We've got a four year old boy in the house once again, reminding me of the days our boys were little. The biggest difference?
There weren't awesome teenagers living in our house during the time we were raising our little ones.
Don't get me wrong. Matt and I are a bundle of fun and a barrel of laughs (snore). But what I believe has been most helpful to transition our foster son into our home is the fact that there are some really cool, fun, creative teenage boys living here. They run around with him, chase him, wrestle with him, and make our house quite magical.
I am incredibly
thankful.
So clearly, Boy's favorite activity is playing the "the big boys." But when they aren't available and he's stuck with me (ha!), I've found that the best way to keep him busy is to put him on a stool in the kitchen and let him help me cook.
I can't believe how much he loves
it. At first I thought maybe him helping me in the kitchen would introduce him to new food he might like. Nope. He still only wants to eat the food he's familiar with (which truly is the least of my worries right now).
But he LOVES helping me scoop and measure and count cups of flour, oats, and rice. He also loves cracking eggs...all over the counter. Oy. We're working on that one.
:)
I feel like this activity is such a win-win because I can actually get necessary food cooked and prepped and he's learning more vocabulary, counting practice, and life skills.
Saturday he sat on his stool for over an hour helping me cook! That's pretty amazing for a 4-year old attention
span! He was doing awesome and didn't seem to tire of it, so I kept going on to new projects.
I got out my Simple Mixes book to fill up all my containers of baking mix. We made Pancake Mix and
Muffin Mix - the two we go through most quickly.
I'd show you a picture of his cuteness, but I'm not allowed. So here's an almost-just-as-cute picture of my bowl and baking mixes. For the record, he smiled when I took this picture. Oh, the sweetness.
