Family Life

Debbie went out tonight to run some errands and took Daniel and Micah with her. I stayed home with Joel. This was just perfect for a small boy–he had Dad all to himself. I asked what he wanted to do. Puzzles. Of course. It’s amazing how many hours that two-year-old can spend just doing puzzles.

We started with a stack of puzzles and worked our way through it. I insisted we only do one at a time, otherwise we would have had two or three strewn over the table. Joel will put them together the usual way, or upside down (facing away from him), or even face down. Face down takes him a little longer. He definitely wants me to do it with him, but is also adamant that I can’t help him put any pieces in. He wants to do it all himself. So it’s a funny way of playing with him where I don’t actually do anything. My biggest challenge is to stay awake.

Once he’d worked his way through the bigger puzzles he started pulling out the smaller, easier ones. He seemed bent on setting some kind of personal record for completing every single puzzle in the house in one session. Eventually I convinced him there were no more puzzles to do, and it was time for a bath.

Rather than filling the big bath like I’d normally do, I pulled out the baby bath we used for the boys when they were newborn. This was greeted with great interest and enthusiasm. Just Joel and Dad! Doing something new and exciting! Bath was filled, boy was washed and rinsed, and bath was emptied, all in record time. I actually had an ulterior motive. I have to make some repairs to the bathroom, and we won’t be able to use the regular bath or shower until the repairs are finished. I wanted to do a trial run to see what bathing the boys in the baby bath was like. Joel was OK. Just. Daniel is bigger, and might be more of a challenge.

Bath, pajamas, teeth, story, prayers, and bed. Happy child. No fuss. Straight to sleep. The best bedtime. It’s amazing what some one-on-one time will do to a child’s outlook.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 10:32 pm. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.