A good helper

Emmett has finally reached the age where he can sometimes actually help with chores.  His favorite seems to be laundry.  He will push the laundry basket from the bedroom down the hall to the laundry room and throw some of the clothes into the washer.  Sometimes he does this even when its not laundry day, but that's ok.  He will help move clothes from the washer to the dryer as well.  But most of the time he runs around upstairs between the bedrooms wreaking havoc.  But he loves laundry day for that exact reason, because he gets to run around upstairs.

The other day when we got back from our evening family walk we noticed that the tree in our front yard really needed some pruning.  Its an ugly tree anyway.  We didn't plant it, the contractor who built our house did, and we're considering ripping it out, but the pruning improved it slightly.  I was carrying the branches that Chris cut off and throwing them into the back of his truck.  Emmett was running around the front yard while this was going on and suddenly decided to pick up some branches himself.  He walked over the truck with them and I lifted him up so he could throw them in the back of the truck.  He was very pleased with himself, and it was so cute.   

Lastly, he has started helping somewhat with putting toys away before naptime.  After lunch I let him play for a little while to let his food settle before nap (to be honest, its so he can poop before nap because he usually does, haha).  He helped me put the mega blocks back in the bag and also helped put some of his toys in his toy box.  And a couple of smaller things, he wipes his own face if I hand him the washcloth and he wipes his own nose if you hand him a tissue.  He doesn't do a very good job mind you, and he moves his head back and forth instead of the tissue or washcloth, but the effort is what counts.  And lately during diaper changes I will let him play with a wipe so that he will lay still, and he will try and wipe himself (a good start for potty training!)  So if we can continue on this road I think he will be a good helper by the time we are ready for another baby.  Yay!