Chores

Lately, we've decided that we should start giving Burrito some chores. By "chore," I mean that we will give him a small and fairly simple task to do, one that won't require a lot of cleanup on our part when it goes wrong.

John being John, these chores have their own unique flavor. For one thing, John has a steady supply of vehicles - cars, trucks, and especially buses, nearby at all times, just in case the opportunity to drive over a bump presents itself. This sometimes leads to complications, although it can be a source of amusement. Last night, he folded napkins at dinner by driving a truck over the crease.

This morning, he began a new chore: filling up the cats' bowl with food. This involves going to the shelf, getting the tupperware thingy filled with cat food, carrying it over to the cats' bowl, opening it, and pouring the food into the bowl. He did fairly well, although we were unable to convince him to let go of his truck while carrying the food container. Silly us. If we had thought about it, we would have seen his plan. It went as follows:

Step 1. Carry in the cat food.
Step 2. Fill cat bowl.
Step 3. Spill cat food on the floor.
Step 4. "Look at all those bumps!"
Step 5. Drive truck over cat food on floor.

Just another case of adults being outsmarted by a kid.

He is taking this chore thing to heart, though. As I type, he's sitting on the floor here in the office, looking at a home improvement how-to book that was on the shelf. He has the page open to something about building a deck. My guess is that if he nails the boards in just right, he'll have a complete off-road course for this cars.