With Adam and Todd off at Beaver Scouts Spy Camp, I declared this to be a No-Work Weekend so that I could focus on spending some quality time with Leah (I haven’t done this in as long as I can remember). Clearly, this was a great idea — I don’t think Leah and I have ever had so much fun together.
Saturday started way too early for my liking (apparently Leah decided to make the most of our time together by waking up at 5:30!) but we ambled downstairs and I attempted to wake myself up with some coffee. I had hoped that Leah would play quietly but she was was wandering around the kitchen, opening cupboard doors and peering in the fridge. Todd often makes pancakes or scones on the weekend and Leah wondered what I was doing for our Special Breakfast.
Um, toast and orange juice? Is that special enough? Apparently not. So I baked muffins while Leah looked on, occasionally sharing some encouraging words like “bake faster.”
As soon as the muffins were cool enough to touch, Leah was ready to eat.
Unfortunately, Leah had stuffed herself full of breakfast pitas while she waited and after three bites of muffin? Well, she was full. Sigh. Looking on the bright side, there are lots to freeze for breakfasts next week — they’re The Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance (p. 52) so they’ll be enjoyed by the entire family.
Instead, what Leah actually wanted to do was bake cookies, so I turned to our favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe (from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, p. 35).
(As an aside, you can see that Leah is pretty excited about hockey season finally beginning — this is the second day in a row she has insisted on wearing her Leafs jersey.)
Leah loved measuring and whisking, stirring and trying to sound out some of the words in the recipe.
And with a little assistance, Leah even managed the cookie scoop.
The cookies turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Very photogenic.
And according to Leah, rather delicious. She claims it was because of our teamwork.
When we weren’t in the kitchen, Leah got to pick all of our activities for the day. We did a lot of cuddling on the sofa (we watched Ratatouille), dancing and playing with her dollhouse. Here it looks like Grandpa is trying to put the moves on Grandma.
And somehow, in between all of this, I still managed to fold three loads of laundry, clean two bathrooms and get a bunch of little around-the-house jobs done. All with Leah around. She was content to help match socks and play — as long as I didn’t go near the computer.
In fact, Leah told me at various points today just how much fun she was having and how much she loved me. This day has been one of my favourites in a very long time, reminding me that taking some planned time away from work is a good thing for all involved. (Now if I can just get over the guilt of not responding to email…)