My special helper – an interlude in life

Natalie is my special helper.  Ever since she could crawl she’d “help” me move things around.  Now, she hands me groceries as we unpack from our shopping trip, or takes things and throws them away for me, she’s even started to help me cook.  Last weekend after I had chopped up some potatoes to make mashed potatoes, she put them in the pot.  I premeausred salt and pepper and she put them in for me.  Later I gave her a cup with milk and she poured it in.  This all sounds great, but the reality of it is that she doesn’t think of it as helping.  At least I don’t think she does.  I think she thinks of it as “doing it all by myself.”  Or “following instructions.”  This morning she’s trying to feed herself breakfast.  I made her some oatmeal with maple & brown sugar, and cut up strawberries (fresh from our strawberry picking field trip yesterday) and mixed them in.  And she’s making a mess.  A huge mess.  She’s just learning to eat from a spoon and she’s pretty good at it, but sometimes it gets frustrating and she starts to use her hands instead.  Like I said, a huge mess.  The thing is, she’s refusing to let me help her.  I got a second spoon and was starting to help feed her and she pushed me away.  So the best I can do for the moment is let her eat, and get out the firehose for later.  But she thinks she’s doing it “all by herself” so that makes it fun.