he just wants to help.  watching is not good enough and chatting is too boring.  he just wants to wipe the world clean with a sponge.  so i gave him a try.  he was on the floor when the gift was passed to him.  looking around he noticed a step stool and immediately figured out that was his gateway to the counter.  i watched and stood by very close while he jimmy’d up the steps, army crawled on to the counter and then slowly made his way across the stove.  where was he going?  he didn’t share his plan with me so watching this unfold was a bit like a christmas present.

he looked at the stove and then, up to me, before he advanced across this new terrain.  i nodded the ok after i showed him how to check if it was hot.  you know…when you lay your cheek on the burner to see how hot it is.  sike.  of course i didn’t do that you silly people.  but we had a brief moment’s discussion on “is this hot? nope!  ok…go ahead!” before he just crawled on over.

i watched him stand up, very carefully and pop the microwave door open.  oh lord…he wants to cook the sponge.  i was about to put the kaibosh on this little mission of his but to my surprise, he just wanted to clean.  i would love to say that i keep a very clean microwave so he must have learned by habit but that would mean i am a lying fool.  he probably has been eyeballing it for weeks as i warm up his food, saying “are you ever going to wipe off those meatball splatters from two weeks ago?”

for a good twenty minutes he talked to me about how he was cleaning the “mic-o-wade” and how “iss dirdee!” and how he was such a big boy.  he may not have the upper body strength to actually get those sauce dots out (who does really besides a belt sander)  but i love getting my chores done with my little man.