I Should Have Known

With David on second shift I am responsible for bedtime in our house. At first it was a real challenge but I now have a system that is pretty good most nights and as long as I remember all the teeth and all the hands and feet I feel like I have accomplished something once the house is quiet. 5 out of 7 nights a week, I'm supermom from 7:30-9pm (yes, this is how long it taks me to get everything done).

There is one area which we are working on, however. When it is time for me to put Bubba to sleep Jeffrey tries to use that time as his performance time. He feels that since Mommy and Bubba are sitting in a rocking chair we are his audience and it is time for him to "turn it on". He usually serinades us using Bubba's microphone and piano. He then moves on to the "dancing in the mirror" part of his act and concludes with a couple jumps in the air to prove how high he can jump. By the end of this time I'm usually a little stressed out trying to get him to calm down, Bubba is NOT relaxed and Jeffrey ends up standing outside a locked door knocking saying, "But Mommy, I'm not done!" It is, needless to say, quite an experience.

Tonight I should have known that something was up. Jeffrey did not perform for us, he didn't even try to turn Bubba's light on. Nope, he left us alone for the entire time that I needed to get Bubba ready for bed. Where were my Mommy Radar alerts????

As I placed my sweet little little into his bed it hit me that we had peace and quiet so something must be up. I came out into the living room to find Jeffrey sitting at the dinning room table eating a snack. What a good kid! Not only did he leave his brother alone but he was independant enough to take care of his own snack! Wait, what was he eating? Most everything is behind the child lock. Did he figure out how to open the lock? Oh on, what in the world is my kiddo eating?

I asked him, "Jeffrey, what is in your bowl?" His response was a classic string of words, "Mommy, I do it myself, I show you!" Sure enough he had found a snack on his own. It was a can of Pringles that he had dumped into a bowl that was from who knows how long ago. Best part is that he had managed to eat most of the chips before I caught him. Yep, my child ate a can of Pringles and lived to tell about it. The frightening part is that they were salt and vinegar. Can you even imagine his sodium intake? Oh I don't want to think about it.

I asked him if he was enjoying his self made snack and he said yes. That's when I realized that there is no way in the world he should have been able to reach the chips on the back part of our counter. That's when I asked him a question that I would later regret. "Jeffrey, how did you get the chips off the counter?" His precious little response was to take my hand in his and say, "I show you!" He slowly walked me into the kitchen where I found a contraption made of chairs, boxes and some paper wadded up into balls in which he stood upon to reach the chips. Oh, thank you Lord for giving my child 3 teams of angles working overtime to keep him from killing himself.

Needless to say, we had to have a little talk about safety. I reminded him that if he is hungry or thirsty mommy and daddy are always here to help him and that I was proud of him for being independant but let's remember that if it doesn't feel like the right thing to do, it probably isn't. I hugged him for his creativity in building and then we decided to put the few remaining chips back in the can for another day.

Ahhhh, the joy of having a kiddo too smart for his own good. It is amazing what common every day items can be used for other purposes that an adult would never think of. I assume that the paper balls gave him just the right amount of height to reach what he needed. "Bless his heart". Next time Jeffrey annoys Bubba during bedtime, I will be thankful that at least I can see him!!!