How to make Dinosaur Sugar Cookies

My two-year-old loves dinosaurs.  I know that most kids have a dinosaur phase, but really, this is more of an obsession.  She has several dinosaur encyclopedias and books and an awesome stamp set.  She rearranges all of the big and tiny cheap dinosaur plastic toys every day in the house.  There is always a dinosaur convention in session.  It's been held on the kitchen table, the coffee table, the middle of the kitchen floor, on top of our dog's crate, on the couch cushions, on my body, etc.  It's quite amusing.  She'll help you out with the technicalities if you mistakenly call one of her dinosaurs a "long neck."  Silly you.  It's obviously an Apatosaurus.  "That's not a T-Rex.  It's a Deinonycus."  Or maybe Allosaurus, Parasaurolophus or Ankylosaurus.  Her latest vocabulary wonder is "Archaeopteryx."  This kid scares me.  Seriously.  In a good way.

At any rate, she got an early big sister gift the other day that was a big hit.  Dinosaur cookie cutters.  Awe-some.  We whipped up a batch of cookies right away because it was much more appealing to make a bigger mess of the kitchen than tackle the cleaning up part.  Or mopping.  Ick.  The making cookie process was a bigger hit than the eating of actual cookies.

How to make Dinosaur Sugar Cookies- A Two-Year Old's Perspective

1. Have your mother make a batch of sugar cookies. "Help" dump the ingredients in a bowl. Get VERY EXCITED about making several different colors of cookies. Pay no mind to the stained hands of your mother, who thought about adding color after the dough was finished.

2. Drag your chair to the counter and help push cookie cutters in the dough. Sneak bites of cookie dough. In true baker form, get flour all over your shirt.

3. Name all the dinosaurs. Sneak bites of cookie dough. Point out that your mother broke off T-Rex's midsection. Share the obviously wrecked cookie with your mother.

4. Peer into the oven and wait for the cookies to bake. Toss the dish towels aside so that you get a better view. Put dish towels on dog. Ask to have another bite of cookie dough from the bowl. Share it with the dog.

5. Eat cookies. Name each dinosaur. Dance off your sugar high in the kitchen.

-m