He Might be On to Something

You might be sitting there right now, flipping through your usual go-to pages on the Internet, drinking your afternoon cup of coffee before you get back to it. You might be bored. You might be anxious about something–say, for instance, the fact that you’re moving in a week and have been avoiding the packing for so long that you very well might still be here shoving sippy cups and ratty t-shirts into boxes when the new owner starts moving her own stuff in next Friday (no? That’s just me?). You might be cursing out the woman in the cubicle next to you who insists on microwaving leftover fish each day for lunch, or listening to your baby wake from his nap even though you were counting on another twenty minutes of relative peace (yep. That’s me). You might be sad, or hungry, or tired, or in desperate need of a pedicure and hoping the warm temperatures don’t arrive before you get a chance to get your spring toes on. Well, never mind, you. Don’t worry about it. Because here’s the thing: I have a 14-month-old. A very happy, impish, loving, cuddly, good sport of a 14-month-old, I might add. And I, as a stay-at-home, full-time, round-the-clock, primary caregiver to said happy 14-month old, I spend a lot of time with him. You know as well as I do, these kids of ours? They can teach us a lot about how to live, especially when we’re doing our worst jobs of it. My youngest, as it turns out, is no exception.

How to live like a 14-month-old:

• Try everything on your plate. Spit out what’s gross.

• Laugh out loud when something is funny.

• Find most things funny.

• Take great joy in the small tasks. Focus with intent until you get it right. If you get frustrated, throw something, scream, and move on.

• Go to bed early. Wake up early. Giggle with excitement over the start of another day.

• Sit down to eat breakfast first thing in the morning. Eat eggs often, waffles sometimes, bananas daily.

• Some days, never get out of your pajamas.

• Take baths. Splash a little.

• Rush to greet a person you love when she walks in the door.

• If you want something, do what it takes–crawl over, burrow under, go around obstacles–to get it.

• Give away what you have. You don’t need it, anyway.

• Know that sugar is not always the enemy. But sometimes zucchini is.

• Eat until you’re full, then push away your plate.

• Know that sometimes it’s better to crawl than to run.

And my favorite?

• When you want a hug, hold your arms out. Someone will always pick you up off the floor.

There you have it, folks, straight from the 14-month-old’s, er, mouth. And if I could just get him to show me how to use this packing tape? I’d be set.