C is for Cookie!

We had a really great day today, despite the fact that Jonah woke up at a quarter to six. A great breakfast led into some good morning play time before our friends, Kristin and Ryan Nord, came over to make Valentine's Day cookies.

The plan was to let Jonah experience some cookie making, from the rolling and cutting of the cookies, and then after his nap he would get to try the cookie. Things seemed to go pretty well at first with the rolling and cutting.

Rolling, rolling

Cut!

Put the cookies on the sheet.

"This is my favorite cookie cutter!"

Everything was going great. Then Jonah discovered dough.

"Wait. Why are we making these funny shapes with this stuff? Why don't we just EAT it??"

We captured a little on video, too. Jonah's cookie making time was pretty much done at this point.



After we made the cookies, we had a nice pizza casserole for lunch, and then Jonah went down for a nap. While he was down for his nap, we decorated cookies. Kristin and Ryan have been taking some cake decorating classes and brought their toolbox of tips, so we had some fun.

When Jonah got up, he got to sample a cooked and decorated cookie. Despite his joy at discovering the cookie dough, he wasn't all that interested in the cookie itself. The frosting was another story, though.

"What's that? Where's the cookie dough??"

"The frosting isn't bad, but I would still rather have some cookie dough."

"Ok, this cookie isn't too bad, but can you get me some more of this pink stuff?"

Michelle caught a little of the cookie licking on video.



More pictures are available on our family photo site. Michelle is writing more about our day in another post. be sure to check it out!

Trip to Madison

On Father's Day weekend, we took the opportunity to go to Madison with Kristin and Ryan Nord.  We'd talked for some time about heading over there for the Farmer's Market and I'd also wanted to visit the retail store for Title Nine (I randomly received their catalog at some point over the winter and loved a lot of the things I saw). We decided to make a day of it, hitting the market in the morning (snagging some asparagus, sugar snap peas, strawberries, baked goods, and a Siberian iris), enjoying ourselves at the Madison Children's Museum in the afternoon, and hitting Title Nine and a few of the children's outlets in Johnson Creek on the way home (scored some great deals at the Gymboree outlet!).

It was beautiful weather and the first time that either of us had actually taken a moment to walk inside the Capitol.  When Jonah is bigger, we'll go back to take a real tour of the impressive building. 

Just three feet shorter than the U.S. Capitol, the Wisconsin capitol building is quite impressive as well.

Mural inside the capitol

We've never been to the Children's Museum here in Milwaukee, but we enjoyed the one in Madison.  We weren't sure how much would be appropriate for Jonah, but it turned out that he found plenty to enjoy (and we adults did too).  My personal favorite was the Rube Goldberg-style fountain with water and balls; Jonah enjoyed pretty much everything he tried (though he certainly will grow into much of it). Kudos to the museum for the great set-up for nursing mothers, with a beautiful and comfortable room specifically designated for it.  The only negative experience was an overzealous girl of about 8 years of age who really wanted to hold and care for Jonah and kept bothering us (no accompanying adults were ever seen).

Ryan entertains Jonah with a stuffed frog.

Living on the edge as he leans over the edge of this pod-shaped chair.

Jonah plays with the cars, roads, and other objects.

I enjoyed building with the blocks.

Kristin takes Jonah down the slide.

All in all, it was an excellent day.  We'll have to plan another trip in the not-too-distant future.  Other pictures from the trip are available on our photo site.