Zeke was 21 months old today and like every month, we make a big batch of the sweet treats! Mmmm...CUPCAKES!
This time he had his friend Mary come over to help him lick the beaters......an old favorite I used to do with my Mom! Check out the footage of the two lickers going after the beaters!
It's just been the last 2 months that Zeke is really enthused about helping out from start to finish. He just can't figure out how the batter turns into the muffin....that part perplexes him a little bit. But he doesn't care, he's all over those cupcakes!
Making cupcakes is a great way to teach colors, counting and shapes (well in this case the circle). It's also a wonderful way to show progression. I notice each month we make them, Zeke gets a little better at communicating the next step is.
Zeke's favorite color is ORANGE - "I want orange cupcake," he tells me as he sees the food coloring come out of the cupboard. Of course he's going to pick a color to which there is no food coloring ready made. He's my child, so like Momma, he takes the more difficult of paths........I suppose there's more reward at the end? Sometimes I mix just a little too much red in the yellow and he looks at me as if to say, "That's not orange! Do you think I'm color blind."
After we decorate a few orange ones I ask Zeke "What color now?". It's always GREEN. Green always comes after orange......
Here's Zeke decorating a cupcake. All the things we take for granted....like being able to shake the sprinkles so they'll come out.....these little tots have to learn all this from scratch and it's amazing to watch the concentration!
So then Zeke proceeds to tell me he wants black cupcakes like his tuck (truck). I told him that black wasn't a color it was a shade and therefore I couldn't make shades. Just kidding......of course, I took all the colors and mixed them together to make black. He was satisfied and he said, "Momma Funny," because I was acting like Emeril with a little 'Bam'! Must be Hallowe'en approaching with this orange, green and black combination!
Zeke is trying to pick up the cupcake in the footage below. He's hasn't figured out on his own that he's has two hands. One to get what he wants and the other to help. What's interesting is that he's not interested in getting any white muck on his hands...................so he maneuvers just so......and success is his.
We make little cupcakes for Zeke and big cupcakes for Dad. Sometimes when we ask Zeke what he would like for dessert after he's finished din-din.....he says, "I want biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig teet. I want Dada big cupcake!" He's figured out that Dad gets a bigger cupcake than him and I guess it's instinct that this just doesn't seem to be fair. When he gets his 'little' sugar fix placed in front of him, he doesn't complain.........and why would he? Instead, it's always the same comment....."Zekie want more."
And watch the sweet taste of success......oh the sheer enjoyment of sugar!
Orange is the color of health and strength. It's scarce but is precious for it serves he needs of human life. It carries the most imporant vitamins (ie. carrots, pumpkin, oranges, mangoes, and papayas). It doesn't hang around all the time but when it fills the sky at sunrise or sunset, its beauty is so striking.
