Lil' Munchkin in the Kitchen: October 2014

We love spending time with friends, and Munchkin has so much fun with little ones her age!

Alex and her friend Ellen at the Troy Bicentennial Parade. These two are almost exactly a year apart.

Munchkin and Lucy...BFFs (2 months apart). Lucy's mom and I have been best friends since before I can remember, and it's so much fun watching our daughters grow up together.

When you and your spouse have a toddler and two full time jobs sometimes all we can hope for are small accomplishments. By the time we get home from the sitter I am usually so tired the easy thing would be to turn on Mickey and veg (which we do sometimes), but Munchkin and I try really hard to do at least one fun thing together when we get home. Today we had lots of fun outside on one of the last nice days we have left this fall.

Fun with stickers

Practice writing with finger paint

a little digging in the garden

THEN IT WAS TIME TO COOK...

I'm not really sure why I thought this whole stool thing was a good idea, but now every time I enter the kitchen I immediately hear her stool scooting across the floor. Last night was another stir-fry night, and her favorite... Andouille Sausage!

Prep work is great with a toddler! there are so many things they can help with before you actually get into dealing too much with the heat.

I discovered this great toddler kitchen tool I already had in the back of my drawer. A plastic lettuce chopping knife is great for her. It is no sharper than a plastic butter knife, but it is big enough for her to help me chop vegetables.

She's also great at separating the onions to go in the pan (something I hate because it always makes me cry). the onions don't seen to bother her as much as me; however, she did learn the hard way not to get her hands near her eyes while handling them (oops).