Lots of hard work hey Dad?

This is what I heard about 100 times yesterday from Caleb as the 2 of us tackled the renovations in the house. Caleb is becoming quite the handyman eager to learn everything he can and I'm sure he just likes using the tools and swinging the hammer around too.

The plan for yesterday was pretty straight forward. Remove the old trim and baseboard from the living room and hall and then remove the panelling from the stairway. When Caleb caught wind that I was going to be working he got pretty excited and there was no way he was going to let me work alone. I told him he had to get dressed first and get his shoes on which he did in record time (even today he was still talking about how fast he got ready yesterday). Then off we went to start ripping out the baseboard. Anna helped us a little as well while Esther kept watch from the sofa as supervisor since she wasn't feeling well.

Caleb gets all "manly" when he is working with me. His voice gets into a serious tone and he keeps reminding me that he is being careful for the nails and he is also making sure Anna is careful. The funny part was the number of times he let out a sigh and said "Lots of hard work hey Dad?" which I obviously had to agreed with. I cannot count how many times he said it but he sure was working hard and loved every minute of it.

After the work and cleanup it was time to relax. As Laura mentioned in a previous post, puzzles are quite popular in our house right now and we found a great online puzzle site called Jigzone. Caleb and I did some online puzzles (mostly Caleb actually) while Anna and Esther watched a movie. After the movie Anna came up to watch me finish a puzzle. Having Anna watch you do a puzzle is a real "feel good" experience. Every single piece I matched up she would say "Yay Daddy". A 40 piece puzzle is 40 "Yay Daddy's" plus a "YOU DID IT!!!" cheer when the puzzle is done. Later she was doing a floor puzzle on her own and I would heard her say "Yay Anna". Looks like she is going to be a great cheerleader.