Leif Gets to Work!

Leif rubs down the wall with a rag to remove the glue backing from the wallpaper we'd just stripped off.

On a bit of whim, I decided one morning that the wallpaper in the kitchen, the last in the house, MUST come down. So, we set to work. Some areas were tough - like around the stove, where years of steam and grime made it more difficult to peel it off. Other areas were great fun, like peeling skin off from a sunburn. I would start the pulling at the top of the wall, and when it was 1/4 of the way down, Leif would take over and pull it all the way down from the bottom. Then he pulled it out from the baseboard, and put it in a big pile.

When I did the areas where he couldn't help, like over the sink, he gathered the pieces I ripped off as they fell to the floor, and added them to the pile. So, as I pulled, he cleaned up behind me. What a help!

When we go to the part of wiping down the walls to dissolve the glue, I gave him his own rag, and he wiped away. When he was through wiping a spot, I'd come through with the scraper, and off the backing came! He did such a great job that the part he did is the cleanest part in the whole kitchen!

Jason helped a lot, too - he pulled out the fridge (and then stripped the paper behind the fridge). He also took some of the electrical plates off for me. :)

He was working hard!

Pausing a moment for a picture. See the big pot on the stove? We were cooking crabs at the same time!

He's been helping around the house a lot lately. He helps with dishes, with dusting, with vacuuming - all sorts of things!

The other day, I was doing dishes and he came in and wanted to help. He ran to get his "ladder" (one of his playroom chairs) and brought it back in. I really didn't want him splashing in the water, wasting water and time when I really had to get the dishes done.

So, I got a fresh towel of of the drawer and handed it to him, asking if he'd like to dry (he'd never done it before). I gave him a little melamine dish, and he dried it perfectly then handed it back for me to put away. I told him where it went, and he put it away. After a few plastic dishes, we were on to pots and pans!

He did a fantastic job getting every drop of water off of every dish, and then putting it away. He loved it because it was helping, and I loved it because it really was helping!

Leif has been loving puzzles lately, especially floor puzzles. The other day I bought him a new floor puzzle, since he'd mastered the old one, and it was great because it was four different puzzles in one! I heard some singing (he's been singing a lot lately, and I love it!) so I peeped in to the playroom to check on him, and I saw him doing this - singing while doing floor puzzles.

Lately, his holy trinity of toys has been Matchbox Cars, Puzzles, and Berenstain Bear Books. So you can imagine his excitement when Grandmom and Granddad sent him a package in the mail full of Jason's old matchbox cars as well as some other fun things (will show you later!)

He's been on cloud 9 playing with his "new" matchbox cars. In addition to that great gift, we've been giving him matchbox cars as incentive to not wet/mess his pants. Unfortunately, we've only given him two in the last week (gah!) but his little collection is slowly growing and he loves it!

Of course, since I picked out his new cars, I chose all vintage vehicles (the earliest they had were 60s era cars!) so now he has a great little stash of 60s and 70s cars, both true vintage and faux vintage! :) Worked out pretty well, I'd say.

More bloggage below!