Personal Assistant
My little girl is growing up, and I love seeing it happen! I now have a personal assistant. I had heard about this happening in other families as children start to grow up and mature, but honestly, I wondered when and if it would happen in mine.
First, I should tell you that Riley has our calendar memorized. Last night I was quizzing her, and it didn’t matter whether I said, “When are we (name the activity)?” or “What are we doing on (name the date)?” In either case, she could tell me exactly when we were doing whatever I mentioned or every single thing I had listed on the calendar for any given date. Kevin even asked her, “What’s the first day of Spring?” and she knew that as well! If I want to remember something, all I have to do is tell Riley. If I forget to write it on the calendar, she’ll remind me continually (“Mommy, you need to write haircut on the 21st!”) until I do it. It’s wonderful. There are times when living with a Mr.Monk-alike has its advantages.:)
Riley has also taken an interest in doing the laundry. Almost every morning she opens the dryer and puts the dry clothes in a basket for folding. Not too many days ago, Kevin and I discovered that she had moved on to filling the washing machine and attempting to start a load! I realized that I need to get in there immediately and teach her (maybe with some written instructions for her on the wall) how to sort, how much soap to use, and which buttons to push. The first time, fortunately, she just piled in all the dark clothes I had presorted in the basket. I rewashed them because I wasn’t sure if she’d used detergent, but no harm done. I am ecstatic! I’ll take all the help I can get.
The funniest example of this blooming independence came a few Saturdays ago, though. Saturday is the only day we sleep in, so Kevin and I were desperately trying to snooze, even though Riley was already up and going (“6:30 on the Hello Kitty clock!” and all that, you know). She came in the room, and it registered vaguely (through the fog) with both of us that she’d said something like, “Time to get up and have some coffee!” Usually, Kevin and I set up the coffee the night before. This time, we’d forgotten. We didn’t know that though (or it didn’t sink in), so when we heard the coffee grinder turn on, we just assumed that Riley had pushed the “on” button.
A few minutes later, after we had pulled ourselves out of the fog, Kevin ran downstairs to see about Riley and the coffee. Well, upon discovering that the coffee wasn’t set up, our sweet little personal assistant had tried her best to make it herself. She had remembered that you need water, and she’d poured that in, but she had completely forgotten to add some coffee. She’d brewed a nice pot of hot water. The funny thing is that she’d poured a 1-inch deep cup of hot water for herself, Adam, and Zoe and added a little sugar (Splenda for Adam:)) and cream to it. Kevin saw the hot water in the pot and said, “Hmmm. That was a good try, Riley, but I guess maybe you should let Mommy or Daddy make the coffee. I’ll make some and we can all have a little bit, okay?”
Riley’s response? “No. We already had some coffee this morning.”
I guess I need to teach her how to work the coffee pot too.:) Maybe my Saturday mornings will turn into a Folger’s commercial. Wishful thinking?
