Mason, Ham, and a Broom

Mason may only be 18 months old, but he already has an understanding of cleaning up. He, of course, makes plenty of messes (he's still in the stage of throwing food off his plate, dumping bowls of food, etc) but he also is good at "helping" clean up. He likes helping me put the stools back in place at the island after I sweep the kitchen floor and he constantly pulls out the broom to "sweep" the floor for me. The other day, though, he did the cutest clean-up ever. He had a bowl of ham pieces that he was munching on and he had carried it off into the family room. It inevitably ended up dumped on the carpet. I was busy in the kitchen cleaning up from lunch when I suddenly see Mason run into the kitchen, shimmy in between the wall and the fridge, pull out the broom, and run back into the family room. My curiosity was peaked (I had not yet known that the ham had been spilled). I followed him into the family room to see him trying to sweep up the ham that he had spilled. It was so cute! He made quite the effort (although not much ham moved). I then bent down and started picking up the pieces and he joined me in putting them back in the bowl to be thrown away. We even missed a piece and when Mason found it he ran into the kitchen and put it in the trash can. Oh, if only children would remain so helpful.