"I Help"

A couple of weeks ago I started sitting Madelyn in the kitchen window seal while I made dinner. One alternative would have been to hold her on my hip with one arm wrapped around her while attempting to cook with my free hand. before the "window seal days" Madelyn would push herself between me and the cupboard and say, "hold you, hold you" while slightly bouncing up and down and reaching up to me as far as she could.

Sometimes while I made dinner she would briefly play with her toys or have a snack at the table, but for the most part Madelyn just wanted to be where her mommy was, doing what her mommy was doing.

The first night of window seal sitting worked out rather well. Madelyn sat contently in the window seal and I gave her a snack and talked with her. She was happy being near me and I was happy having a little cooking pal. i loved that I was cooking with my little daughter.

Slowly she started to explore the window seal area. She now knows that the crackers and cereal are located slightly to her right in the cupboard that she can open because there are no child safety latches. She knows that she can get the canister of wheat open if she just holds onto the latch and shakes it, and that if she pokes hard enough in the candle her little finger will make a dent. From the window seal she can reach the hand sanitizer and soap and says, "hands, hands" while holding her hand under the dispenser and waiting for me to dispense some soap into her chubby, squishy, little hand. She then washes that chubby, squishy, little hand and proceeds to turn the water on and off, and on and off, and then trickle and full blast, and then on and off. You get the idea.

Last night she says, "I help". She squatted down by the half mixed biscuit dough and with a measuring spoon in hand she spooned flour onto the floor and counter while attempting to get it back in the bowl. She then got a chunk of the actual dough in her spoon and it flew with a plop onto the floor. I briefly got her to stop "helping" by reverting her attention back to the yummy cheerios that I had originally placed in the window seal. I hurried as fast as I could to get the biscuits into the oven so that there was nothing left to "help" with (good thing they were drop biscuits).

And so goes my life, one little mommy and one little "helper" right by her side.