A Little Help Here

I am pretty confident that we are bringing up quite the "little helper". I've blogged in the past about Norah's affection for the vacuum cleaner (she loves to "pet it" while I work), and I've been noticing she's grown increasingly fond of the dishwasher (a girl after my own heart). Ever since she's been able to pull up, she's come crawling (and now walking) into the kitchen as fast as she can when she hears the sound of the dishwasher door opening. Up until now, I always thought she wanted to climb inside. So, Monday I decided to watch her and see what she was so desperately attempting to accomplish by sprinting into the kitchen when the dishwasher was ajar.

Now, you're probably going to think I made this up, but I have a witness who can independently verify that it is, in fact, true. As I stood beside her, Norah reached into the silverware basket, and pulled out a spoon. (No, she wasn't trying to remind me it was time to eat.) She handed me the spoon, and smiled as I put it into the silverware drawer (I opted to let her "play" in the dishwasher when it was full of clean dishes, and for those who were wondering, I did remove all knives and other sharp and/or dangerous objects prior to her entrance to the kitchen). Then she reached back into the basket and handed me another piece of silverware and smiled as I put it away. She did this about 4 more times, and then it clicked: She wants to help me! She handed me every, single piece of silverware, one at a time, until we had put them all away. Then she started handing me things from the lower shelf of the dishwasher! At this point, I told her, "Thank you for being such a big helper! Let's go play." (Most of the stuff on the bottom shelf is breakable and I figured she'd done enough to earn her keep for one day)

Later that afternoon, she heard me unloading the remainder of the dishes and came running. When she discovered that I'd already beat her to the bunch, she didn't miss a beat. She came over to the dishwasher and plucked the silverware basket right out, and took off, as my Grandad would say, "Like a scalded mother ape" (you'd have to know my Grandad :) She ran from the kitchen through the dining room and was headed into the living room when I finally caught up with her. I have to wonder if she was looking for more things to wash so she'd have something else to put away. (And no, I don't typically keep stray silverware on the floor, in case you were wondering)

At any rate, Norah has proudly helped me put away the silverware every time I have done a load of dishes this week. Granted, it takes a lot longer putting them away one piece at a time, but its totally worth it to me to give her the sense of accomplishment, as well as to teach her how to be a helper. I love my job!