Dancing Without Rhythm

This afternoon I was trying to bribe Ben into cleaning up some of the stuff scattered about the living room. I wasn't really invested in getting him to work, so I wasn't really deterred by his lack of response, or polite offers of, "It's okay mom, you can do it."

After 10 minutes of my hardly noteworthy efforts, Jay picked up a flashlight and said, "Here Ben, I'll shine the light on what needs to be put away and you put it away." Ben jumped to it and within 10 minutes the living room was spotless and Ben had exclaimed NO LESS than FOUR TIMES, "This is the funnest game EVOH!"

This is all well and good---Jay making chores the funnest game evoh---I'm happy to be a part of such a family. I really thought Jay was a genius for coming up with this "game". Benjamin finding joy in cleaning up and reveling in the cleanliness, he gets from Jay. I cannot lie. I'm okay with that.

However, contrast it with what I found Avery doing shortly after, it's embarrassing what I'VE contributed to the gene pool.

Avery had been trotting around with a bag of cheese puffs. They're organic, by the way, right next to the organic candy bars in our cupboard. She happened to spill about half the bag, unbeknownst to any of us. I turned a corner and found her dealing with the situation all by herself. She was standing there, cleaning them up. "What a good girl," I thought.

My pride suddenly turned to embarrassment when I saw her, still standing, grab a cheese puff WITH HER TOES and raise her leg to drop it back into the bag, all without moving her upper body one bit. She couldn't be bothered to bend the six inches it takes for her to reach the ground. I know that this takes skill for a two year old; But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where she learned that technique.

Posted by Angela on Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 5/12/2007 | Permalink