Sous Chef

I knew it was coming...  Charlie just hasn't been completely himself this week.  He's been in a fairly good mood and hasn't had a fever, but he's just been a little off-kilter with some major energy swings, from manic to dragging and back again.  Then to top it off we had to get his second round flu shot yesterday afternoon...so we were doomed.

Charlie woke up in a great mood this morning, but his eyes were a little droopy.  Having a touch of a sore throat and congestion myself, I went ahead and took him to school since he was fever-free, thinking that he'd enjoy himself more there than here.  Well, at 9:50 school called and he had a fever.  I definitely wasn't surprised.

Since he wasn't quite ready to go down for his nap when we got home, I set him up with a snack and started to work on the noisy parts of preparing the cheesecake that I was making for tomorrow night -- crushing the graham crackers and slicing the cranberries -- better now than while he's napping. 

Watching me "cooking" perked Charlie right up, so I brought his high chair over to watch.  Pretty soon he was standing on a kitchen chair hammering away at the graham crackers.  Then he had his first and second lessons in pressing a graham cracker crust (I forgot to spray the pan the first time), and even got to use the hand mixer after pouring in the lemon juice and eggs.

As crummy as we were both feeling, we had a blast, and imagine my delight when Charlie's favorite part was doing the dishes -- if only it stays that way!  It reminded me so much of sick days when I was a kid, baking cookies with my mom.  Obviously today's fun will probably be lost in Charlie's subconscious, since he's so young, but I can't wait to make more of the same memories with him and turn sick days into Mommy-Charlie days, just like they were Mommy-Jenny days so long ago.

Pat, pat, pat

Mom's kind of power tools

 One more cranberry and it's perfect!