Meals with Rebecca

I have disparaged my daughter’s table manners, but she does have some redeeming qualities at the dinner table.

While I cook dinner she (and sometimes her siblings join in) likes to cook “dinners’ too. We have a small kitchen play set located between the kitchen and the table. It has a cook top, a sink and a fold down table. We keep the table leaf up and two small baskets of fake food reside there. We also have three stools that are the perfect height for a small person to use as a seat at the table.

When Rebecca cooks she pulls out random cooking utensils from kitchen drawers and uses then enthusiastically. After she is done cooking she goes one step further than her older brothers. Generally, Jake and Nate will announce that they are done cooking, offer me a taste and wander off. Rebecca, instead, sets the table and serves her creations.


dinnerwithchicken
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

Here she has three place settings. The one on the far side with the slice of fake bread is for Max (or Mackie as she likes to call him), Rebecca is seated at her spot and the remaining seat is for the very tiny chicken on the dachshund coaster/placemat.

Apparently this is an informal affair, possibly due to the barnyard origins of one of the guests. Normally she will lay her blankie down first as a table cloth before setting her table.

Rebecca can also be very generous when the mood strikes her.

Today at the farmer’s market I treated all four to a sorbet. One of the venders has some delicious sorbet and sells it in big tubs and little individual servings. It was quite warm out and all four had been very good. They all settled down at table to enjoy their frozen treats. Nate quickly inhaled his, with Max not too far behind. Jake was actually savoring his sorbet. Rebecca, meanwhile, was just nibbling and not really eating hers. Max eyeballed Jake’s and asked for a taste. Jake was happy to do so. Emboldened by his little brother’s success Nate then asked Rebecca for a taste. Rebecca was happy to share. She then spoon fed Nate a large portion of her sorbet.


sharingwithnate
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.

You can’t see the spoon in this picture, but you can see by her smiling eyes that she loves feeding her big brother.