At the Car Wash

A few weeks ago we had a break from the Winter chill and the people of the neighborhood left their caves.  We, like everyone else in the neighborhood took the opportunity to wash the months of salt and grime off of our cars.  While I washed my car Alyce and Luke were in quiet time or taking naps.  As I finished with my car Alyce came outside asking if she could help wash Mom's car.  I agreed and got a little helper.

First we needed some new soapy water.  I let Alyce pour in some solution and she operated the hose to make the bubbles.  Next I gave her a sponge and sent her off to wash the car.  She did one side while I did the other.  When it was time to wash off a section of the car I walked around and looked at Alyce's work.  Needless to say she missed a few spots.  She was very much enjoying herself and she wasn't getting in my way so I allowed her to continue.  When it was time to spray off her sections I let her shoot while I held the hose behind her like a fireman.  When it was time for me to spray Alyce took position behind me and held the hose for me.

During one spray session Alyce's aim wandered and she started showering me with water.  I lightly protested this and rather than turning the hose away she continued to shoot me giggling the whole time.

I very much enjoyed my time with Alyce washing the car.  It was cool that she was so willing to help me.

Not Really Helping Daddy Out

Over the past few weeks Alyce has been helping me with my project.  She has helped me hammer, dig, shovel rock, and put blocks into place for a retaining wall.  With all of that she has stayed pretty much out of the way while I've been working on things.  Her winning streak sadly has come to an end.  Alyce did something that cost time and money.

On Wednesday I took a half day off from work to get some blocks placed on my wall.  While out there Alyce was doing her own thing, staying out of trouble, and playing with a pink bat and ball on the patio.  As I was placing my ninth block and really started to hit a rhythm my concentration was broken with Alyce saying "oh no, my ball".  I asked her where her ball went and she pointed to a piece of black corrugated pipe which was attached to the main drain line that ran from the back of the house, under ground, and to the front of the house.  I was instantly sick to my stomach.  I pulled the lengths of pipe out, reached into the line and the ball was no where to be seen or felt.  At this point I was rather frustrated with my little girl, but I knew it wasn't her fault, and didn't direct any anger towards her.  I asked Mom to come out back and bring Alyce inside so that I could cool down a bit and figure out a way to get this ball out of the pipes.

To skip over a lot of details I was unsuccessful in getting out the ball and had to rely on a plumber a few days later to blast the line with water or use a camera to find the ball for $200.  Even the plumber was unsuccessful at getting out the ball.  I didn't know where the ball was, but I was pretty sure it wasn't in the drain.  While picking up some pipes today to get ready for a big day of work tomorrow I looked down into the pipe and staring back at me is the missing pink ball.

A lot of things could have happened.  Perhaps Alyce put the ball into this tube but pointed to the other tube when I asked her where her ball was.  Maybe I jumped to conclusions on what I thought happened and didn't bother to eliminate the possibilities.  I think both Alyce and I need to learn some lessons from this experience.  I should look before I leap.  I should learn to close open holes when children are around.  Alyce could learn to not play around daddy's projects but I think that might be asking too much from a 2 year old.  I regret that I had to spend $200 to learn these lessons, but if I don't learn anything from this experience then the money and time would be wasted.

Helping Daddy Out: Part 2

As my retaining wall project continues Alyce is finding new ways to help me.  Earlier she helped me drive some pegs into the ground and today she helped me shovel dirt.  I spent almost the entire afternoon preparing the trench that the wall will rest within.  Towards the end just before dinner Mom was outside with Luke for a feeding.  While feeding Luke Mom commented that he was watching me go about my excavation.  I said back to her that "he should come help me shovel".  Alyce must have heard me and thought that I needed some help shoveling and immediately ran up to me telling that she could do it!  I handed Alyce my shovel and said "go for it".  She picked up my shovel got a bit of dirt in the pan and did her best to try and deposit the cargo into the bucket I've been using to put the dirt into a pile.  What she lacked in shoveling capacity she more than made up for it with cuteness!

After a bit Alyce got bored or tired of using the big shovel and asked to use her blue shovel.  Alyce has an entire set of play yard tools and a blue shovel is one of the implements.  Mom grabbed it from the garage, handed it to Alyce, and she started helping me again.  Alyce also grabbed her own orange bucket to hold the dirt rather than my own 5 gallon bucket.  Alyce would take two shovel fulls of dirt and put them into her orange bucket, walk to the dirt pile, and dump the contents onto the pile.  She probably moved about 3 cubic inches with every bucket but as long as she kept out from underneath my shovel I didn't mind and enjoyed her company.

After a while she even got bored of helping me shovel and moved onto something new, the dirt pile.  If there is one constant in the universe it is that kids like to climb dirt piles.  I am really surprised that it took Alyce almost a week to attempt to climb up the pile of dirt on the patio but today her streak ended.  She made a few probing climbs to get used to how the dirt shifts but eventually she made an attempt at the summit and got about 3/4s the way up.  I thought this was really cute, but I couldn't let it continue more than a few times since I needed to get back to work and I couldn't leave her unattended on such an unsettled surface.  Of course this led to some tears but Alyce got over it and I finished up my digging for the day.

Alyce Is Getting Things Ready

We are getting things around the house ready for the new baby. Alyce is doing her part too. She tested out the car seat to make sure it is safe. Molly looks pretty safe so I think Twinkle will be alright.

Helping Daddy

For the past few weeks I have been getting Alyce's new room ready. I am painting the walls, installing new trim, replacing outlets, and fixing up a window seat. Throughout the entire process I've had an audience, Alyce. Up until this weekend Alyce has simply watched and not interrupted. That changed this weekend. You are probably thinking uh oh this isn't going to be good. She didn't do any damage and actually helped a little bit. Throughout it all she was extremely cute.

This weekend I was assembling a new window seat for her room. Once I had it primed I needed to sand it smooth. On Sunday I starting sanding while Mom ran over to Jeff and Liz's house leaving Alyce with me. Rather than watching her play I asked her if she wanted to help. She responded with a head nod and a "uh huh". I handed her a piece of sandpaper and prompted her to stand on a step of her slide. She took up the paper and started mimicking me sanding. She would sand a little section and then rub her hand across it to see how smooth it was just like me. I figured she would do this for all of 10 seconds but surprisingly she helped me for around 10 minutes. She sanded a grand total of around 1 square foot, but it was the smoothest square foot ever.

Later the same day I was upstairs doing some wiring and Alyce came in to join me. She pointed towards the outlet and said "fixed it". I'm not sure if she means I'm fixing it, it needs fixing, or if I fixed it. But it was still cute. A bit later she picked up a strip of cardboard looked at me said "paint?". I said that she could paint the walls if she wanted. She proceeded to put the cardboard on the walls and drug it around like if she was using a roller. She thought this was cool and walked all over her room pretend painting little sections here and there. She even went into the hallway to paint out there.

Simple But Profound

So Alyce gets it. Well she gets something. Something simple but profound. Yesterday Mom and I were in the Kitchen talking about something unimportant when Mom has a really big sneeze. A few seconds later Alyce comes running into the kitchen with a tissue in hand. She walks over to mommy and hands it to her. We didn't ask her to get a tissue. We haven't ever asked her to do something like that. Yet somehow she put all the pieces together to know that when Mom sneezes, she needs a tissue, and that she could / should get her one.

Pretty profound.

Big Helper

One nice part about Alyce growing up is that she is more able to do things to help out around the house. Note, able to do things is not equal to willing to do things. Last night the family made a run to Target after dinner to pick up a few things. While the trip was not very interesting what happened when we got home was.

Alyce is old enough now that we don't have to carry her into the house anymore. We pull her out of her car seat and she walks into the house provided we hold the door for her. Last night we added to this by asking Alyce to help carry in some groceries. We handed her a shopping bag that had a box of Fruit Loops inside. The bag wasn't very heavy but it was very big. Alyce holding the bag by its handles had to hold it above her head so that the bag / box wouldn't drag. On top of that she had to walk with her legs out to the side so they wouldn't bump into the bag. Alyce did a very good job of bring the bag up the steps and into the house. We gave her lots of praise calling her Mom and Dad's big helper. I think she was very proud of herself as well.