Charred Pikachu

Well...Elijah is a mess and he is "all-boy" as they say. The other night I was cooking and just as Brent was coming in from a first responder call, I said "I think I need you." I could smell something burning but couldn't locate the source. I had 3 burners on and it wasn't any of those. He took one look and said, "It's something in the oven." It was in the preheating stage. I turned off the oven and waited for a few minutes. We suddenly realized that Elijah has recently started "cooking" in the oven. Usually, he puts marbles in a sauce pan and "cooks" them so Brent and I were imagining partially melted marbles all over the oven. It turned out to be a cool whip container, a foam ball, my FAVORITE Pampered Chef skillet, and his stuffed animal Pikachu. The cool whip container was long gone...the ball was a little toasty and the skillet was no worse for the wear (it seems). Pikachu is still around but he is charred and smells like smoke. As Brent and I were cleaning out the oven, Elijah walked through, took one look at the oven, and said, "Hah, hah, I did that!"

The morale of the story - either don't let you children cook in the stove OR ALWAYS check the contents of the oven before you turn it on!!