Time With Mama

Having a toddler is so much fun.

It's exhausting, challenging,

but it is so fun!

I love the little person she has become.

Her personality is so loving.

She actually gets told to stop 

hugging and kissing other kids

because she is so affectionate! 

She also loves to help me in the kitchen

(and say "I do it")

Whenever I'm in there 

she comes running

saying and signing 

"Hup? Hup, mummy?"

She gets to climb on to the counter top 

and knead, stir and mix.

Whenever I am wearing her,

have her on my hip,

or she's perched on the counter next to me

I tell her stories about me being in the kitchen with my mom.

I remember her teaching me how to make a roux,

baste a turkey, make gravy,

to not cook everything on high heat.

How to make sugar cookie dough and icing so I'll never have to buy it.

I remember spinning and tearing lettuce,

cubing chicken breasts,

and cleaning up after dinner.

Some of the best conversations I remember having

with my mom were cleaning up after dinner.

Its like the mundane actions of loading the dishwasher

and the warm soapy water were the base for some 

pretty great mother-daughter times.

As Claire grows older I am looking forward

to more of these special times together in my kitchen.

And I hope that one day when she's featured on the Food Network

she'll say,

"I learned everything I know from my mother."

Hehe.