I think that we assume that when we are creative with our children, we should be doing something with a tangible result.

Not so.

This afternoon, Lil Bit was pretending. She was making "cocoa cookies."

So I asked her what she was using to make her cookies. 

She told me flour, cocoa and sweet powder (she meant powdered sugar).

So I asked her what else she was going to put into the cookies. She told me butter and eggs.

Then she told me she was making cider (we made hot cider last week). I asked her what was going into it. She told me apples, and sugar, and pepper. I told her that I didn't want pepper in my cider, that would make it too spicy. She told me not to worry, it was sweet peppers (bell peppers).

She didn't actually make those recipes, and that's just fine. She having a blast making up her recipes, just like mommy, and sharing them with me. I didn't shut down any crazy ideas, but I also make her think through what would go into those recipes.

Nothing tangible. Just us being creative together.