Our little helper

Elli loves to imitate what mom and dad are doing. One day, for example, we had let some dishes accumulate in the sink throughout the day. At the end of the day, Todd rinsed and loaded most of the dishes but let a large pot soak. Elli saw the pot and wanted to clean, too, so we grabbed her a chair and she went to work. It was pretty adorable.

Sometimes she does the same thing when we sweep. That case is a bit trickier, though, because instead of making piles, she ploughs right into the piles of dirt that we make, spreading them everywhere. So the key is to first distract her by having her sweep in one area while we quickly sweep in another and get the piles all sweep up before she tries to "help" us.