Boys Are a Chore

"Daddy?"

Logan appeared in the kitchen doorway holding an empty plastic grocery bag.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Can you get the thingy out of Mommy's garbage and I can put in a new one?"

Had I not seen the shopping bag, I would have been alarmed at the possible identity of the "thingy".

"Sure," I said and we made our way to Ashley's bathroom to remove the wastebasket liner, which had been properly identified as full.

Only minutes before, Logan had come up from the basement to ask me for help.  I agreed to assist him only after I had completed my chores.  Tonight, girls cooked so boys cleaned.  We outlined my remaining tasks, several times, and Logan went off, as he usually did, to fetch whatever cleaning implements he could find and/or reach.  I had not made this request of him, nor had I any idea if they would turn out to be helpful, let alone cleaning tools.

Enter the grocery bag.

It's darling how badly he wants to be included, especially in the chores.  To that end, he had originally emerged from the basement to seek help with folding his clean laundry.  Yes, that's right, my three-year-old wanted me to drop everything and help him fold clothes.  To him, it was a source of great distress that it was already Wednesday and his older brothers had folded their laundry on Sunday.

After emptying the bathroom wastebasket, I returned to the kitchen to finish tidying up while Logan busied himself with the new liner.  A few minutes later it occurred to me that Logan had not come back...and now it was quiet.  Too quiet.

"Logan?" I called.

No answer.

"Logan!" I barked.

Again, no answer.  Still fresh in my mind was the memory of yesterday when he locked himself in the bathroom to "give his dinosaurs a bath" and bathed everything except the dinosaurs.  Suddenly, he came running down the hall clapping his hands and materialized, yet again, in the doorway.  His expression was proud and his hands were wet.  Why were his hands wet?  I heard no water running.  I heard no running water!

"I cleaned the toilet!"

Holy hand sanitizer Batman!

- 7 March 2012