Sorry, couldn't resist the title. Could have easily been something much more tame, like, "Give Her Something to Do With Her Hands" or "A Sweet Little Nutcracker." Anyway. You get the idea.
For Christmas, Santa deposited into Nia's stocking this wonderful little olivewood nutcracker and a bag of walnuts. Nia made quick work of those walnuts and we are now on to a 2 lb bag of mixed nuts: hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, almonds, and some more walnuts.
As you can see from the picture, I keep the nuts and the cracker right on the kitchen table next to the fruit bowl for a little protien boost whenever the mood strikes. She visits it a couple times a day.
She can't crack it initially on her own yet, but after one of us adults cracks it the first time, then she can do the rest of the cracking and shelling. The design of the nutcracker is perfect for small hands -- rather than squeeze to crack the nut, she twists, which seems much easy for her.
And how satisfying to hear that crack and feel the shell yield under pressure!
I'd recommend it to anyone -- young or old, big or small.
Here's a nice little nut cookie recipe, too.
