Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Even though my son is only 18 months old, I can promise you that when he gets older, he’s going to be a very hard working man.  I think employers should be lining up at our door now offering top dollar to hire the Carter of his 20’s. When he finds a job that needs done, he gets very serious and works with no distraction until completion. No matter what’s going on around him, which Veggie Tales episode you turn on, he is all business until business is done. It’s actually quite entertaining. The only problem is that these jobs he finds are not exactly helpful. His favorite is to come into our bedroom and get all of the toothbrushes and toothpaste out of the drawer (we have a vanity in our room, we don’t just randomly keep these items in a bedside table, I promise) and take them, one at a time, into the living room where he places them in his toy box with the rest of his prize possessions.  He also likes to take each of my curlers into the kitchen and hide them in his highchair. It makes me wonder what is going on in his head while he is doing this. Why does a hair curler belong where he eats? I think he saw the hole in the bottom and has decided that’s the perfect place to secretly store the food that he doesn’t want to eat (vegetables!), which is why I’m sure to remove them before mealtime.

My favorite use of his skills was yesterday after we got home from the grocery store.  I usually do one large shopping trip each month and this was that trip!  There was bag after bag lined up on the floor.  Most of the time I have to wait until he’s napping to put everything away because for some reason my being in the kitchen is an automatic cue to scream… who knows. Yesterday was different! He didn’t mind at all that I was in the kitchen without him putting the groceries into their oh-so-organized (HA!) cabinets. He wanted to help. We have a galley kitchen so I could see him coming and taking items out of the bags and walking away, but I couldn’t see where he was going or what he was doing with them when he got there.  I decided to keep on going without checking for fear of testing my “he’s not screaming” luck. When I finished I walked into the living room and found a bunch of items lined up neatly on the coffee table. The amazing part? Only HIS food was on the table, the rest of it was against the wall on the floor. Coincidence? Probably, but I prefer the “genius baby” explanation.

My least favorite example of his organization? PACIFIERS!!!  I HATE PACIFIERS!!! He finds hiding spots and puts ALL of them in this secret location when we aren’t looking. Then, without fail, something will happen that makes him cry. Pacifiers have always been instant relief to almost any tragedy.  Knowing this I instantly start scanning the room to find one, only to realize that he’s hidden them… again. SO FRUSTRATING! He’s good too, because once we have found his secret spot, he doesn’t use it again. You have to understand, that we live in a small, two-bedroom condo. It consists of two bedrooms (obviously), one bathroom, a living room, and an eat-in kitchen (kind of)… that’s all. I love it, I’m not complaining, my point is that there are theoretically few places that these magical objects could be. Sometimes it will take HOURS to find them! I’ve found them in drawers that we thought he couldn’t reach, in the window behind the curtain, behind the couch, in the bottom of his stuffed animal basket, in the bottom of a giant vase, and once, yes, in the toilet. These things need a tracking device.  I’m currently working on this and will let you know when it makes me rich! (This is published with a date, so consider that my copyright.  If you steal my idea, I’ll come after your earnings.) 

It’s funny how daily tasks change when you go from working wife to stay at home mom. A few years ago I was worrying about the success of our products and companies in China and now I spend my days searching for pacifiers and putting bathroom items back in their correct location… the bathroom. It’s certainly more fun and more rewarding than any other job on the planet… if only the pay were a little better!  In all honesty, I wouldn’t change a thing!