Child Labor Laws?

Well, it's happened again. It's July and I'm posting about a day more towards the beginning of June . . . I think now that we do more stuff, I feel like I have to blog about it all and I get quite behind! But, that is the price we pay for wanting to do fun things with our kids and also wanting to document everything, now, isn't it?



And by "we" I mean . . . me . . .





But anyway, let me take you back to late afternoon on a June day somewhere in the middle of the week. I am attempting to start on dinner, having taken measures to employ the kids' interest in something else...like, opening the balcony doors and putting the misters on or getting out crayons and cardboard boxes or dumping musical instruments (most homemade) in the middle of our music room floor or giving them permission to play downstairs while I cook (which always defeats the purpose because I have to leave what I'm doing every two minutes to check on them - - three toddlers/preschoolers in the basement when you're two flights of stairs up on the top floor cooking makes your house feel strangely like the castle on Beauty and the Beast and they're in the forbidden West Wing about to accidently destroy the pretty flower in the glass case).

So, yeah, I just try to get a few minutes to make dinner happen while they are otherwise entertained.

But I'm rarely successful. I usually get about halfway done when the fights break out between the older two and Ben ends up at my feet reaching up to me "Me, you! Me, you!" (his way of saying he wants to be held by me) and me telling him "Go see Bethany, she'll play with you!" and him saying "No thank you!" (He never just says "no" anymore. Even if he's whining and/or crying, he will always say "no thank you" and it is adorable.)



Well, this one afternoon, our worlds merged and we all e-merged quite happy.



I was looking through our lovely vegetables and trying to decide what to have with our chicken. And, lo and behold, we had something called English Shelling Peas. Hmm...look like regular peas to me. Only huge. And still in the pod thingie. Looks like it would take a while to get them all ready to go. Hmmmm....



"KIDS? Who wants to help Mommy?"



And they came.

And they conquered.



When JC looked at these pictures, he said he had never seen them so engaged in anything. He's not kidding. They took to this task like it was their reason for existence. It was quite possibly one of the best moments of my mothering career thus far. (Well, you know, not exactly in the same category as the day they were born, etc. but STILL) Something about them working together on those peas, sitting there on the kitchen floor, all happy and interested...then factor in that it involved vegetables...oh, happiness.

I gave them the peas and a bowl and they got right to work, no questions asked!

The fruits of their labors thus far . . . look how huge those peas are! I can't wait until we've got these coming from our own backyard!

Ben and his concentrating face.

Very serious business.

James, having snapped this pod open (and, really, these things made this huge popping sound when they opened! Sometimes it made us all jump from surprise!) dumps them out into his hand.

Ben just can't get enough.

Bethany was really good at this. She is getting really excited about helping with kitchen tasks lately. She always wants to help with dinner or with clean up. Well, not always but more often than I probably would! Haha...she is such a helper and so competent at so many things!

Now we can add shelling peas to the list!


Can you just see the silence? It was the strangest thing. It was so quiet...with the occassional "pop!" of the pea pod opening and the "clink!" of the peas being dropped into the bowl.

I think these were magic peas.

Oh, and did I mention that only about half of the peas made it to the dinner table...or even the pot to steam? :)

'Cause they were yummy raw...

...as you can see. :)

This was such a fun moment (half hour, I should say!) that now, every meal, I find myself thinking about what they could help with. For the most part, I'll usually pull one of them into the kitchen if I find something that can be done by little hands (usually Bethany at this point!), but it was really fun to have a task to do together that let us just enjoy being together and working toward something...well...something yummy!

(JC says that's not a grown up word but he also thinks chocolate milk is not a grown up drink, so he doesn't get a vote. I don't follow the rules of a world in which I am not allowed chocolate milk occasionally.)