Not so Helpful Helper

Dave and AJ headed down to the land Saturday to take care of a few things. Since they had a pretty full schedule of work, Teddy and I stayed home to get a few things done and avoid chasing Teddy around the cow poop from our grazing visitors. Getting a few things done with Teddy can be quite the interesting experience, though, because sometimes he plays really well independently, sometimes he wants you right by him and sometimes he destroys stuff faster than you can possibly keep up.

Our Saturday morning started with Teddy breaking the bathroom faucet while reefing on the handles and sitting on the counter washing his feet. He's extremely interested in playing in water, and usually it's not that horrible of a mess to just soak up the water. This adventure required turning off the hot water to avoid the constant dripping until Dave came home. Luckily, that was a quick fix that just required tightening a few things.

Teddy and I went to the farmers' market to get some beans and cucumbers to can. We also sampled donuts and crab rangoon, both of which made excellent breakfasts. I knew that attempting to can with Teddy had the potential to be challenging, but I managed to get everything canned while he was awake.

He actually spent much of his time playing in the garage. The garage is not the safest spot for him, to be completely honest, but it works with frequent checks, a sharp ear listening for reasons to sprint there and tolerance for things to be destroyed. On one of those checks, I discovered Teddy was an auto mechanic with a mop. He was nearly all the way under the car, just like an auto mechanic, although I've never seen an auto mechanic under a car with a mop as their tool. Fortunately his feet were sticking out, so I could extract him and point him in a different direction with his mop.

Sunday morning, I decided we should clean our windows that were completely schmutzed with fingerprints, food and probably quite a few licks. This gave Teddy the chance to play with the spray bottle. I managed to snap a few pictures of him, and he looks so proud of his work and helpful. Reality was that I was constantly following right behind him, redirecting him to spray only the windows and not everywhere else (including his mouth) and eventually sent him outside to spray to his heart's content. That ended with the spray bottle in two pieces and part of it dropped over the deck.

Still, it was a productive weekend as far as life with Teddy goes. And he looks super helpful, so I can always use these pictures when I'm trying to outsource him, right?

This is great fine motor practice. 

Doesn't he look happy and helpful?