On a Personal Note: Baking with Kids

Baking with kids around can be fun, but is also a challenge if they are still at the age where they don't listen when you want them to step away from the stove!

My twin boys, Patrick & James are 19 months old and are FASCINATED by the stove - probably mostly because my husband and I are always saying "NO, NO STOVE!" when they go near it - I'm sure they think its a game we're playing with them, even though what we're really doing is trying to protect them!

Patrick

James

I usually do all my baking & decorating at night after the boys go to bed but last week, with 3 cakes due, I was baking non-stop and it had to be done while the boys were awake. I never really noticed how often I open the stove to test the cake to see if its done, etc, but now that I was doing it in front of the boys, it seemed like a lot because we had a whole routine to follow each time the timer went off.

It went..."Beeeeeep" (timer sound).  The boys would drop whatever they were playing with, look at each other, look at me and then BOLT for the kitchen to see who could touch the stove first. I would come running and try to distract them with crushed ice from the ice maker on the fridge because the love the sound and they love the ice (haha!). Then I'd quickly open the stove to either test the cake or take it out and they'd come running again and I'd be boxing them out with my butt like a basketball player protecting a rebound...if they'd get too close, I'd just close the oven door quick and try to distract them again - insane!!

Finally as the day went on, they started getting the idea that touching the stove was a "no no"...instead of running and touching it they would run up and stand thisclose to it and...Patrick would shake his finger at the stove saying "no, no! no, no no!!" hahah! I'm not sure if he was yelling at the stove...or if he was telling himself no,no! James would run up to it, stop about 2 inches away and would gaze at it like he was dying to touch it. He would sloooowly put his hand out to touch it...and then sloooowly turn his head to look at me to see if I was looking...and then he'd sloooowly put his hand back at his side and continue gazing at the stove. SO FUNNY!! It was so hard not to laugh! Love those guys!!