Little Helping Hands: Caritas

This week Spencer and I were signed up for an activity at the Caritas of Austin Kitchen, but because work was so crazy for me I asked Daddy if he would take Spencer. I hated to miss a volunteer opportunity, but the boys had a really good experience making big batches of lasagna. Caritas provides lunches for 350 people in need every Monday - Saturday!

Spencer is very helpful in these situations - always working hard and asking what he can do next. And he was really rockin' that hair net!

Little Helping Hands: Mobile Loaves and Fishes

Man, I'm a big fan of the Little Helping Hands organization. Spencer and I have really enjoyed our volunteer opportunities. So far we have delivered food for Meals on Wheels, prepared pet food deliveries twice for the Meals on Wheels PALS program, spread mulch in the Blunn Preserve (with Daddy!), and yesterday we tried a new activity: loading a Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck. These trucks make daily deliveries of food, clothing and other odds-and-ends to the homeless. 

Spencer said this was his favorite activity so far, and I think it was because he got to do a variety of tasks. We scooped lots of ice, loaded drinks, sandwiches, fruit, etc. into the truck. When we left he said he wished there would've been fewer people so we wouldn't have finished so quickly!

Last Day of 4

Wow! Today is Spencer's last day as a 4-year-old. So hard to believe that we will have ourselves a FIVE-YEAR-OLD tomorrow. As I've said before, his birth feels simultaneously like yesterday and a zillion years ago - such an odd sensation.

We spent the morning at Blunn Preserve doing a Little Helping Hands volunteer project. We were tasked with spreading mulch along a big stretch of walking trail. I was proud of Spencer - he worked so hard for the full hour. He told us later that someone said, "You sure have worked hard today," and he replied, "When something's hard I stick with it." Glad to know that message it seeping in... He earned a t-shirt and a free Amy's Ice Creams coupon today for completing his third volunteer project.

After resting at the house for a little while, Spencer and Daddy went to a real golf course for a couple of hours. Big moment for the boys! I did a little birthday shopping and went to the new Trader Joe's for the first time (big moment for me!).

When they got home, we played some Uno before dinner (can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but Spencer is totally into Uno now and it's super fun!). Then Daddy headed out to do some final birthday shopping while Spencer and I did bath and bedtime. I need to find a pic of him wrapped in this monkey towel to compare. Look at those long legs - the towel barely covers his bum now!

 

I think I'll end this entry with a few things I want to remember that I appreciate and delight in about Spencer at 364 days old...

• His fun sense of humor
• His competitive streak (not always fun to witness, but he comes by it honestly!)
• His kind heart and empathetic nature
• His love of mushroom
• His newly discovered reading ability (we pretty much have a full-on reader now) and love of books
• His ability to have conversations - it's such a joy to talk with him!
• His concentration when working on a LEGO project
• His love of hearing stories - real stories about him, Daddy's or Mommy's life, or crazy made-up tales that Daddy tells after dinner
• The enthusiastic way he collaborated with Daddy on an "iPad Success Plan" last week after we had an issue with unauthorized usage (with the babysitter)
• His love of playing and listening to music
• The deep, deep belly laugh that no one brings out in him quite like Daddy
• They way he's always ready for an adventure 

Happy birthday (almost), my beautiful boy!

PAWS

Spencer and I volunteered through Little Helping Hands again last week. This time we chose a different activity - still with Meals on Wheels, but instead of delivering food, we prepared pet supplies. MOW has a program called PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) that provides cat food, dog food and cat litter to people who need a little assistance in order to keep their furry companions.

This is the kind of activity I love to do and we made an excellent team. Spencer loved marking things off our list as we filled orders and was a big help gathering the supplies as well.

We loved this activity and hope to sign up again next month. I've never volunteered much, but it's something Dave and I want to expose Spencer to as much as we can. We are a lucky little family and it feels great to give back to the community.

Little Helping Hands

Today Spencer and I volunteered at Meals on Wheels through an organization called Little Helping Hands. As you might guess, Little Helping Hands helps children and parents get involved in community service activities.

We went to the MOW headquarters for an orientation, during which Spencer made some cards to deliver with our meals. Then we collected our food and were on our way. I grabbed these pictures from Little Helping Hands' Shutterfly account.

A couple of funny things. First, the training video we watched showed lots of hugging and chatting during deliveries. Spencer was a little disappointed that we didn't have that type of experience. We only had three deliveries to make and there wasn't any embracing going on! I tried to explain that if a stranger came to our door, we probably wouldn't be too keen on hugging them either. The last woman did at least speak to us for a couple of seconds. Second, and I know this is probably going to sound terrible, we weren't in the best part of town for these deliveries. I just felt a little nervous at our last stop because there was a group of people standing in the middle of the road a block or so over; cars would stop, one of the guys would lean way into it, then the car would leave. I could only assume what was going on...probably asking for directions, right? If we do it again, I'd feel more comfortable if Dave joined us.

But that said, MOW is a great organization and I loved that Spencer and I had the chance to deliver food to people in need. I'm really excited to be connected with Little Helping Hands now!