Smarter Than Einstein's Dirty Socks

There was a time when she thought she was so clever when she hid her eyes behind her chubby little hands, popped those hands out fast, and yelled, "PEEK-A-BOO!" She was certain she had startled me.

There was a time when her best hiding place was just around the corner, with her nose buried into the wall. All I had to do was call out, "Where's Alexis?" and she would crumple to the floor in a pile of giggles, completely impressed with her own fantastic hide-n-seek skills.

There was a time when she thought that if she yelled "LELLOW CAR! OVER THERE!" at the top of her lungs then waved in the general direction of everywhere, I would be certain to be fooled into thinking she had beaten me at her favorite game AGAIN.

As she grows older and wiser, she looks for new ways to try and fool me, new ways to show just how smart she is, and better ways to get the upper hand in our relationship.

Someday soon, she's going to realize that running up to me giggling, her eyes filled with mischief and a snowball in plain sight, isn't exactly the best way to trick me.

Someday she *is* going to be smarter than me.

She *will* manage to pull the wool over my eyes.

But, for now, I'm going to bask in the joy she finds in her obvious little game.

Nutella No Bake Cookies

I've mentioned that I was a deprived child, right? I never had a single Barbie doll. I wasn't allowed to play with Play-Doh. The nearest Taco Bell was an 8-hour drive (upside: Taco John's FTW!). And in what is possibly the cruelest joke of all time, I didn't know what Nutella was until . . . um . . . aw, hell. I didn't find out about it until well after college.

Thank you for your sympathy. It is appreciated.

Since the magical discovery of Nutella, I've been trying to make up for lost time. Let's just say if you find a sticky spoon stuck inside the couch cushions, it wasn't me. Nope.

And then a friend introduced me to a brand new Nutella to mouth delivery method. It's spectacular.

Nutella No Bake Cookies.

*drool*

I win.

The topic of Nutella No Bake Cookies came up on twitter the other day and when it did, I realized I didn't have the recipe. That situation has since been remedied. Since I'm feeling nice, I thought I would share it.

Amy's Nutella No Bake Cookies

1 3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup Nutella

3 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

.

Combine sugar, milk, butter and cocoa powder in medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil and cook for 1 1/2 minutes.  Remove from heat and add Nutella, oats and vanilla.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies. That's enough to last about 14 seconds at my house.

.

Sometimes I Need Few Words

Sledding. It happened. With it came the most perfect summary of life with a 4-year old:

It's amazing how much things can change in less than five minutes and FOR NO GOOD REASON AT ALL ZOMGTHISISWHYIHAVEGRAYHAIR.