April 22, 2009

Peeling with a three year old

                         
                                   


I was making a vegetarian curry last night for dinner and Alex was wondering to and fro with an air of mischief about him. I decided to ask him if he'd like to help me peel the veggies for dinner. "Oh yes please" was his response. 
The last time I cooked with the boys was at least 3 months ago and that didn't go to well. I have control issues in the kitchen and having the boys measure out flour for cookies then proceeding to drop 40% of it on the way over to the bowl does not make me giddy with excitement or entice me to have them in the kitchen on a regular basis, so asking Alex to help me was something that does not come natural for me when I am in the kitchen. However, I thought peeling a spud is a little safer than dumping flour into a bowl (now I write this I see how silly it sounds- yes giving a kid a sharp object is sooo much safer than dumping flour Camilla!)
  I showed Alex what I was doing and encouraged him to follow suit. I asked him if he had peeled a vegetable before and he looked at me and said 'Uhmm, no but I can do it' and with that much enthusiasm I proceeded to direct him in the art of peeling. Within seconds I was told "I can do it mummy, I can do it"- in that three year old voice that is 10 times louder than your own. Surprisingly I got the message and continued to peel my own spud. 
A couple of minutes later I hear- 'It's not working mum......ohhh, NO, NO it's OK I have a better way' and with that said I see him stabbing at the potato. The peeler blade millimeter's from his tiny little fingers. With the amount of force he was stabbing I thought he would for sure stab himself! After removing the peeler from his tight grip I decided I'd give him one more try seeing how excited he was. I think Alex managed to peel one piece of skin before telling me my way was to hard and his way was much more fun!
In the end I finished off the potato, Alex got to keep all his fingers and I was quite pleased one of my kids left the kitchen feeling he 'helped' with dinner- couldn't of done it without you Alex.

4 comments:

Mal Streeter said...

Alex is very apeeling!! Another one for the kitchen. Love Mal

Tarsh said...

That was fabulous Mil! Go for it Alex, you never know he might turn out to be the next Jamie Oliver!

Jessie K said...

Great post! You are hilarious. Would be nice to inflect more of this tone in the revised pitch, yes?

Astria said...

what a funny story Camilla and I esp. loved the part about giving a 3yr old a sharp object being safer than spilling flour all over the floor