TwiceToddlers Mom and the Snickerdoodle Incident(s)

I love Snicker doodle cookies. I only make them at Christmastime. This year, it took me not one, not two but three attempts at making these delicious cookies. A couple years ago, for a Christmas gift, the whole Hopkins family received a recipe book of all the homemade foods and desserts my Gramma and other family members make. In this recipe book are my Gramma's Snicker doodle Cookies. This recipe calls for one cup of shortening. I have never been a fan of shortening.

Well, I used it anyway. Did you know that shortening expires? Well, it does and boy did it make my first batch of Snicker doodle cookies taste disgusting. So, there went my first batch of Snicker doodle cookies, in the trash. So, for my second batch of Snicker doodle cookies, I decided not to use shortening and one cup of butter instead. Well, with that batch, I again let it "harden" in the refrigerator overnight. Did you know that shortening allows for the cookie dough to "harden"? Well, it does. The shortening actually has a purpose when baking. The next morning when I woke up, I turned on the oven and went to my refrigerator and took out the cookie dough. I moved off the plastic I have covering the dough, it looked kind of funny. In fact, it felt soft and fluffy. This is not how sugar cookie dough is supposed to feel. So, with a little frustration, I turned on the water at my kitchen sink and poured the dough down the sink drain. As it turns out, butter does not work as shortening is supposed to. That is when I took out the Nestle Sugar Cookie Dough my DH purchased for me two days earlier. So, here I go, attempting my third, and final round of Snicker doodle cookies.

On my final round of Snicker doodle Sugar Cookie's, I rolled them into tiny balls, the rolled them in the sugar/cinnamon mixture and placed then on the greased cookie sheets on my counter. Once the cookie sheets had nine to twelve cookie dough balls on them, I placed the cookie sheets in the oven. With anticipation, I waited to see if they would spread like they were supposed to in the oven.

Well, lo and behold, my third and final attempt at baking my Snicker doodle cookies was a success! Yeah...TwiceToddlers Mommy finally got it right.!!

Now, I will give some to my neighbors and bring some to the Christmas Eve dinner tonight..

Merry Christmas to all those "third time" bakers....

Individual Time with Mommy or Daddy

Twins, I am findng out, need individual time with Mommy and Daddy.

Two weeks ago, I brought this up to my hubby about spending quality time with the twins on an individual basis. So, two weeks ago, my hubby took Twin A out and about around town, while I stayed home with Twin B.

It seemed to work because each baby did not even miss each other. There was no fussing or anything. Now, seeing as my twins are fraternal and not identical, this may be the reason for them enjoying their special time with Daddy or Mommy alone. I can not say for sure this is true for all fraternal twins, but with my twin girls, it was like a relief to be seperated from each other even for an hour or two.

I began doing this because I could see in one of my twins she was getting jealous of the other. I did not want this to happen and have it be my fault for this jealousy to come on. So, I decided to seperate them.

This is probably a good way to build self esteem in my twins as well.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, one of my twins loves to sit in my lap or on my legs, while the other twin does not. So, the twin that does not sit on my lap or leg gets jealous. But I do include her in all the activities I do. It is not like I keep them seperated doing play time.

But, I can see in her eyes she thinks I am doing this. And this is hardly the case.

Anyway, having individual time with Daddy and Mommy is a very good strategy with twins, especially fraternal twins, because it allows them to have a fun time without any competiton from their sibling.