Mommy's Little Helper

I love my child. She constantly keeps Aaron and I laughing.

Monday, I had to leave work early to drop her at her dance class. She waited patiently in my office until it was time to leave. “Grab your stuff, so we can go.” I said, bending down to grab my purse.

Kiera gathered her backpack and phone and followed me into the hall.

“I’m headed out.” I announced to my co-workers. Now, in our hall, we have a dry erase board with our names and 2 blocks out beside each of our names. The first block is the ‘out for’ block and the second one is the ‘return’ block.

It’s fairly simple. In the ‘out for’ we put where we are going and in the ‘return’ block we put the expected time we will be back in the office.

I grabbed the dry erase marker and wrote “Ki to dance” and in the next block I wrote “Tuesday morning”. Seems pretty straightforward, right?

“Mom, you can’t just put ‘Ki to dance’.” She stated.

I turned around to face her, glancing at the board for a moment. “Why not?” I asked.

“It’s not a complete sentence.” She explained meeting my stare and making no move to walk any further down the hall.

I heard my co-worker, Jennifer, snicker in her office.

Grabbing the dry erase marker, I quickly scrawled, “taking” so it now read, “taking Ki to dance.”

“Better?” I asked.

“Much better.” She replied in all seriousness.

Saturday, after doing a bit of yard work, I decided to tackle cleaning out the refrigerator. Kiera had been playing a computer game and I decided it was the perfect time for her to come help me.

“Hey, come help me in the kitchen, please.” I said loudly.

There was a tiny sigh but she turned her game off and came in the kitchen. “What are we doing?” She asked.

“I need to clean out the refrigerator.” I stated as I pulled out a bowl of mold. In another lifetime, they would have been carrots.

She curled her nose up for a moment, turned to the pantry and said, “Mom? Can I clean the pantry?”

Deciding I really didn’t care what task she picked as long as she was up helping and moving around I agreed.

In just a few moments, she changed her tune, but not in the way you are thinking. “Mom, is it ok if I organize the pantry?” She asked.

“Sure.” I replied, curious to see how this played out.

She proceeded to pull everything out that she could reach. Not only did she organize, but; she went through every item checking the expiration date, to see if it needed to be tossed or kept.

As I washed the dishes, she continued to shift items around in the pantry. “Mom.” She said.

Because she was still learning how to read expiration dates I stopped washing dishes and turned to her. She looked at me, her eyes shining brightly. “Organizing the pantry is more fun than playing my computer game!” She exclaimed.

I’ll remember that in a few years. Honestly, she did a great job with my pantry. It looks better than it ever has. If I could just get her to do the same with her toys…

Rowonna McNeely works as the Communications Manager for the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband, Aaron are regular volunteers in the community, and have their hands full with their daughter, Kiera, along with three dogs and one cat.

Thank you for sharing in our weekly journeys. If you have missed any of our past stories, check out our blog page at www.lifea2k.net or drop us a line at lifea2k@yahoo.com.