Instilling a good work ethic.

I have just realised that I have a helper in the house. I have only just realised that this little boy is no longer a baby and gets a real kick out of helping me. He's been sweeping the floor for a long time now but his cleaning and helping skills are expanding, as you can see below. His little table had been outside for a few days, so had gotten dusty and I wanted to bring it back inside to use. So I put Tom to work and he loved it. We had the commentry happening to accompany the activity. Eg. "Wash table, wash chair, wash bucket". I think he was meaning, rinse in the bucket rather than wash bucket, but it was a pretty good effort I thought. He scrubbed that table as clean as a whistle and there were even a few tears when I took the bucket away, I think I could have had him going for about an hour! (Mental note: keep that in mind when I need a nap). I just have to think of other activities that I can get him to do for me - or does that border on slave labour? Hee, hee.

He very much loves his train set also. He inherited this from his big cousin, Cal, and loves it. He knows all the engines names and corrects me or Dadda if we get them mixed up. He will play on his own, but much prefers it if someone is down there with him getting into the swing of things. This was his first attempt to build the track himself and I was pretty impressed, hence the photo. He didn't work out how to join the track up into a circuit, but he did work out which tracks to use to go up to the bridge and back down the other side. I have to admit, the first time I was putting this together, it took me close to 10 mins to work that out, so I was a little put out that my one y.o. (almost two year old) mastered it quicker than me.
Hope this finds you all well..............