adorable but uneaten

Thanks to the advice of a friend I tried to be a little less Martha this morning and set B. up in the kitchen with flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Anything made with flour and sugar is "baking" to him, it never actually has to get cooked. He just wants to measure dry goods and stir them around.
Huge waste of ingredients but I want the kid to be comfortable in the kitchen. Especially since I'd made this sweet potato stegosaurus pancake and wanted to make sure he'd eat it by feeling part of the process.
[Snort.]
Long story short, he made a mess, refused to eat the pancake or anything else until he got to school where he ate a plain toaster waffle. So instead of picking up any new and improved eating habits at school, he's narrowing his daytime diet down to white rice, plain pasta and frozen waffles. The horror.
(I swear at some point I'm gonna write a post about all the awesome things my sweet, smart boy does. But today is not that day.)

Pancake Recipe

• 1 cup flour
  
• 3 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
  
• Cinnamon (and random assortment of pumpkin pie-like spices if you have them on hand: ginger, nutmeg and all spice)
  
• 3/4 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cup sweet potato or pumpkin puree
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  

Measure out the dry ingredients into a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined and any major lumps of flour are dissolved. (The batter will still be a little lumpy). Heat non-stick frying pan on medium heat and pour on the batter (I just used a sandwich bag with the tip cut off to squeeze out a stegosaurus shape). Cook for about 3-4 minutes until air bubbles start to pop on the surface of the pancake. Flip and cook for about 1 minute on the other side.