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Paying attention to her obsessions pays off. Given that she is prone to fishing the mesh bag of garlic out of the hamper and run about proclaiming, "A garly! A garly!" (or possibly "I got it! I got it!"), saving the garlic-chopping for when she wakes up from her nap so I can say "Could you get me some garlic?" lets her feel helpful and involved.
Her fort (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whispercricket discovered something called a 'learning tower' and artan_eter built one), which brings her safely up to the level of seeing the counter, remains completely awesome, especially now that she can climb in and out of it on her own.
As it happens, the dish I was making for dinner involves a lot of whole spices. Whole spices are an awesome thing for toddler assistance. I was grinding some stuff up in the mortar and pestle and said "I need eight of these," and handed her a packet of bay leaves. She carefully extracted one from the bag. "One," I said, and she extracted another, and we counted up to eight in a tidy little heap and then put the bag away.
Similar counting was done with whole cloves and cardamom pods, though that was a lot more numbers (hard to keep her attention), and accomplished by pouring some out on the counter and having her count them into a bowl. Afterwards, the leftovers were restored to the jar with "We have to clean up the mess!" and she gleefully put the caps back on. Whole spices are a plus.
This time making the curry I braved moving the fort over next to the stove so she could watch. I asked her what was in the pot, and got "Ons!", with a little prompting, "Garly!", and finally "Ginge!"
There is a sequence in the procedure that involves frying yoghurt; I measured out the quantity into a bowl, got one of her spoons (Chinese soup spoons - she finds them easier to handle without spilling), and we took turns putting the yoghurt into the korma. At least up until she dribbled a little fluid onto the burner, which made a rather remarkable hissing noise and provoked cackles of glee, but after which she was unwilling to do more than fill the spoon. ("Mama turn!")
She serves as an excellent cheerleader. (Last week's curry had me trying to cut the ends off garlic cloves with some very thick shells, and she studied what I was doing and then earnestly said, "Mama push!") Today, I pulled the chopped chicken out to put in -artan_eter had put it in two bowls. I put one in, and got the declaration "Meat! Mo meat!" and vigorous pointing as if I might forget the other bowl.
She thought the salt water that got added was tea, because it came out of the kettle.
She thinks that food that is being cooked under a lid should be "Ope!" when she wants to look at it. This is unsurprising; she is two.
"Beep go! Beep go!" Toddler reminder systems on timers are useful, also adorable.
Other catering to her obsessions: at the end when the cream gets poured in, she climbed up into her tower and, with a little bit of assistance, poured it into the curry.
She has, however, not considered actually eating any.
Her fort (
whispercricket discovered something called a 'learning tower' and artan_eter built one), which brings her safely up to the level of seeing the counter, remains completely awesome, especially now that she can climb in and out of it on her own.As it happens, the dish I was making for dinner involves a lot of whole spices. Whole spices are an awesome thing for toddler assistance. I was grinding some stuff up in the mortar and pestle and said "I need eight of these," and handed her a packet of bay leaves. She carefully extracted one from the bag. "One," I said, and she extracted another, and we counted up to eight in a tidy little heap and then put the bag away.
Similar counting was done with whole cloves and cardamom pods, though that was a lot more numbers (hard to keep her attention), and accomplished by pouring some out on the counter and having her count them into a bowl. Afterwards, the leftovers were restored to the jar with "We have to clean up the mess!" and she gleefully put the caps back on. Whole spices are a plus.
This time making the curry I braved moving the fort over next to the stove so she could watch. I asked her what was in the pot, and got "Ons!", with a little prompting, "Garly!", and finally "Ginge!"
There is a sequence in the procedure that involves frying yoghurt; I measured out the quantity into a bowl, got one of her spoons (Chinese soup spoons - she finds them easier to handle without spilling), and we took turns putting the yoghurt into the korma. At least up until she dribbled a little fluid onto the burner, which made a rather remarkable hissing noise and provoked cackles of glee, but after which she was unwilling to do more than fill the spoon. ("Mama turn!")
She serves as an excellent cheerleader. (Last week's curry had me trying to cut the ends off garlic cloves with some very thick shells, and she studied what I was doing and then earnestly said, "Mama push!") Today, I pulled the chopped chicken out to put in -
artan_eter had put it in two bowls. I put one in, and got the declaration "Meat! Mo meat!" and vigorous pointing as if I might forget the other bowl.She thought the salt water that got added was tea, because it came out of the kettle.
She thinks that food that is being cooked under a lid should be "Ope!" when she wants to look at it. This is unsurprising; she is two.
"Beep go! Beep go!" Toddler reminder systems on timers are useful, also adorable.
Other catering to her obsessions: at the end when the cream gets poured in, she climbed up into her tower and, with a little bit of assistance, poured it into the curry.
She has, however, not considered actually eating any.
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I think you have a seriously smart child there. Not that this is surprising.
P.
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You have a great deal more patience than I do in the kitchen. I'm usually trying to do things on a timeframe, which limits my options. But you have reminded me that I need to cook *with* the kids more often. Especially the Owl, since boys don't cook in this universe.
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After a quick search, I don't see the one we used as a starting point, but there are a bunch of newer design specs / building procedures available, which look like they'd be pretty useful.
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The whole narrative - but this bit in particular - cracked me up. Your love for her oozes from every word - she is very lucky to have you for a mom.
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Wow. Thank you for this small glimpse into your life with your daughter, and how nice to be reminded that cooking is Magic (perhaps Alchemy?).
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Also, why would she try curry? A two year's child will have really sensitive taste buds, in the main, and while they will reliably eat what they need if it's available to them -- not enough arrangement of neurons to have food issues before six or so -- they also gravitate to bland, simple, and chewy quite consistently. (I am picturing one of my honorary nephew's facial expression on being presented with pickled beets at around that age, here. And pickled beets are a much simpler, and milder, flavour than even a very-mild-by-adult-standards curry.)
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(She's more likely to object because it has sauce, and sauce is clearly Not Food. But she won't eat the meat without any sauce on it either, presumably because it is tainted by that vile and unforgiveable sauceness.)
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