Confessional

Today I made a questionable decision. I had two objectives for the sunshine this afternoon. I planned to get a second planting of peas in the ground, and I intended to get the lawn mowed. The peas could be done with the children in the yard but mowing with a two and a three year old who both take exception to my refusal to pile them on the mower with me is well nigh impossible. With this in mind, I set my hopes on naptime. As any mother of young children can attest to, naptime should NEVER be counted on. Gideon, who goes down easily and sleeps long, chose today to break his pattern and refuse to nap at all. I really try not to hold on to my ‘to do’ list to tightly but…I just could not let the mowing go. When Wyatt got home from school, I left the children putting away their laundry and decided I’d just mow the back yard where the grass had really become overgrown.  About twenty minutes into my mowing I looked up to see my two year old wandering across the yard towards me…covered in blood.

 

First, I screamed. Then, I jumped off the mower and raced over to him. Wyatt followed him out and seemed just as bewildered as I was by the state of his younger brother. “He said he got into Helen’s food,” was the only explanation he could offer. My mind was racing. Gideon seemed unharmed but he looked like a lion cub fresh from a kill.

 

WHAT did he DO?!? He got into Helen’s food, or ate her??

Entering the house did little to calm my nerves. It appeared to be a bloodbath.

 

I called Helen. She came in, perfectly clean and dressed as a pixie.

I followed the trail of blood to it’s origin: a tiny pool on the kitchen table…next to the steak Helen requested for a snack…and a steak knife. (I must be clear here: Helen did not have a steak knife…but, I had cut her steak with the knife and stupidly left it on the counter…apparently within reach of two year old fingers that decided they needed a steak knife to go with their pilfered steak). The next step was to clean up the steak thief and attempt to locate the source of the blood. I found it on his pointer finger, tiny and no longer bleeding.

Mommy may or may not attempt yardwork in the future but she will definitely be more careful with the steak knives!