My Helpers

Ane is a big help when it comes to Rerun – but that help is limited by her age and ability.

She adores holding him – which is a plus, because sometimes all Rerun wants is a pair of willing arms and a little extra attention.  However, we are constantly having to keep an eye on Ane’s handling of him – because she is only six, and though she knows that infants are fragile, actually practicing that is a little more difficult.

Auntie, on the other hand, is now an old pro at infant and baby care.

She told me on Sunday that she has changed the diapers on all her nieces and Tad, so once she changes Rerun, she will have the complete set of nieces and nephews under her belt yet again.  And yes, we’re using cloth diapers here at the Corner Haus, and she can change those.

Unfortunately, Auntie is entering into softball season, so her help with Rerun (and Ane and Tad) is limited to Sunday mornings at church and whenever she happens to be at her home and I show up.  It’s kind of a hit and miss.

However, I do have a third helper.

If you’re wondering what Tad is doing in this picture, he’s pretending to be Luke Skywalker on Dagobah, standing on his head and lifting boxes and rocks with the Force.  Isn’t it obvious?

Tad is fully aware of his brother – who he can call by name, but often just calls him “baby” or “baby bruvver” – but has no interest in him other than dropping an occasional kiss on his fuzzy head.  I don’t yet have a picture of Tad holding Rerun, because Tad’s had no interest in it and I don’t want to push him.

However, Tad is fully capable of being a helper in other ways, as I discovered yesterday.

Tad is out of school this week, but Ane is in class as usual, which means I am at home with both the boys in the mornings.  Yesterday, as I was just finishing up nursing Rerun, I heard a soft knock at my front door.  Tad heard it, too, and instantly headed for the door as I balanced Rerun on my shoulder and worked on burping him.

Tad opened the door for me and saw a UPS man walking away.  There was a decent-sized box from Stampin’ Up at our door, which I had been expecting.  “Mama, mail’s here!”  Tad sang out.

“I see,” I replied, as I tried to figure out where I would lay Rerun down so I could pick up the box and carry it in.

“I’ll get it!”  Tad declared.  Then, to my shock and surprise, he picked up the box – which was not a light box! – and carried it inside for me.  I directed him to set it down on a chair, which he did.  “Whew!”  he exclaimed theatrically after he set it down.

We high-fived each other, and I thanked him for being such a big helper.  “You need a treat,” I told him.

“Yay!  A treat!”  he squealed.  He got a gummy fruit snack, which he was thrilled about.

I was so pleased with his attitude and effort – and upper body strength! – that as I was telling Grandma and the Webmaster about it later, it really became obvious to me how much Tad enjoys helping out, and how we need to give him more opportunities to be a “big boy” and a “helper.”  He may not want to help with the baby – and we probably shouldn’t let him just yet – but he is completely capable of fetching non-breakable items and following very specific instructions, and he has a desire to help that I don’t want to squelch.

So, I have two helpers in the house now, and I’m so proud of them both.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 9:28 am and is filed under Children, Family, Mommyhood.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed and Both comments and pings are currently closed.