Dishes Detail

Normally when we finish dinner and clear the table, Michelle, Jonah, and I would all adjourn to the living room together and play. This meant that one of us would be doing the dishes after Jonah went to bed, causing for a later night. 

Toward the end of last week, Michelle had a great idea. Jonah is getting old enough that he should see us doing more chores around the house, like the dishes after dinner. This also means that we can get more non-chore things done after he goes to bed.

On Saturday, it was just Jonah and me at home when he got up early from his nap, so I pushed the chair that has arms up to the counter so he could watch me do the dishes. Well he wasn't going to just stand there and watch! He wanted to participate. At first I thought he could just copy what I was doing with his own little dish cloth, but he isn't quite ready for dish washing yet. 

He is, however, ready to rinse! I would wash the dishes and pass them to him to rinse, trading whatever he had in his hand for a new dish to rinse. We had a great time with it.

Yesterday, Michelle did the dishes with him. In fact, she simply mentioned doing the dishes and he said "Chair! Chair!" So we got the little dictator his throne to stand upon at the sink. As Michelle discovered, you can't sneak dishes past him. When you've got a new dish that needs rinsing, it is "Mine! Mine!" 

Tonight again, as soon as I mentioned I was going to do the dishes, Jonah was requesting his chair!

Michelle grabbed the camera, and here's some pictures of Jonah helping with the dishes.

Up on his toes and ready to help!

I love the way Michelle caught the water on this one.

"What's with all the pictures, Mommy?"

"Hey, I'm working here!"

So that's how we ended up with so much water on the floor...

You can see more at our family photo site.

Little Climber

We already knew Jonah is a climber; he loves climbing up the stairs. So it should have come as no surprise that a toy we picked up at a yard sale last week would be used as a step stool rather than its intended purpose as a chair.

"Hey, I can see the top of the table better if I climb up here!"

Our little daredevil is braver standing on the chair when he is just on the ground.

10 point landing! (Ok, he didn't really jump off the chair, but it kind of looks like it here...)

I think this is the *only* time he actually used the chair just for sitting...

Jonah never lets the chair play a full song. He just likes to hit the light over and over again to see the different colored lights come on.

Climbing the chair was not a "one-off" activity. It has become more of a favorite pastime.

Easy access to all the goodies on the coffee table!

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to be up here?"