With Sprinkles on Top

There is nothing that will bring joy to a one-year-old's face more quickly than being offered a plate full of cookies, a big blob of icing, and his very own container of holiday sprinkles.

After a few suspicious glances at me ("Am I really allowed to do this, Mama? It looks like it might be messy!") and a couple of test-shakes of his sprinkle container, Little Man made short work of his cookies. The real fun, it seems, is not decorating the cookies themselves so much as watching the red and green sprinkles pour out of the container on to the counter, where you can then make interesting designs using your fingers.

And we didn't keep the fun all to ourselves. There wasn't just Little Man sitting at the island, alone is his sprinkle mania. It was a sugar filled holiday play date. There was 2-year-old Miss B right alongside him, although she did focus a little more on decorating the actual cookie and less on decorating the kitchen.

My girlfriend and I were pleasantly surprised, once the kids got bored decorating their creations, how little of a mess they made. Sure, when I took Little Man's diaper off an hour later sprinkles fell out of it, and there is a spot on his leg that is dyed green from where he was sitting on them. But the overall result?

Positively yummy.