I think we might be onto something here!

This evening, I was busy in the kitchen doing the dishes. Abigail wandered in, pulled out the step stool from between the fridge and stove, opened it up, and pushed it to the counter. I am already astounded, as this is the first time she has done anything more with it than climb up! Waiting to see what her little brain is working on, I continued doing the dishes and watching her out of the corner of my eye. She grabbed the cheese spreader knife (whew! thank goodness THAT was the colorful and attractive one!) out of the knife block and tried to cut a clementine. After finding her progress unsatisfactory, she moved on to bigger and better things - coffee!

For several weeks, she has been able to say coffee. She knows it's for mama and that it's hot. But she is so curious about it. Little did I know how much she knew about coffee until this evening.

She pulled out the can of coffee beans and politely (a miracle!) asked for help opening the can. I opened it for her, thinking it was something that could fairly easily be picked back up off the counter and might give me the 5 minutes I needed to finish the dishes. But just spreading the beans around the counter was not what she had in mind. Next, I see her grabbing for the coffee grinder. After checking that it was unplugged, just to be safe, I watched her. Sure enough, handful after handful of coffee beans went into the grinder. She neatly put the lid on and pushed down on it with all her might. When it didn't make the loud whirring noise, she again (miraculously) politely asked me for help. I plugged it in and helped her push the button to grind the beans.

She then asked for the coffee jar where we keep the ground coffee. Carefully taking the tablespoon out of the jar, she scooped the newly ground coffee into the jar! After a little help, she finished, and I went to put the lid back on the jar, thanking her for being so helpful. She protested loudly and insisted on putting the grounds into the French press and heating up water. I told her I had to pour the water because it was hot, but as soon as I was done, she grabbed the top of the French press, centered it perfectly, and pushed the plunger all the way down (which gives me a teaching moment for next time: "honey, we need to let the coffee steep for 3-5 minutes before pressing down on the plunger" - but it's a place to start!).

She looked up at me, beaming, and said "coffee, mama!". So.ridiculously.adorable. Oh, and awesome. My not-quite-2-year old makes me coffee! Now that's a life skill that will be very valuable!