My infamous cousin, Miss Kim to you, only recently gave up her illustrious, 7-year child wrangling career to be a full-time, stay-at-home mommy. (She's the one that works(ed) at a prestigious preschool and has all kinds of degrees to back her authority up.) The old cliche (those things I gladly admit I usually butcher) that old habits die hard (take that, Miss Kim, I got it right!) was coined for her in this instance.
She has been after me... I mean gently encouraging me... for a while to start working with the monster on his fine motor skills. So, I bought a water table for the porch and some non-water items to fill it with. I have water, of course, to go in it on hot summer days, but I also purchased a boatload of beans and rice to help with his sensory development. [Side Note: his former daycare nearly amputated two of his fingertips, so the hand specialist recommended the same thing to stimulate the continuation of nerve regrowth.] The other day, I wanted to work on an invitation package that I plan to post to my Etsy store very soon, so I figured this was the perfect time to try out the beans.
I brought the water table in the house, cleaned it up, and stationed it in the open area behind my computer workspace. The monster danced around me, vibrating with excitement, as I poured in the beans and got him measuring cups then dove in with all the vigor he usually reserves for milk. Ah, blessed peace for hours while I focus on my work. I quickly snapped a picture to send to Miss Kim to prove how good a mommy I am then turned back to my work. Sigh. This is the life - work and play all at the same time!
Then I heard the sound of many (many) little beans hitting and bouncing (far) off the tile floor. Ugh. I stopped to help him pick them up then showed him how to keep his activities over the table to avoid spilling again. Yeah, great idea, Lis. That worked for all of 30 seconds. Then I had to stop again. And again. And again.
The texts to Miss Kim went from "Awww, isn't he cute?" to "Fine motor skills, my a$$. This crap is going everywhere and making me realize just how dirty my floor is!" to "I can't take any more of this crap. Even the towels I put down aren't stopping the flow of bouncing beans. It's time to clean up!!!" to "Is this [censored] supposed to develop my [censored] motor skills or his? I'll be picking up beans for months. I'm not even trying rice... or oatmeal... or wet flour. You're CRAZY!"
Hindsight being 20/20 (Ha, ha! I got that one right, too!), I probably shouldn't have expected him to play neatly without direct supervision AND I probably should have done it on the porch as originally planned so the mess wasn't an issue. Miss Kim 1, Mommy 0
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