Lo the Helpful

My lo is a rambunctious little man. Always coming and going and never stopping long enough to allow the dust to settle around him. He is on the go from 7:45am when we hear the first broom broom sounds of his cars to the last sucking of milk from his sippy at 7:00pm. He never stops. Not even long enough for a nap. It can make for interesting times in our house. Those 12 hours or so need to be filled with constant entertainment from my part as well as a plethora of activities to stimulate his growing little mind.

That being said, I have started realizing that he needs to start having a little more(supervised) responsibility around the house and as crazy and as sometimes (anal retentive) I am about things getting done right the first time in our house. I realized that I needed to start allowing my son who is 2 1/2 the ability to "help"so we began with something simple like helping me clean up his toys. At times he is the most helpful of them all. I would get more help form our dog Jake and so realize that there are certain jobs he really enjoys doing and some that just don't appeal to him. Isn't it amazing how something so tiny,that has only been party of this world for a mere 2 years and change can deliberate what he likes and what he doesn't. I remember those days when I would simply give him a sippy with water and he would be on his way...chugging along. Now the adventure begins with picking out the cup. Then moving on to his beverage choice. Which at time is funny because he is being raised bi-lingual and somehow has managed to learn all beverage choices in a very rough Spanish. When I am in charge of the drink I can pretty much grasp the gist but at times when the hub has drink duty it takes a few tries on both parts before he gets it. Sometimes it becomes a game of Charades in which the Hub is pointing and lo is saying No...uh-uh.

This brings me to his newest responsibility one that he decided to take upon himself. It's the filling of our refrigerator door with drinks. Namely water or soda. It's so funny because his little ears perk up and his eyes twinkle when he sees one of us walk through the door with a new crate of water or soda. He automatically walks over to the refrigerator and starts pointing to the door. Once it has been opened and the crate has been opened he begins to place the soda/water in the door. It is so cute to watch just because of the care he takes doing this very important job. My favorite is when he realizes that there is something that doesn't belong on that shelf and is impeding his ability to feed all the waters/soda in and so he takes it out and puts it somewhere else. To many this is something so insignificant and silly but to you mothers out there,you know the joy that makes your heart leap when you see something like this because you realize your baby is growing up and you realize that they are becoming more and more self sufficient. But I have to admit as much as I love watching him do this..I still love it when he asks me to help him put on his shoes,because I realize no matter how big my little man is getting he is still that a little man and he still needs his Mommy :O)