Helpful

Matthew was very helpful last night. Daddy was sweeping the kitchen floor, and Mattie wanted to help, too! The broom was kind of big for him, but he swept with it for quite a while. (Next step: dustpan.)

Also, the other day when he was taking clothes off the shelf, I asked him to put some clothes back, and he did! (Of course, he then grabbed something else off, but it's a start.) And today he took a lid out of the drawer in the changing table, ran off with it, and then came and put it back in the drawer.

So, perhaps there's hope that one day the cleaning around here won't all be up to Mommy and Daddy. (Hmm...I think I can hear my parents laughing all the way from Florida!)

James, meanwhile, has decided that pushing the garbage can around the kitchen is almost as good as pushing his shopping cart in the basement. He walked most of the way across the living room (the short way) when Mike stood him up and had him walk to the couch, but he still doesn't try walking on his own (that is, without holding on to something) without us encouraging him. I wonder if it's just that he's been crawling for so long that he's not so motivated about walking.

In other news, Mattie said his first two-word combination the other day! He was climbing on his slide and said, "Up slide." I didn't think anything about it at the time (I'm sure I said something like, "That's right, Matthew, you're climbing up your slide"), but when I thought about it later I realized it was something new. Go, Mattie! He also says "all done" and "uh oh" (although I think he may think that means "something falling on the floor", because among other times, he said it as he was pulling the towels off their towel racks). And tonight I'm pretty sure he said, "Sun up" when he was looking at the Very Hungry Caterpillar (and in fact, that's exactly what happens on that page -- the warm sun comes up.)

Also today, James pulled up the letter O from his foam floor blocks, held it up, and said "ooo". Woo-hoo, his first letter! (Next step: H-I-O*.)

* The Buckeye fans in the crowd know what I'm talking about. :)