The shadow in my kitchen

So, for the last four weeks or so, I have had this phenomenon in my kitchen.  It's about 3 1/2 feet tall and always right next to me, almost like a shadow.  No matter what part of the kitchen I go to, it follows and is never far away.  I call this phenomenon my 'kitchen monster', my 'little helper', my 'little sneaker', but mostly we just call her Julia.

She may look just like her daddy, but when it comes to kitchen time, she is just like her momma!  She loves, loves, loves to be in the kitchen!  (As you may remember from this post.)  Whenever we are cooking in there, she is on our hip every step, sometimes watching, occasionally helping, but always, always looking for a handout!  This little one could snack all day long on just about any little tidbit you'll give her.  It's fun to see her try anything that happens to be on the cutting board or coming out of a shopping bag.

And that's how we got inspired to do some juicing.  I posted last week about a couple of bags of homegrown carrots that I got from my boss.  I had cleaned and shredded some for baking and as I was squeezing the extra moisture out of them, Julia was drinking the juice that was barely trickling into a cup below.  So we set some aside and headed up to my mom's house a couple days later.

True to form, she was drinking as much as I'd let her and about as fast as I'd let her gulp it!

She would be one orange 6-year old without mom's intervention!

Oh, and to prove that it's not just the eating part that has her interested, here is a picture I took just a couple days after we brought her home.

It's the longest she's ever really sat and watched TV.  Not just any TV though, she's watching the Cooking Channel! 

Also, as much as this is a blog post about what we do in our lives, day in and day out, this post also comes with a question for any readers that may want to chime in.  The sprinkles on the Halloween cupcakes and consuming before, during and after meals and snacks is the most involved I've ever gotten her to be in the process.  So, if anyone has any great 'intro to cooking' ideas for a little one with a very short attention span, go ahead and throw some my way!  There has got to be a fun, educational way to use her enthrallment with cooking to develop some skills.  Maybe even some toy ideas that incorporate cooking since Christmas isn't too far off? 

If not, I'm sure my little shadow will still be happy to follow me step-by-step through the kitchen, watching and tasting at every turn!