The Baby Bakes!

 A couple days ago, Lorelei decided she was not going to take an afternoon nap, so we had to get pretty creative to keep our crab-apple busy until dinner. We went on a short outing to get some caffeine relief for Daddy and Mama and an ice cream cone to share. I think Lorelei really liked looking at her messy face in the car mirror more than the ice cream itself.

After we got home, we played outside for a bit, and she tried to call Luke through the fence to come play with her, but he wasn't home so she was stuck playing with us. We picked cherry tomatoes and rolled them down the slide on her water table for a while and then played with chalk on her easel. When Lorelei is tired, her attention span decreases and she starts to do naughty things, like playing with rocks under the deck, or trying to pick green tomatoes over the garden fence, or dropping handfuls of mulch down the sewer grate, or putting the chalk in the pool. After we did all of those things, Todd and I were getting pretty desperate for dinnertime to roll around, so I scooped her up and we baked banana muffins together. It was the perfect activity to keep her interested, happy, and contained, (and it got us to dinnertime with a lot less whining!) 

Baking will definitely be one of our go-to's when it's just "one of those days". Hopefully she will continue to enjoy it, especially because this crazy fall weather has made me realize we will be doing a lot more indoor activities in a few months when it starts to get darker earlier and the temperatures drop. In the meantime, I'm ready for the 80-degree temps to return... We have a lot more summer activities to enjoy before I go back to that-which-we-will-not-speak-of!

Not smiling.

Squishing bananas

Very serious business

Had to take a break to sample the bananas.