"Jude, are you ready to put the toothpaste in the drawer."
"Uh uh."
"Okay, timeout."
(one minute later)
"Jude, you need to obey mommy. It's time to put the toothpaste away. It's not a toy. Let's go put it away, okay?"
"Uh uh."
"Okay, timeout."
(one minute later)
"Jude, are you ready to put the toothpaste away now?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, good boy! Let's go..."
Stands up, stares at toothpaste, gets glazed look in his eyes.
"Jude? Come on, buddy. Let's go. Pick up the toothpaste."
Still staring. Now starts picking up his feet and rocking back and forth, APPEARING to start to walk toward the toothpaste, but really not even getting an inch closer.
"Jude, are you going to get the toothpaste?"
"Uh uh."
I roll my eyes and resist banging my head on the wall. "Okay buddy. Timeout." (continues for 18 more minutes).
Now while all this is going on, I am thinking..."Is this too hard for him? Am I asking too much? I mean, he's only 18 months old. Maybe he doesn't understand. Does he even understand the word 'drawer?' It's a big one. Maybe this is totally unreasonable. Maybe I'm too demanding. A slave driver. Who am I to think my 18 month old baby needs to be doing chores like this. Gosh, Brandi. Just put in the drawer for him. Are you really too lazy to just pick up the dang toothpaste and put it in the drawer? This is such a waste of time on a busy day! One more try..."
Then I got smart and said, "Okay, Jude. You just stay there until you're ready to put it away," praying this would not be a 5 hour stand off. Then I would really feel like a slave driver. (All this , by the way, is in between him getting out of bed on the way to the kitchen, so he hasn't even had breakfast yet.) I then walk into the bathroom to do something and (I'm not exaggerating here) TWO SECONDS LATER he waddles in and drops the toothpaste into the drawer.
Seriously. Who is in charge here? Who runs this ship? And I thought he didn't understand the word "drawer."
