boys are doin' it for themselves...

So last night I set out 2 over-ripe bananas in mixing bowl on the counter.  Now when I say over-ripe I really mean brown and mushy and very sad looking compared to the newly purchased happy yellow bananas currently hanging from the banana tree.  That being said... these over rip bananas were a thing of beauty... perfect for the bread I intended to bake today.

Sean is my good eater and he loves his fruits and veggies and he is not shy about helping himself.  He has been known to open the refrigerator/freezer door, climb the shelves like a little monkey and purge himself on frozen peas, grapes, baby carrots or other staples that may be in there.  Although I don't like him climbing on the table, or pushing chairs into the kitchen to reach something on the counter or literally climbing into the fridge... I try to keep it all in perspective...  my child is stealing veggies!  Not cookies or cakes... VEGGIES!  Clearly, I must have done something right.

So back to the over-ripe bananas.

Exercising my half-assed parenting skills... I sat at my computer this morning, phone to my ear, working with a client and left my very content child mildly supervised, sitting in the laundry basket with his matchbox cars... and the cat... watching Sid The Science Kid on PBS.  I could see him over my shoulder (don't tell him but also could see his reflection in my computer screen... eyes in the back of my head... HA!) but when I glanced back a few minutes later his concentrated silence and the plastic knife he was playing with should have tipped me off.  

OK before I get a bunch of  " you let your 2 year old play with knives" comments, I should preface that he often uses dull plastic knives (purchased in the kid section of IKEA... yea you know the ones) as one would a screw driver to "fix" his toys and pretends to change out the batteries like Daddy does.  So NO, the knife is not the best solution but Half-Assed Parenting Tip #64 tells me that a small, dull, plastic object does less harm in the hands of a 2 year old than does a sharp, 10 inch, metal one.  Pick your battles wisely young grasshopper.

So out of the corner of my computer screen I a reflection of Sean appearing to fix something... no harm no foul.  Moments later see Sean retreat to the kitchen and return with the broom and dust pan.  

OK now I am curious.

I soon discover that he has helped himself to the two over-ripe bananas and was using the knife to cut them up... and was now using the broom and dust pan to clean up his mess.  What a good boy!  To my horror I can see that one banana was partly consumed on the couch, the other on the carpet... both half eaten and half smashed.  Sean is doing his best to sweep up the banana peal and the remaining banana smush into the dust pan.  No... this is not a guilty cover up... NO... this is a boy who has just helped himself to a snack and is dutifully cleaning up after himself. 

OMG... does this mean that after all this time I am actually doing something right! LOL.  

I help him finish cleaning up and he helps me locate all the remaining bits of banana.  Why he picked the yucky bananas over the fresh ones... I don't know.  What I do know is that Andrew will be one sad little boy when he gets home from school and I have to tell him he will have to wait a few more days for banana bread.