Jayden Helps!

Jayden loves to help with anything at all. He’s a whiz in the kitchen. In the morning, I make coffee and he always helps. He gets the coffee grounds for me and tries to get the filter, but I don’t let him because I could just see hundreds of filters flying all over the floor. He races to the microwave so he can open the door for me and close it too. He waits desperately because he wants to press start. He does the same thing for the dishwasher. He wants to open and close the detergent compartment and the door too. He has even figured out which button is the childproof lock. He just can’t manage to hold it for 3 seconds. Ha-ha.

When I get water from the fridge, he wants to press the lever to dispense it himself. Sometimes I don’t realize that he’s heard me at the fridge and he comes at full speed, ricochets off of the dishwasher and crashes into me and my glass in order to get there in time to dispense first! Every time I get ice from the freezer, Rio comes running as if it was a biscuit so I’ve always given him a piece. Now, Rio and Jayden almost kill themselves trying to get to me first. Of course, Jayden wants to get the piece of ice so that he can give it to Rio. Jayden even wants to get his own milk and his own juice. I let him pass me the juice bottle when I’m fixing him a sippy cup, but sometimes he passes me all the juice bottles he can find in the fridge. Ok, enough is enough.

He’s handy around the house too! Jayden is a huge fan of the vacuum and the broom. He will literally hold the vacuum or the broom while you are trying to use it, which of course makes it impossible. If you try to engage him with something else, he will leave for a minute or two and then come back and at least try to hold the cord, often unplugging the vacuum and causing further distress. Any time I enter a room, he wants to close the door for me and of course he’s a huge fan of helping turn on the lights and ceiling fans. This is very useful especially when I’m nursing and can’t move right away. He always comes through for me.

Jayden loves to help with Maya whenever possible. He wants to be available to pass me the wipes, her diaper and the powder (he must think I’m crazy). Then he waits to throw out the soiled diaper. When Maya cries, he helps by getting her pacifier, her blanket and every single teether and rattle she owns. He helps mommy too. When I come home from work, he tries to help me take my socks off and my shoes too. He follows me to the potty where he waits desperately to flush the toilet. If I let him, he’d help me wipe too! When I do laundry, he helps by putting daddy’s socks in his sock drawer. He also helps take the used dryer sheets to the trash. But since he sees mommy cleaning the floor around the high chair after Jayden’s meal, he has started to use the dryer sheets to wipe the entire floor and while he’s at it he cleans the sliding glass doors too.

Jayden wants to help open and close car doors. I’m always worried that he’s going to catch his finger in the door, but I guess he won’t learn until he actually does it. Ouch! I don’t even want to think about that. And don’t try to remove a recyclable item from the house because he wants to carry it to the recycle bin himself and toss it in. I don’t let him carry the glass. Well, not anymore since he shattered one all over the place and daddy was super upset. Oops.

He’s even helpful with Rio. Jayden will call out for Rio to come home when he’s outside doing his business. He also helps me when it’s time to feed Rio by holding Rio’s food bowl steady. And sometimes he even helps to spill Rio’s water all over the place. He also reprimands Rio and chases him around the house with his ride on toys. I even catch him “riding” Rio. I don’t think Rio considers this useful, but he never complains.

I especially love it when he helps me on Sunday mornings by walking to the end of the drive way to get the paper for me. Very cute. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen a more helpful child. Can he possibly help me anymore? Please God, no.