The Muffin Man

Last night, Joseph helped me make blueberry muffins for Sunday morning. With time constraints, I haven't been doing much baking from scratch, so we opted for muffin mix (probably easier for a toddler to help with a shorter recipe anyway...) Anyway, I digress. Joseph has a little stool that we usually keep in the bathroom so he can reach the sink to wash his hands and brush his teeth. Usually, if my husband or I are cooking in the kitchen, he'll drag the stool in and say,"Want to see!" When I asked him if he wanted to 'see' Mama making muffins, he was very excited. I let him put the muffin wrappers into the baking pan- which he did very meticulously, one at a time- and then I let him dump in the water and vegetable oil. Once I had added the eggs, I handed him a fork and told him it was his turn to stir. Slowly and carefully, he moved the fork through the thick batter saying, "Stir, stir, stir! Stir, stir, stir!" After I folded in the blueberries, he looked at me and exclaimed, "Berries made it PURTLE!" (The berries made the batter PURPLE.) After distributing the batter into the muffin cups and placing the pan in the oven, I let him lick the fork, which was probably the highlight of his baking time, until the muffins came out of the oven. I handed him one and said, "Go show Daddy what Joseph made." He ran into the living room to see my husband curled up on the sofa reading a book and started exclaiming, "LOOK, Dada! I DID it!" When A. praised him, he swelled with pride- I thought he was going to explode! So cute. I want all of my kids to spend as much time in the kitchen as possible so that one day, they'll be able to cook well. Maybe I should invest in an apron for my little baker. It was so sweet to see him so proud of himself.