Benjamin and Caitlin: The Ultimate Tag Team: August 2007

Ben gets a stepstool.

And Ben is over the moon about being able to see what's happening on the kitchen counter.

I bought it initially so he could step up and wash his hands at the kitchen sink, but he much prefers when I fill the sinks with water so he can splash around:

and this morning he "helped" me make muffins:

Ben loves housework.

And it's a bit of a mixed blessing because Ben likes to create messes so he can "clean them up." For example, this morning I went upstairs to get some clothes for Ben to change into and when I returned the entire kitchen floor was covered in dry cat food kibble, Ben in the middle of it sweeping it everywhere, and then "emptying" an empty dust pan into the garbage can. It was pretty cute.

Ben also likes to help when I'm shopping. The other day, much to the amusement of the cashiers at Shopper's Drugmart, he returned my empty shopping basket to the stack by the door without any prompting by me at all.

And Ben helps with the laundry, which means he randomly stuffs unfolded laundry from the basket into dresser drawers and steals every last receiving blanket from the clean load. He sure loves his blankets.

They really are like little sponges at this age. It's incredible how much Ben is soaking up. He surprises us every day.

What passes as BIG news around here: Ben eats broccoli!

That's right -- broccoli! Plain, steamed broccoli. Ben, the kid whose vegetables of choice were strictly carrots and peas since going exclusively to table food, has now decided broccoli is fair game.

And here's the proof.

Mmmmm. Big bite!

Mama asks "Where's the broccoli?" Ben says "Here!"

All done. :)

And I suppose for every bit of "good" there's also a little "evil"; we've also discovered he loves Chicken McNuggets, but hey, it never hurts to indulge once in a while.