Sometimes, it's about necessity...

Maia tends to be underfoot... literally underfoot, when I cook. She's desperate to be there for every bit of it, and I routinely trip over her. Sometimes she'll hook her little toes into the panel at the bottom of the dishwasher and try to see and/or grab whatever is on the countertop (watch out knives and breakables!) While I can often have her do little tasks for me (bring her plate and fork to the table, condiments, etc.), she can usually complete them very quickly because her goal is to see what I'm doing, and maybe play in the salt cellar on the lazy susan and see if she can drive me crazy. So, out of necessity, I've had to start including her in dinner preparation. It definitely takes some thought, patience, trust and creativity to figure out what she can help me with. So tonight, she helped me put the butter, spices and brown sugar into the squash. And I learned that those carnival (or whatever they're called ) squashes don't need that much sugar. They're quite a bit sweeter than Acorn Squash. And as she 'helps' she tastes. "MmmmMMmm! I like it!"

Tearing the lettuce. This one was good. Kept her busy for quite a while, although she did occassionally throw entire leaves into the bowl.

And yes, she tasted this too. And ate some more.

The Food Network espouses the idea that if you cook with your children, or engage them in choosing the food, they will be more likely to eat that food and eat more diverse food. All I can say so far is that sometimes that's true for Maia. Sometimes she'll eat some while preparing, and eat more of it at the table. Sometimes she'll eat some while cooking, and not eat much of anything at the table (too much snacking?).