Our Chef

Martin has been fascinated with the "hot" since we returned from Buffalo in January. He has become progressively more demanding about being involved with cooking.

In an effort to involve him without having him practically climbing on the stove (quite literally),
we've started allowing him to help with the eggs




and stand on a chair and put things in the bowl. His little squeal of delight when he puts things in the bowl is priceless.




We also bought him a small kitchen this week from a local toy store. (We ended up with this small Wooden Play Kitchen Set from Alex. I'll leave rant about the difficulty of finding smaller, gender neutral kitchens and accessories - particularly tea sets - for another day.)
I was a little worried that at 15/16 months he wasn't quite ready for this type of imaginative play. I shouldn't have been. HE LOVES IT and totally "gets" it. When I first brought it home, I hadn't picked up any pots or utensils. It didn't matter... it was an immediate 15 minutes taking a plastic bowl off the stove, into the oven and back. Since then, I've added pots and pans as well as some food colored pasta. This has only added to the allure of the "hot." It is usually the first thing he goes to in the morning - to make our "breakfast hot" - which is a welcome relief so I can actually start the real breakfast. It doesn't stop him from wanting to help with the real cooking, but he probably averages an hour a day playing with his hot. So cute.