Mateo loves to cook or at least pretend to cook. He also loves watching me whenever I am preparing to cook. He loves to stand by and observe me peel and slice. The other day, I decided to cook fish tempura for dinner. I was just starting to prepare the things I would need when he rushed over and decided to ‘help out’. It can be pretty tedious to make fish tempura: I slice the fish into long pieces, sprinkle a small amount of salt, cover each piece in flour, dip each one in the egg and milk solution, cover it again with tempura breading, and then fry it over low fire. Mateo was so amused with what I was doing he couldn’t help but participate. So instead of another argument between the two of us, I took the time to show him how to cover the fish in flour. In fairness to my son, he did a great job! My usual preparation time was cut down but my clean up time increased a bit with the extra mess he made. He enjoyed putting the fish in the bowl that contains the flour and then using the spoon to cover the fish. I figured it was just like playing with sand, which he is an expert with. So we had a great dinner. He also loved eating the fish tempura. It seems that he recognizes the fact that he helped in preparing it.