Adventures with Vinny

This past weekend, we had a lot of fun with Vinny.  He loves the trains at our local children's museum, and on Saturday night, they had a special showing of the larger model trains in their outdoor train garden.  The trains were decorated in a Christmas theme, and all the little buildings had lights on them.  Vinny loved seeing the trains, and if it hadn't been so darn cold we would have stayed there just watching the trains the whole time.

Then the next day, we took him back to the museum during daytime hours, so he could check out the H-O scale model trains inside, plus all the other stuff he loves in the museum (such as the nests that light up when he pushes the coordinating buttons).  It was also our intention to let him run around and wear himself out.  But it was a lot of fun because he was just so thrilled to be there and to see all the interesting stuff.

On Monday, Jeff was feeling a little under the weather so I took it upon myself to cook dinner.  Vinny helped me make some pancakes.  He's really interested in cooking, and he especially loves the mixer.  We didn't use the mixer but we did use a whisk, which he also finds fascinating.  I let him help me by dumping the measuring cups of flour into the bowl, and holding the end of the whisk handle while I stirred the batter up.  He was really eager to help --  "I help me, Mama?" he offered.

I let him stand on a step-stool while I cooked the pancakes on the griddle in the middle of our stovetop.  I sufficiently impressed upon him the fact that it was hot, such that he didn't even try to touch it.  But he did watch in fascination as the pancakes cooked.  We made BIIIGGGGG PANCAKES (said with great breadth and in a low voice) and itty-bitty pancakes (said in a thin, high voice) and he ate probably 4 of the smaller pancakes while we were standing there making pancakes.  Then at the table he ate another two.

When I come home from work every day he is always delighted to see me.  He hugs me and regularly says "I miss you all day."  Today he was working on a very intricate drawing -- "I draw stars!" he said -- which was a new development.  Normally he just scribbles a bit and moves on to the next piece of paper, but according to Jeff he'd been working on this one all day.  It is completely abstract -- nothing recognizable at all, no repetitions or patterns -- but really quite stunning.  I will have to take a picture of his masterpiece.