The Great Switcheroo: Making Gingerbread with Gram Gram

Week 2 of The Great Switcheroo!! Featured is my sweet, wonderful, hilarious cousin-niece!! Girl’s only 20 months and already baking WHAT!?! And send some happy thoughts and fairy dust to my cousin Jell Jell, she’s trying to make another one of these sweet babes and needs some good juju ❤ P.S. Check out my guest post on I’ll Sleep When They’re Grown Blog, this week was about my experience with tree betrayal – I’m heartbroken y’all =P

I always loved spending time with my grandmothers when I was younger.  I never even thought about how nice it must’ve been for my mom to get a day weekend to herself.  I just loved doing crafty things like crocheting coats for my bears, watching cable (that’s crafty, right?  We didn’t have cable at home), and making cookies.  I have needed a lot of child care this month because EB’s daycare is on the Austin ISD school schedule (two weeks off) and there are lots of things that need my attention right now.  So I’ve frequently shipped EB out to the hill country of Texas to visit my Hubs’ mom and my own mom (because they like each other and moved close together = CUTE.)

My Hubs’ mom aka Gram Gram, is a big baker for the holidays.  She makes baskets of cookies, breads, booze balls, pralines – you name it.  No really, if you name it, she’ll make it for the baskets.  But we’ve had to cut her off because she’s hosting both the Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinners and we don’t want to have to pump her too full of Xanax to be able to handle all of the people coming.  Including Bomba (the matriarch/great grandmother), Pop Pop (Hubs’ dad), both of my parents, my aunt, Hubs, Hubs’ bro, Hubs’ bro’s wife’s entire immediate fam, and a couple of token friends who are like family.  That’s a lot.  But these guys love to host and make lots of food.  Especially when they get help.  I’m on clean-duty because nobody wants me to cook anything if they know what’s good for them.  That’s Hubs’ job.  I KNOW, don’t be jealous.  He’s pretty dreamy.

My daughter can’t help helping.  Here’s EB being a huge help making the gingerbread men.  She is obviously a pro at this.  All she needs is a little direction.

Mmm-hmmm, yes, I see....

And she’ll provide a little quality control to make sure the dough tastes good.  Nothing slips past the keen senses of this gal.  Or maybe she’s like the canary in the coal mine?  We scooped most of the dough out of her mouth.  But what’s better than licking the spoons and trying a little cookie dough?  I still do it.  Salmonella?  Pashaww.  It’s obvsly an old wives’ tale.

OM NoM nom NOm nOM...

Don’t you just love it?  Making memories with Gram Gram.  After her men were cut out, she just gave her the pile of cookie cutters and she promptly threw them one-by-one onto the floor.  It’s so amazing to see her personality come out a little more each day.  At this age, I kind of forget that she was a little lump of a baby until I see a newborn.  Then I am reminded of just how much she has grown (about an inch a month right now, and she tripled in size in the first 3 months.  If babies kept up that grown rate their entire life they would be the size of Jupiter).  And it makes me want another lump of a baby!!  I am on the second baby TTC track and am consumed.

And DONE!! Nailed it!!!

But every month that I see a BFN (big fat negative, to you people not in the TTC world – I learned this term yesterday.  Apparently every other word is an acronym), I appreciate this little gal more and more.  She’s effing awesome.  Take my word for it, EB is the funniest 20 month old around.  And she is just so happy.  I’m a lucky mama, that’s for sure.  Tonight we she decorates the gingerbread men now that they’re baked.  I can’t wait to eat those cookies!  I bet EB can’t wait to make more cookies with Gram Gram.  And I bet she’s a little excited about eating the cookies, too, if she’s got any of my genes at all.

Happy Holidays y’all,

jell jell