Future Chef

Henry has always really enjoyed watching and helping with kitchen tasks. When he was really little he would fall asleep to the sound of water so it was great to wash dishes with him. As he has gotten older and his powers of observation have increased he wants to know everything that you're doing. I've let him help me by stirring things or emptying the measuring cup into the bowl, etc. Right now when I make dinner he stands on a chair and copies everything that I do. If I'm mixing something then he'll get a bowl out, ask for a spoon and mix in his bowl (sometimes he'll ask to take turns with me). Sunday morning Pete was browning some hamburger and Henry got out his own frying pan and spoon and every time Pete stirred Henry would stir in his pan, if the lid went on Pete's pan Henry would put a lid on his pan. I thought that he was just really observant and wanted to help because that is a big part of his personality; however, he proved to me that he can cook on his own while I was in the shower the other morning...

When I got out of the shower Tuesday morning I found Henry sitting nonchalantly on the couch with an 18-count cartoon of eggs in his lap. Realizing that he had been caught, he quickly stood up and was about to 'hide the evidence' behind the couch when I told him to stop and asked him what he was doing. I decided I should investigate right away, despite my lack of clothes, and as I approached the couch to my horror (and if I'm completely honest, to my astonishment/amazement) I found that Henry had already cracked an egg into the frying pan that he had on the couch. After standing for a moment in shock and not knowing what to do next (Mom, this chapter was left out of the worst-case scenario book you gave me) I told him he had to go to his room for timeout because he's not supposed to get food out of the fridge. BIG MISTAKE! This made Henry upset and my unobservant eyes didn't notice that the egg shell was in Henry's possession. To demonstrate his displeasure with me he crumpled the shell in his hands and threw it at me as he left running to his room. While Henry was in timeout I put the frying pan on the stove (next to the other pan Henry got out), put the step stool away and started cleaning up the mess. When I say mess I should clarify that the mess was really all my fault. Henry did an outstanding job of cracking the egg into the pan as there was only one tiny piece of shell in the pan and one little spot of egg on the couch and the yolk was still intact. So, I had a little bit of egg to clean up and a lot of pieces of shell that were quite difficult to pick-up. After timeout I tried to explain to Henry that he isn't supposed to get food out of the fridge and he needs my help to cook and all kinds of other things, but he just kept wanting an egg.

I had no idea that Henry had watched me enough times to figure all of this stuff out. It really blew me away. When I told this to Pete at night he just laughed and laughed and I couldn't help but laugh too.