First Mother's Day

On Thursday I was informed that today I wasn’t allowed to come out of my room until 8:00.  Last night my son relented and said that I would be allowed to take a shower but that I had to go straight back to my room.  That’s not hard.  It’s all of 3 steps from door to door.

Sunday mornings we usually have pancakes and my son likes to cook them.  So I’ve been suspicious that he was going to want to cook pancakes.

We’ve been in and out the last two days and the dishes haven’t got gotten done in a timely manner.  Last night before bed, I washed a skillet so that he would have one this morning and I got down the olive oil since it sits up high above the stove.

My son has never made the batter before.  So when he got up, he came to my room and asked if he could get some help.  I was surprised that he didn’t just look around and try to do it all himself.  He didn’t know where to find some of the ingredients or the recipe.  He’s pretty excited to have a mom and didn’t want to mess it up.  After he got the flour and sugar in the bowl, he had me explain which spoons were tablespoons and teaspoons and then I was sent back to my room.

He’s also never pre-heated the pan before.  And I’ve never measured how much oil I put in the pan to coat it.  I asked if he knew how to tell if the pan was hot enough and he thought that sticking his finger on the hot pan would be a good method.  We decided that tossing a few drops of water in the pan to see if they sizzle would be a safer method.

A few minutes later, he came back to ask me to come watch.  I guessed higher than I should have on the volume of oil needed for the pan.  And I didn’t check the burner of the stove.  He had told me but I’ve also never really paid attention to the number that the dial sits at when the pancakes are cooking.  Six sounded fine to me. 

Anyway, he discovered why it’s wise to be wearing a shirt when there’s a little too much oil in the pan and it’s turned up high.  A five setting might have been wiser.

After the first pancake, he decided he could do the rest of the cooking without help and I was allowed to take a shower.  About the time I was covered in shampoo and soap, he knocked on the door to inform me that breakfast was ready.  Um.  Breakfast will have to wait a few minutes.

He did a pretty good job on the pancakes.  A couple were slightly burned but all were still edible.  All in all, he did a great job.  If you know my son, you should tell him that you are proud of or impressed with him for cooking breakfast.  This was his first start to finish on his own; he’s pretty excited to have gotten through it; and he’s looking for encouragement that he can do things on his own.

So we sat down to eat breakfast and he informed me that he would pray for the meal this morning.  And he thanked God for Mother’s Day and that he was allowed to cook breakfast for his mom.  He’s so sweet.  I love my kid.

The aftermath... I think getting up early to cook wore him out.