Little Boy, Big Heart

Nathan has a good heart. Whenever I'm working away at something, he comes up to me and says "Wanna help!". Parents know that with the help of two little hands, the job takes twice as long! But I don't care because I'm so impressed that he wants to help.

Here are the chores he helps mommy with:

1. Make mommy's coffee. He puts the filter in the basket, dumps the grounds into the filter, and presses "GO". When it's done, he says "ALL DONE! SUGAR?" and then he puts a scoop of sugar in the cup. He gets upset when I only allow him to put in the one scoop, but I tell him I'm sweet enough. Then he watches as I swirl the milk in.

2. Help with veggies at dinner. He watches from a chair as I chop veggies, and then he's allowed to add them to the pot. He names them as he sees them: "onion, pepper, carrot, 'sparagus"...etc. Last night he even brought me some chives from the garden to add in.

3. Make Rice. He dumps in the rice & water, puts the lid on the cooker and presses "go".

4. Wash the floor. If I give him a damp cloth, he'll find the "yucky" spots on the floor and wash them with a cloth.

5. Laundry. Sometimes he takes all the washcloths from the laundry heap. Sometimes he passes me each item of clothing so I can put it away. Last night, he tucked a blanket under his chin and tried to fold it JUST like how I do it! Wow, kids watch every move you make!

6. Spider duty. He finds all the spider webs waist height and lower on the deck and destroys them with his hockey stick.

7. Making pizza. He gets the pan out of the cupboard and puts it on a chair, helps open the box, dumps the pizza out (thank goodness it's wrapped in plastic) and then helps me put it on the pan.
8. Dish duty. He passes dishes to Daddy to put away in the cupboard.



It's not only chores that show his big heart. It's other things like when he spontaniously attacks me with kisses or asks for a hug with his arms outstretched. That makes me melt! One of my fave things as a parent.

The other night we put him in his crib for bed. He stood up and came over to me and said, "Kiss?". So I OF COURSE gave him another big hug and kiss and then he lay back down, ready for bed. What a cutie!

Better stop before the waterworks start!

Hunting Time

Yay! I survived my simultaneous cold, flu, sinus infection and eye infection and got better in time for junk week! No better timing than that.

It really is one of my favourite yearly activities! Click HERE for an explanation of my obsession.

Here's what I got so far:

- a nice crib for new baby
- excellent condition rocking horse perfect size for Nathan
- lots and lots of toys for Nathan
- bag of clothes for Nathan
- $40 worth of building supplies that Colin ALMOST bought last week
- lots of Christmas & birthday ribbon (all of mine comes from Junk week. I never buy it)
- another tobaggan (Come on Colin, we have enough now)
- The Smoothie Bible cookbook
- Japanese tea set
- other stuff Colin was interested in (ie, live bait traps, fishing rods, antique fishing gear)

The quality of junk was pretty good! A lot of the people had garage sales on the weekend, and just pushed all the leftover treasures to the end of the curb, where I go and save it from the landfill!

Over the years, we have most definately come out ahead because of junk week. For example, we got a drafting table one year that I used as a scrapbook table. But when we converted the scrapbook room to Nathan's room, we had to sell it. Made $80 or so.

I don't know why I share this info. Because really, I don't want you to go Junk Hunting. If you DO go, there's less junk for me! I think I promote it because it is so much fun once you get over the initial "I can't believe I'm looking through other people's junk" thought. And all this perfectly good stuff is going to a landfill. So why not recycle and save some bucks in the meantime!?!

Come on, go out and try! You just might find what you're looking for! Which I may add, you never know what it is you're looking for until you find it.