My Little Kitchen Helper

I was going through old photos today (dangerous territory, I know) and found these gems from when Sophie was three.

My Little Kitchen Helper

Look at that concentration! She was so determined to help me make cookies, which really meant she was determined to make the biggest mess humanly possible while wearing her favorite princess dress.

The great pot and pan symphony of 2013

This was during her phase where she needed to ‘reorganize’ every kitchen cabinet. I’d find pots in the pantry and measuring cups in the toy box. The great kitchen symphony of 2013, we called it. Marcus would come home to what looked like a small tornado had hit, and Sophie would greet him at the door covered head to toe in flour, grinning like she’d just discovered fire.

Always reaching for something just out of grasp

Her first masterpiece (and my first gray hair)

She was always reaching for something just out of grasp, always so proud of whatever creation she’d made. That lopsided cookie with approximately fourteen pounds of sprinkles on it? She talked about it for weeks. ‘Remember my beautiful cookie, Mama?’ Yes, baby girl, I remember.

Now she’s fifteen, taller than me, and rolls her eyes when I ask if she wants to bake together. But sometimes, when she thinks I’m not looking, I catch her in the kitchen making herself a snack, and for just a second, I see my little helper in her princess dress, reaching for the stars.