Monday, October 20, 2014

A Curious George Pancake-Making Day with my youngest: Individual Special Days part THREE


This is part THREE of a three part blog series on creating special individual days for our kids.

Check here for part ONE and here for part TWO




In my previous blog posts, I shared our tradition of creating a "special day" for EACH of our sons.  I know a lot of parents do this!  It is such a great way to connect and to really get to know our little people.



Titus, my youngest, he has my heart in a really big way! He has the most gentle and sweet spirit.   His day was very similar to Dakotah's day, because it was also time spent in the kitchen, preparing a meal.  I didn't intend for their day's activities to be so similar but Titus has been wanting to read the Curious George pancake book with me for awhile so I built his day around that book.


For Titus' special day, I bought him his favorite individual serving of orange juice as a treat, read his Curious George Makes Pancakes book with him, and we made pancakes and fresh syrup together.  He then served our family fun pancake faces for a weekend breakfast! 



Starting out our special day...



To start, Titus and I read his pancake book together.  These are the moments I dwell on, the ones that prick my awareness, the ones that I long to last forever.


After that, we got busy in the kitchen!   We made a homemade pancake mix from my Southern Living cookbook.  I taught him a little bit about make-ahead-mixes.



It was late summer on this day, so we also made a fresh fruit syrup, using delicious Palisade peaches and summer blueberries.  I already shared this recipe on my "Flowers and Food of our Summer" blog post.


Titus, quietly and diligently working hard.


Then he was ready to make the pancakes! To make it fun, Titus topped pancakes with a variety: blueberries on some, chocolate chips and rainbow chips on a few, and some plain. 




Just like on Dakotah's Special Day, Titus got to set the table outside for our meal.  I really enjoyed watching how they each decorated the table in their own style.  I keep leftover party papergoods.  Titus dug out Curious George napkins from a party I had hosted YEARS ago to use on his breakfast table.  

*See here for more details on using a leftover party box.  And check here for fun ways to use leftover party napkins. 



Setting his breakfast table.  He used his old Curious George for a centerpiece.  It was adorable!



Ta Da!


The old party napkins worked perfectly for this special pancake breakfast!


It was a beautifully bright sunny summer morning for our family to enjoy Titus' pancakes.



Fresh Colorado sausage...


Tall stack!


Titus had an idea to make each of us our own unique pancake face.  This is SO Titus, since he is known as our smiley face boy.  I am quite sure smiley faces will ALWAYS remind me of my  youngest.  He draws about 15 smiley faces on every card he writes and every picture he creates.  He also always does a big closed mouth smile that almost perfectly matches the classic smiley face.


Oh! A not so smiley face...


I didn't get pictures of his other face creations, but we had a lot of fun with them!  We enjoyed some of our pancakes with the fresh blueberry peach syrup!


Claiming minutes and calling time 
with the loves of my life
 is by far my most favorite thing in life. 
 I grabbed lots of squeezes from my youngest one
 as we worked together making pancakes. 

 I know these are the moments that will always remain my favorite,
 even long after this time of raising a family has past. 
 I'm painfully aware of how brief this season is.  
 I know, in the future, 
I will look back even on the not-so-special days with longing.  
I breathe it in with every inhale 
and I only exhale so that I can breathe it all in again.  



This concludes this three part blog series.
See here for PART ONE, Cameron's Library and picnic day.
See here for PART TWO, Dakotah's meal planning and preparing day.

I also shared some of the kids' cooking in the Flowers and Food of our Summer blog post. 




1 comment:

caveman said...

Titus' smiles are so infectious! And I love what you said about inhaling every moment, holding onto is as long as you can, and only exhaling so you could breathe it all in again. Very beautifully written, Lover.