Tuesday, March 25, 2008

sorry, got this baby

To me, it's a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, "Hey, can you give me a hand?" You can say, "Sorry, got these sacks."
- Jack Handy
This concept rears its head often in our house- only slightly modified. When I pass off ss#3 to my husband, as I am madly trying to finish up on dinner or cleaning up from dinner, he just sort of holds him and paces back and forth from the kitchen to the family room. Last night I pointed out to him this inefficient behavior, I took this moment to clarify my expectation which is hold the baby AND help clean up. This allows me 10 minutes to appreciate using BOTH hands to complete a simple task. I repeated the above deep thoughts to smart daddy-o inserting baby for sacks as that is the case here and reminding him I can see through this little excuse. Then he asked half laughing, knowing full well he shouldn't go there. What I did in a day while holding a baby. As any mom of a young baby can attest there are maybe only 5 things or less that you do in a day while NOT holding a baby. And not only holding, but feeding no less. So of course I enumerated 50 odd tasks I completed that day while holding a baby. See no excuse!

Now on this same topic- either this is a Y-linked trait, my 2 yr old has mental telepathy, or reading SILENTLY to your baby in utero really has amazing impact, because the other week I was loading some stuff up in the car and I asked #2 to help me carry something to the basement. He ran off to the laundry room and returned with an empty old navy shopping bag on his arm and emphatically stated "sorry mom I've this bag" and proceeded down to the basement with the empty sack. I totally wished I had had the cameras rolling because it was a moment that needed to be immortalized 1. his ingenuity 2. the sheer coincidence of this behavior to his mothers beloved deep thoughts and 3. because I was the only one there witness it. I stood laughing and laughing, deserted and alone in my entryway still with my piles of stuff waiting to be hauled down, knowing real life was better than any SNL moment.

9 comments:

LL said...

i totally believe it. coming from the "dung beetle" ANYTHING is possible!
i'm going to try this bag trick at church Sunday...

smart mama said...

i think i will use it whenever my kids try to hand me something now- somehow my hands seem to be full of things already when that happens but the extra sacks might add to the effect.

Becky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Becky said...

Okay...that last comment was me, apparantely I'm up way past my bedtime because my spelling starts to go...

I'm laughing hysterically at this post! Are we married to the same man? (jk)

By the way...remember when I asked if you knew my brother Aaron? I just realized on Sunday (confirmed by my sister-n-law Rachael) that Laura is not in the Northboro Ward anymore but in the Oxford Ward which is why I assumed you must have met Aaron because if you were in the same ward as her you would be in the same ward as Aaron - are you following me? Don't know what I was thinking??? So sorry! Oh...and thank you for introducing Donna to me. It has been really fun talking to her and getting advice about the whole hearing issue with Kaleb. Thanks again!

Becky said...

See what I'm talking about? APPARANTELY! For goodness sake, I'm off to bed!

apparently, I meant apparently!!!

smart mama said...

lol becky if you know me- well if you have even read my blog posts- despite a good education- my feeling is just get the point across spelling/schmelling- i make tons of typos, leave words out, use bad punctuation-- It's because i usually have someone on my lap and i am typing one handed--and i have just so many minutes in a day so I usually "publish in rough draft form" think of me as the ee cummings of grammar, usage, mechanics, spelling and capitalization.

Nettie said...

I'll have to remember that excuse!

Baby holding seems to be an exclusive task to everyone but myself around here too.

Sheree said...

That is hilarious! The empty Old Navy sack--what a classic. I love Deep Thoughts too.

I think my dh needs a little practice multi-tasking too. :)

Company EIGHT said...

LOVE this post! I'm definitely going to remember that one!