Thankful and a Teensy bit Teary

I had to pop on here and do a quick little post. Maybe I am procrastinating and not doing my stats homework... he he. I hope to one day print our blog into one of those super cool blog books so I want to be sure I record this little memory.

I actually teared up dropping Sammy off this morning. I haven't done that since he first started attending Sonshine Day! It wasn't anything that out of the normal either it just hit me like a ton of bricks just how fast he is growing up and I can't slow any of it down. I don't know how I feel about that! Now that he sleeps in his big boy toddler bed he wakes up and comes into our room and lies in bed with me for about 10 min while I wake up. Although I greatly miss walking and getting him out of his crib, I sure love our morning cuddles. He usually rubs my arm and my hair and tells me "Good mo'nin stunshine!! Wuv you weally weally (really) much mommy". As I wake he has his head right on my pillow facing mine and we talk about his dream or what his day will be like. Sometimes he sings to me or sometimes he tells me a story. Then we gather his lovies and trucks/cars and I help him manage to get them all down the stairs after which each and every morning he says "Shewy!" just like my grandma used to. He is usually my little helper as we get ready for our day, he helps with breakfast and clean up and picks out his outfit and sometimes mine (ha ha), he reminds me to give him his "mina-mines" (vitamins) and then we are off on our way in the car.

On the way to school we usually go through the list of where everyone is. He needs to know where Daddy and Hannah are, where both sets of grandparents and his aunties are, and then we pray for his & their day. Lastly I go through his "Reminders" right before school. They typically go like this..

me: "ok baby, what do you need to remember today"

Sammy: "to be nice and kind and mommy loves me will come back soon"

me: "what does it mean to be kind? how are you kind to others?"

Sammy: "no hittin, no bitin, no spittin, no pinchin, and no bangin table"

me: "that's right and why do we need to be kind"

Sammy: "to show love them"

I am not naive to think this doesn't immediately leave his brain though, especially given the trouble he got in yesterday. He hit a few friends in his class yesterday so we took his favorite truck away for the day and explained that he can earn it back by making good choices today., i.e., no "hittin". So today our little reminder conversation was different. The above was followed with..

"Mommy, black truck back if no hittin Kyra, Lukers, and Audry?"

"Yes honey, if you remember to be kind and not hit you can have your truck back. You need to use your words and tell Mrs. Beverly if you are angry and she will help you."

"Mommy, I no likin hittin fwiends. I no want it. I be nice..... Mommy happy?"

"Yes baby, that makes me very happy, thank you"

"Jesus happy mommy?"

"Yes it will make Jesus VERY happy if you choose to be kind to your friends"

A hint that maybe, just maybe he is starting to get it. I was a little shocked that he made that connection. I mean yes we have worked a lot on his understanding of this but it hasn't seemed to really click before. We don't want him to learn to be nice b/c it is what we should do. We want to teach him that we are nice and kind to not only honor God but to show others that we love God and by doing so that God loves them. Well, when I got to school his class was walking outside. He let go of my hand and said "sowy mommy, gonna go gool (school) , here go wunch (lunch) box" and he ran ahead and joined the line. I had to follow so I could sign him in. I watched him say hi to his friends & teachers, then join the line and do his duck tail and walk quietly outside (duck tails are the coolest way ever to have them keep their hands to themselves. All the kids make duck tails so their hands are tucked behind their backs! Just brilliant!) . The little class waited against the wall for the door to open as they went on out he turned and ran back to me and said "oh mommy.. I weally weally much good today. I choose good. wuv you" and he kissed my cheek and grinned then ran on the playground. When I got to the car I could see his teachers playing a game with his class where they were all marching really fast in a cirlce and he was just giggling with glee, having a blast clapping his hands in true gator chomp fashion most likely saying "go gatows!"

Then came the tears, as I replayed our morning and our conversations, hit hit me hard. He is just so BIG now, he just simply isn't a baby. He is a little boy who can function just fine away from me (which I guess is good) who is learning so much each and every day about how this world he has been in for two whole years now works. He is learning self control, how to obey, about consequences and rewards, and mostly importantly how to love others well because God loves us... but it is still so hard to leave him. I don't think that part will EVER get easier. Well maybe when he is a teen but then I am sure it will get hard again when he is a young adult.

I instantly thanked my sweet Jesus for a class where I know he is genuinely loved and cherished for who he is and who he will be one day. For teachers who work to teach him the foundations of faith and love and who are patient. I do not take for granted their sweet spirits and attitudes. Even after a rough day previously he can start a fresh new day and is welcomed back with open loving arms, no frustration, no grudges. I have been in plenty of preschools and day care centers with the testing I do for my research and trust me, I have seen many who are not like this. The kids are labeled as "difficult" or "trying" and it sticks. It is quite sad.

I am doing my best to cherish all these toddler times (even the more difficult ones) b/c at this rate before I know it I will be dropping him off for kindergarten and he won't have time for my morning cuddles, a quick kiss on my cheek, or want to hold my hand as we walk into school.

A must see!

I just saw the most amazing video while I was doing my report on the BBBS site. This is a total must watch (I promise it isn't long and will be totally 100% worth your time) especially for those of you who may wonder why I spend so much time with our little Banana . I truly hope and pray she and I can have a similar story, I want her to help me walk when I am 90 and it would be fabulous to be her maid of honor one day. This match featured on Good Morning America took it so much farther than the BBBS program. As Chester states in the video, his little became part of his family and their lives were intertwined. He says being a big is not a one way deal, you get just as much (I would say MORE) out of the program than your little.

I of course can't post without pics so here are a few below of Hannah Banana. The 4 of us had a great time enjoying Sammy's new wagon at the park a little while ago. I sure love that girl more than words can say. Sammy may be slightly more obsessed than me. Each morning the second or third thing out of his mouth is "see Hannah Bana (he can't say banana well yet) today please" and we have been working on the fits he has begun throwing (oh joy) each afternoon when I turn into our neighborhood because he wants to "go diff way mommy please. turn round to go see Hannah Bana please" and then he cries. Yup safe to say she has stolen our hearts!

(as always, if you get my blog updates via your email you will need to click on the little blue link in the bottom left corner that says The DeLucca Family to watch the movie or go tohttp://www.meandmysams.blogspot.com/

So proud of my little! I love you Banana!

This was the best I got.. It was a failed attempt to get an awesome shot of them in the wagon posed in front of our beautiful trees at the park so I could send to Mom & Richard as a thank you for the wagon. Sammy wanted to pull the wagon at that point and Hannah was done with pics.. Oh well! Thanks again, we absolutely love it and have put several miles on it already I am sure!


Hannah's first pull up!! All by herself!!! GO BANANA!!!
and of course.. guess who also had to try?
and then there is Sam, who was bound and determined to do a pull up and push up WITH Hannah on his back b/c apparently I'm too heavy and Sammy is too light but Hannah is the perfect weight. She told him no literally 11 times before I finally had to step in and mediate, haha. I will say though, I gave in and let him do a push up with me on his back after this pic and he not only did one~but 4 and both kids giggled the whole time. We sure got some stares from other folks at the park! ha ha!
Go honey!!!
Sammy likes for "my Hannah push me" best. He says "no mommy, Hannah's turn. Share mommy" and I gladly agree to share. =) I know what you are thinking.. yes Sam IS to heavy to sit on that wagon, and yes it will break but he didn't believe me. Boys. that's all I can say.

Why do I even try???

I had to blog about my exasperation with germs and my crazy boy! I pride myself on not being too germ obsessed. The dirt and nature kind of germs don't bother me a bit but it is the animal and people germs that do. However, I remember hearing a lot about petting zoo germ drama so when Sammy is petting zoo-ish type animals I try to wash his hands or do antibacterial gel if soap not accessible before his hands find their way into his mouth. He loves Rocky, the monkey at Papi's zoo and actually tries to kiss Rocky's hands & feet and I try not to think about the feces Rocky has most likely recently groomed from himself. All in all, I think I do pretty well and keep my germ freak outs to a minimum. Yesterday, we were at a friend in Alachua's house and there were 3 funny goats that we decided to feed and let Sammy pet. I again, let him have his fun but then washed his hands. In fact, b/c of the animals I washed his hands quite a bit yesterday.

**This post is about to get really nasty, just to warn you. Those with weak stomachs should stop reading now.***

SO why am I exasperated you ask?? Oh that would be my son ate his own poop last night. Yes you did read that correctly. I spent my day keeping him safe from germs, even gave him his organic milk with lunch to keep his little body free from chemicals and then he ate poop. He had asked to go pee pee on the potty and since he always goes #2 in the am I never thought there would be a little present in his when he pulled down his underoos. It of course fell to the floor and I told him to hold still while I ran to the next room to get his wipes. I come back just to see him pull his little pointer finger out of his mouth and start to gag. He kept shuddering saying "yucky ca-ca (poop in spanish) mommy" then he gagged about 3 more times. I quickly joined him in his gagging once I realized what had happened. SO GROSS. I of course instantly googled "toddlers eating poop" and thankfully many hits came up an from my readings it seems he will live. I also took him straight to Gloria's who seems to have a home remedy for everything. I assumed she would whip up a batch of her baking soda and tonic she does for his tummy aches but all she could do was laugh and tell me to brush his teeth well. Needless to say we used Hannah's toothpaste rather than his toddler tube. I tried to get him to use Listerine but he just cried.

This is by far one of my LEAST favorite mommy moments and I am hoping in the future I can look back on it and laugh but I am not there yet. That was just gross! I also think a girl would not have done that. Call me sexist but I just don't think so. Boys are surely a learning experience for me. What went through his head? I really think he just thought "hmm.. I wonder what poop tastes like, let's see!" UGH! I never would have thought I would have spent my evening on a site called "The Scoop on Poop" all thanks to my curious little fellow.

I will end with one question...and a video~ any of my play date mommy friends want to get together soon. I clearly could use some mommy time! =)

The video is one I never intended to post b/c it is related to poo. However, given my post was about poo it now seems fitting. It is Sammy eating is ice cream he got one morning before school. No I dont' usually give him ice cream then send him off to school but #2 in the potty has been tough for him and so we had promised him ice cream if he ever did. He was one happy little guy!

I a big boy-eee now!

The above title is a phrase we are hearing on a daily basis around our house. We have had a few changes with the new year and as I have said before, all signs of my baby are diminishing faster than I can process it and he is just maturing each day. He is such a little boy these days! I know I should be happy that he is developing and growing but it is so hard to let those baby days go. He used to be the snuggliest little thing always wanting to cuddle and rock with me but now he is just too busy for such things so on the rare occasions when he does ask to "rock wifth you mommy" I cherish it! He likes to read stories to US now and he loves to take care of us. He pats our backs and rubs our arms and he really likes to brush my hair for me. Our 2 biggest changes are that we converted his crib to the toddler bed and we have begun the adventures of potty training!! So far the crib conversion has been a dream, he has yet to get out of it and wander and I am ever so thankful for that. I chalk this up to all the nights of "practice" he has had in staying on the air matress at his grandparents' houses. Who knew it would help us in the long run?

Potty training has been interesting for sure! After a few days of pullups I decided those seem to be more of a crutch as he would go in them just like his diapers and not seem to mind in the least. So, we started doing cloth training pants at home and it has made all the difference! He goes pee pee in the potty a lot now but he still doesn't recognize his own urge to go. So if I wait too long to make him sit on his potty, he goes in his pants. I know we will get there eventually so we are just being as patient as we can be and trying not to rush him. I enjoy the "sitting & waiting" time while he is on the potty, it is a chance to have some very serious and silly conversations with him while I have his full attention. He cracks me up! This morning he told me he dreamed he was feeding "ABC sandwiches" (no I don't know what those are) to a donkey, cow, monkey and an elephant in his dream but the elephant had to go to time out and it made Sammy feel very sad. As he was telling me he made himself tear up and he started crying and I had to give him a big hug and wipe his tears and remind him it was just a dream ALL WITHOUT LAUGHING!

Lastly, our mystery of the so called electricity problem I thought we were having is solved. Our lights had been mysteriously turning on and off when neither Sam nor I had touched them but lo and behold, it was just Sammy! That sneaky thing was taking our feather duster out of the coat closet and using it to reach the light switch and then apparently putting the duster right back where he got it!??? I caught him red handed the other day and he just giggled and laughed at himself, he thought he was so clever! ugh! If this is a glimpse into the teen years.. I am very very scared.

We took Sammy to the candy shop to pick out his "rewards" to encourage through potty training. He was on cloud 9!

As much as it kills me to give him candy, I gotta say it is working so much better than the stickers!!

I just loved this, him with chocolate on his face helping daddy drill.. I posted a video below where I asked him if he had eaten a cookie and he quickly lied and said no!

First night in his big boy-eee bed!! He was VERY excited!!
And I know this is prob just wrong to put pics of him in his little undies but I couldn't resist! He cracked us up in his training pants. This was the first time he wore then and he was so excited he sprinted up and down our hallway for ... 18 min!!!! Just running! He was out of breath by the end and could barely say "big boy unna-wear" anymore, bless his little heart!

Ha! He threw on his cowboy hat and did a little dance... but he was off again before I could get good pics =(
Had to rest from all the running and snuggle with Woofie, his favorite stuffed animal

This is him on the potty holding his 2 fingers up to tell you he is "TWO"!!
Very exciting Veggie Tale book to keep him busy while he waited

Hannah is a great motivator.. she read to him and then said, "Sammy will you please pee pee now so we can finally go to the park?" he simply said "ok I twy (try) Hannah" then he closed his eyes and peed, just like that!!! So I decided they BOTH should get a treat since it was great team work!

Here they are with their suckers, these are supposed to be reserved for the ever so difficult poos in the potty but apparently I'm the real sucker b/c they totally talked me into it!!

Caught in the act!!! Gotchya you sneaky little boy!!

Video of Sammy lying about eating an oreo:

THANK YOU JESUS!

I have waited so long to write this post.......... OUR PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED!! SAM ACCEPTED A FULL TIME POSITION AND STARTED HIS NEW JOB TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is working as a police officer again but this time he is with the University Police Dept instead of Gainesville Police Dept. He is excited about it and it seems to be much safer than working with GPD and regardless... IT IS A JOB!!!

I feel the need to recap here for those who may have just tuned into our journey through life...my husband Sam was a police officer with GPD. He was with them for 5 years and in that time did an amazing job and was nominated for a silver star. He was officer of the month many times, he was trained in everything from evidence technician to CIT, etc. He did plain clothes work, trained for K-9 position, and at the end he was on a special ops unit among other things that I will not mention. He provided for our family and we had great health insurance and for that we were thankful but the challenges were tough on both of us. He was in the ER about every 6 mos (for a while our Sunday School class kept track, ha ha) and I had the horrible call that all police wives dread getting. I had calls in the past that he was injured/in ER before but they were always from him assuring me he was fine. This particular call was different, it was from the hospital at 2am, all they could tell me was that he had been struck while on route to a call at high speeds, his car had gone into a brick wall and was totaled and he was severely injured and I should come immediately.It was scary and thankfully he is fine now and all is well. Needless to say the "cop's wife" thing got very old very fast. It was like I was single since he worked nights and I worked days, we never saw each other. He couldn't come to church with me for 6 months out of the year. The job was stressful for him, he saw terrible things that I still can't bear the thought of him enduring, he even lost 2 of his friends who were officers when killed. In a nutshell it was difficult on our marriage and we can safely say we have been through the fire and SURVIVED! When our marriage was struggling we decided it was best for him to find a new job. Thankfully he found a job with Chrystler and things were good for a year... then he was laid off. Ouch.

That was 7 months ago. These last 7 months have been so very hard financially. It is difficult to complain and say that things are "rough" and that being "poor" is so awful after being in third world countries and seeing what it truly means to live in poverty and suffer. Our lifestyle did change drastically though and quite honestly if it wasn't for the help we've had from my mom and Richard I seriously wonder if we would be homeless right now!! We never doubted that God would provide and thankfully he did so via family and our friends at church. We have been so very blessed to have folks care for us and help us when we needed it. Shortly after hearing the news of the layoff and wondering how on earth we would feed our child and pay our bills our amazing Sunday School class brought us meals and giftcards for groceries and gas, even some diapers!! We were amazed that EACH AND EVERY time it came down to the wire and we weren't sure how we would handle whatever situation, our need was met through others. For example, Sam needed to go on an interview and I needed to get to my office but we had NO money for gas so we prayed about asking for help and what we should do. The very next morning without mentioning this need to ANYONE a giftcard for gas was on our doorstep. At another point we had eaten just about every strange combination of food we could muster up from what we had in the pantry and freezer and were uncertain about what to do next and then viola.. a very generous giftcard to Publix showed up at our door. We got a message from the Benevolence committee at church that they wanted to help us with our utility bill for the month.. um wow?? These are just a few of the MANY stories we have of how our needs were met. At one point Sam and I were talking about our situation and questioning God,... just why hadn't he answered our prayers? Why wasn't he taking care of us and providing a job for Sam like we had asked???. then we were instantly convicted. It was as if God was knocking on our heads saying "um hello?? have all of your needs not been met??are you really that spoiled?? can you really not see me at work??" and we realized that he had been providing for us all along, by working in the hearts of all of the people who had helped us. No Sam didn't have a job but we were still eating good food, we were still in our house, and we had our needs met. He was carrying us through, just not in the way we thought or had expected.

I still wonder about God's timing with this whole unemployment thing. Sam applied for jobs each week and nothing. We would rack our brains and say "Ok God, what are we not getting? What are you trying to teach us through this that we haven't learned? Please help us learn this lesson quickly so Sam can get a job..." weird train of thought I know but just trying to be honest. I am sure one day in the future we will look back and say " ah-ha! Now it all makes sense..." but I am not there yet. I take heart in the verse "trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight" Proverbs 3:5 and realize that it doesn't have to make sense. We grew so much through our struggles. We had some other scary times this year, not only the lay off but also with my hospitalization on our mission trip in Guatemala.. (" when you wake up, you will have had your surgery"is NOT ideal when laying on a bed in the ER in Guatemala... um yea.. top of my life list of scary moments!!), Sammy was so sick in hostpital with H1N1 and sick ever since, and the other random things that have happened. Strange as it may seem though, I think it has been a BLESSING to share the struggles with Sam. These times of uncertainty not only drew us closer to each other and strengthened our marriage but also drew us closer to our Heavenly Father as a couple. Waiting on God to answer prayers is HARD! I am sure you can agree you have had things you pray for so often that you wonder if the prayers are making it through your roof, ha ha. I believe that it is important that we recognize the true value in those "in between times" when we are genuinely waiting on God. Maybe He wants to grow our faith in some way, maybe His silence is part of his shaping and molding us, maybe He is still working things out for us or working on someone else's heart who is involved in the particular request, maybe He simply wants us to be obedient and to continue going to Him to meet our needs, I don't really know all the reasons he may have but I do know that he is quite fond of this waiting period. I recently read this on a freind's blog as she shared about grief and God's mercy. I hope you don't mind that I quoted you Kathie!

"And so we began our time of waiting. There’s something significant and necessary about the wait between the valley of the shadow of death and the goodness and mercy that follows. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. The world waited 2000 years for the Messiah. There were three days between Christ’s death and resurrection.........But our weeks (her family) in the wilderness kept us leaning on each other and dependent on our Heavenly Father. We continued to rest in Him and He continued to carry us."

There was one thing we knew throughout all the uncertainty and that was however it all played out we would make it through, the three of us together bound by love and our faith in Him. Just as Kathie pointed out, Psalm 23 always ends with "surely goodness and mercy shall follow" and we genuinely believed this for our family and there was a peace about our situation that could not be removed regardless of how bleak the days ahead seemed. As the days crept on without the promise of a job we not only began selling A LOT of our things on ebay but began praying even more as a family and spending time in His word. Sure we had our prayer/devotion time before but there was something about the desperation of the matter that made us genuinely seek Him and His will for our family more often and consistently. All of our time together as a family resulted in us growing closer and we came up with some really fun creative things to do together that did not cost a dime!

It is in the "goodness and mercy shall follow" spirit that I genuinely ask for your prayers. I am so thankful that God is now providing for us through this new job and I am excited about what is in store for us as we get back on our feet and begin planning for the future again. But to be completely transparent, it is hard to start the whole police thing over again though. I struggled when hearing the news that Sam had landed the job at first?? How wrong is that! We pray and pray for a job and then God provides one and my first response is "um... that isn't really what I had in mind, can you please try again God?" (enter game show buzzer sound here). Seriously, I am sure if God had a giant red buzzer that He could push when I thought the wrong thought, then all of heaven would have echoed the buzzing sound in that moment. So, I am doing my absolute best to be grateful and excited for Sam and to trust that this will be a GOOD thing for us. It is so hard though. I am not too fond of police in general at this point and it is even hard for me to see him in his uniform! So, please pray that I can have a change of heart and fully embrace this new chapter and TRUST GOD to WORK ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR GOOD, just as he promises He will. I am doing my very best to believe that "His goodness and mercy will follow" with this too! Thank you!

Chocolate Ball Ephiphany??

Given the state of our financial affairs this year it seemed most appropriate to bake goodies & make items ourselves to give as Christmas gifts for our friends and families since gift buying was not an option. I wanted to share a recipe for some chocolate balls Sammy and I made together b/c not only were they yummy BUT it turned out to be a PERFECT cognitive task for a toddler. =) He had fun helping AND he practiced sorting and focusing attention/inhibition a lot so next time you have a get together to attend, why not grab your kids and have them help you whip up a batch of these. MMM MMM GOOD!

I also had a moment of insight while Sammy and I were "cooking" these treats (there really is no cooking involved but shh.. don't tell Sammy that part). Sammy is quite the helper especially when it comes to cleaning and cooking. He absolutely loves to cook and, if I can be completely honest, what I once found endearing is now getting on my nerves. It seems like every time I am in the kitchen he runs in saying "Sammy help mommy, need stool" and he goes to the pantry, gets his little stool, and pops his head up to the counter to see what he can do. Yes this is my fault completely since I have encouraged his help with our household work since before he could even crawl. I take full responsibility and should not be whining at the moment. I always thought it would be so lovely to cook with him and just pure time saving to have him help with chores. Now that he is older and more eager to help though I am realizing it is anything BUT a time saver. In fact, everything takes at least twice as long to do with his "help". For example, I could simply take the clothes out of the washer and place them in the dryer in a little under a minute I am sure but with Sammy's help it takes a good five to seven min to get each article of clothing in the dryer and have him help turn the dial. I know what you're thinking.. not such a big deal right? Well if it was just that incident, no but when you factor in the course of a day ALL the many things he "helps" with and the extra time involved.. it is no wonder I can't keep up with things around here and feel like my days have been cut short! I am rambling about this so you can understand just where I am coming from when I say we had to stop and go wash hands during our making of these chocolate balls a good 4 times I am sure because the child just could not help himself from sticking his tiny pudgy little finger in and taking a lick. I kept reminding myself that the neurocircuitry of his frontal cortex is far from mature at the ripe old age of 25 mos thus resulting in a difficulty with inhibiting what he really wants to do but c'mom.. mamma was on a schedule!

It was in this moment of frustration that God spoke patience into my heart.. or lets get honest, knocked me upside my head with His wisdom. You see long before Sammy I was guilty of this exact feeling with Hannah, I tend to focus too much on the end result of whatever project we are working on and get a teensy bit annoyed when things move in unforeseen directions and we get off track. As I started to loose my patience with Sammy eating the oreos and having to wash his hands AGAIN to keep his germs from finding their way into our treats I realized that most important things kids need to learn and accomplish to build strong character really have very little to do with the project at hand but more so to do with the aspects of character that are built while they are busy. In other words, it is when we are involved in play and projects together that I try to instill patience, mercy, kindness, the focusing of his attention, inhibitory control, etc etc. into his little heart and mind. This was one of those "ah-ha" moments that just clicked with me. Sure I guess I have kinda known this all along but when I thought about it in relation to my own life and God, it was all put in perspective. I am His child just as Sammy is mine and He forgives my mistakes and cleans up my messes and directs my way, because I am still learning. He is building my character through those teachable moments just as I try to do with Sammy. I should be as gentle and patient with Sammy as my Jesus is with me. These very qualities will help to shape Sammy's perception of Jesus in the future. I am very thankful that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to be patient with me and cares enough about my life and my attitude to teach me little lessons I need to know to be a better mommy and to ultimately love Him and my little family better.

Thank you for allowing me to ramble... Now for the recipe!

Chocolate Balls

1 pkg Oreos (double stuff with extra cream if can find)

1 8-oz pkg of Philadelphia cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)

1 pkg almond bark (I used chocolate but vanilla is good too) chocolate dipping squares

- Twist oreos and take them apart (good cognitive skill for toddler.. have them sort out the white from the dark into two plates)

-Scrape cream from cookies and put into large bowl (I had him use edge of spoon for his)
- Add cream cheese to cookie cream and stir
- put remainder of cookies into a ziplock bag and seal it up. Crush cookies into small pieces/powder (rolling pin works best) but use freezer bag so bag doesn't tear and get hole)- Great for little ones, they obviously love this part and helps if you ask them to find the big spots that need to be crushed

- Pour the crushed cookies into bowl with cream cheese/cookie cream mixture and mix with hands until well blended (this part is VERY messy)

- Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet to chill in fridge for about an hour

- Melt almond bark in microwave at 20 second intervals (stir to avoid scorching)

- I just used spoon to dunk them in chocolate almond bark then spoon them back onto cookie sheet b/c took way less time but directions say to place toothpick in cookie ball and dip ball into almond bark. Place on wax paper covered cookie sheet and let stand until hardened. Enjoy!

- Store in fridge

-Makes 3 to 4 dozen

Mommy tip- Give incentive..if your child can help without eating cookies/putting finger in mix to taste then will get to eat BIG (whole) oreo cookies with milk afterwards, it worked for rest of time, wish I would have thought of at first!

Pulled 2 oreos aside for him to dunk in milk as his reward....Mmmm...mmmm....good!