For the past few months (since the addition of the sous chef 4.5months ago) I’ve been thinking about how My Toddler is not really a toddler anymore but she’s still cooking and I’m still blogging at My Toddler Cooks. I’ve been thinking about how I can now adapt our new family dynamic to the blog but still keep My Toddler Cooks. I’m attached to the memories that we have created in the kitchen and all that we have learned together. I am attached to the early childhood learning opportunities that are in the kitchen. I want to keep these as MM moves to the next stage and baby sous chef begins her own journey.

As I sat at the counter in the kitchen this afternoon holding baby sous chef and watched MM, My Toddler, now aged 6, making pancakes for me and her Nano it came to me….. My Toddler Cooked. All the encouragement, allowing independence, messy moments, stirring, pouring, spooning, counting, sorting, recipe creations and writings, patience had now developed into this little confident chef who is 6 and is making pancakes, totally edible pancakes with a proper pancake recipe that she has chosen because she prefers the fluffy ones.

I thought about how she cooked from such a little age and all the help she needed along the way but now she had reached the stage where she can work independently. Of course I was watching carefully for safety and we had a good talk about it before she started. Safety is important and it should be taken seriously but it shouldn’t discourage independence.

My Toddler Cooked, she’s not a toddler anymore! And so can yours. Whatever time you can give, don’t worry about the mess,!