Can I just cook dinner? Please!

Ever have one of those days? Or a lot of those days? I seem to feel like that every night between 5-7pm. I guess it is called the witching hour for a reason! I just want to make dinner then enjoy dinner without incident! It never seems to happen. Jake wants to be right at my side the entire time, as does the dog. We have an incredibly small kitchen and it just does not work! I love for Jake to help out in the kitchen, when that is what he is doing, but most of the time it is him whining (ugh, his new favorite past-time) while I am trying to speedily cook.

I decided I needed to get him out of the kitchen and the whole process would be faster and more pleasant for us both! I did not want to discourage his love of the kitchen and cooking so I made a compromise.

I put out an old baking sheet, a bowl of water and every (safe) kitchen utensil that Jake could pull out. I placed them on a built-in window seat, just his height for a counter, in the dinning room. He 'cooked' water for over an hour the first day, stirring, pouring, mixing in ingredients! And I was able to cook dinner and even clean-up the mess before we ate. It was miraculous!
He thoroughly enjoyed himself and now it is a pre-dinner routine. We are both very happy when it is time to sit down and eat! And the dog is happy because Jake likes to take the water, one spoon at a time, to the dog dish and pour it in for him! :)

Ok, so there is a HUGE mess of water everywhere after but I will take, yet another mess for an hour or so of peace!

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Structured Play

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