Mommy's Little Helper

The day I made my burnt salsa Lili decided not to take a nap...which is becoming more and more common these days. While Will snoozed away, I thought it would be a good time to finish up my little project and of course Miss. Lili wanted to be a part of the action. As soon as she realized that I would be camping out in the kitchen for awhile, she ran to the bathroom to grab her stool. After placing it directly in front of the sink, she looked at me and said, 'I help you, Mommy?'. Seriously. Who could say no to that? Since I needed to blanche the tomatoes so that they could be peeled and cut into chunks, I gave her the task of washing the tomatoes before they went into the pot. I gave her a couple of little bowls and she would rinse each tomato and then place them in the bowls. Once the bowls were filled, I would throw them in the pot for blanching while she filled them up again. It really wasn't a glamorous job, however Lili seemed to think so. Every few minutes she would say to me, 'THANK you Mommy for letting me help you!'. While I thought that was one of the sweetest and sincerest things she has ever said to me, it also made me a little sad and I started to wonder if I don't let her 'help' enough around here. Sometimes I need to remind myself that even if the job seems insignificant to me, to her it could mean the world. She obviously loves being a part of things like this, so who am I to stop her? She did a great job too!