Taking the Scenic Route

Pasta Salad and other Adventures

At lunchtime, I put water on to boil and started pulling out veggies to make a pasta salad.  Zane saw what I was doing, pulled his footstool up to the counter, pulled a butter knife out of the silverware drawer and looked up to me to show him what he could help with.  I felt like doing a cartwheel I was so excited.  I have wanted to show him cooking things for ages and this was perfect! 

He helped cut up the yellow peppers, then the tomatoes.  He kept getting the knife flat instead of up and down, so I showed him how to hold it and he scrunched up his face in concentration trying to cut things.  He really got a kick out the garlic press, and when I was done pressing the garlic, he started putting tomato peices into it too…lol.  He had tomato juice dripping down his arms in the effort.  He loved shaking the spices onto the mixture.  After I set the bottles aside, he grabbed them and took the lid off and kept adding more.  (Good thing Zach likes Italian herbs).  When I juillianned some ham for the salad, he suddenly was not as interested in the cutting and putting in the bowl…he just kept eating them.  I think he ate more than he put in the bowl.  The stirring turned out to be the messiest part because he kept scooping out the veggies and trying to put it into the strainer. 

It took over an hour to make a simple pasta salad today, but it was one of the most fun hours I have spent cooking in a long time.  I wish he would have eaten the salad, but I think he just filled up on ham (if only it could have been the veggies he was excited about *sigh*).  He did, however, really enjoy feeding me.

The rest of the day was spent doing puzzles, reading, making a mega block structure to drive hot wheels cars through, and him watching “Letter Factory” and shouting the letters while jumping up and down while I cleaned the disaster in the kitchen.  When Zach got home, we went to the playground for an hour and I watched the guys play.  Zane made it up the pirate ropes (chains actually) by himself for the first time and Zach showed him how to “fly” on the swings.  (stomach across seat, arms outstreched). 

Other than the battle at nap time (an hour of his hour and a half nap was spent keeping him in the bed), the day was just great.  Tonight, he made up for the horrible nap time by falling asleep in 4, count ‘em FOUR minutes.  Whew!  He had a big day!