Tales of Young Ethan: Chef Ethan

Ethan has long been interested in cooking. Even before I began cooking with him, he could be easily entertained with just a bowl and spoon, practicing stirring. This picture was taken shortly before his first birthday right after he woke up from his nap one afternoon:

He loves helping out in the kitchen, from playing with the microwave to using the blender to make my daily green smoothie.

After observing this on their visit last weekend, my parents decided to move up their planned 2nd birthday gift for him and give Ethan a play kitchen for his half birthday instead. The play food and pots and pans arrived on Tuesday, and he spent almost 1.5 hours playing with them with his sitter yesterday. She took an adorable video of him that I'll try to post when I have more time. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we assembled the kitchen last night, and it only took about 1.5 hours. Ethan was quite excited this morning when he came downstairs to see it After a couple of timid steps, he broke out in a huge grin and got to work/play! He played in the kitchen basically the entire morning:

Still in his PJs

Talking on the phone

Getting the pot ready to fill

Checking out the pantry

Because milk belongs in the microwave...

My only complaint about the kitchen is that he had so much fun playing with it he wouldn't stop to tell me when he had to go potty. As a result, we had more accidents than yesterday, though he still used the potty more often than on Tuesday AND had his first success out in public, so I guess that's still progress.

Ethan's only complaint concerned the sink: it doesn't work. He had no problem with pretending to pour from his wooden food. He had no problem with sampling air off his spoons and declaring it "Yum!" He had no problem carrying on conversations with no one on the kitchen phone. But when he decided he needed to fill a pot with water and turning the knobs of the sink did nothing? He was not pleased. In fact, he began hitting the faucet, as if that would make it work. Then he moved the kitchen away from the wall to try to turn the knobs from behind. Finally, he looked to me and whined. I explained that he had to pretend and showed him how I could "wash my hands," but that wasn't good enough, apparently.

So, after Ethan woke up from his nap, I had a surprise for him. Since it was 85 degrees, I stripped him down, put him in his new swim suit, slathered him in sunscreen, and we headed out to the back deck for some water sensory play with ice and food coloring for added fun. We had already refilled the container 4-5 times before Daddy came home and could get my camera: