Arby, Nitch 'n Late: My little helper

One of Nicholas' favorite things to help with is emptying the dishwasher. I LOVE that he loves this because one day he'll be able to do it on his own...hopefully. And that would be awesome. We always start with the silverware, while I put away the hard to reach things (our glass tupperware, for instance). He's really good at sorting out the utensils and putting them in the right places. He even distinguishes between the big forks and little forks. What he doesn't like is when I put all of his utensils (the kid size plastic ones) in the back of the drawer instead of right next to the adult ones. Why can't my spoon go with Mom's spoon?? Good point, hijo.

Then I let him stand on the counter in front of the dish cupboards. I hand him the plates, bowls, and cups one by one and he puts them in their places. It's pretty awesome :)

We always start with the plastic ones, but he does the big heavy "real" plates as well. Way to go, Nicholas!

He's turned into such a great little helper since the girls were born. He likes to stand at the changing table and help me change diapers. He puts their binkies in their mouths when they cry. He really likes to bounce them in their bouncy chairs, or turn on the vibrating switch and the music.

Today Mando and I both fell asleep during nap time (hard to resist a Sunday afternoon nap). I had Lauren next to me in bed, so Kate was all alone in her crib. Mando fell asleep on the couch. He woke up to the sound of Kate crying, and when he went into the girls' room he found Nicholas laying next to Kate in her crib! Nicholas had woken up and instead of coming to find me or Armando, he decided he could help stop Kate from crying, so he climbed right into her crib and laid next to her. All he said when we found him was, "I big brother." :) I love that. He really, really loves his little sisters. He's very protective.

Whenever we're out and about we get stopped A LOT by curious people. Everyone wants to know if the girls are twins ("no, I just have two babies that are the same age...."), if they're a boy and a girl (since Lauren is in Nicholas' hand-me-down carseat, people always think she's a boy. And sadly, she always seems to be wearing the gender neutral color that day. I promise I put BOTH of them in girl colors, but for some reason Lauren always ends up in a blue/green/yellow outfit when we head out of the house, so I can't really blame people for the confusion.), how old they are, if they're identical or fraternal (I've started answering this question by simply saying, "I don't know!" and offering no other explanation. It really takes people a few moments to recover, not quite sure what to say to that. It's fun.), whether they sleep at night or not (yes, they're both GREAT night sleepers. It just means they don't sleep during the day very much.), etc.

Nicholas always stands between the person asking the questions and the girls. He proudly says, "Mine baby sisters! I da big brother." And he gets really antsy when people try to touch them, saying, "No, that's mine!" He's always giving Kate and Lauren hugs and kisses. He's a great brother, and I'm really excited for them to play together when the girls get a little bigger.