This is absolutely one of my favorite children’s books. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie is a classic written by Laura Numeroff. I bought our copy of the book before the babies were born, and since then I have fallen in love with the series. We have Happy Valentine’s Day Mouse, Happy Easter Mouse and It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse, as well as If You Give A Pig A Pancake. Each one is full of cuteness, but our favorite is still the one about cookies!

Corbin and Lynley adore little “moussss”. They love to read it as a bedtime story and fight over who gets to turn the pages. After many times of reading the book, they’ve finally started picking up on the word cookie. I can’t recall ever letting them eat a cookie before (they’ve had a few bites of cake and ice cream), so I thought this would be a good Tot School activity to celebrate their 21 month “birthday.”

I can admit that a lot of my tot school ideas have failed miserably, i.e. bug-catching, but not this one! Of course not… First, I baked some sugar cookies and let them cool. Afterwards, we read the story and hyped up the word cookie. Then Corbin and Lynley each got to decorate their own cookie with frosting and sprinkles. Mom and Dad helped a little bit, but they were determined to do it themselves. Corbin really liked playing in the icing, and Lynley really liked shaking out the sprinkles. We took a little time to point out colors and count how many different colors we had on our cookies.

And, we took some time feeding each other and giving frosting kisses!

Here’s what you need for this activity:
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie book
Sugar cookies- I baked the prepackaged Pillsbury kind.
Frosting- Also used the prepackaged kind.
Sprinkles

21 month stats:
Can’t believe the next update that I post will be a 2 year update! These little ones have made some big leaps and bounds over the last month or so. Talking is a favorite, even though many of the words make no sense to me or Derrick. We can make out some of what they are trying to tell us. The favorites right now are “where go?” and “you okay?” These two phrases are repeated constantly by the babies. They have picked up lots of new vocabulary words and have started stringing them together. My favorite is when they say ‘I love you Dada’ or Mama. They also say ‘amen’ really cute! Other milestones include beginning to identify shapes, colors and numbers. Using the potty consistently at least three times a day, sometimes more for Lynley. Starting to use a spoon and fork and actually not getting food into their mouths, but that still needs practice!

Corbin weighs about 25lbs. and Lynley weighs about 23lbs. I think Corbin is 33ish inches tall and Lynley is almost 32.5 inches tall. She has gone through a major growth spurt! They each have all of their teeth except the canines, which we’re working on, and the next ones will be the 2-year molars. They both wear size 18 months in most of their clothing, but tiny hiney Corbin still fits 12 months bottoms, although pants are way too short (he sports the man capris!). They both still wear size 4 diapers during the day and size 5 overnight. Lynley wears undies for a few hours everyday and has been staying dry.

They both love swimming now, and Lynley kicks so hard now that she is actually propelling herself! I plan on taking video the next time we go to the pool. Poor Corbin kicks with one leg (exactly the way he dances too!), but he’ll get it soon enough. They both absolutely love playing hide and seek with each other and chase. Their favorite books right now are I Love You Stinky Face, Teddy Needs A Bath and The Wheels On The Bus. Favorite food- peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. <Or maybe they just like when I sing the PB&J song and dance around the kitchen like a fool! Hey! You gotta do what you gotta do to get your kids to eat!

Way more milestones than can be listed! Corbin and Lynley are growing really fast and right on track.