L is really beginning to be involved in a lot of the cooking and cleaning. He uses a stool to help him put laundry into the washer and then to transfer it to the dryer. He always helps me put clean dishes away and dirty dishes into the dishwasher and he always loves to do dishes in the sink with me. He's great about putting his toys away now in the playroom, I still remind him a lot but I'm surprised at how many times I don't need to remind him!
Cooking is an area that we are working really hard to incorporate him into. It can sometimes be difficult because we can't let him get too close to the stove without risking him burning himself. We always try to let him help us mix together ingredients and we try to let him explore as many food items as we can. He loves to get in his learning tower and watch the food cooking on the stove too! The other day we made bread and he really seemed to enjoy mixing all the items together for the dough! He's really into the scooping and pouring phase now so I included him on some of the flour pouring.
He liked touching the dough while I was mixing it together, it was a new texture for him!
Recently, I made a marinade for some tofu we would be cooking the next day and L loved the opportunity to explore the marinade and learn how all the ingredients mix together in the bowl!
Tonight at dinner I snapped a couple pictures of L exploring different food items that we would be cooking. He intently watched his dad shuck the corn and loved the opportunity to feel and explore the dry corn before it went in the pot to cook! I also let him explore an onion before I chopped it up, I'm pretty sure he just thought it was a weird ball or something though haha.
On a side note, L has begun pretend play and I'm so thrilled! Ironically his favorite thing to pretend is cooking haha. I have never been happier that we didn't babyproof our house because he has free range to the kitchen and the utensils (I have doubted that decision many times in the past lol). During our free play he loves to run to the kitchen and get a pot and a large spoon, he brings it back to the playroom and pretends to cook with it. He always gives me turns and watches intently as I pretend to cook with it as well. Today he found some pipe cleaners and a few little felt pieces and threw them in the pot and began stirring them all together! It's so beautiful to watch him play!
