Happy Helper

As you can see, the pictures really tell the story, no narration needed. But I'll tell you anyway. I had just made lunch for us and I went into the living room to answer the phone. When I came back...Carolyn said, with great pride and high volume, "Mom, I'm HELPING!! I'm helping Leelah! I'm feeding her and SHE LIKES IT!!!" as she was happily shoveling heaping spoonfuls of cereal toward Lilia, who gobbled as much as she could with cheerful greed. Lilia did indeed seem to be having a great time and 'liking it'. It's amazing to me how far 1/4 cup of baby cereal can go. Lilia's shirt was coated with a covering of food so thick that it fell off and into her lap in globs. Carolyn had thoughtfully left the bowl of cereal in Lilia's reach so even as Carolyn was feeding her, Lilia was raking the cereal with her fists and bringing it to her mouth, and of course smearing it all over her tray and chair as well as rubbing it into her hair and tired eyes. Naturally I ran to get...the camera. (You didn't really think I would try to immediately tackle this mess did you? No, no this was going to take some serious psyching myself up before I would do that.) I would have made a video recording of it, but my camera didn't have enough juice. By the way, do you see how proud Carolyn is? I have a hard time convincing Carolyn that I can feed Lilia without help now. "I can help you," she'll desperately plead with me, as though she knows that I desperately, desperately need her help. Anyway, after taking pictures until the camera's battery gave out, I knew it was time to face the music. Yes, I had to get Lilia out of that chair and into the tub. The question was, could I do it without becoming as messy as she was. The answer was, no. But I needed have worried because between the Master Splasher (Lilia) and my good helper, Carolyn, (who poured water down my hands and arms, saturating my clothes in the process) all traces of baby cereal were washed away and I changed my shirt anyway.

Carolyn really is my devoted helper. Whenever I'm doing dishes, she's there to help. When I get the mop out (especially when I get the mop out) Carolyn is there to lend a hand. When Lilia wakes up from her nap, Carolyn is there to try to help Lilia out of the crib. Actually, I think that Carolyn might often times help Lilia wake up from her naps as well. She loves to help me give Lilia a bath. If there is something that needs to be taken away from Lilia, Carolyn is only to happy to be the one to do it. For me, the trick is to let her help me in a way that doesn't make more work for me, but is still fun for Carolyn. (I hear tale that children don't always want to help as they get older, so you have to train them when they're young...or so I hear) I have to confess that I'm just not good at it yet. Especially with dishes. I've tried to give her the task of wiping down the table as I wash dishes, but she isn't having any of it. I must make it look really fun, dipping my hands in the deceptively clean, frothy looking bubbles (I think dishwater is absolutely disgusting) and scouring and scrubbing dishes. She'll wipe the table down for all of 5 seconds and then she's scooting her chair next to me and demanding equal rights. I've pretty much resigned myself to just letting her do her thing and "help" me all the while reminding myself that children are washable and so are clothes, and counters, and floors, and chairs and it really doesn't matter if she gets saturated with the nasty dish water. I actually will roll my shoulders, reminding myself that it's like 'water off a duck's back' to me and that I need to be easy going and loosen up a bit. Yesterday, as were working together at the sink, Carolyn smiled at me and cheered, "We're having so much fun, Mama. It's a good time! I love you so much." And I didn't even care about the water sloshing it's way along the counter and floors because we were having a good time. And I had already unplugged all appliances on the counter. Safety first.