bunnies and flowers with broken petals.

This morning as Jackson and I baked I had to remind myself why we were baking cookies.  It was so humbling.  I don’t like my impatience and how I get after him for things that really aren’t wrong. I don’t like how I want him to do it my way and I like for the end product to look nice. It isn’t always about that.  He is proud of his work and he is so pleased with the cookies that resulted in the end. Now that the kitchen is re-cleaned and my blood pressure has returned to it’s normal high I can stand back and see that it was a worthy exercise for both of us. Jackson enjoyed himself and it was yet another learning experience for both of us. At naptime today he said “mom, when I am bigger maybe I will get to zest all by myself”.

Friday is Easter egg coloring day! Sheesh, how did we end up with 2 of these projects in one week. Maybe Friday I will catch myself before the dye starts dripping and the eggs start cracking. these years are going far too fast. I want to learn to enjoy it better.

For those of you that would like a good sugar cookie recipe I came across this one in Southern Living at Valentine’s 2 years ago. Like I mentioned, it calls for lemon zest which I think makes them extra fresh and reminds me of this time of year. Here’s the link…Lemon Butter Cookies  .     Sorry I don’t have any links for how to bake patiently with your enthusiastic preschooler. That is a trial and error kind of thing.

enjoying the tree

I used one of our clear glass vases and filled it with old-fashioned hard candies and candy canes..then put some fresh branches in. I used my cake stand and cover and filled it with extra ornaments and ribbons

thrifted ornaments hanging on the chandelier

this yr the new addition to our decorations on the tree are these gingerbread cookies I found. The house is smelling yummy!

Jackson had his friends Amelia and Amanda over to make a gingerbread house

more Christmas decor pictures to come! That was just to get my mom hooked so she will read again soon!

We had a great weekend with Jackson. He got to experience his first snow, built a snowman with Seth and made a gingerbread house. It was a big treat to get to do some of these things just with Jackson before a new baby comes. Don’t get my wrong, we can’t wait to add Owen into the mix but we know that Jackson will have a hard time sharing our attention and we will miss our one on one time with him. So, a weekend packed with things that we could focus on with him was fun.

Jackson is still very social and enjoys being around people. His nursery teacher and MOPs teacher comment on how joyful he is. He is. He makes us smile and helps us to be social by pulling perfect strangers into our world!  His enthusiasm is contagious. We are amazed at how Jackson keeps track of all of his friends near and far. He talks frequently about friends in Bogota, cousins that live far away and his friends from here. I was sad when we left Bogota that he would forget our friends but he continues to amaze us when he comes out with questions about them.

Jackson’s favorite pastimes at this point are playing with legos and going to the parks in our area. He loves to run and climb! He has a tough time on weeks when it is rainy and we don’t get out too much.  With all of the Christmas music playing another favorite pastime is dancing. Almost immediately when Seth walks in from work Jackson usually asks “don’t you want to dance with me daddy?” or “can you build me a pirate ship daddy?”. Seth doesn’t get much down time when he gets home! His number one fan is always on call and desiring his attention!

Jackson is recently puzzled by the concepts of God and Santa. He is a little nervous about Santa. He doesn’t quite know if God is connected to Santa. The snow was a fun example for him of something that God made.  We will be working on these concepts for a while! His questions amaze us and cause us to work hard to clarify things for him.

He has grown up so fast. It feels like he went from talking in short phrases to speaking in paragraphs over night. He has so much to say and so many plans. He wakes up on a mission. He has somehow figured out if he says “I need…” that he might get something faster. We are working on “I would like…, please” because somehow yelling “I need a cookie, NOW” doesn’t seem to be motivating us to meet his “need”.

When Jackson saw the snow out the window he shrieked ” I am going to build a snowman with a carrot nose, and I am going to say “hola” to him”. He had it all planned out. Very funny!

“Hurry, Daddy! It’s snowing”

We love our big boy!  We look forward to watching him grow into his new role as a big brother!