The Helping Stage

This past summer was very busy for me.  I was essentially a single mom with Micah already living in Hawaii and there was a lot to do before we could make the move.  Toddler hood has definitely brought in a lot of new characteristics to Nev's personality and one of the more delightful ones is being a helper.  I guess it probably has a lot to do with wanting to be independent and being able to do what the big people do.

 Nev was a great helper this past summer.  He helped me unload and spread 2 yards of mulch in our yard, feed the chickens every morning and water the blueberry bushes. I think this was his favorite task. He was able to scope out all the big juicy berries that needed to be picked.  Our bushes produced quite a few berries this year but I definitely didn't get very many and none of them made it to the freezer.

I also learned to use his helpfulness and energy to my advantage.  The co-op in Corvallis has the cute shopping carts for kids to push around.  I had always thought that Nev would have to be a bit older to use one cause I didn't feel I could trust him to not run over the heels of some unsuspecting shopper. Ouch!  But grocery shopping with a toddler can be a bit of a pain sometimes because with all that energy they tend to not want to stay seated in the cart for too long.  So one day I decided to give the small cart a try and I have to say I was very proud of my little shopper!  By giving him a task and letting him know he was helping me I was able to keep him on track and he would listen to me.  We were able to get everything we needed and no one's heels got ran over ;)