Maddox loves helping me in the kitchen. Whenever I go in to cook he says “help”, and “up” (because he wants up on the counter). I’ve been NOT buying a learning tower or similar kid platform product. People say its totally amazing and I should get one, but I just can’t get over the idea of a big ladder type furniture thing living in my kitchen 24/7. Enough of the house has already been taken over by kid products, not my kitchen too!

I usually just plop him on the counter and we get to cookin’. For apple pie makin’, we brought in his little blue table.  It worked out pretty well and he stayed a bit cleaner.

In this photo he is taking the stickers off the apples.  It bothers me that some apples have stickers – even these organic ones.  Yuck to stickers on fruit.

Honestly Maddox made a great deal of the pie himself (with much guidance).  He is getting better at measuring (scooping), not spilling wet ingredients, not eating too much of the ingredients as they go in the bowl, stirring, and opening packages. To prepare the apples we have a handy gadget that peels, cores, and slices all by cranking a handle – so Maddox is able to help with this step too.

As is the tradition, we headed up to Auburn, CA to celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole Kashuba family. It was Maddox’s first visit and I think he did really well.  8-)

It was fun to be able to spend some time in nature and enjoy the simplicity of it all. From the couch you can see deer wandering by the large picture window. Many of them had a fawn in tow. 

Fuyu Persimmon