Ellie helps out in the kitchen

More details soon, but I finally uploaded some photos of Ellie's recent kitchen exploits, and they're too cute to keep to ourselves. She has become a real help - sometimes just helping me keep her occupied while I do some of the work, and occasionally actually moving chores along toward completion. I'm hoping to get a link to some videos up soon, as well, because we have a couple good ones.

This is Ellie's new food obsession: peeling garlic. That kept her busier than many more expensive toys, and was actually helpful, although I didn't really need all the garlic peeled. After Lent we'll have to make that 40-clove chicken dish, and she'll be in heaven!


She's also a huge fan of water, and loves to take a bath (finally!) and wash her hands. The hardest part is getting her to stop. When I'm feeling like cleaning the floor, I let her "help" washing dishes and she loves to fill up the dishes and dump them. When the floor is inevitably totally soaked, I give her a cloth and she helps dry it up. So far, the Pergo is holding up. Thank goodness we didn't go for regular wood.
Having witnessed Mama on the iPod a lot, Ellie now wants to play herself. Sometimes she tries to talk on it like a phone, but she does know that the headphones make fun noises.
Along with all the help, Ellie has gotten into a few things. This day it was the flour, even after I had put the bag into a ziploc bag as well - her zipper and ziploc-opening skills have some real downsides. But, again, the floor got cleaner as a result. So in the end at least she's an incentive to keep things tidy.

Sometimes she's just happy to be standing on a stool to be at the counter-top level. Here she was having fun with the spices. Funny, because I can't get her to stack the regular blocks!