our favorite dinosaur books

When we're not reading about poop, we've got our current lineup of favorites: Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Paper Bag Princess, The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark, Usborne's Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Clip-Clop.
Then there are the dinosaur books, which have been a constant for months. Randomly collected from grandparents, the bookstore and I'm not even sure where. And all five must be read in exactly the same order every time starting with Touch and Feel Dinosaur and winding up with How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food. (Side note: I much prefer Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp over the endless Danny and the Dinosaur which is currently hidden at the back of the bookcase.) Of all the things he could obsess over, I love that my kid is a dino buff. And I think the books are a really good mix of stories, rhymes and education-y, tactile type of books. I hope it's of some inspiration if you're looking to expand your dinosaur library.

adorable but uneaten

Thanks to the advice of a friend I tried to be a little less Martha this morning and set B. up in the kitchen with flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Anything made with flour and sugar is "baking" to him, it never actually has to get cooked. He just wants to measure dry goods and stir them around.
Huge waste of ingredients but I want the kid to be comfortable in the kitchen. Especially since I'd made this sweet potato stegosaurus pancake and wanted to make sure he'd eat it by feeling part of the process.
[Snort.]
Long story short, he made a mess, refused to eat the pancake or anything else until he got to school where he ate a plain toaster waffle. So instead of picking up any new and improved eating habits at school, he's narrowing his daytime diet down to white rice, plain pasta and frozen waffles. The horror.
(I swear at some point I'm gonna write a post about all the awesome things my sweet, smart boy does. But today is not that day.)

Pancake Recipe

• 1 cup flour
  
• 3 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• Cinnamon (and random assortment of pumpkin pie-like spices if you have them on hand: ginger, nutmeg and all spice)
  
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cup sweet potato or pumpkin puree
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  

Measure out the dry ingredients into a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined and any major lumps of flour are dissolved. (The batter will still be a little lumpy). Heat non-stick frying pan on medium heat and pour on the batter (I just used a sandwich bag with the tip cut off to squeeze out a stegosaurus shape). Cook for about 3-4 minutes until air bubbles start to pop on the surface of the pancake. Flip and cook for about 1 minute on the other side.