Cooking with a 2 year old

Tonight Hudson wanted to help with dinner. Sure... Great... I thought, I need to involve the kids more and teach them as I work around the home. I usually just want to send the kids outside and tackle the house chores or family projects on my own because involving kids usually leads to frustration on my part. I like things done RIGHT, and QUICKLY, and WITHOUT DRAMA OR PROBLEMS.

Dan usually has the patience to deal with the kids while doing household chores. But me....Not So Much.

Anyway... I thought that this time around I better just let the kid help and use it as a bonding moment for he and I. WHAT WAS I THINKING??!!

I had 3 pots simmering on the stove with different foods going into each. Hudson was anxiously waiting to help with his packets of seasoning and potato mix. While I stepped away from the stove to get the phone....It happened. The helping began and so did my frustration.

Jax took one of the packets of potatoes and ripped the package in half, at full speed, pulling one arm to the left and the other to the right. It was just like in the movies when the item gets ripped apart so hard that nothing but a giant puff of floury cloud envelops the room as the dust flies everywhere. OH MY GOODNESS.....not funny.

I had potato mix spread throughout all of the wrong pots. It contaminated 3 different recipes I had going and as a result of the powder falling on the burners....flames started jumping out of each burner putting me into panic mode and filling our house with that lovely burnt instant potatoes stench that only a mishap like this can produce.

So....super mom comes to the rescue. I clear the pots, stop the fires, fix the food the best I can, and keep my cool with my son, sort of.

But....as I bend down to start sweeping up the mess on the floor at my feet, to my not so happy surprise, here comes another cloud of exploding potatoes over my head and all around me. Oh Yeah.....you guessed it....he wasn't done helping and he thought it was time for that second batch of potatoes to get started. I evidently was taking too long.

Uggggghh!!!!!!!!! Here is the mess AFTER I had already done a bunch of damage control and cleared off the initial mess of pots and fire.

UGH..."You're killing me smalls."

I think I will leave the teaching moments to Dan. At least he chooses his teaching moments more wisely. For instance, when I told him it was his turn to work with the kids on dinner the other day, he showed them the right way to order McDonald's thru the drive thru. The time before that, he showed them the right way to do it at McDonald's in the restaurant. He tells me his next opportunity he will show them how to do it at a Mexican restaurant. He is so good. :)