One morning last week, he and I were awake before the other kids, which really isn't that unusual. If I wake up first, he follows behind me within about 20 minutes. Sometimes I have time to get the coffee on before his feet hit the floor. This particular morning, I didn't.
My little buddy just about always wakes up hungry. Often, he will just ask for a cup of milk to tide him over until breakfast. This particular morning, I asked him to wait because breakfast wasn't too far away. I'm trying to teach him to wait, but it just didn't happen.
As any mama can attest, anything that can go wrong will go wrong when you have to go to the bathroom and you have a toddler in your home.
My conversation with my little buddy went like this:
Him: "Mommy, hungry. Want hot cereal." (He loves Cream of Wheat and has it a couple of times a week.)
Me: "Let's wait just a minute, buddy. Mommy has to potty, but I will fix you some hot cereal in just a minute."
Him: "Okay."
So I left the room. One of the advantages of having a small home is that you can hear everything that goes on, no matter what room you may be in at the time. I heard him getting into the pantry in the kitchen. No big deal, I thought. He's probably just getting into the Goldfish. He's really hungry this morning, so I'll just let it slide. Besides, I don't want to wake the other kids up just yet.
So when I headed back toward the kitchen, he met me in the living room with outstretched hands. "Hands dirty," he said. "Okay, buddy. I'll help you wash your hands in just a minute. Please let mommy get the coffee started." "Okay, mommy," he replied.
I stood at the counter in front of the coffee pot to get ready to set it up to brew and I noticed that the floor under my feet felt gritty. Hmm. Maybe he crushed up a couple of Goldfish here. But I didn't see anything on the floor. My kitchen flooring is kind of a gray-brown color; orange Goldfish crumbs would definitely show up on the floor.
I glance over at the rug in front of my sink and found this:
Hmm. Why is the sand bucket in here? Was there still some sand from the lake in the bucket and he dumped it on the floor? I thought to myself. I definitely wasn't firing on all cylinders just yet. If I could only get to that first cup of coffee...
So I headed over to the pantry to get the canister of coffee and noticed this on the floor:
A pudding box? Why is there a pudding box on the floor? And why is it open? Still not firing on all cylinders, so I got the coffee canister and set it on the counter. Then I grabbed the coffee pot and headed to the sink to fill it up with water. I could almost taste my morning java! And then, it all made sense. I found this on the sink:
Why yes, that is an entire package of pudding dumped on the edge of my sink!
It seems that my little buddy was super hungry and decided that he just couldn't wait for a minute for mommy to fix his breakfast. He was determined to get that hot cereal himself!
So, I had a choice to make. I could get upset about it, or I could take pictures and get a good laugh to start my day. I chose the latter.
When I finally got my first cup of coffee, I poured it into my favorite coffee mug.
It says, "M.O.M. Manager Of Messes."
How appropriate!
I love toddlers. They really keep me on my toes!
