helping hands

Miah surprises me with her ability, willingness, and ideas of help these days. When I ask the baby-sitter if she was good that day Rachel just raises her eyes and says, "Yes. She's helpful." (This comes from a mom of four young boys who are better at making messes than cleaning them up.) One way Miah helps is by handing Rachel diapers at the changing table and saying, "Here you go."

She took this a little further at our house by pulling out a lap pad, fresh wipes, and a swimming diaper to the living room. She then drug out Pooh Bear whom she placed on the lap pad--just like at Grandma's. She proceded to make a game of thouroughly wiping the bear. Mark raised his eyebrows at me when she insisted, "Eeewwww." (Yes, she got that from me.) When she couldn't get the fabric legs through the diaper, Pooh Bear and diaper were thrust in my lap with a scowl and "please." The two go together these days. The irony was ripe as Pooh Bear was wearing swimming diapers with a Disney Pooh Bear design after having been cleaned for--well, you get the picture.

I'm now fearful of finding a pile of coffee beans or grounds on the floor someday because she has connected the coffee drawer to the French Press (coffee maker). When I cleaned out the press this morning, she pulled out an opened bag of coffee beans to "help" me make more coffee. So often I experience the dichotomy of "Wow! Look at your thinking!" and "Wow! You're going to make a mess and/or get in trouble if I give you even two seconds to use that brain of yours."