I am amazed how one day, I have a meek little baby toddling around and the next, an independent, self-thinking small child manipulating the world around him.

Caleb has learned how to test the disciplinary waters with me. For example, He loves to color, and sometimes paper is not enough. But he knows that he can only color on the paper I give him. Sometimes, when he’s feeling ambitious, he’ll look at me, lift the paper up, and look at me again, crayon frozen centimeters away from the bare table. I will say, in my stern mommy voice, “no, we color on paper only”.  And just like that, he replaces the paper and resumes coloring, with a big smile on his face like he did me a favor. Seconds later, the same scenario starts again. I think he likes to be sure where his boundaries lie; almost like it gives him a sense of comfort.

Another area he’s discovering is helping. It started a few months ago when I was unloading the dishwasher. He was under my feet trying to get to the silverware, when I handed him some tupperware and told him to take it to his play cubbard. To my surprise, he toddled right over to the cubbard, opened it, threw the tupperware inside, closed the door, toddled back over to me and waited for his next assignment. From that moment, he has been the most willing little helper. He finds some way to help me for every chore. Laundry: he helps sort the whites from the darks and puts the clothes into the dryer. Vacuuming and mopping: he loves to “steer”. Emptying the trash: he shakes out the new bag and stuffs it in the trashcan. Dusting: he gets his own dust rag and goes over the spots I miss. He puts away his toys and books before bed, and takes out/puts away his clothes. He loves turning off lights for me, watering my herb garden, throwing trash (and some non-trash items) away, opening doors, and finding missing toys. He even took a spoon from his snack he just finished, and put it back into the silverware drawer without me asking (not the best place to go, but he got the idea). I’m actually enjoying the extra help. He really does a descent job and is quite entertaining to watch. I can actually distract him from potential temper tantrums just by asking, “do you want to help Mommy?” Works like a charm.