Our Two Littlest Helpers

Cecilia and Dean are wonderful helpers, actually helpful helpers.  Cecilia's willingness to help depends on her mood which is ok because sometimes she just decides to clean and organize on her own.  While I find that odd I am ok with it because she does a lot around here without being asked.  Plus I have learned that if I kindly suggest things she is more likely to decide to help.

Helping Daddy spray

 Dean loves to help do anything, especially if he can be in a piece of equipment or pretend to be a piece of equipment.  Some days he is a skid steer, other days a fork lift, and sometimes an excavator.  It turns out if he is a piece of equipment then I have to be one too.  I play along and call him fork lift (or whatever he is that day) and he calls me skid steer (or excavator, I never get to be a fork lift) and we unload dishes, switch laundry around, do chores in the barn, and he loves it.  He is actually really good at putting silverware away.  He gets his step stool and opens the drawer, I hand him the basket with the silverware (minus any sharp knives) and he puts them away while I empty the rest of the dishwasher.  It is actually really helpful and it is one of his favorite jobs!

Notice his arms wrapped around Brad's...he knows he can't touch the steering wheel

Cecilia is helpful too and is good at washing dishes and folding small towels.  She is capable of putting away silverware but seems to only like that job because Dean does it.  She is awesome at scrubbing the inside of toilets and thinks getting to use the toilet bowl brush is a huge honor.  I may have not so accidentally made that job sound more glamorous than it really is.  She also does a wonderful job feeding the dogs.  She is also fabulous at keeping Dean entertained and safe when I don't have my eyes on him.  She is my extra set of eyes and Dean can't get away with anything while she is in charge.  Don't think I drive off and leave her in charge but I can't sit and watch them play and cook dinner and help the older boys with homework.

Being silly in the sprayer

They both love to help outside and over at the farm.  They helped Brad work on the boom of his sprayer and a few days later were pretty excited to get to ride in the sprayer and help Daddy.  Brad also showed them how he could watch both planters work in the same field together on the iPad and they loved watching that.

Inspecting the sprayer boom

Brad took these great pictures of the kids with the sprayer

They both like to help with most horse related things but they are a lot smaller than the horses and I don't enjoy worrying about them while I am catching horses.  A couple weeks ago we solved that problem.  I put them in the horse's hay feeder and they are safe while I catch horse, plus they can't get out without my help!

Locked in the horse feeder

Cecilia and Dean have a great work ethic and I hope they keep it as they grow older!

They make a good team!