Sunday, October 19, 2008

Lazy day...Lazy Lady

I am spending a lazy morning at home blog hopping and goofing around. I skipped church and am still in my pajamas. My hair is in disarray cause I have not bothered to comb it. I have drank three cups of coffee. While over at Mommiesodes site I came across an article that brought back memories of days long ago when I still had little ones at home under my watchful and ever alert eyes.
Becky was five at the time. She was a very independent little thing. She liked to do things by herself. She followed me around and watched everything that I was doing. I had no idea how much she was absorbing. All parents at some time do wake up to the fact that there is a very active brain in the heads of their toddlers and young children. I know that my son and daughter-in-law were stunned to wake up one morning and see their two year old happily watching his favorite movie. Through the powers of observation he had taught himself to turn on the TV, insert his favorite DVD into the player and make it all work! This is amazing considering my mom could not do this even though she had written instructions! Anyway...back to my memory! As I was working in the kitchen... I am guessing that is what I was doing as that is where I spent most of my time, cooking and cleaning or perhaps I had my head down a toilet either cleaning it or removing a foreign object from it that a person named "I don't know" had tried to flush to China... I heard the most pathetic sobbing I think I have ever heard... I actually did hear this again one other time from the same child many years later when she was in a vehicle that ran over a cat...but that is a story for a different day. It was coming from the basement. I rapidly dropped what ever it was that I was doing and descended the basement stairs in record time. It is amazing how fast a mother can move isn't it? Becky was in the laundry room. She was hunched over holding her fathers blue jeans. Tears were streaming down her face. She was crying so hard she could hardly breath. Her fathers jeans had white blotches all over them. She lifted her tear streaked face up and looked at me. She did not have to say a word. It is true, a picture can paint a thousand words. I guess she had decided that she should help me out by doing a load of laundry. Enter her fathers jeans...check! Enter soap...check! Turn on machine and wait. How easy was that? I can imagine her down there with her satisfied little smile waiting in happy anticipation. Mommy and Daddy are going to be so happy. Open washing machine door...get jeans out and put into dryer. Yes...NOOOOO! Oh my poor baby! I have never seen such devastation of the face of a child. It took a long time to calm her down. It took a long time to calm me down. MY CHILD HANDLED BLEACH! I still get sick thinking about it. BTW...the jeans were an old pair of her Dad's work jeans that were ready for the garbage bin and I was thankful for the excuse to toss them as her father would wear them until they fell off his body.

Hop on over to Mommiesodes site to see what her toddler washed! At least it did not involve bleach. She is a much better Mommy than I was although I think she is just learning what her little one is capable of.

8 comments:

Margaret said...

at story. I can totally picture the scene, right down to hearing Becky crying.

Momisodes said...

Awww! I am so glad my post sparked this memory of your precious Becky :)

I can just imagine the devastation on her face when you found her. Poor thing! What a sweetheart trying to be such a good helper. I probably would have had the same reaction as yours about the bleach though.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm sure I'll have more stories like this to share soon ;)

Toad said...

holy smokes. ben looks like becky there.

Jenn said...

Cute (scary) story! I love how you described parents waking up to the fact their toddlers have active brains. Too true. They see everything.

Take care. My thoughts are with you!

footsack said...

I agree! Does Ben ever look like his mommy.
I know it's scary when your child handles bleach. I can't imagine how mom felt when I drank a cup of it when I was only 5 and she didn't even drive at the time. But 199 cups of buttermilk and I lived to tell the tale :)

Jientje said...

I remember my three year old dancing to Rod Stewart's "Passion" with that tiny body moving in a way I would never have dreamed possible for a three year old. They watch and observe, that's oh so true!

Eve said...

It's a wonder we ever live through the scares the give us. To this day my daughter has never voluntarily done a load of laundry.

Fluffy said...

I think my daughter got into more "situations" than the other two combined. And she still does.