Black Cheese On Toast

Children are impressionable little people. They watch our every move and mimic everything we do through make believe games and dreams. Leo has watched me in the kitchen on many occasions, and he absolutely loves to help me while I am cooking his breakfast or preparing the evening meal. 

While getting Leo's breakfast ready he will insist on popping the bread in the toaster and pushing the button down. While preparing him some sliced apple he will grab a butter knife to assist me, everything that I do is watched and mimicked by my toddler.

Arriving at Granny's yesterday to pick Leo up and take him home for some dinner, I found him sat on his own in the lounge watching some television. I thought nothing of it, Granny was upstairs and she shouted down to say that she would be down in a moment, and I was guessing my siblings (Leo's Aunt and Uncle) were in their rooms. 

Leo was really pleased to see me, he ran and gave me a big cuddle and I asked him what he would like to do now that the weekend had rolled around for us. 5 minutes or so later Leo took me by the hand and started talking excitedly to me about cheese on toast. 'Mummy! Cheese on toast! Hot cheese on toast!'. While still holding my hand and talking about his love for cheese on toast... He lead me out of the lounge and towards the kitchen. 

The kitchen door was closed, and as I opened it I was met with a room full of smoke. I began looking for the source and soon found myself at the toaster where a chair had been pulled up to. I pulled the very smokey, charcoal black piece of toast from the toaster. I instantly thought that my brother or sister had put the toast on and then abandoned it, forgetting that they had put it on. After I had made sure that the smoke wasn't the result of a fire, I cracked open the door and called upstairs. 

No one knew anything about the mystery piece of toast, and then it hit me. The more I looked at the kitchen scene, the more it began to make sense in my mind. Leo had been telling me about cheese on toast, and he was the one who lead me to the kitchen, where a chair had been pulled up to the work surface. Leo was trying to tell me about his not so triumphant attempt at making cheese on toast...

It turns out that Granny had asked my brother and sister to keep on eye on Leo for 5 minutes, to which they both agreed. One after the other they had left him to his own devices, and Leo had decided to try his hand at making toast for the first time. He pushed the chair from the table across the tiled floor to the work surface. Pulled some bread out of the bread bin and stuck it in the toaster. Thankfully he didn't hurt himself, and the outcome was a positive one. It is suffice to say that I was far from impressed with my brother and sister last night and I really hope they see just how dangerous this was. 

Leo on the other hand was really pleased with himself, upon seeing the toast he declared 'Black cheese on toast'. It just goes to show it really does just take minutes for kids to think up a thought and put it into action.  He saw no danger in what he was doing, and took the opportunity to assert his independence. 

Leo even showed me exactly how he pushed the chair over to the work surface and put the toast on. I have made him promise that he will leave the cooking to the grown ups from now on, and don't think he is on his way to becoming a world class chef anytime soon....