"Are we there yet daddy?"
"Not yet Ellie, only a little bit longer"
"But I want the cookies nowww"
I laughed softly as Ellie whined from her car seat in the back. I bet she had that adorable little pout she always did on her face.
"We need to get the ingredients then we can make the cookies"
"But daddy-"
"Oh, shh you. Look, there's the shop right there"
"Yay!" Ellie chimed happily as she wriggled around in her seat. As Dan attempted to find a space in the busy car park Ellie just wouldn't stay still. She bounced her legs excitedly, almost like she'd never been shopping before.
"Why are you so excited missy?" I asked as I removed my seat belt and turned in my seat to see her grinning face. "Because we're going on an adventure!" she replied excitedly, her grin widening even more. I let a small chuckle pass my lips before exiting the car and letting Ellie out. She smiled happily as she took my hand.
"Ready to go then?"
Dan asked softly, holding his hand out to her. She nodded before taking his hand as well. We made our way into the store, grabbing a trolley on the way in. I asked Ellie if she waned to sit in the little seat bit but she refused. According to her she was a big girl now and big girl don't sit in trolleys. Dan and I both laughed at this but both agreed with her.
Ellie reluctantly let go of Dan's hand and let him push the trolley while she kept a tight hold of my hand. And so our little shopping trip had began. The thing about taking Ellie shopping was she had the habit of picking up whatever she wanted and placing it in the cart. While Dan and I were picking out the actual essential ingredients Ellie would dump some just plain weird things in. I turned around, about to place some chocolate chips in and there was a packet of super noodles. How did she even get those? Those were at least five isles away and on a shelf she couldn't reach.
"Ellie, we don't need these" I said softly, picking the packet up and holding it in my hand.
"But daddy" she began, looking from the noodles in my hand to the contents of the trolley. "What if the chocolate chips get lonely in there. They might want some noodles to keep them company"
Dan gave us both strange looks as he obviously walked into our little conversation at the wrong time. "…What?" he asked, clearly confused. I laughed before smiling at him and leaning over to plant a small kiss on his cheek "Never mind" he gave me one last look before shrugging and moving to the next isle. Ellie giggled cutely as she smiled up at me.
"Did we confuse dad?"
"I think we did" I replied, smiling as I felt her little hand slip into mine.
We continued to gather what we needed until we came to the sweets isle. Of course Ellie ran ahead of us and began to excitedly run from shelf to shelf looking at the wide spread of sweets.
"Sweeties!" she squealed, grinning wildly as she jumped in an attempt to reach whatever had caught her attention now. She continued to jump, a determined look on her face. Maybe she actually thought the more she jumped the higher she'd get. I had no idea. The mind of little kids will forever confuse me.
"Whoa, careful there" a woman said as she was nearly stepped on by Ellie. Ellie stopped jumping and looked up at the woman with a small smile "Sorry" she replied, doing a little courtesy for some reason. The woman let out a small giggle as she watched Ellie.
"It's okay sweetheart" she said with a small smile "What were you trying to get?"
"That" Ellie pointed, standing on her tip toes as she tried to show the lady what she wanted. The woman nodded and made a move to grab one of the sweets for her. I stepped forward, realizing I probably should have intervened sooner.
"Ellie, you're supposed to ask daddy to get that for you" I interrupted as the woman handed the sweet to her. They both looked at me smiling.
"So this is where daddy's got to then" the woman said with a smile. It was only now I was pretty much face to face with her I realized she worked for the store. "Yeah. Thanks for helping Ellie out there"
"Ellie?" she asked, an expression I couldn't quite place written on her face.
"Yeah, that's our Ellie" Dan said as he finally managed to drag himself away from the chocolate section and over to us.
"That's so cool. My name's Ellie as well. Well, Elizabeth, but a friend of mine calls me Ellie a lot"
Ellie, who was now looking up at the woman who just happened to also be called Ellie, was staring with wide eyes. She grinned excitedly as she stared up "We can be name buddies!"
All of us laughed at that one, apart from Ellie who just looked a little confused. We exchanged wide smiles before thanking the worker again and moving Ellie on quickly before she decided she wanted anything else.
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Eventually we made it back home and had everything un packed and ready to make our cookies. Ellie waited patiently as we set out everything we needed on the work surface.
We then got to work making the dough for our cookies. Dan spent most of the time just staring at the dough longingly. Ellie, on the other hand. Was trying to do everything. The mixing, the adding, everything.
"Okay, time to add the chocolate chips" I said with a small smile as Ellie's eye lit up.
"Yay! Chocolate!" she squealed as she grabbed the packet and began to try pour them into the bowl. Of course she was too short to reach when the bowl was sitting on the counter. She made a small noise of disappointment as she realized she couldn't reach.
"Come here Ellie, I'll help you reach" Dan said with a smile as he stepped towards us. He carefully lifted her up from under her arms and placed her into the counter. "Be careful now" he said as he placed the bowl on her lap, still holding it with one hand in case she dropped it.
Ellie smiled happily as she poured the little chocolate chunks into the mixture. She placed the empty packet down then looked up and met my gaze.
"Can you pass me the spoon, daddy?"
"Of course, Ellie" I answered her, picking up the wooden spoon and passing it to her.
Not long after that we were ready to actually cook the cookies. All we had left to do was to make the actual cookie shapes and put them in the oven. We were about to do that when Ellie began to whine about teddy not being able to see us making the cookies. So I took Ellie to her room where we picked up her special teddy and then began our little stroll back to the kitchen.
"Dad! Don't eat the cookie dough!" Ellie shrieked as he entered the kitchen. As she said, there was Dan sneaking little bits of dough and eating them. He turned around, looking at us guiltily. "Dan" I scolded, flashing him a playful smile while Ellie pouted. "You're not supposed to eat it before it's cooked, is he Ellie?"
"No. bad dad" she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest, still wearing that adorable little pout on her face. A mischievous look took over his features as he dipped his hand into the bowl again. He then, to my horror, threw some dough at me. It wouldn't have been so bad if it had landed on my shirt of something, but no. right on my face. I gasped softly, wiping it off my face as I looked to see Dan smirking.
Ellie giggled beside me, a wide grin replacing that pout "Food fight" she squealed as she ran to hide behind my legs as Dan threw another hand full of mixture at me.
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Hours later we all lay on the couch, exhausted. Dan sat with his arm draped over my shoulder while I had an arm wrapped around Ellie as she sat cuddled up to me. Her legs were laying across Dan's lap as her head lay against my chest. She was so tired from our 'adventure' that she was just sort of sitting there half asleep.
After our little food fight we had finally made the cookies. So here we were. Just all sitting on the couch tiredly while munching on our cookies. Well, Ellie was still eating hers. She just had it held in her hand as she took tiny little nibbles from it. She was seriously falling sleep sitting like that.
"You still have cookie dough in your hair" Dan said smugly as he pulled out a small piece then popped it into his mouth.
"No thanks to you" I said as a small smile graced my lips.
"At least we had fun, isn't that right Ellie?"
No reply.
"Ellie?"
I looked down to see Ellie was in fact fast asleep. The cookie she had been eating has fallen out of her hand and was now sitting in my lap. I picked up the cookie, careful not to wake Ellie, then snapped it in half.
"We do make pretty good cookies don't we? Dan asked as he stole one half out of my hand.
"Yeah. We make the best cookies" I answered smiling softly as I pressed a quick kiss to his lips. He tasted of cookies.
Our cookies really were the best.