Cooking With Small Helpers

One thing I have been enjoying lately is cooking with my gal-pal Miss Bella Walters.
She adores getting our aprons from the hook and waiting patiently for mommy to tie the strings.
She then runs to the back of the fridge jumping up and down, begging for her ladder.
I loved yesterday when we made molasses cookies

as she was putting flour into the mixer she sang a little song that went
"me cooking, me dump, me cooking yum"
I like the development I see in her as a result. She learns that there are certain steps we take to get a finished product.
I tell her why we do things a certain way and what would happen if we did not.
At the end she even was able to taste her treat.

Then, when daddy got home I had her take some to him and say that she made them for him.
As we cook it is enjoyable for me to watch her
develop and learn from each step we take.
The cooking is certainly not stress free for me (as evidenced by the cinnamon covering the counter)
but even though my palms get a little sweaty from stress I am so glad we do this.
I try to set aside several cooking times a week just for this purpose.
So she can learn part of what it will mean when she becomes a Mommy some day.
I am trying to help build my own patience reservoir while filling her head with knowledge.

I encourage anyone who reads this to take some time with your little ones and work on a household project and just enjoy the simplicity of teaching them how to do a task.