Translated…
My two-year-old daughter loved clinging on me, even as I busied myself in and out of the kitchen, she’d tagged along, sometimes, I’m just, too busy, watching the stove, chopping up the vegetables, I’d become stressed out. Several times, I’d chased her into the living room, but very shortly thereafter, she’d come running to me, “Mommy, mommy, cook together, cook together!” She has the lips of sugar, how can I say no? In order to make sure that we can cook together, I’d kept adjusting my attitude, from getting stressed out about not getting it all done, to really enjoying the process of making the meals with my child, there are only a handful of years when she’d be clinging to me, if I manage to train her well, I’d earned me a helper in the kitchen.
After several times, I’d figured out some points. First, the counters must be cleared, otherwise, her small hands would grab everything, and everything will end up in the bowls. Secondly, what I was making must be easy to prepare, or that I needed to do the more complicated preparations beforehand. The most important of all, is keeping her busy at all times, to give her small tasks one right after the other, because when she has nothing to do, then, something WILL go wrong.
And, as she’d worked alongside me, she’d learned a ton of techniques already, and had enlarged her vocabulary bank too. Children loved water, and so, I put her in charge of washing the rice, and from time to time, I’d give her a bowl of warm water so she could help with the dishes, these simple tasks, could keep her occupied for a very long time, and, mixing the food items is something that little hands can learn to manage too, she especially loved baking cookies and cakes, and would fight me over stirring the batters, and she’d snuck in the uncooked doughs too.
In order, to prevent the dangers of her getting cut by the knives, I’d placed the potatoes that hadn’t been skinned in front of her, and had her hand them to me one by one, and kept asking her to hand me more, to make her feel achieved, that she’s contributing. And for the softer vegetables, we’d used our hands, to take the skins off, break the beans in half, strip the cabbage to smaller pieces; once, I was surprised to discover, that her small hands could effectively skin the garlics and onions already.
These items that are considered annoying to adults, she could do it for hours on end without being bored or tired. The first time my daughter took the skins off of onions, she told me, that her eyes were wet, I didn’t get it at first, later on, I’d realized, that taking the skins off of the onions had made her eyes water. And the way she looked, with tear-filled eyes, it looked like she’d been abused by mom. Naturally, I had also gave her the task of shelling the hard-broiled eggs, but, runs the risks of the eggs, ending up into her stomach by the time the shells had been taken off. When I’d started to cook, I’d asked her to taste it for me, and it’d managed, to fill her up. And, more often than not, she’d managed to finish a small bowl of vegetables too, because she was hungry, and, without the seasonings, she’d still loved the items. A lot of my friends’ kids won’t have vegetables, and, as they see that my daughter gulfed down her vegetables, they’re all very envious of me.
Although, patience became a huge thing when I cook with my daughter, tipping over the condiment jars, accidentally eating raw meat, and an assortment of situations are unavoided too, but, thinking of how my daughter’s nose was powdered with flour, squatted in front of the oven, waiting, impatiently, as the cake got baked, looking so very cute, all of these wonderful moments, it’d given me the strengths, to tolerate the messes she makes again.
And so, this is a child, at an age when her curiosities set in, she wants to touch everything, and, the mom figured out a way, to keep her child busy, and, together, they’re spending a lot of quality time in the kitchen, cooking, baking, and making the memories.
