Such a cute "Helper"

"A perfect example of minority rule is having a baby in the house." - Milwaukee Journal 

The trials of toddlerdom have begun...

Our Bean is a rather feisty character and joins in every household activity with gusto. We try to include him as far as possible and I must report back that his allelomimetic skills are developing well, to the point where we are debating replacing the toys for Christmas with duplicate house-cleaning implements. He loves to watch what everyone around him is doing, and then does his level best to do it too.

At 16 months, Bean's favourite activities include:

• sweeping, in other words taking the broom that you are using and spreading the dirt from your neat pile around the room, 
• putting Daddy's shoes away, which means giving Daddy one of a pair while he is sleeping, and hiding the other,
• talking/changing all the settings on Daddy's phone, which usually ends rather dramatically when Daddy tries to get it back, 
• and helping Mummy with her shoes. As I cannot put my shoes on or take them off myself, I require assistance in this area. As soon as I get home, my carer (or more often Bean) helps me out of my shoes. Having mastered this great feat, now whenever someone puts my shoes on, Bean takes them off again. ...Leaving the house is becoming ever more complicated.

Yesterday, the entire family got involved with a garden clean-up after Number 1 cut down some overgrown bushes which were posing as trees. Numbers 1 and 2 hacked at branches and swept up leaves into bags for collection. And Bean, with his ever more persistent Ta's, got in the middle of the action by attempting to pick up branches that were bigger than he is, sweeping leaves, and trying to trip up Number 1. He also ran off with the broom at several points in time, and tried taking it for walks down the road with Daddy attempting to herd him back home.

With the end of the mess in sight, we extracted him from the mess and popped him in the tub where he was horrified at the black colour of his feet and then tried to escape them... I don't know. But after some soap and a wash, he was happily reunited with the feet he recognised. And the tired and happy little fellow was ready for an early night... as were Mummy and Daddy who were just plain exhausted.