Cookie Baking Part One. And maybe the only part...

I seem to forget that the girls are only 2 and 3.5. I think I'm so antsy to experience things with them sometimes that I forget that they're still practically babies.

We had an hour or so after dinner to kill tonight, so looking for something to do with them that wasn't a video, I decided that we'd bake sugar cookies because we could roll out the dough and play with it like play dough. As far as I can remember I've never done that with them. They've "helped" me make cakes and cupcakes and muffins, and Elizabeth can sprinkle cheese onto a pizza like nobody's business, but I pretty much do the "work" and they stir, taste and supervise. They can deal out ready made chocolate chip cookie dough onto a cookie sheet so fast it will make your head spin, but since I didn't have a nice hunk of Pillsbury dough in the fridge all set to play, with I did a quick internet search to get a recipe.

That was fine, I found a super easy one, but I then realized that it requires overnight refrigeration before you can roll out the dough. I hunted for another recipe, but most seemed like too much trouble or required both baking soda AND baking powder (and I literally emptied my can last week). Seriously people, I needed a FAST dough recipe. I was not trying to channel Julia Child this evening. Butter, flour, sugar, and eggs and vanilla. That's all I wanted. So I, grateful I had not told the girls my plans for the evening, had them grab their step stools and we set into part one.

They helped me measure the flour and sugar, they clutched the sticks of butter to their little chests in hopes of making it soften quicker (we finally resorted to putting the bowl of butter into the oven which was still warm from dinner), they deeply inhaled the vanilla, they tasted the salt, they helped hold the mixer, they tried with all their might to stir the flour into the dough, only to discover that it was a little too thick and they were a little too small. They did so well at dough making that their MAMA was the one who forgot that they are still small. So when all of a sudden (as happens with a pair of toddlers), they suddenly ran out of attention span, and the flour ended up on the floor as Lilli suddenly tackled Elizabeth off her step stool with a shriek of glee, I may have raised my voice just a tad.

Possibly more than a tad.

So then I had to apologize.

So tomorrow, as my dining room table becomes covered in cookie dough, flour and sprinkles, I need to remember two things. One- they're little. And two, this was all my big idea in the first place!

One other thing the recipe was lacking though- baking directions. For quarter-inch thick cookies, I'm thinking 7-9 minutes at 350. Does that sound right? Anyone? E-mail me?

If you live near me, I'll save you a cookie...