Little Cook

Lately, Elle has shown a huge interest in cooking. Anytime I do anything in the kitchen—even buttering toast—she wants to help. This newfound interest has been a little fun, a little crazy, and a little frustrating. Sometimes she does an excellent job, and follows my instructions precisely. However, more often than not, it seems that she forgets and simply ignores my well-meaning instructions. Today, happened to be one of the days where she forgot—or possibly ignored—my instructions. After we had made her “runny eggs” this morning, I told her to be careful of the griddle because it was still hot. I was not at all too concerned over her touching it, because she had just finished flipping her eggs on it, and had not touched it at all. But, to my dismay, when I turned around to grab something, she must have decided to test my “hot theory.” As I was turning around with the item I had turned to get, I watched in horror as she daintily touched the griddle with her three fingers. She immediately pulled her hand back, but alas, the damage was done; she had burned her three little fingers. Luckily, if you can call anything lucky in this situation, she had barely touched the griddle. Her fingers hurt a little, but there was no real damage done. She shed a lot of tears over this tragic cooking experience, but my hope is that we have learned a valuable lesson: Mommy knows best.