Squirrel!

You will have to have seen the movie "Up" to understand my blog title.

Sweet Miles! He has grown into quite the little boy. He is eager to help. He likes helping with Madi, cooking, even cleaning. I think it is actually more about the praises he receives upon competition of a job well done. While he is cleaning he is will comment about how happy his Daddy will be when he comes home and see how clean his room is or whatever he is cleaning. Whatever the reason, I always appreciate the help.   

Carol McCowen Phoography

I have noticed however, that although he is helpful, he tends to get distracted easily. Meaning I have to help keep him focused on the task at hand. For example, I can't just say "Miles go pick up your room". I must go into his room with him and say things like, "Miles picks up your boots and put them in the closet."  I can't say, "Miles see all those shoes(boots, flip flops, and tennis shoes) put those in your closet". That is simply too much for him. If I were to give the second instruction then he would inevitably either forget what I asked him to do, or get side tracked with a really cool toy laying there next to his boots. Make sense? The longer the instructions and more detailed, the more chances he has to get "hung up" somewhere along the way. He simply works better with more instructions...in smaller doses. Goose and I have laughed about this several times.

Carol McCowen Photography

With all that in mind...I thought I would share just one of the many times that we laughed about this very thing.

The other morning while I was nursing Madi in my room, Ten woke up and came to use my bathroom. I remembered too late, that we were out of toilet paper in there. I called Miles to my room, he was playing in the living room. He came running. That's how it began...
"Go into the laundry room, in the port a crib, grab a roll of toilet paper, and bring it in here to Ten, please". Even as he turned to go, I thought to myself...that was too much instruction.  In the meantime, Goose called from work, so I was talking to him. It had probably been about 5 minutes. Ten says,"Mom, is he getting me toilet paper or not?!?"
So I called him again, "Miles, come here". Of course he came running(holding a toy in his hand)..."Yes, Ma'am?" As if I hadn't asked him to get anything. "Miles, what did I ask you to do?"
With a completely lost, innocent looking face, "I don't remember".
"Miles, listen to me, get toilet paper from the crib in the laundry room" Thinking I did a much better job this time.
Unfortunately I didn't, He comes running with a diaper(which was no where near the toilet paper...or the laundry room for that matter).
"Miles, last time, she needs toilet paper. Get toilet paper. The toilet paper is in laundry room. Can you run get toilet paper?" He smiles and says,"Ok, I'll go get the toilet paper". 5 seconds later runs in with toilet paper. YES!! Finally! "Way to go bub"! He smiles and runs off to play again.
Goose was laughing on the phone the whole time. If I'm honest, I was laughing too. The toilet paper he brought me was from the other bathroom...not the laundry room. My scatter brained, big helper, sweet boy!  

Carol McCowen Photography

It can be a little frustrating at times, but I would still rather he helped. I feel sure that as he gets older it will get better. If not, I'll just keep breaking things down for him and smile along the way.

On the movie "Up"...remember the dog that kept saying "Squirrel"? That's what I think of every time I ask Miles to help.