If You Give A 3-Year Old A Pancake

If you give a 3-year old a pancake...


it's because you showed her every single other item in the whole house and she refused to eat anything else besides pancakes.

You'll have to get out all the ingredients, a mixing bowl, and a whisk.

The 3-year old will demand that she help.

After you pour flour in the dry ingredient bowl, she will then proceed to fill it with any amount of water she chooses.

When she pours water in the dry ingredient bowl, you will remember that this is a learning experience and remind yourself to be calm.

After you add the other dry ingredients to the bowl, the 3-year old will demand to stir, causing flour to fly onto the counter.

You will then remind yourself that you should be having fun.

Once you pour in the estimated amount of water that still needs to be added to the batter, the 3-year old will grab a glass of water from the counter and add all of that too, for good measure.

Because you're really not sure these pancakes will be edible after the 3-year old is done with them, you move her chair and ask her to wait at the table.

Waiting is not the 3-year old's favorite thing to do, so she'll decide to wake up her younger sister from her nap in the mean time.


When you begin to pour the batter onto the hot skillet, you realize that these will be more like thick crepes than pancakes.


After the first two pancakes are done, you will put them on a plate, drizzle syrup over top, and give them to your 3-year old.

As you prepare more batter to cook, the 3-year old will decide she didn't get enough syrup and take matters into her own hands, pouring almost a cup of syrup onto her plate.


You will remain calm and realize that this will make a great blog post. :)

After salvaging some of the surplus syrup, you will get the chance to sit down and eat some pancakes yourself.


When everyone has apparently had their fill, the younger sister will be forced to become a servant in her own home.


That will remind the 3-year old that she's always hungry again right after everything is cleaned up.

And chances are, if she realizes she's still hungry...

She's going to ask for another pancake.


(It looks like a mouse got a pancake too.)




If you haven't read the "If You Give..." series by Laura Numeroff, I recommend them. We recently bought the collection "Mouse, Cookies & More." Jolie (and Mierae) love to read them, and Jolie's favorite right now is "If You Give A Pig A Party," the same one that was Mierae's favorite at about the same age.