This week, we spent a lot of time in the kitchen and on park adventures. Tuesday night was calzone night, and I have not made pizza dough in years, so I went to my pal Amy’s site, A Farmish Kind of Life, and found her recipe for dough. This crust was so delicious, and the smell of the yeast as it was rising made me so ridiculously happy. We had calzones for the adults, and Little Man got his own mini pizza! Everything was delicious, and we decided that calzones will definitely make it into the weekly dinner rotation.

Wednesday was banana bread day. I have this molasses banana bread recipe from many moons ago and my cousin had this gigumbous tub of molasses to go through, so I pulled it out, dusted it off, added some chocolate chips, and voila! Chocolate Chip Molasses Banana Bread. My mother bought this big bunch of bananas last week, and then no one ate them. One even started to get moldy, so I went to MeWe to see what my connections there do with bananas. There were a lot of bread and cake suggestions, and so many pancake ideas! I will try pancakes another time; there was a request for the chocolate chip bread this time. I’m not going to lie…I’m not a fan of this bread with the chocolate chips, but I have enjoyed it with walnuts int he past.

We spent a lot of time outside again this week. Little Man and I walked the half mile to the local school and their park. We all hopped into the van and drove to another large park in town another day. We also went to the village hall and went down their sculpture walk and nature walk. It was so much fun!

Seeing Little Man get more confident each day in his climbing each day, and watching how he figured out how to navigate getting up to that level of the playground, or onto this thing-a-ma-jig that rocked or swiveled, I could not be more proud. He is truly growing up right in front of my eyes; more and more each day. I did give in and let my parents buy him a pair of knee pads; poor kid keeps tripping and skinning his knees just as soon as they heal from the previous fall. So, he is now a kneepad kid.

We did a lot of work this week as well on getting him to sleep in his own bed. I bedshare, and I don’t mind. But, it’s been over a year since Squatch and I have slept in the same bed together overnight, apart from 3 nights when he visited us at the lake and we had our king-size bed with enough space for the three of us. Everywhere else, our parents have queen size beds. Have you tried to fit a giant, a very large toddler, and a woman onto a queen bed? It’s not easy, and it’s definitely not comfortable.

I pulled the mattress out of the crib my parent shave here and I stuck it on the floor next to our bed. We had a few days of naps on the floor, and he’s started off his nights on the mattress as well, but he’s still ending up in bed with me. I’m hoping that this way, making it fun “Hey! we’re camping!!!” “Little Man & Mummy sleepover!”, he will want to continue on his own in his own little bed. We’re still working on the sleeping on his mattress, but we’re up to 2 hours at a time where he will sleep on his own!

I’ve also decided that I need to get back into reading again. I sat down for breakfast the other day and grabbed this mug from the cabinet. I cannot remember the last time I took some time for myself to read, so I need to do that again.