Payback!

I grew up hearing stories of me as a baby, crawling into the kitchen while Lucy#1 washed the dishes, using her as my climbing post to stand up, then standing between her and the cabinet, holding on to her legs the entire time she was at the sink. When Daddy would make me stay out of the kitchen to give Mama a break, the story goes that I would sit in the doorway and cry until she came out of the kitchen. Then I would glom onto her again. Definitely a Mama’s baby all the way.

You know that old saw that I guess all parents say to all of their children at some point? You know, this one: “I hope when you grow up you have a kid just like you.” I thought I had avoided all that when I did not have children, but guess what!?! Lucy#1 is giving me the payback herself now! There’s some kind of beauty in that, isn’t there?

The kitchen in our house is very small. It’s a galley kitchen, narrow, with very little counter space. What counter space there is, is right by the sink, and that little counter space now houses (in addition to my knife blocks, for which I would not find another place) Lucy#1’s coffee maker and iced-tea maker. This leaves very little space for meal prep.

Whenever I am in the kitchen to prepare a meal, Lucy#1 comes into the kitchen, too. Sometimes she comes to set up her coffee maker for the next morning. Sometimes she comes to get some Coke or iced tea out of the refrigerator (which is directly across the narrow floor space from the working countertop). Sometimes she comes to wash the dishes I am dirtying as I prepare the meal. Why ever she is there, the kitchen is too small for two people, and she is running the risk of being accidentally stepped on, elbowed, pushed, bumped, etc. A couple times she has literally squeezed between the counter and me to do something. A couple times I have had to rinse and dry dishes she just washed before I could wash the vegetables we were having that night, or rinse out a measuring cup I needed to re-use.

It drives me nuts!

It makes me wish I could buy a house with a 200-square-foot kitchen!

Last night, supper required chopped onions and pressed garlic. Lucy #1 headed straight for the sink to wash the Food Chopper and Garlic Press the minute I dropped them into the sink (full of hot, soapy water).

I said, “Those need to soak, or else they need to go through the dishwasher. You cannot wash them right now.”

She thought for a moment, then said, “And besides that, I’m in your way when I wash the dishes while you are cooking, aren’t I?”

I said, “Yes, you are, and I’m afraid I’m going to cut your arm off one day when I lose control of a knife.” (I’m notorious for cutting myself and everything around me when I use my knives. They are extremely sharp and I am extremely clumsy.)

She pulled a chair around and sat in the doorway. For a little while.

Then she came in the kitchen for a glass, some ice, and a Coke.

Then she sat back on her chair in the doorway. And she didn’t even cry.