Pegs and Putting Away

A quiet happy morning at the clothesline - a fairly common place to be around here, what with a young family and modern cloth nappies to boot! I actually love being out there, I find it really relaxing to be in the sunshine while the kids play and we all chat. 

Little Eli toddled around the backyard today, then he came over, grabbed a couple of pegs from the basket and held them out to me... 'Hup, Hup' (Help, Help). My darling little boy was wanting to help me peg up the washing by passing me the pegs - bless his little heart!..... How to break it to him that in fact I was taking the washing down, not pegging it up?? Of course, I couldn't! I mean, just look at that face!!

Love this little man and his charming ways. He cheerfully handed me a big handful of pegs one by one until I could hold no more, then I put them on the ground and he methodically put them all back in the peg basket.

Eighteen months seems to be the magic age when all our work on 'putting things away' seems to start taking effect - hooray! I can now ask him to pack up his toys after play and he mostly does it cheerfully and methodically and sometimes even without being asked (wonderful!). 

Combine this with the fact that at this age they seem to quite enjoy it (taking out, putting back in, repeat ad finitum)! I should also add that this boy has always had a finely tuned sense of where things go and where they shouldn't - I try not to take it as a judgement against my housekeeping when he find a crumb on the ground and always brings it to me urgently to take care of!!!

A simple and sweet moment with my sunny little man...

PS - Contrary to appearances, this child does actually possess more clothing that just Bonds stripey PJs!!