I have the best four year old son in the whole wide world. And I’m thankful that I get to tell him so each and everyday.
All of my sons are simply awesome and great – and they were all the best four year olds in the whole world when they were four, too. But I didn’t have a blog back then to brag about them on.
David is such a wonderful amazing boy, and I can’t express the happiness I have in him. Today, we decided to do a bunch of things together, and we decided that because all the really good bread had been eaten, it was time to make more. So, “I’m a really good helper, aren’t I Daddy?” and I went at it (All images are clickable, should you wish to see images larger than the thumbnails).
(Update: The larger images have gone missing – I’ll try to find them and redo this post)
Before he was even out of his pjy’s, he was helping to stir up the first set of ingredients for our bread – mollasses, honey, lard, and salt.
After we mixed in the water and ten cups of flour, it was time to knead this big pile of dough. We were making four loaves – and that’s a lot of dough for a dad to knead on his own, you know.
Alright – time to let this stuff rise. One thing I have lot of are Irish Linen “tea towels.” Do others call them that as well? Anyhow, works great to cover the bowl of dough:
Ok, enough of the hard work for awhile. After David got himself out of his PJ’s and into jeans and a t-shirt, it was time to make Rice Crispy squares. A couple of the marshmallows were eaten before they were melted and stirred together in the pot – but what the heck.
Spiderman is cool. Cameras where the red eye prevention doesn’t work well are not cool. Ah well…
So then it was off to get our hair cut – and David told the hair cutter cutting his hair all about how fun it is to learn things. Of course, he also showed off his knowledge of Spiderman too. And while he was doing that, the person cutting my hair kept repeating over and over to me about how adorable David is. He’s a chick magnet, I’m telling you!
Of course, David received the sucker candy that just about every barber or hair cutting place have for children after getting their hair cut.
After that, we walked up Broadway to the “Wild Bird Seed” store or whatever it’s called, but unfortunately it was closed. One of David’s Christmas presents was a small bird feeder kit that he and I built together – so now we just need some seeds to put in it, after I figure out where exactly we’re going to mount it. We weren’t too disappointed that the store was closed – we’ll just go to another one tomorrow.
Then it was off to “From The Kitchen To The Table” shop across the road. If you are ever in Orangeville, and need kitchen gadgets, cast iron cookware, or unique gifts, this is a place to check out. The proprietor is great! I wanted a wall mounting pot rack or hanger, and finally settled on one that will help clear out one of my cupboards where I’ve been storing my pots. After being shown the model, and realizing that there was some “building” to do, David told the proprietor all about how he was going to help with the tool kit that he got for Christmas. “First, I’ll put on my goggles to protect my eyes, and then my work gloves,” he explained. Proprietor Sigrid Wolm squatted down to be at David’s eye level as he explained all this to her.
Personally, I find that sort of behaviour to be valuable to me – where a store owner or employee will give little children lots of attention, listening and talking to them, engaging them in conversation. David also received another little treat – actually two of them – rewarded for his own patience while Daddy was busy looking at some other things – including a MAC knife that I eventually purchased. Years ago, I had access to great kitchen knives and have missed not having that quality. I figured it was time to pick up a good multi-purpose good quality steel blade knife.
With our packages, David and I walked home in time to put the loaves of bread into the oven. While they were baking, we built the pot hanger and installed it on the wall. Well… I did the wall installation – but David helped with screwing it all together and of course, we used David’s new tools to do it all, too.
Our four loaves of bread:
So, they’re not perfectly shaped – but that is just fine. This bread tastes delicious, and David helped, right up to helping put the dough into the loaf pans and shaping into loaves.
Earlier in the day, David handed me an envelope – inside a “card” he had made himself, which says, “Dad, I love you Dad From David.”
Tomorrow, we’ll go get some bird seed, figure out where we’re going to put the bird feeder, and then also we need to find a place to put his “weather station” that he got for Christmas too.
Like I said, David is the best four year old in the whole wide world.