What better way to celebrate the warm weather than picking up a yard full of recyclables! This year the melting snow revealed a back yard mess of "white-trash" proportions. Why had our yard become a dumping ground for glass, paper, and #1 and #2 plastics? The answer, as you might by now have guessed, involves a game invented by one very busy, precocious, 3 ft, blond. It seems that throughout the winter Evan had been hurling the family's recyclables off the deck one by one, week by week. Thereby leaving our our yard to resemble the town dump. Perhaps it was his way of exacting revenge on us for bundling him up and depositing him outside in the cold of winter, or maybe it was just fun. Either way, I convinced him to help me clean up the yard by lying to him about how much fun it was to pick up dirty, wet recyclables. Lucky for me, he bought it. And as we worked he declared: " Thanks for helpin' Mommy" which is actually his way of thanking himself - (not Mommy)- but it also means that he was enjoying himself and was proud of his efforts. Unfortunately the call of the swing set was stronger than the call of the recyclables. So, the wet paper products became my job - but that was probably just as well.
1 comment:
It's so interesting and makes so much sense that little ones use the concept of "I" and "Mommy" interchangeabley for a while. For the first year or so of life they can't really tell the difference (they are merged with you: they come out of you and then breast feed from you and every need is taken care of by you...). So I just think it's fascinating how the separation takes time, and when it does, it can be a hard realization for the kid, ie the terrible twos or increasingly more comments like MINE! and NO! in order to individuate, i guess, out of neccessity... Ahhh, the harsh realization that mom and i are actually separate... )
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