Sweet Tooth
"Okay sweetie today we are gonna make your favorite cookies." I say to my son.
"Really!" Nick shouts with glee.
"Really." I kiss his cheek. "You said you wanted cookies so we are gonna make them."
"Oh boy! Mommy this is gonna be super fun!" He says and jumps up and down.
"Yes it will be." I say and tickle his ribs.
I pick him up and take him to the kitchen. Not only will he get cookies, but I can work on his numbers too.
"Mommy! I'm really excited for these cookies!" He exclaims and bounces up and down.
"Here sweetie." I say and pull a chair over so he can stand and watch me.
"Okay sweetie. How many cups of flour does it say we need." I say and show him the recipe. He looks at it confused. "Right here sweetie." I say and point to it.
"Four!" He says unsure.
"That's right." I say. "Do you want to help Mommy scoop them?" I ask and he nods.
I give him a measuring cup and he fills it with flour and I clean it off to make sure it will measure evenly.
"Make sure to count them sweetie so we know how many we have put in."
"Okay. This is two." He says and picks up the cup and spills flour everywhere. "This is fun Mommy!" He says and starts to play in the spilled flour. I suspected he would make a mess but not this much and not so soon.
I kiss the top of his head.
"I'm glad you think so." I say.
He continues to count out the ingredients and I'm glad he knows his numbers and simple math.
"Okay now we just gotta put them in the oven." I say.
"How long do we gotta wait Mommy?" He asks.
"A few minutes. Then they have to cool."
"Ugh Mommy I want them now." He says annoyed.
"We have to wait." I kiss his forehead. "You don't want your mouth to get all burned." I say.
"Okay." He says and moves his hand to my cheek and rubs off the flour.
"You've got some too." I say and wipe it off his forehead and he giggles.
He picks up some of the flour laying around.
I think I know what he is going to do.
"Finnick Odair do not-" But it's too late because he throws the flour on my face.
I spray some out of my mouth and open my eyes. I look at my reflection in the microwave and see he has made a flour mask on my face.
He looks down mischievously clearly proud of himself.
I could yell at him or put him in time out. Which I probably should so he won't do this again. But I don't.
"You're going to get it now."
"Mommy no!" He says and jumps off his chair and starts to run towards the living room. I wipe off most of the flour on my face and chase him to the living room.
I grab him in my arms and start to tickle him.
He starts to squirm around and giggle.
"Mommy… stop…" he says between tickles.
"Do you realize what you did was wrong." I say.
"Mommy" He giggles.
I stop and kiss his cheeks.
"Do you understand what you did was wrong?" I ask him again.
"I made a mess." He whispers and looks down ashamed.
"Yes. You made a mess. You don't throw things at people, do you understand?" I ask.
"I understand Mommy." He says.
"Okay." I say and kiss his cheek. "Why don't you go play while we wait for the cookies to bake?"
"Okay Mommy." He smiles and kisses my cheek then runs to the playroom.
I shake my head and smile. I head back to the kitchen and clean up the mess.
Once I finish I look towards the timer and see I have fifteen minutes until they are finished.
"Annie!" I hear as the front door opens.
"I'm in the kitchen!" I shout back.
"Hi." Finnick smiles when he gets in the room.
"Hi." I say.
Finnick walks over and leans in to kiss me but suddenly stops.
"Umm Annie." He says.
"What?" I ask worried.
"You might want to lay off the makeup." He smirks and puts his fingers to my cheeks and off comes some flour.
"It's not makeup, Nick and I were making cookies."
"It's in your hair too." Finnick says and brushes my bangs. "Nick must be very messy."
"Well he actually threw some flour in my face."
"Annie-" He starts.
"It's fine. Besides, it's not like someone else in the house has never done that." I say because Finnick has before.
Finnick rolls his eyes.
I start to hear the pitter patter of footsteps on the floor.
"Mommy are the cookies done yet?" Nick asks.
"Almost sweetie." I say.
He sighs.
"Trust me they will taste better if we wait." I say with a smile.
"Okay." He grumbles.
"Hi Nick." Finnick says.
"Hi Daddy." He says unamused.
"Come here." Finnick says and picks him up.
Nick starts giggling as Finnick keeps kissing his cheek.
"What did you do today Daddy?!" Nick asks excited.
Finnick starts telling him about how he went fishing. He probably did go fishing but he really left to go to the Justice Building to talk with government officials. I'll ask him about it later.
"Daddy can I go fishing with you sometime?" Nick smiles.
"Of course you can." Finnick kisses his forehead.
"I'm gonna be sooooo good at it Daddy!" He smiles.
"I'm sure you will be." He says.
Nick looks towards me.
"Are they done yet?" He asks still impatient.
"Probably ten more minutes sweetie."
"Make time move faster." He groans.
Finnick kisses his cheek.
"I heard you helped Mommy make these cookies." Finnick says and Nick nods.
"It was fun." He smiles.
"This will be the first thing you've made for us." Finnick says.
He nods.
"I know Daddy." He says.
"So it should taste good." Finnick says.
"It will be because Mommy helped me!" He says with a smile.
The timer goes off and Nick smiles as I take them out of the oven.
"Cookie time!" He says and tries to escape Finnick's hold.
"They need to cool down sweetie." I say.
He sighs and crosses his arms.
"What else did you do today Nick?" Finnick asks trying to distract him.
"I just made cookies with Mommy." He grumbles.
"Well, I'm sure they will taste great." Finnick says.
After five minutes the cookies have cooled down enough.
"Okay baby, you can eat your cookies now."
He jumps off Finnick's lap so quickly that he looks like a blur.
"Gimme gimme gimme." He says and reaches out his hands.
"And what's the magic word?" I say.
"Please gimme some cookies." He says and I smile.
"Here you go baby." I say and give him one.
"Do you want some milk with those?" Finnick asks and Nick nods.
"Mommy these cookies are reallllllllllllllly good." Nick says.
"That's because you helped me." I say and his eyes sparkle with glee.
"They're also my favorite." Finnick says and tastes a cookie. "And I can say they're perfect." He says making Nick smile.
"You're a good baker." I say.
"Thank you Mommy." He smiles and takes another bite. Some of the melted chocolate chips are getting on is face, but I'm not all that worried because of his smile.
"Maybe you'll be as good as Uncle Peeta one day." Finnick says.
"Do you really think so?" He asks.
"Yes, I do." He says.
"Tell him then!" Nick says with a smile.
"We will sweetie." I say and kiss his cheek.
"Good." He says.
I smile and watch him eat his cookie. I will always love his enthusiasm.