Baking With the Boy

Trent and I used to bake together all the time when he was small enough to be in a baby carrier. But, when he was long enough to kick me in the knees and heavy enough to cause me to walk like Quazimoto, I knew our baby carrier days were over. So we've been on a baking bonding time hiatus because it was just easier to do while he was sleeping. Well now his naps times are not as reliable as they used to be. He still needs two naps a day because he comes apart around 5:30pm, if he only gets one nap. That doesn't mean he always takes two naps a day. You know the saying, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink?" That's naptimes at our house right now. I can lay him down and let him sit in the crib, and possibly he'll sleep in the morning, possibly he won't. I can only give him the option. Anyway, because of our inconsistent morning nap, I'm not always able to do things by myself during morning nap time (or if he does take one, often times it's shorter than it used to be.) Sometimes he's content to just play by himself and sometimes he wants to be constantly with me. So I'm again incorporating Trent into baking with me, just this time sans baby carrier. So this morning we baked! Here's what to do in order for this to work with MY one year old (every kid is different so I make no promises on how other children will react during this time.) We first preheat oven, gather and measure ALL the ingredients and grease the pans(he's usually on my hip at this point). Next, we throw all the ingredients in. He is usually sitting in front of me on the counter at this point. Let's face it, one year olds are not known for their long attentions spans SO - while things are mixing, empty paper towel rolls, empty butter boxes, etc. help to prolong the attention span. Next place the child on the floor with a sippy cup (again, distraction method works wonders) and pour batter into pans and place pans in oven. And an hour later, you have three big, beautiful loaves of banana bread. I double the recipe so the bread last longer and this process doesn't have to be repeated quite as often.

Getting ready to mix (the bananas had been frozen - hence the brown color)

Checking on our banana bread