Chores

Among Lauren's regular tasks is to clear her plate from a meal and place it next to the sink. She does it about 80% of the time without being asked.

Lindsay has been struggling a bit lately with wanting to do "big girl" stuff. She no longer wants to sit strapped in at the table, she wants to sit on a chair. This hasn't been completely disastrous, however, she usually gets distracted 4 bites in and wanders away from the table. Today, she brought her plate into the living room and set it on the coffee table.

Since she'd eaten exactly none of it, I hoped that the coffee table snack atmosphere would encourage just a couple more bites of the leftover vegetarian pasta dish from last night. She ate a solitary rotini, and then went elsewhere with her plate. I, as I am likely to do, got distracted by three things, ended up bringing her upstairs for a diaper change, settled her for a nap, and found myself in the kitchen with 2 baskets of laundry. I glanced over at the counter to notice that Lindsay had placed Lauren's art table stool in front of the cutting board. She'd stood on it to very carefully place her plate, still full, squarely on the board with the fork beside it. I had to set down the laundry basket. Lindsay finished her lunch, and cleared her plate and left it by the sink.

I am officially alarmed.