Professor Papa - Part 1

I've had a lot of teachers in my days.  Some were good, and some were not.  They all taught me something, whether they believe it or not.

Today I thought I'd look at one good thing and one not so good thing I have taught the girls.

Let's start with the good one first.

Picking up.

I am a firm believer that everything has its place.  My office is organized - some might say it's too organized, but it works for me.

The garage, basement, and pretty much anywhere else I have any influence is picked up and neat most of the time. 

Let's face it, once we get past the basement and garage I have no influence - and the basement is limited to the unfinished part.  Pretty much, any space we don't routinely use, I can control - at least until someone uses it.

The girls have an uncanny ability to make one heck of a mess wherever they are.  Everything goes from organized - to scattered - in minutes.  I don't mind picking up someone else's mess, but doing it two or three times a day was getting out of hand. 

I like games.  The girls seem to like them as well.  It only seemed logical to make a game out of organizing.

We start with the books.  I ask the girls to bring me the books, and as they do I stack them on the shelf and praise them for helping.  Sometimes, they stack them all by themselves.

Then, we move on to the rest of the toys that go in the toy bin, ball bin, or toy bag--everything has a place.

Finally, we put away everything that comes with its own storage capabilities - puzzles, cups, shapes, etc.

Typically, we do the clean up just before they get changed and head to bed.  This lessens the likelihood of them undoing all their (and my) hardwork.

Now for the bad one.

Running their fingers through their hair. 

At first, you may be asking yourself why is this a bad thing?  It's not, by itself, a bad thing.  It becomes bad based on timing.

If they do it in the tub while we have soap in their hair, then it is a good thing.

That almost never happens. 

Most of the time they run their fingers through their hair when we have placed blueberries, blackberries, or a red pasta sauce in front of them during meal time. 

They also love to touch their hair when any sauce that is sticky is covering their little digits.  Syrup and BBQ are their favorites, but any sauce will do. 

It started as a cute little joke to make Mama laugh. 

We did the Home Alone pose, but then it quickly escalated to hair.  Once they realized how funny it was, they couldn't stop doing it. 

Fortunately, they have stopped it for the most part.  I'd love to take the credit for teaching them not to do that at mealtime, but I can't.  For them, it stopped being funny when they started using forks.