My Little Helper

I just thought I'd make a quick post, in order to document a little behavior I noticed today. Ella, when she feels like it, is a really excellent helper.

This month the Elders Quorum is assigned to take down the chairs at church after meetings. During such months, when Ella inevitably wants to run, drink from the water fountain, be a pill, or all of the above, we go around the periphery and stack chairs in the classrooms to pass the time (and keep her on a bit shorter of a leash--the straightaways that the chapel offers are just too much fun to walk down). Today was one of those days, and as we'd go around, we'd get into this little routine where Ella would push/pull one of the chairs over to me, and I'd stack it. Now I wasn't waiting around for her to do it...I'd grab plenty myself. However, it was just so neat to have her help. And after she'd help me, occasionally she'd look up and say "Good Job High Five", after which we'd high five and then run (well, she'd run) to the next classroom.

This evening we emptied the dishwasher together. Ella knows where nearly everything goes, including the Pyrex. She had it halfway to the Lazy Susan when I came over to help. She's a very smart little girl. She's also very funny...right now she says a lot of c's like h's, so "car" comes out "har" and "cup" comes out "hup". That doesn't really relate to the rest of the story, except to say that as she'd grab cups from the dishwasher to put away she'd say "hup". Ella has taken to mimicking everything I say (or a lot of it), which means that I occasionally get a "dang it", but often get prayers, as well as a lot of other cute stuff. I'm truly honored to be her daddy.

Anyway, I hope that I didn't bore the rest of you with that stuff, but this blog serves partial function as a family journal, and I didn't want to lose those details. I hope that I can continue to be as close to her as she grows, in spite of new trips to time out and the fact that any reprimand causes her to tear up nearly immediately. I've come to understand my Heavenly Father a bit better through the experience, in that I have to do things that make her sad in the short term (like putting her down for naps), in order to accomplish larger goals for her and ensure eventual happiness.

Daddy