>My little helper

>As life moves at a crazy clip for most people, I read a blurb in Real Simple today about one way to slow down:  take a walk at a toddler’s pace.

It’s true.  My life really has slowed down to Sebastian’s speed.  This is one of those realizations that makes me happy I’ve chosen to be home with him this year.  He can take 45 minutes to eat breakfast with his daddy if it suits them, 15 minutes to get into the car, or an hour to walk once around the block (ok, we often stop at the little playground to swing and slide, but still).

The main reason why everything is slow these days, though, is that Sebastian wants to do everything “all by himself.”  Here are some of the little tasks that he manages to do (or “help” do) at every opportunity:

~Turn on/off lights
~Open/close doors
~Help pour his Cheerios and milk for breakfast
~Put away his toys
~Put his shoes on/take them off
~Zip up every zipper on any hoodie or jacket he is wearing
~Put on the lotion after his bath
~Push in his chair after he has a snack

and the all-time favorite, the one with which I can bribe him to get him to do anything else (like change his diaper) is:

~Press the button to open and close the garage!

Seriously, I need to take a video of what the boy looks like when he even thinks he is going to get to open the garage.  He will then talk about it randomly throughout the rest of the day.

“Sebastian help Mama open garage door goes nnnnnnnn!!!”
“Bastian open garage door white button, close garage door silver button!!”
(and many, many variations on this theme)

I’m encouraging this helpful nature as much as possible.  Right now I am living in the Land of Wishful Thinking:  instead of asking when the baby is leaving, perhaps my little helper will instead fetch diapers, burp cloths, or my water bottle whenever asked!

Stop laughing.  No bursting my bubble.  It could happen.