My Little Helper and Pear Thief

Carter is becoming more and more independent.  He has started figuring things out on his own, watching what we do and copying us.  This morning I brought in the desk Ty found at a garage sale for 25 cents and had spray painted.  It was covered in sawdust from the cutting he did in the garage after painting the desk, so I got out Clorox wipes to clean it off.  Carter was watching me as I was cleaning.  After a little while he went over to the wipe container, pulled a wipe out, and started helping me wipe down the desk.  It was so adorable!  He did a really good job cleaning as well.  When I was doing laundry he saw our Swiffer hanging up in the laundry room and grabbed it.  Next thing I knew he was walking around the kitchen pushing or dragging it around.  I had to stop him when he started to put it in the dog water bowl so he could get the floor wet like I do when I have a wet pad on it.  I couldn't help but wonder why it works out that kids want to help so badly when they just aren't quite capable, but when they are older and able have to be forced and/or bribed to help.  Maybe Mr. Carter Man will be the exception to the rule!

My great helper cleaning off his desk.

Really scrubbing!

Concentrating on cleaning.

Enjoying his desk while drawing.

I love his little feet dangling.  I know it won't be long before his feet will touch the ground.

Using the Swiffer in the kitchen.

 

In an attempt to clean our kitchen counters off I moved our fruit basket onto our large stainless steel shelf area on the same shelf as our toaster which Carter loves to grab at.  I didn't think Carter would be able to actually reach into the basket.  In the morning he got hungry and grabbed a pear out of the basket.  He didn't finish it so I saved it in a baggie for later.  As I was getting his afternoon snack ready he went over to the basket and pulled down another pear.  By the time I got to him to take the pear away he had already taken a bite right at the sticker, consuming half the sticker in his bite.  Now we're gonna have to watch Carter around the fruit basket.  I hope we always have that problem.  That Carter is sneaking snacks from the fruit basket and not the pantry (where Ty stashes his unhealthy foods such as chips). 

I tricked him into eating the first pear by putting it back in the basket when he was reaching for another.