Baking Cookies

Tuesdays are Gymboree days, and have been since Jacob was only eight months old. Crazy how we see each others kids grow up week by week, and how attached Jacob is to his teacher. Which, is why we stay with Tuesdays - it's the only day she teaches.

Jacob moved up to the new level when he turned 22 months - almost 2 months ago - and this has been my absolute favorite level for him. The kids are starting to role play, and play pretend, and it is such a joy to see him grasp concepts so easily. Every two weeks the theme changes, and these past two weeks have been about cookies. They pretend to mix batter, roll cookie dough, cut out cookies, scoop them onto baking sheets, bake them in the oven, and serve them. Jacob has LOVED this theme, almost more than the two weeks devoted to cars and trucks!

I love seeing him interact with the other kids, share, and learn how to deal when other kids take his stuff. Since he doesn't have an older sibling, he doesn't understand that concept really, and still gets confused why someone took his toy. I'm proud of him each and every week for how well he behaves and for learning so much. It's such nice one-on-one time for the two of us - no distractions and no where else we need to be for an hour each week.

The rain is starting to get to Jacob! We bought a new toy at Target (thank you dollar spot) for his sand box, and haven't been able to use it yet. The toy is where you put sand in the top and it comes out the funnel and makes pinwheels spin. He's played with them at the Children's Museum, so he keeps walking up to it and asking to play in the sand box. Despite the rain, we still played with the toy...just a bit messier. I let him play on the kitche table with buckets of water. I knew it would be messy, but didn't anticipate how far the water would fling when it whipped around the pinwheels. Oh well, just water. He loved it and was doing great with scooping cups full of water without tipping.

Planning for Jacob's party is in full swing, and I cannot wait for him to turn two! The nice thing about his birthday falling on Memorial Day weekend is that Bob is always done with school in time for his birthday. The downfall, most people go to the Indy 500 or have family plans that weekend, which limits who can make it to his party. When he's older, I won't have his parties that weekend, but for now I like to celebrate with whoever can make it, and have his party as close to his actual birthday as possible.