Rootbeer
Macaroni
the day I discovered an ink pen in the milk,
I knew I had to really be careful before pouring milk and drinking it
Rootbeer macaroni: a most
interesting blend of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese blended with melted butter and
cheese, and, . . . a large swig of rootbeer!!
Joshua was quite excited to help in
the kitchen. Most little children love
macaroni and cheese, and Joshua was no
different. His favorite items to add to the
macaroni and cheese – a can of rootbeer!
I suppose he thought the macaroni and cheese was too plain, because he
would then happily eat the rootbeer macaroni!
I wish I could remember in detail each and every item he has added to my
cooking to help “spice” it up a little. I
could probably have created my own unique cookbook. It most certainly would have been a
comedy! We just had to be aware of any
open can, open packet or any opened item
that was around when there were large open pots, pans and bowls being
prepared. Joshua loved to help cook!
Of course, there was always the
yummy Oreo cookies that tasted even better to Joshua when they were dipped in .
. . ketchup!
Joshua loved to be helpful,
especially in the kitchen area. I
remember realizing that the kitchen was to be affected by our little cyclone
when I came in the kitchen one day and he had gotten out a box of cereal and
even opened it! Joshua had also gotten a
small bowl out of the cupboard and was pouring the entire full box of
cereal into this very small bowl. Very
quickly, before I had time to stop him, 95 percent of the cereal was on the
counter or on the floor, but this did not stop the huge smile on Joshua’s face
as he cheerfully said “I did it!” What a
lesson in accomplishment. Joshua could
only see the five percent success, instead of the ninety-five percent
failure. I still feel bad because at that
time I tried to help Joshua learn to pour cereal the correct way by telling him
“no” and taking the bowl and cereal box and putting them away. I then cleaned up the cereal and made a
little boy very sad. This happened
several times over the next few weeks..
To go along with this, Joshua was suddenly trying to also poor milk out
of the one gallon plastic carton into a small glass, and unfortunately, milk is
much more difficult to clean up than dry cereal! It seemed that the more I tried to dissuade
him from these two new accomplishments of his, the harder he tried! A few weeks later, I was having a conference
with his teachers at school. They were
particularly excited because they had been working with Joshua on his
“self-help” skills and they had taught him how to pour various items from boxes
and cartons!!! I laughed to myself,
thought back over the past month and told them the battle that had been going
on and home, and then school. At home I
was saying “no, no, no” and at school the teachers were saying “yes, yes,
yes.” We decided to continue allowing
him to learn how to pour, but because of his inability to stop pouring,
the next step would be for him to learn limits and to work on understanding how
to stop! Joshua did learn how to
partially “stop,” although not always in a very timely manner. He was very pleased with himself as he would proudly
call out “stop” as the cereal was rapidly pouring over the sides of the bowl!
Five years later, Joshua was almost
self-sufficient in the task of pouring himself a bowl of cereal. That may seem like a very long time, but when
I compared it to the fact that I didn’t think he could learn how to pour his
own cereal, this was really quite an accomplishment. During those five years, Joshua had grown in
height, so much that he could reach the cereal (which had been placed on the
top shelf), reach the bowls in the cupboard and take the cap off the milk. The trick was to make sure the gallon of milk
was less than half full which gave a lower probability of milk being spilled
everywhere. Joshua learned to really
concentrate on watching the cereal and/or milk being poured into the bowl. The spills lessened, but they certainly never
completely went away.
The problems didn’t stop at milk
overflowing from a small bowl. Other
interesting things happened, however, once he learned to unscrew the milk cap
off the milk! Not only is it fun to pour
milk out of the carton, but it is also very fun to put unknown items into the
carton. One day I was pouring milk, and as
the milk was coming out into my glass, I noticed the milk was lumpy. On further observance, I realized there was
cold cereal all throughout this almost full gallon of milk. It didn’t strike me
at first as to who might have done this (with several other small
children, one really never knows). But
then another day, one of the children was pouring a different carton of milk
into their cereal and macaroni and cheese was now coming right out of that
gallon of milk. We then began to watch
more closely and were not surprised to find the culprit – Joshua! He was putting any small item he could find
into milk cartons! And he was very proud
of himself for this great accomplishment!
And it certainly was a great accomplishment for Joshua as his fine motor
skills had been weak. It had been very difficult
for Joshua to pick up small items with his fingers. What a great place of learning and
accomplishment the kitchen had become for Joshua.
The cereal in the milk didn’t
necessarily ruin the milk. However, the
day I discovered an ink pen in the milk, I knew I had to really be careful
before pouring milk and drinking it.
One of my most memorable Mexican
dinners was when I found salsa in the Italian dressing and enchiladas in the
milk. I should have opened my own
restaurant and called it “Joshua’s Cocina.”
The pouring of milk and other items was
always a reward, and a challenge.
Things were quiet in the kitchen one day as I was working on homework
with my kindergarten son. Upon entering
the kitchen, however, I could see that Joshua’s hands had been busy at
work. The entire contents of the
half-gallon of juice that had been in the refrigerator was now empty. I could see the glass that Joshua had been
working on, for it was completely full to the brim, and in fact had overflowed
onto the counter, onto the sides of the counter which was next to the stove,
thus going onto the floor and underneath the stove. I envisioned the mess under the stove
immediately as extra crumbs and toys are always pushed under the stove! But then I noticed a long trail of juice on
the other side of the counter. At first
it did not look too bad, but as I began cleaning this (because it looked like
the easier of the two messes) I realized that the juice had made its way under
every appliance and decoration along that wall.
The juice was under the can opener, the “juicer” (how appropriate), the
scented candle (and other decoration items), the dried flower picture, the
bread maker, the mini boom box radio, and even a children’s reading book was
soaking in the juice! It’s truly amazing
how much juice can come out of one half-gallon carton. After I cleaned the counter and each and
every soaked item, I then tackled the other counter and moved out the stove and
spent the next little while cleaning the sides of the stove and then under the
stove with its juice soaked crumbs and toys.
The blessing in all of this was that I had an extremely clean kitchen.
Joshua also loved to help make sandwiches. The problem was that sometimes the bread had
to be swung like a baseball bat before use.
I can still picture my Joshua boy, holding the bread like a baseball
bat, then calling out “one, two, three” and then enthusiastically swinging that
baseball bat bread around. Sometimes he
would even strike out. Needless to say,
the bread didn’t look quite the same after the batter finished hitting the air. The next step would be to add mayonnaise and
cheese. It was then also amusing to pick
up the stack of sandwich cheese, and see one clean bite, all the way down the
entire stack of cheese. There was no
doubt that Joshua had found that stack of cheese, and clearly thought that the
best way to have a piece of cheese, was just to bite clean through every single
piece. This was a blessing that he could
even find himself something to eat, all on his own. I would love picking up a stack of sandwich
cheese again, with that one clean bite all the way through.
Joshua also loved to help give me
things while I was baking. The item that
made me the most nervous were eggs right out of the carton. Although Joshua had no concept on how fragile
eggs could be, I certainly did. And I
had to be extremely patient and encouraging as Joshua would take an egg out of
the carton and hand it over to me. He
was very excited and enthusiastic with this new accomplishment. And I was excited when the egg came to me
whole.
While most of these things were easy
to laugh at, the real danger came when Joshua became interested in the
oven. He did not turn the oven on
himself (thankfully), but the minute I turned the oven to begin cooking dinner
or dessert, I would have to very carefully be on guard for any items thrown
in. I learned this the hard way one day
when something was cooking in the oven.
As there was still time left before it was done, I went outside and was
chatting with my neighbor. Shortly
after, Joshua came running outside and seemed upset and excited. I could tell he was trying to tell me
something but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Thankfully I went inside the house because I
quickly realized there was a kitchen towel inside the oven and it was on
fire! I was able to put out the fire,
and take a very strong note of the fact that I needed to stay close by once the
oven was on, as Joshua would most definitely throw things in the oven
again.
Because Joshua loved to help, and
truly believed he was helping, we continued to praise him, especially when he
chose the right item to pour in whatever was currently cooking, or when he stopped
pouring the juice or milk before it reached the top of the glass or bowl.
