the muffin man

Dennis baked muffins tonight. He ate every bite of his supper (macaroni and cheese with smoked sausage--a favorite) and was still hungry, so I asked him if he'd like to help me make chocolate muffins. He agreed excitedly, so we dragged a chair up to the counter and I got out the muffin mix, a spoon, a bowl, a measuring cup, and the milk. He poured the milk into the cup and from the cup to the bowl (where he'd already poured the mix), and he took care of all the stirring. He was a little heavy-handed with the nonstick spray on the muffin pan, so I had to wipe it a bit, but he is the one who transferred the mix into the cups. He donned the oven mitts to open the oven door (under heavy supervision). Midway through all these tasks, he said "Mommy, can I put on my apron and my chef hat?" and I told him we were almost done, so he said "okay, next time then" and closed the oven door after I put in the pan. He would periodically turn on the oven light and watch and announce "they are getting BIGGER!". They turned out delicious, and he wore both oven mitts as he helped me remove the pan from the oven. He was so proud of his muffins and we all enjoyed eating them. Afterward, we all played Walk It Out on our Wii to work off the muffin calories. He told us he wanted to work out, too, so he held the controller and put the nunchuck part in his little pocket just like we do, and he liked watching his avatar make footsteps on the screen as he walked and earned points. We had a nice family workout before bedtime!