Christma$ Cookie$ of $ucce$$

Friday we had a really rough day. I spent over THREE HOURS at the clinic with BOTH kids. What started as a well-baby appointment ended up with everyone getting stuck with needles an hour after we usually have lunch thanks to an extended wait at immunizations. During that three hours, Eloise pooped through four or five layers of clothes (including her entire emergency clothes stash), and Isaac broke part of a sink pipe (disobeying) while Eloise pooped all over the clinic bathroom. Add to that Isaac barfing Thursday and having to miss preschool, and we all needed a pick-me-up. I wanted to get my little guy a treat as sort of a weekend reset button. I presented him with a candy apple covered in sprinkles which he could eat after dinner of his favorite food: tortellini! But dinnertime was a mess—flailing, crying, flinging food, disobeying. He got sent to bed without finishing his food, much less getting his candy apple. 

This is why I’m not on Pinterest all the time: ain’t nobody got nothing on these cookies! Obviously! Now, is that a star or a gingerbread man? Trick question! It’s DELICIOUS is what that is. 

I frequently feel like any effort to do something fun, to engage with Isaac — beyond just keeping my head above water with a newborn and a tot — inexplicably results in tantrums, poor behavior and frustration. There was a little frustration the 200th time Chris and Isaac elbowed each other out of the way for tastes like cookie dough vultures while we were cutting out the dough. But the fact that everyone did not have tantrums and, instead, actually had fun decorating/eating cookies makes it that much more $ucce$$ful. Little victories.