1 Hour

On a typical night, while making dinner we plop Ava into her baby seat.  This one...

http://www.summerinfant.com/Products/Play/Support-Seats/SuperSeat®-(play).aspx

I love this seat, and as Ava gets bigger, we can remove the orange seat insert and it will grow with her. I recommend this product.

While we make dinner, we get about 15 minutes of play in this seat, then Ava wants out. Like O.U.T. out.

However, last night we may have turned a corner. I put her in the seat and started dinner. Wynston had to work late. I was just chopping vegetables since I figured I'd have to stop and attend to Ava before long. But then Wynston came home and we kept going with dinner. I was in charge of the pasta, he picked up where I left off with a "faux fried" blooming onion. We kept looking over at her, picking her toys up as she knocked them off, cooking, looking over, picking up toys, etc. Pretty soon an hour had passed and dinner was ready. ONE HOUR people! I was in awe. It was amazing. This little lady's mind, attention span and creativity must be growing! I loved peeking over at her as she gazed curiously at her toys, studying, then usually "pouncing" on them and putting whatever she can in her little mouth.

So, one hour of dedicated dinner making later (it doesn't usually take quite that long), we sat down to eat and watch the ball game. I'd purchased some Velveeta recently for a breakfast recipe...which needed approximately less than 1/4th of the pound. Our small town grocery store only carries the pound box! Not wanting to waste that cheese, and knowing I couldn't freeze it, I turned to Pinterest and snatched up a yummy looking pasta recipe that uses Velveeta. This turned out sooo bad! Lol. I dipped a tortilla chip into it and found that quite yummy, but on pasta...blech! After attempting to eat a bowl each (neither of us could) it felt like you had a 5 lb lump of goo sitting in your stomach. Oh well. At least the Blooming Onion was tasty!