Simon has shown interest in cooking. For over a year, he has loved the toy kitchens that many of his little friends have in their houses. Kate has wanted to get Simon a toy kitchen for some time.

She mentioned this in passing to my sister, who immediately jumped all over it.

“Oh!!! I’ll make one,” she said. I’m not sure that she knew what she was getting herself into. True to her overachiever self, Erin did all sorts of research, drew up plans (consulting my grandfather the architect), found some really nice pieces of ROUGH wood, planed them and sanded them until they were usable, and put together what is really an amazing piece of work. I am absolutely stunned at what she put together.

I know that the project caused her a fair amount of stress on several occasions (hopefully not induced by us asking about it – we swear, we were just excited), but the results are really spectacular. And Simon LOVES it. The kitchen is so realistic to Simon, he can’t understand why it doesn’t actually have running water. I’ve heard: "Sink broken – Daddy wanna fix it" more than once.

The kid loves it and plays with it every day. We love it because unlike his other toys, he plays with it for more than 5 consecutive minutes, thereby letting us actually take a breath and think. You know, in our own brains. It’s nice.

I could go on and on about his kitchen, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll point you towards the full set on Flickr. My sister is unbelievably generous with her time, a true artist, and someone that I’ll be proud for my kids to have as a role model. Oh, and she makes a kick-ass kitchen set. Thanks, Erin.