Tiny achievements

A rare peaceful sleeping moment

This morning I had a "Finally!" moment with Justin. He has been fascinated with the dishwasher for months, and most moments have been an endurance test for both of us ("Justin, dirty dishes stay in the dishwasher; Justin, those are clean dishes, it's time to put them away; No, Justin! I know those forks are dirty but they don't go in the garbage!!! Hold it Hold it Hold it!! If you stand on the dishwasher door it will break!!!").

We started with banning him from touching the dishwasher, then moved to allowing him to play with the empty silverware basket while I unloaded the rest of the dishwasher, then we began setting aside the items that go in "his" cupboard (i.e. plastic containers, his plates) and telling him to put them away (modeling this for him, putting the plate or bowl in his hands and walking him over to the cupboard and showing him how to put the bowl on the shelf) while at the same time making a mad dash for the knives and breakable plates on the bottom rack before he got to them.

Up until today, he has shown zero interest in acknowledging this. Once we jointly put the item on the shelf he takes it right back out, along with several other plates and bowls and either scatters them all over the kitchen floor or brings them back to the dishwasher and "reloads" them. Or, he takes one look at the plastic containers I set aside for him and continues taking the silverware out of the basket and sucking on each one before I take it away and put it in the drawer ("clean" dishes have a new definition round our house these days).

But, today he picked up the stack of bowls and plates and marched right over to his cupboard and placed them right on the shelf and closed the door, turning around to give me a proud, self-satisfied look. He finally gets it!!!