A little chef in the making

The first thing Tristan does in the morning when we enter the living room is go straight to the kitchen to get his wooden spoon. He knows the exact place to find it in the drawer and then he goes and opens the drawer on the opposite side where the pots are. He opens the lids and places them on the carpet and then starts to stir in the pots with his wooden spoon. For the past couple of weeks, this has been his morning routine while I fetch his milk in the kitchen. If you give him enough time, he will then start to collect small toys from the living room so he can throw them in the pot. It was hilarious that he chose the "Egg" alphabet block :)



Prior to being obsessed with play cooking, he was obsessed with cleaning. By the way, cooking and cleaning are two of his most used signs when communicating with us. Anything that resembles a cloth, such as a bib or t-shirt, he will take and squat on the floor and start wiping away. It was funny at first but then it just started to annoy us. We hang wet cloths to dry over our chairs and he would take those and start wiping the carpet. We have a wash cloth for his face and a bigger cloth for cleaning his tray. Now we have to hang those elsewhere so he can't steal them. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of options of where to put them so most of the time it ends up back over the chairs. Needless to say, there has been a lot of yelling "NO" and running after him to snatch away the cloths. Tristan loves to clean the floor, the chairs, the tables - basically anything he has seen us clean before. Luckily, he has a new obsession with cooking so he doesn't have as much time to clean anymore :)

Those who know me, know that I love cooking. Seeing Tristan take an interest in cooking and cleaning makes me happy and excited about the near future. He will be mommy's little kitchen helper! When he is a little more able, I will get him a little chef's hat and apron to match. I can see us baking madelines, chocolate cakes, tarts, truffles, nanaimo bars, brownies etc. I will also teach him how to cook and we will grocery shop together so he will learn about the ingredients and how to choose them. I know, I'm getting ahead of myself :) There is so much to teach since I make all sorts of food. We mostly dine on Asian food like Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian, but I also cook lots of French, Italian, Greek, Hawaiian and everything else in between. My dad was raised to cook and he shares cooking with my mom. They are both great cooks. I want Tristan to be a great cook too :)