Pancakes

*2006 post*

My children love pancakes. There are two pancake-makers at our house: Mommy and Daddy.

Mommy makes Practical Pancakes. They look exactly like you envision when you think of the word pancake. They are very, very basic. Round, cream-colored, and the size of a sand-dollar. Pretty simple.

Daddy, however, makes Animal Pancakes (this is where you learn who is really the most fun parent in our home). Animal Pancakes are just that: animal-shaped pancakes. He has this down to an art. He uses a spoon and some pancake batter, and creates these great pancakes.

Now, if it were my job to make animal pancakes you would be seeing a lot of worms and snakes (but I would be talking them up big; there'd be daddy snakes, mommy snakes, and lots of little baby snakes; it would be very fun).

But not my man. After all, snakes and worms aren't our kids' favorite animals! Daddy makes giraffes, elephants, alligators, panda bears, doggies, kitties, lions, and every other animal you can think of, really. He does it all. Not to mention that he also makes character pancakes. When our daughter loved Maisy: we had a lot of Maisy's, Charlie's and Talullah's at the breakfast table. And sometimes he makes little pancake representations of our children. (I'm telling you: he's good.) And he does alphabet letters, too. And spells out their names. And he adds food coloring. (Can you believe all of this?)




Today is Friday, and every Friday morning we have pancakes for breakfast. I know exactly how this will go. Mommy will say, "Pancakes for breakfast!" and they will all come running, happily, to their plates. Then I'll plop a Practical Pancake on each of their plates and there is this moment of silence as they stare at the perfectly-rounded sand-dollar-shaped, cream-colored pancake. And always, one of them will say, "Where's my elephant?" And then I have to remind them that daddy is at work; it's only daddy that makes elephant pancakes. (Believe me, when I realized I had this competition, I TRIED to do some animals. I was an utter failure.)

I really have had to step up my game around here in order to keep my standing as a viable pancake maker. At first I add a mashed up banana to the batter, but they rarely noticed that. So then I tried the food-coloring gig, but that just didn't cut it, because they wanted the "animal ones that are colored". So then I added chocolate chips. That was a hit. But we're not doing that every time. So I just continue making Practical Pancakes and while making, serving and eating Mommy's pancakes, we talk a lot about how wonderful daddy is that he can make the most amazing pancakes when he's home!