My special assistant

I've done quite a bit of canning this fall, and I think I'm finally done. I did tomatoes, salsa, and spaghetti sauce, then grape juice and apple sauce with a friend, and then on Monday I did apple slices with the help of Jackson...and what a helper he was!

First he emptied the apples out of the bucket and threw them on the floor...we had quite a few bruised apples. Then he helped me wash them in the sink
Next, we used the spiffy peeler-corer-slicer. Jackson would help put the apple in the bowl of water and take the core off the prongs and then eat it.

He'd also throw the apples out of the bowl of water (and a good amount of them onto the floor) so I could cut the rings into chunks. He'd help himself to some along the way.
While I was doing all the hot stuff on the stove---boiling the apples, filling the jars, processing the jars---Jackson was having a great time standing on the stool, playing in the bowl of water that the apples were in. When I started the next batch, I found my hawaiian toast in the bottom of the bowl of water. Gross. While I was working on the second batch of hot stuff, Jackson was less content to just play in the water. He started putting everything from the counter into the toaster oven (which was unplugged, don't worry). Then I turned around and found him like this:

I think it was time to get down and do something else.
I finished up the last batch later when Jack was home. It was fun to have Jackson involved and "helping" even if it did make it a much bigger mess...(but) I'm really looking forward to him being a little older so the help will be more helpful!