“Eric, see what Joel’s doing…”

“Eric, clean your room…”

“Eric, go play with Joel…”

“Eric, help me take Ezra’s diaper please…”

“Eric, help me hold Ezra’s bottle, I need to do the dishes…”

“Eric, please do the laundry…”

Believe it or not, these are the things I asked Eric to help me with around the house. I certainly appreciate all that this big kid of mine does around the house. He’s even more helpful than his dad. To my delight, he especially loves doing the laundry — well, up to the washing part, that is. He asked me one day whether he could help me to wash clothes, and I thought why not. It took him five rounds of laundry to understand where and how to do it.

Always eager to help me with that particular house chore, he would carry a load of dirty clothes and stuff them into the washing machine, and press those nifty buttons that buzz, and as the machine loads up with water, he would pour the detergent and softener to the right amount into the right compartments. His reward would be the chance to observe those clothes splish-sploshing their way through the wash cycle. That’s as far as I let him help with the washing.

I think about how much Eric has helped me around the house, and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do half of the housework if it weren’t for his help. This precious son of mine is my very own little handy helper, God bless him.