A Milestone for Jayce

Most people wouldn't call this an actual "milestone", but in our family, it kinda is. See, Brian (who loves his structure and routine) washes the cars every other Saturday. Without fail. In rain or shine. In 100 degree weather and in 30 degree weather. If its a "Car Saturday" then that's what he is doing.

Since Jaina was about 14 or 15 months old (pretty much the summer after she turned 1), she would toddle over to the soap bucket, dip her kitchen sponge into the bubbles and "help" daddy wash the car. Then he'd let her help spray with the hose, which was her favorite part. Of course she got soaking wet, but that was only part of the fun of car washing day. I have several adorable pictures of Jaina as a toddler helping Daddy, but unfortunately, none of them are scanned and on my computer.

The summer after Jayce turned one was quite different than Jaina's. We discovered that Jayce was afraid of water... both seeing it spray and swimming in a pool. He quickly conquered his fear of pools by the end of summer, but still did not like fountains, sprinklers, rain, hoses, etc. And although he LOVES to clean things up (just like his daddy!) he does not like to get bubbles on him. Its "sticky", he says in his own words.

So, sadly, Jayce would not wash cars with Daddy. Most of the time, he wouldn't even stand to be outside and even watch the water spray.

But last weekend, guess what happened???

I had taken Jayce down the street on his new tricycle that he got for Christmas. He can't peddle on it, but just the fact that he is willing to get on it now is huge progress! Anyway, we turned around and got back to our driveway. Brian was already washing the cars. Jayce just sat and stared.

I said, "Go help daddy?"
"Help daddy?", he replied, which usually means he's agreeing to do what you just said.
"Wash car?", I asked again.
"All-gone wash car", he said, now with a bit of panic in his voice.
"Okay, all-gone wash car," I reassured him.
"Wash car?" he repeated again.
"Get off?" he asked me to help him get off his trike. He slowly walked over to the cars. Then he quickly backed up when Brian sprayed the hose. But Jayce didn't scream or cry. He became fascinated with the hose instead. I lured him to the bucket of suds with the promise of him to see "bubbles" and helped him get some bubbles on his sponge.

The rest was history :) Daddy's got his little helper now!