A Great Help
This weekend, Meg and I took Asher to visit his grandparents at their new digs in DC. The trip was fantastic. Asher's experiencing a language explosion at the moment where pretty much any word you prompt him for gets returned in some recognizable fashion, even if its first time hearing it. One of the big surprises for me this morning was "escalator." True, it came out a bit closer to "eh-cuh-cuh" than the real thing, but there wasn't any doubt what he was shooting for.
No doubt I'm excited about his sudden burst of words and babble. But I might be even more excited by Asher's sudden willingness to help out. Even better, he takes such pleasure in doing so.
Last week, as we were getting ready for bed, Asher pulled a basket of toys from underneath his bed and retrieved a toy within. When Meg called him into the bathroom for teeth brushing, Asher dropped the toy to the floor. I But he only made it five feet before he stopped, thought for a moment, then turned and walked back to the toy. Not only did he return the toy to the basket, he also pushed the basket back under the bed, a gentle smile on his face.
Then today, I caught him doing some kind of weird pizza-tossing business with laundry he'd taken from a nearby basket. Rub two sides of the bib together, slam the bib on the floor, then flip it over and try again. It wasn't until Asher was satisfied with his treatment of the first one that I realized he'd been trying to approximate folding the laundry. With the many baskets of unfolded clothes in these parts, this is a Very Good Thing.
And I can ask him now, from another room, "Asher, can you please pick up these toys?" and occasionally, he'll trot to where I am and do exactly what I'd hoped he'd do.
It's not every time, and of course I wouldn't expect it to be. But he gets it, and he's trying, and that's got his mom and I pretty chuffed.