The things kids do.

Two stories, one on each of my children.
Ben: He's just now learning to talk and communicate, and is beginning to understand more of what we tell him. He's 15 months now, and will say "no-no, bye, hi, night-night, ma-ma, da-da" and he will sign: please (rubbing his chest), more (touching his hands together), eat (touching his mouth, or his nose), and all done/finished (waving his hands in the air). However, with the signing, we generally say the word first, like "are you all done?" and then he will sign. Well, today he initiated the sign and I couldn't resist. I'm not a morning person, I wake up slowly and it's not uncommon for the boys to wake up and be playing on the bed with me while I try to wake up. Ben's new thing is to climb off the bed and go explore the house, and lately he will empty his diaper bag and bring me whatever snacks he finds in there (because he wakes up hungry and wants me to fix him breakfast). This morning, as I'm being lazy and trying to wake up, he crawls off the bed and returns a few minutes later carrying a bag of fruit snacks. I said, "no Ben". He grunted and shoved the bag in my hands. I said "no" again and gave them back. After doing this 2 or 3 more times, he began persistently rubbing his chest, very fast and hard, in an adament signing of "please". He got his fruit snacks.

Luke: He is potty trained, and has been for almost 2 years now (he trained very early and easy, the only thing he's done that hasn't been a battle in his whole life!) He will take himself to the bathroom, but is not yet able to wipe himself for #2 , so it's not uncommon for me to be across the house and suddenly hear Luke yell, "mommy I'm done!". Well, today I was in the middle of getting Ben dressed, and he was screaming his head off for no apparent reason except he didn't want to be lying there, and Luke comes walking bottomless down the hallway, "mommy, look at my bottom". I reply, "what's wrong with your bottom", and he responds by bending over slightly so I can see that there's a mess there that I need to clean up. I said, "OK, go back to the bathroom and I'll be right there to wipe you." He goes and a few minutes later returns carrying some soiled toilet paper and said, "mommy look at this mess". I figured he attempted to wipe himself, because we've been working on it, so I told him to go put the paper in the toilet and I would be right there to finish. When I go into the bathroom to make sure he's clean, he tells me there was a big mess on the wall but he cleaned it up. Instantly, red flags go up. "Luke, on the wall or do you mean on the potty?" (there were some traces on the seat lid, so a valid question). His reply, "on the wall". I'm getting worried now but he assures me he cleaned it up. I said, "where on the wall" and he points to a spot, where I can see very slight traces of a mess (he did a pretty good job of cleaning it). So now for the real question: "Luke, how did poop get on the wall?" "Cause I go like this..." and he bends over and shakes his hiny a little. Apparently, he bent over and rubbed his rear on the wall. Why, I don't know, and didn't really bother to ask. I'm just glad that 1) He told me. and 2) He cleaned most of it up. I just had him wash his hands again and instructed him not to do that again.

Oh the things kids do.