Lesson in Love, Baking, and Improv With a 5 Year Old
“I’ve got an idea”
Yesterday, my 5 yo came into me while her sister was napping.
“Dad, I want to make a special dessert, just me and you.”
“Oh, man, we might not have any ingredients. We’ll have to go to the store so it might have to wait until tomorrow,” I replied. Truthfully, I didn’t want to make a dessert at that point. Summers are Daddy Camp at our house and there are only small windows for me to get things accomplished. Nap time is one of them.
“That’s okay,” she chimed in. “We can figure it out. Here’s what we’ll need: flour, sugar (lots of sugar), two eggs because there’s two of us, milk, and water.”
I put up more resistance. “Let me finish the dishes and then we will see.” (Classic stall tactic)
As I finished the dishes, I got some clarity.
Daddy Camp ends this week when I return to work. She starts school soon after that and our time together changes. I realized in the moment that dessert had very little to do with dessert.
Let’s do this thing
“Okay. Let’s do this. Let’s see what ingredients we have.”
What started as resistance turned into full on exploration and a daddy/daughter love fest. We had no idea what we were doing. I’m clueless when it comes to baking desserts but we improvised
As has become the norm around here, we used “yes, and” as our guide to discovering together. We added some extra ingredients, decided on a temperature and pan, even made some homemade icing… just keep affirming, just keep contributing.
Our Junior Baker decided it needed to bake for 49 minutes… yes
The homemade icing needed to be pink… yes
After dinner, we should put four candles in it (we are a family of four) and sing “Happy Birthday, Everyone”… yes
The best part of the day
When it came time to go around the table and recall our favorite moment(s) of the day, my 5 yo old didn’t hesitate…
“Making dessert with daddy.”
What I initially saw as a distraction was actually where I was supposed to be the whole time. When we get caught in our habits and “routines of ‘no’” it’s easy to lose sight of our perspective.
So… was the cake good?
I’ve had worse. But it was never about the dessert anyway. Keep saying #yesand to the love in your lives and to the loves of your lives.
