Bonding with the boy

Well, with one child out of the house it was just my boy and I yesterday. We did a lot with our time together. We learned that zucchini is not always an offensive vegetable and when mixed with chocolate and sugar it came become quite wonderful to the taste buds of a toddler. Once again the transformation of food has made me magical in the eyes of my child. Since yesterday between the two of us we have eaten half a tray of zucchini brownies. We also spend the morning blanching and freezing the excessive amounts of zucchini from our garden. Seeing the vegetable in it's various states had been quite fun for him. He enjoying helping to harvest the vegetable from the plant, then watching as I cut and blanched it. He was able to help lay the slices flat and put them in the freezer and was surprised by how their texture had changed when they were removed from the freezer.

We also made a potato salad for dinner (the potatoes can be seen peeking in at the edge of the picture). We sure did make a mess and a whole lot of dishes but we had such fun together. We spent the afternoon outside working in the garden and shared a book under the shade of an old tree. He had a chance to see what it would be like if he were an only child, with the attention of both parents centered directly on him and decided he didn't like it very much. I don't think that I have ever seen a boy so happy to see his sister come home so he could tell her about all the fun he had while she was away. He hugged her and let her settle back into home life then shoved a brownie in her face and said, "Here have a brownie, I made them, there is zucchini in it and I love zucchini".