Growing up, kitchen style

H is simple crazy about the kitchen. He loves to wisk, splash, pluck, and dance. For well over a month H has spent a lot of his time with his basket of kitchen items sitting on the floor or working at his table happy and engaged. Often when H wants to be picked up it so he can see what is up on the stove top. If H and I are coming in the front door and he hears J working in the kitchen he goes running in to see what is happening.

A few week ago we asked H's teacher what she would recommend for H given his love of all things food related. She said that we should include him in as many ways as possible in the kitchen. Some specific recommendations she gave for a 14 month old are peeling bananas, pulling grapes from the vine, and pouring water. In addition I am trying to include H in as many cooking activities as I can. H helps tear spinach and lettuce for salads and sandwiches and I try to prepare and assemble things at H's level.
Stay tuned for more kitchen stories and recipes coming soon!

A month through snapshots

You call this thing a backpack? Hmm...the straps feel interesting.

Contemplating life and the stove with my my backpack on.

Saddle up, cowboy!

Who are you lookin' at?

Tissue paper is always enjoyable

Who doesn't love morning hair?

More morning hair

Hard at work

One tired daddy

Hmmm...the window is open
These plants are AMAZING!

Loneliness

In looking over our blog today, I realized that it has been a month since I posted last. My apologies for this. Our lives have been very busy with work, home, family, friends, and the whirlwind of emotions that goes with all of those things. The good and the bad, the happy and the sad that accompanies life.

So, it is May 23 now and H is in bed and J is out of town for the night and I find myself sitting alone getting ready to head into the kitchen to make food for tomorrow for H, and I feel lonely.

Ever since H entered our lives the world has changed, it has gotten bigger in some ways and smaller in other ways and always fuller than it ever has been before. Most of the time I have too much to do to think about how I feel about anything, but then there are these moments, such as now, in which I find myself catching up with myself and it feels like I have been running too long and too fast and didn't notice and now can't catch my breath. And in those moments of breathlessness I can feel any number of emotions, joy, awe, worry, sadness, etc. But tonight the feeling I have is loneliness.

As with all emotions I try to give them their space and not rush them out or push them down. So tonight I will try to sit with my loneliness and not let it scare me. I will invite it to spend the evening with me as I get my tasks done before tomorrow. We will have a glass of wine together and chat. Loneliness will listen patiently as I bring up all of those things which make me feel lonesome and overwhelmed right now. And as we hang out in the kitchen, L and I, the baking and cleaning will feel good and I will reassure myself that it is ok to feel lonely at times. And then I will brush my teeth, get into bed, and rest before tomorrow.