King of the Kitchen

Thomas has staked his claim in my kitchen. He started off at about 18 months eager to "do" the dishes and fill up cups and play in the bubbles. This progressed to filling up pots and stirring them with spoons and finding their respective lids. Meanwhile, he began developing an interest in "cookin'" with pots and pans on the floor of the kitchen. He learned which lid goes with which pot or pan and enjoyed matching them up and then requesting a long wooden spoon to "stir" them with. Unfortunately, over Christmas, his interests in my culinary abilities (and his own) took a more sinister turn and he began to realize that he was missing out on the real thing. If he hears onion sizzling in the pan, its almost like Pavlov's dog drooling for him, he cannot leave it alone. He will determinedly push a chair from basically anywhere in the house (although I leave one in the kitchen for him) to get on and demand a spoon and the lid for said pot of sizzling onions. If I refuse to get him a lid, he will get off the chair, hunt through the lid drawer, or push his chair to the dish drainer, where it inevitably is. He never picks the wrong lid. I'm actually beginning to depend on him to keep things from burning! I really do my best to keep an eye on him, because I tell myself it is crazy to trust a 2 year old at a hot stove, and he is careful when I tell him it's too hot. If I try to be sneaky and get the dinner going while he is napping, he takes personal offense and throws a fit, so I guess I kind of look forward to our cooking sessions together. It's nice to have company in the kitchen and it is so cute to see him holding the lid of the pot in one hand while carefully stirring with the other, then replacing the lid back on the pot and laying the spoon down--imitating me so exactly it's like looking in a mirror. James has taken to calling him "Kitch" when he's in full swing, but I just call him my "little chef." Maybe he can start making breakfast and James can forget about it and sleep in!