Help?

By Janet, on August 14th, 2011

The girls are at that amazing age where they WANT to help. So often they’ll come to me arm stretched out towards me and say “Help? Help?” I’m trying to encourage that behavior! If I’ve been to the grocery store, I’ll let them put the groceries in the fridge (which means everything is on the bottom shelf) and I’ll let them hand items to me (one by one) to put in the cabinet. Or I’ll give them each an empty milk jug and we’ll walk outside and I’ll lift them up so they can put it in the recycling. I kneel on the floor and help them measure and pour and stir so we can make ice cream. I’ll hold them up and let them help me mash the potatoes for dinner. They help put the megablocks away in the box. (Of course it’s pretty tempting to then upend that full box of blocks again!) In the bath they each want a washcloth so they can wash themselves. They hand me clean laundry to fold (and it often has to be folded more than once) and then want to help put it away in the drawers. Pretty much every chore now takes longer than it used to — but it’s way more fun. Gotta take advantage of this eagerness to help while it’s there!

I had trouble finding “helping” pictures so here are some of my favorites from July that I hadn’t got around to posting yet.