The Week Before School

The week before Jayce started school, I wavered between wanting to fill our days with fun activities, or fill our days with lounging.  We did a little of both, but mostly the latter.

Hannah was up to what has become her usual bit, which is terrorizing the drying laundry.  She pretends like she's going to climb the drying rack, but then opts to simply remove the lower items from the rack and use them to "clean" the table, her hands, etc.  

She pauses occasionally to laugh in my direction if I try to redirect her, or yells baby gibberish in Jayce's general direction.  Or maybe it's at the tv.  Who knows?  

Jayce settles on the couch or hides in his fort for some tv watching.  

Both kids like this show called "Baby Jake," which is basically a real baby's face on a cartoon body that has adventures with other cartoon things.  It makes lots of baby noises and Hannah is completely enamored with it.  (Check out her face in the picture!)  It has the power to bring my little human tornado to a complete stop like nothing else: she just stares at the tv, occasionally mocking one of the baby's noises, or points to the screen saying, "Bebe!  Bebe!  Bebe!"  I'm not really a fan of letting babies watch tv, but this show only lasts for 12 minutes, so I let her.

We did some baking that week.  I got this fun kid's cookbook at the library and we decided to give the cookies a shot.  Jayce loved it, and you can see why: the pictures are bright and fun, particularly if you have a kid who likes to help in the kitchen, and mine does.  Also, it turns out that telling your kid to "make a grumpy face...yeah, just like that" actually elicits real smiles.  

We even got to cook with scale, a first for us both.  (Thank you for leaving it, previous tenant!)

I also did some baking at nap time for the big first day breakfast.  I got these adorable little silicon baking cups at the store when I was supposed to be getting something more responsible, but I was determined to put them to good use.    

So I filled them with these, banana muffins with Nutella swirls.  Mmmm.  Even Chris was a fan.

I laid down with Jayce for his nap time this week, which he has been requesting more than usual, and we've been obliging.  I don't get to see my big boy asleep as much as my toddler, but it turns out that he looks just as sweet.  I snuck out for my camera and then made myself go be productive instead of just lying there staring at him.

Also, I checked on Hannah, who had been partying hard in her pack n play while I tried to get Jayce to fall asleep.  She was sound asleep, like this.

Crazy kids.