Little Miss Helpful

Lilly helps Bryan and I do a number of household tasks, unfortunately these tasks require more preparation, take longer and need a lot more clean up when she helps. But, she likes to help and she's proud of herself, so she gets to help. The best is when she stands over an enormous mess (that she made) and proudly proclaims, "I hepping!" (that's peanut speak for "Mother, please take notice. I will be assisting you with this particular project.") Or, sometimes she'll drag a chair from the kitchen table over to the counter and point at whatever I am pouring, stirring, mixing, sifting, whipping, spreading, smothering or topping and say "I doot". (that's peanut speak for "Excuse me Mother, if it isn't too much trouble I would be interested in completing that project for you.")

Here are a couple of pictures...these are just a few of the things that Lilly likes to help do.

Feeding Hank. This is one of the jobs that takes a lot more time and effort when Lilly helps. You have to scoop up the food and then give her the scoop to dump into the bowl...then you have to sweep up the food that spilled. Then you have to help her carry the food bowl over to the stand. The funny part of the whole process is after she puts his food down she stands about two inches from the bowl, points at it and orders, "Doodle, eat it!". I think it serves her right to work hard making a meal for someone only to have them turn their nose up at it.

(I swear she isn't afraid in this picture, but she sure looks like she is.)

Here Lilly is helping to make cupcakes. She gets to pour the ingredients into the mixer and then watch. I have to remind her over and over not to touch....and yes, that is our knife block right next to where she is standing.

Lilly is really good at sprinkling cheese. In fact, it is probably her best kitchen skill. Not to mention it is the easiest thing for me to let her do. She doesn't make a mess at all and not a single piece of cheese escapes her notice.

Putting clothes in the dryer is probably the easiest thing to help her do, plus its something that she is able to do several times a day. However, it is a task that normally takes me about 30 seconds, but when Lilly helps it takes about five minutes. As her little hands can only hold like one sock at a time.

Sledding

We took Lilly sledding for the first time ever last week. She was a little nervous about the whole thing, but she eventually got the hang of it and had a good time...for about 10 minutes. In short, we were outside and sledding for a shorter amount of time than it took to get dressed and ready for the snow. It was windy and bitter cold, we were probably only outside for about 30 minutes total.
She looked alot like Randy in 'A Christmas Story'. She couldn't move her arms and needed help to get up and down. When Bryan took her down a bigger hill, snow blew into her face and she said "face, face" and couldn't get her hands around to wipe her face. That's when we took her in.
First time in the sled and down a 'hill'. If you look closely, you can tell by he look on her face that she isn't quite sure about what's going on.

The whole fam (except Doodle). Check out the sledding 'hill' behind us. Perfect size for Lilly, but not that fun for Bryan and I.

Sometimes it is just fun to be pulled in the sled...and sometimes it isn't. In this picture Lilly is saying "Out. Out.".

We rounded out the day with a little child labor. Shoveling the sidewalk was probably Lilly's favorite part of the whole sledding experience.