Mommy's Little Helper

One of the best things I feel like I've done with Walter is training him to sleep with noise. It's so nice that I don't worry that every little sound will wake him up. I can do laundry, vacuum, have visitor's over, etc all while he's sleeping (within reason, of course). Nap time has always been my time to get things cleaned up, but now with Walter getting old enough, I've switched things up so that now he helps me. It takes about 10x longer, but it's much more fun and I feel like it's better for him to start learning now that the house doesn't magically clean itself. I actually prefer cleaning this way much better! He's really helpful!

To start off, he now puts his own dishes in the sink. We've attempted to have him put other dishes (glass) in the sink and it's usually ended in disaster...so we're just sticking to plastic for now.

He puts stuff in the right room...

 Usually right by the door, haha.

 Every Sunday, after church, he replaces his nursery coloring page from the previous week and throws the old one away (if I can find a way to keep him from getting too emotionally attached to possessions when he's older, then I will have achieved the impossible. Wish me luck). 

 He puts dirty towels in the laundry basket.

Sometimes he needs a break.

 This is a stool I got for him at a farmer's market this fall and he carries it everywhere!

 Mostly to cause trouble and get into things.

 He helps me sweep.

He cleans up his own messes. You can't see it, but he's using a washcloth to clean off the marker.

He helps me with the laundry. He loves cleaning out the lint trap!

And his all time favorite thing...Vacuuming!  

For our wedding, Levi and I got this lame little red vacuum that doesn't actually suck very well. I had it in the back of the closet and kept forgetting to take it to DI. Walter was starting to get scared of the vacuum, so I had him help me push my big one one day. It was awkward. Then I remembered the little red vacuum in the back of the closet! It's the perfect size for Walter and now he isn't scared of the big one anymore. It's actually one of my tricks to get him to help me clean. "If you help me clean up the floor, then we can vacuum!" He starts squealing so loud!

We vacuum just about every day now. The cords get all tangled up, but I don't mind. He also carries it from room to room instead of rolling it on the floor, haha.  

 

 No longer in the back of the closet.

One of his rewards for helping me is an episode of "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." He'll point at the TV and say, "Roar!" It's pretty cute.

In other news, here are some cute sleeping pictures of Walter and Carter.

Walter now knows how to take pictures, so he took of couple of our decorations.

Here he is causing trouble. Sigh...I knew silence wasn't golden that morning. 

We have a family that lives above us who just had a baby a couple months ago. Whenever Walter is throwing an unusually loud tantrum at bed time, we point to the ceiling and whisper, "Shh, there's a baby upstairs sleeping." He'll then point up and say, "Shh. Baby."

 Well funny thing now is that his baby is ALWAYS sleeping. I'll trying playing with her, and he'll come up and say, "Shh, baby sleeping." Give or take a couple consonants. He'll give her her bottle and then tuck her in. Here he is rocking her in her bed.

Giving kisses 

Turning on the humidifier for her nap. I got an angry scowl when I tried turning it off. 

 She then got moved to the big chair and a toy was placed on her (in case she woke up, I'm sure).

 I was at work the other day and we were going around the table at our dinner break and saying what we were getting our kids for Christmas. I said how we got a play kitchen for our 2-year-old son. A guy I work with immediately says, "You got a kitchen for your BOY?" He was genuinely upset about it.

"Sure, he's always helping me in mine so I figured I'd get him his own." I tried to keep it light.

"That's messed up, man (I'm not a man, stupid). You should get him a football or something."

"He's got plenty of balls he loves to play with, but neither me nor my husband is really into sports, so we don't worry if he isn't either."

"That's the saddest thing I've ever heard."

"Well, you've lived a pretty sheltered life then."

Seriously, people like this still exist?!

I love that my son has a doll, and helps me clean, and loves to be in the kitchen. He also loves throwing balls in hoops, and trucks. I want my son to be well rounded. I want my son to know that it doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, you help with the dishes, and you scrub the toilet, and you do laundry, and you climb trees, and you kick a ball, and you can love babies and it's okay. In fact, it's great.

Moving on, Walter can finally open door knobs. His favorite ones to open are the pantry (where I hide chocolate chips) and the front door. Thank goodness for the snow, otherwise I'm afraid he would have tried to make an escape! He wasn't too happy about the locks we got for them. I'm not too happy about them either. They're actually pretty hard to work with! Haha.

 I also have to always take my keys with me now when I take out the garbage, because he can lock the deadlock, and he likes to do it when I walk out. 

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas breakfast. Walter got to meet Santa (he wasn't scared at all! Pictures to come...) and when he was done, he got a candy cane!