Santa gifted Duhdee and I with a cast iron bread pan this year so today Monkey and I decided to break it in. We made a loaf of this bread. Oh, my. I highly recommend this recipe for anyone who wants to bake some homemade bread.
It was an absolutely gorgeous loaf and I fully intended to take a picture but I didn’t have the patience. Monkey even ate the crust…he’s been rejecting bread crusts for the last month or so. I take that as a sign that he approves. 🙂
but I like it!
He has gone to school, happily, every single day this week. This has not ever happened to my recollection. Previously, our best weeks were a whiney Monday, decent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then a whiney Friday. We were happy with that, anything is better than the fits we used to deal with, but now he’s really raised the bar!
He bounced his way into class this week. The teachers’ reports say that he’s been very social and very verbal. Yesterday, he played at the sand table with one of his classmates for TEN minutes with no adult intervention/support. They stood there, together, playing and taking turns/swapping toys for 10 minutes.
He has been loving Circle Time this week too. He keeps requesting that they do the weather song and they have been obliging him. Yesterday, it was one of the other kids’ turns to talk about the weather and he showed each of the kids the letter “S” for sunny and, when he got to Monkey, Monkey pointed and said “Ess” as clear as day. The other kids were so excited to hear him talking, lol.
WHO IS THIS KID AND CAN I PRETTY PLEASE KEEP HIM?
It’s my typical post-event let down. Not that I’m let down over how the holidays unfolded, I’m not at all. I enjoyed myself very much…it’s just now I’m back to every day life and after all the planning and excitement I’m feeling a bit “blah.”
Monkey continues to do well in school. He’s had two great days back so far and he was thrilled to be at school this AM. Seriously thrilled…that wasn’t sarcasm!
It’s too early to start regaling you with my plans for Monkey’s birthday, although I have already settled on a theme. (Yes, it’s in May. I know, I know.) We’re still weeks from starting our garden and I’m guessing you all aren’t that interested in all the goodies I’ve found in my various seed catelogues (I have 4 in the satchel that I carry back and forth to work and I am eagerly awaiting a 5th.)
Is this what “calm” is like? Weird.
We had our final Christmas celebration on Sunday. This year the holiday season seems to have stretched on for an eternity, I’m sure we’re all glad to be done with it for another year 🙂
We spent Sunday with Duhdee’s family in New Hampshire. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Monkey played very well with his cousins. There was a bit of a discussion over “sharing” and what exactly sharing involves. It seems that the definition is open to some interpretation amongst the 2-4 year old set. Silly Auntie thought it was pretty well established.
I know I’m probably sounding like a broken record but I am still continually amazed when Monkey shines as he did on Sunday. He played with his cousins, he circulated amongst the grownups, he ate his dinner (mostly) with a fork, he let his Uncle J. hug him, he let Grampy pick him up and touch him, he used his words/signs to communicate, he smiled for his Auntie D. upon request…it was just amazing.
Let this be encouragement for anyone who’s little ones aren’t yet doing this. A year ago he would have hid in the playroom all day. He would have avoided the adults. He would have refused to sit at the table. He would have eaten only standing up and only with his hands. He would have cried if Grampy, Uncle J. or Auntie D. had tried to interact with him directly…the best we could hope for was that he’d stay in the same room or line of sight of them. What a difference a year makes.
After two consecutive three day work weeks (and the 3rd day of each was cut short by two hours thanks to my employer) we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. *sigh*
I expected tears this morning when we dropped Monkey off but he was fine. We left him happily playing at the sand table with his friends. He did try to pull the “potty” card on us at one point to stall but it was half-hearted at best, lol.
Now I need to try to get back into the daily grind! I’d much rather be home watching The Lion King for the 4,743rd time but I suppose…
Feel free to skip this post, I decided I wanted something for me to look back on next year.
