Hellobee

Jackson is fascinated with cooking. Every night when it’s time to cook dinner I will ask if he wants to help, and he runs to the kitchen shouting “cook! cook! cook!” He then spends his time happily helping, playing with various food I give him, and just generally being a delight.

Now, let me tell you – it didn’t always look like this.

A few months ago, I was constantly at the end of my rope while Jackson tugged on my legs, cried, screamed, and basically did everything in his power to make dinner prep as difficult as humanly possible. He hated having my attention taken away for that short time, and he wanted to be a part of everything but didn’t know how.

So how did we get here from there? Lots of patience, a little bit of time, and a learning tower. Seriously – get one. It’s my favorite piece of baby gear in our entire house.

My dad built us a learning tower with these plans from Ana White, and it’s been a complete and total game changer. Jackson is able to see what’s going on in the kitchen, reach the food to actually help, and no longer has a need to tug on me or ask me to hold him so that he can feel like he’s a part of things.

In addition to the learning tower, here are a few other tricks I’ve employed to keep him engaged and happy during dinner prep:

– I give him some chopped up vegetables or fruit (or whatever I’m cooking that he can’t destroy) and a bowl or two. He’s been known to spend up to 20 minutes happily transferring chopped zucchini from one bowl to another! I typically try to do this when I have extra vegetables and can give him some that I’m not actually cooking, but if I don’t have extra I just make sure to give them a good wash before I cook them.

– I let him play with our oven mitts. I don’t know what it is about them but he’s obsessed. These alone will keep him occupied for at least 5-10 minutes!

– I have him help with seasoning. We keep our salt in a small jar so we can grab some and sprinkle it on whatever we’re cooking, and he loves to do this. I usually have to move the food around so it doesn’t all end up in one spot, but he’s gotten pretty good at this with practice! He also adores shaking seasoning jars over the food!

– I have him put things on cookie sheets – this is great when I’m roasting vegetables. I’ll give him a giant bowl of veggies and ask him to put them on the cookie sheet. It takes quite a bit of time where I can focus on other things, and he’s thrilled to have a “real” job.

– I let him play in the fridge. If he’s not in the mood for the learning tower, sometimes I’ll open the refrigerator and let him root around in there. This doesn’t work if he’s really hungry, because then he just starts asking for food, but if he’s not starving yet he’ll spend a few minutes checking everything out, moving stuff around, and just looking around on the shelves. I don’t do this for long and only when I’m very desperate (don’t want to waste electricity!), but it’s a life-saver when I just need a couple of minutes to season some chicken and get it in a pan!

– I fill the sink up partway with water and let him splash. He’s currently very into washing his hands, but he can’t quite reach the faucet yet, so I’ll put an inch or two of water in the bottom of the sink and let him go to town. It makes a mess, but it’s just water!

– I let him clean! He’s obsessed with the countertop spray, so I’ll give him a paper towel and the spray bottle and let him have at it. He can’t spray it by himself yet so sometimes I have to help/tell him he’s had plenty of spray, but this generally keeps him busy for a while!

– When all else fails, I give him a snack! Even if he’s not interested in any of our other activities (which is very rare), he never turns down food. I try to give him something that won’t ruin his dinner and that takes a while to eat – raisins and blueberries are my go-tos! He loves to stand in his tower and eat, and usually by the time the snack is finished he has decided that he’s interested in playing with some food or helping out, so it’s easy to transition him into something else.

What are some things you do to make dinner prep go more smoothly with your toddler?