We’d just let the cat, Charlie, in and she was making lots of noise, when I overheard Elliot talking to Daddy:
Elliot: Charlie wants some water
Daddy: can you understand Charlie, Elliot?
Elliot: yes
Daddy: what is she saying now then?
Elliot: miaow, miaow, miaow
Check out the other Wot So Funee posts this week, thanks to Actually Mummy:
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I’m beginning to realise the many good things about having a 2 year old around. Elliot is so much fun right now, and picking up things like a sponge – he knows all his letters and we’re having fun trying to teach him the phonic sounds that go with them. He loves to get them wrong on purpose and make us laugh.
After nursery today, Elliot was enjoying counting raisins back into their box and it made me think of a good game we could play.
I took a piece of card, an espresso cup (to draw around) and some colouring pens and made a counting game for the numbers 1-5. (The card wasn’t quite big enough to get up to 10, and by that point our raisin supply was being depleted rather rapidly!)
The best part was the eating at the end!
I’m thinking this game will be used again and again, with pennies, little stones, beads or even daisies (if we ever get some sunshine!)
Four years ago today, on a sunny day in February, this happened …
I love you Mr P
Happy Anniversary
xxx
A colleague of mine has a birthday this week so I thought that was a good excuse to get some baking done this weekend. I do think I’m reaching the point where I’m enjoying the baking bit more than the eating, as while the dough was chilling in the fridge for a couple of hours, I had time to make some fudge cupcakes too!
Anyway, back to the cookies!
I remember making these with my Mum when I was little, pushing the little fork cross-crosses on the top and waiting for them to cook.
If you want to have a go you’ll need:
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225g peanut butter (I used crunchy but I think smooth would also work)
115g butter
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
115g brown sugar (I used some brown and some demerara)
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
Firstly, take two bowls. In one, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. You can sieve it if you feel the need.
In the other bowl, beat (or get your husband to do it as I did) together the peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract. Then add the sugars and eggs to this bowl. Beat together until smooth.
Next, add the flour to the wet mix. You may need to do this in stages. Then once everything is mixed, split the mixture in half and form into balls, wrap them in clingfilm and chill in the fridge (while you have a cup of tea, relaxing bath, or if you’re like me, make some cupcakes!)
After at least 2 hours, take the wrapped mixture out of the fridge and form into smaller balls – I got 22 out of this mixture.
Place these on a baking tray (I didn’t grease or line mine and they didn’t stick at all) and use a fork, dipped in flour, to make criss-cross marks on the top of each ball to flatten them down.
Then pop them in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes.
They should be lovely and golden when they’re done. Leave them to harden up a bit on the trays before moving them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
These cookies should keep well in an airtight container.
Enjoy!
Dear Elliot,
I thought I’d start some posts to give you some pointers about being generally lovely when you’re all grown up and in a relationship of your own. It feels strange writing this now while you’re still little and currently asleep in your cot upstairs but I wanted to let you know the things you can learn from your Daddy.
The first is quite fitting as it takes me back to my very first Valentines’ Day with your Dad in 2007. We had really only just met about a month before and were still in the early days, finding our feet and learning about each other.
I didn’t want to let Valentines’ Day pass without marking it in some way, but it felt too early for elaborate displays of affection, and I’m sure you’ll be aware by the time you read this, that this really isn’t ‘us’ anyway! Instead I just found a card I liked (I think it may in fact have had monkeys on or something equally non-valentinesy) and popped a message in it about how excited I was to be spending time with him, and slipped it into his bag one evening after work. We then went to our respective flats and I sent him a quick message telling him to look in his bag, and then got a reply back telling me how much he’d liked the card.
The next day he presented me with a little gift. He’d bought me some hand-warmers as I was going to the Baltics with work (in February, in the snow), and said they were to keep me warm while I was away from him. I still have a couple of them left, in a little box of memories.
So, little Elliot, take hints from this and always remember it’s the little things that count, not the big huge bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates. Those hand warmers were some of the nicest things I’ve been given, as they were so thoughtful.
Lots of love, Mummy xx
Letters to Elliot (& Alexander too!) 