Iron Chef

All little kids have their various interests.  Gabriel's is cooking.  He LOVES all cooking utensils, rarely goes anywhere without a spatula, and spends almost all of his play time "cooking".  He puts various items into one of his frying pans (he has commandeered a set that we had out for Goodwill, and also our cooking pans, plus he has toy frying pans from our kitchen set) and then stirs with a spatula or spoon. He also makes very realistic frying sounds.  Most little boys make car noises...but not Gabriel!

He has gotten pretty adept at using a spatula, and can lift and flip food pretty well!

Any small toy lying around can be used to cook with...

He also likes to lay out plates and put food out on each.  Setting the table for a banquet?

The kids also have a toy stove.  When Gabriel started playing with the frying pans, and trying to put them up on our stove, we brought this out from storage and Gabriel plays with it every day, all the time.  He puts the frying pans on tops and likes to twist the knobs.

There is also an oven door that flips outwards.  He likes to put things in there, such as his crackers or his water sippy cup.  We have also found in there a half-eaten apple or his beloved teddy bear.

Here he is cooking toy lizards, and if you look in the background, you can see he has laid out some plates.  He will serve one lizard onto each plate, carefully lifting it on his spatula, and carrying it over to the plate, and then scooting it off the spatula.

Cooking is serious business and in this video you can see the concentration on his face.  This time he is cooking these glue pens filled with glue sticks.  It doesn't matter to Gabriel--as long as he can stir fry them.

Gabriel also likes to have stuff that he can really mix and stir.  Here he is playing with some leftover baby cereal mix (the dry oatmeal flakes).  He had lots of fun stirring and pouring, until it got dirty and all over the cement.

Since taking these pictures, Gabriel has also started to make the distinction between toys and "real" food.  He prefers to have food now, to cook with, and is always running off with a cracker, or his water bottle, or an apple, and putting that into his frying pan, to cook up!