Children = free labor.

Well, at least cheap labor. This wasn't funny when I was a teenager and my mom was making us mow the lawn or wash dishes, but I have seen the light. Yesterday at our mom's group Mimosa Monday (Which, by the way, included my first mimosa and my God, they're delicious. How do we not wake up every morning with mimosas?!) one of the moms was talking about chores little kids can do. Whit was one of the youngest there, but she said to google chores and his age and she guaranteed something would come up. So here's some of the options for a 19-month-old

Water plants. Okay, I'm down once we start planting things. I plan on us spending a lot of time outside anyway, since it's more my natural habitat.

Put books on shelf. Hardy har har! I've been trying for a while, but it just turns into a game of him pulling them out and me putting them back. Until I give up and we have books all over the floor for a week.

Put toys in toy bins. Whit is kinda into this. Although last week when my friend Amanda and her son Pierce visited, Whit took a bunch of toys out and promptly put them all back without being asked. Whoa, who are you and what have you done with my toddler?

Place groceries on conveyor belt. Hmmm, this seems feasible and like it would keep him calm in the buggy. Whit loves pushing the buggy himself, which I'm cool with, but most other shoppers aren't thrilled with a mysteriously self-propelled cart running them over.... while I try not to laugh. 

Put away clothes. Um, no. I'm too OCD for this, sorry.

Put wet laundry in the dryer. Done and done.

Though occasionally we get distracted with that nifty light button...

Feed dog. Tried this for the first time this morning. First bowl of food was fine, the dogs even gave him some space. Bowl #2 wasn't even close. So the dogs and Whit spent a few minutes picking up/tasting/eating what fell. I let you imagine who did what.

Pull weeds. Oh yeah, this is also happening once we can go outside.

Put dirty clothes in laundry basket. Okay. No problema.

Put dirty dishes in the sink. Uhm, not sure how. Sink is way taller than him and only he owns plastic dishes.

Help cook and prepare simple meals. Whoa, let's slow our roll here a bit. The original blogger was talking about making pizza together and that sounds doable. But I'm not sure what other meals he could help make.

And let me just add my own:

Resident Artist. In the past month Whit has started to enjoy coloring with having to eat the crayons and boy have I put that to use! First we made Valentine's for some of the family.

I borrowed Whit's notebook and cut out some heart shapes and popped them in an envelope. Boom! Valentines for the relatives that don't see him often. And bonus, I can use his drawings instead of feeling guilty that I'm not keeping. every. single. one.

And today I used a sheet to make a dry erase board for the kitchen:

Originally I was just going to put some scrapbook paper in there, but thought why not use some of Whit's art? So when we're not using it for notes, it will still make me smile. And I love he tried a new technique for the first time and it just happened to be on the sheet I was going to use!

Any chores that you suggest a young toddler try?