Since Maddie turned 2 a few months ago we’ve eased up on the sugar restriction – up to that point, she’d never had dessert as we tried to develop in her a love for all things growing and vitamin-laden. But not wanting to make our child into the one who hides in her closet at midnight eating Twinkies, we started introducing her to treats a few times a month. Maddie definitely loves cookies and ice cream but doesn’t yet ask for them daily, which is great.

Unfortunately, the fact that she now eats sweets has serious ramifications for Mommy. One of our favorite things to do together on a rainy day is bake: Maddie can spoon and level flour and sugar like nobody’s business, and recognizes a stick of unsalted butter from across the room. If she even hears the clink of the measuring spoons she comes running to see what’s up, and any sighting of ingredients will lead her to start dragging her “helper” stool out of the corner so she can climb up and work properly. And since ninety percent of my recipes start with the words “Cream the butter and sugar together”, she can pretty much tell at a glance how far into the recipe I’ve gotten without her.

In the past I could bake to my heart’s content and simply hide the cookies away to eat later, after she’d gone to bed. Since she’d never tasted cookies or cupcakes, she didn’t really care what happened to them after the fun of baking was over.

Now, though, Maddie cares deeply.

Continuing Maddie’s obsession with all things Elmo, Brian and I downloaded (legally!) a CD of Elmo’s greatest hits. Maddie and I have spent several enjoyable (for one of us) hours dancing around to such chart-toppers as “Elmo You Can Drive My Car” and “Imagination”. Maddie loves to watch Sesame Street and see the actual song performed live in front of her as she sings along with gusto.

Not all of Elmo’s songs are on the CD (darn it), and one of Maddie’s favorites that didn’t make the cut is “Riding My Tricycle”. Fortunately, they seem to show that “video” every other day on Sesame Street, so we’ve got it Tivo’d for posterity and Maddie has tried hard to memorize it in short spurts.

I knew going into our recent vacation that a) it wasn’t going to be much of a vacation for Mommy; and b) the amount of gear required would rival an Everest expedition. I thought I was mentally prepared for that.

Alas, you can never really be prepared for that.

Here is a (partial!) list of what we brought with us for our three-day vacation. Keep in mind that we were in a friend’s house, so we had her toddler’s toys at our disposal but had to fend for ourselves meal-wise:

Hi everyone – I’m back!

We went for a few days in a friend’s house on the Jersey shore – family vacation, cheap style. I’d meant to warn you all of this, and in fact wrote a blog right before I hopped in the car to head out, figuring I could post once I got there. But I arrived to find I had no way of posting, and so was out of touch for a few days. Thanks to those who wrote making sure the girls were ok – we were all getting some quality family time!

So coming up is what you should have read on Monday – I’ll fill you in on how it went tomorrow.