Mamma I want Pancakes

For one reason or another, my chubbster toddler has not been very hungry lately.  The child that used to eat as if she was filling a hollow leg, has become a little snacker, sustaining herself on watererd-down grape juice and string cheese.  I'm really not worried per say, just wondering why the sudden changes in appetite.  She can communicate fairly well obviously, so she would tell me if she was "hungry" I suppose.  She's not sick, or losing weight.   So I offer three square meals a day plus two snacks, water, milk, and her watered-down juice and just let her eat what she wants.

Today she asked for pancakes.  Of course, the one day this week she asks for something to eat, I dont' have pancake mix.  I hit google and found Alton Brown's "Instant" pancake mix recipe on the food network and went to work.  A few weeks ago I discovered that if I let Mimi pick a shape for her pancakes, she would eat more of what I made her, causing much less soggy pancake waste after breakfast.  We have an array of holiday cookie cutters to choose from.  I of course try to get the Christmas themed cutters out, but today my girl wanted hearts.  I made a big batch of pancakes, cut her out two hearts and used the rest to make trees and baby circles which I froze on parchment paper for another morning.  You can even pop the frozen homemade ones in your toaster.

She devoured her heart-shaped pancakes and some berries and then we tackled the mess of our laundry room together.