Little Helper

Ella enjoys helping around the house with all kinds of chores. (We, of course, hope this enthusiasm continues as she gets older...we can only wish, right?) Even though she is only 2 1/2, we are trying to teach her the importance of participating in house work to help our family. Some of the chores that she always does are: putting her clean cups from the dishwasher back into her drawer, sorting the clean utensils back into the drawer, hanging her coat up on the hook and putting her shoes in the closet when we return home, putting new bags into the trash cans, and wheeling a big trash barrel back and forth to the curb on trash day.

We hope that Ella learns that importance of hard work, even when there is not always a tangible or immediate reward, and also comes to see value of helping others. Rob and I think the best way we can do this is by setting a good example for her and helping others as a family.

Here are some pictures of her over the past few months contributing to the work:

using a wrench to fix the kitchen sink pipes

trying to figure out what the problem is with the pipe


making coffee for me
(She does this every morning...I'm trying to figure out how to get her to let me sleep until 9:00 and then bring the cup to me in bed!)

cracking eggs to make a cake


using the beaters
("Hey, Mommy, guess what? I'm not afraid of the beaters anymore!"...She used to be afraid of them because they were so loud).

pounding out chicken for cordon bleu
We made two batches for friends who just had new babies

"washing" the dishes in the sink
(I think she mostly enjoys this because it involves water!)


taping the walls for painting

using her stool to reach as she cleans the pictures on the fridge

wiping off Mommy and Ella's picture


I asked Ella where she put her wipe when she was done cleaning....this is what she showed me---she carefully shoved it into the door frame


carrying a soda can to the recycling bin
She found it in our yard and said, "Uh, oh....someone littered. That's not nice because it makes the Earth dirty!" Rob taught her to yell, "Take that!" when she throws something into the bin.


watering the marigolds and arugula in our garden