When my son was a toddler, and not nursing as much, my husband was worried he wouldn't get enough nutrition. He wanted our boy to drink milk, and lots of it to get enough calcium for those growing bones. But the boy didn't like milk. (Looking back, that's not such a big surprise!) So, to make the milk more palatable, he put chocolate in it. Instant addict. Suddenly, we couldn't keep enough chocolate milk in the house and eventually we had to cut him back to just one bottle a day. I say bottle, but it's really a plastic juice box with an attached straw. To this day, our son has to start his day with chocolate milk, so I make it the night before so it's ready for him in the fridge in the morning. If I forget, there's hell to pay. The rule is, he has to put the bottle back in the fridge when he's done, so the remains don't turn into cottage cheese before I can wash it. He frequently forgets to do this, for which there is hell for him to pay. We run an equal opportunity service here. ;)
So yesterday, the baby walks into the bathroom with brother's bottle. She's really good at simple commands so I told her to give it to brother and tell him mommy said to put it in the fridge. She came back a few minutes later without the bottle, and frankly, I forgot about it...
Until later that night when my son wanted some regular milk to drink. It's like his nighttime thing now, before he goes to sleep. Chocolate in the morning, regular in the evening. So I went to get his bottle out of the fridge, and it wasn't there. He didn't know where it was, claimed the baby never gave it to him, and since she was sleeping, we were clueless. Believe me, I wasn't about to wake up Miss Grumpy just to ask where a bottle was! We searched the house for a while - it wasn't in the toy box, the closet, under the bed, it had seemingly disappeared. I figured I'd find it someday, rotten and moldy, but there wasn't much I could do about it. So I got him another one from the cabinet, gave him his milk, and a bit later he fell asleep.
By that time the baby had woken up on her own, and after I got brother to bed, she and I sat down to watch TV together. After a while, I remembered the bottle, and I asked her if she knew where it was. I didn't really expect an answer, she's only 2 after all. But she hopped off the couch, went to the kitchen, opened the cabinet next to the fridge, and produced brother's bottle. I was stunned! It was like 12 hours later and she remembered! Of course, being 2 she wasn't able to open the fridge herself to put it away, as she demonstrated, so in her mind, the next best thing was the cabinet next to the fridge. She brought the bottle to me, full of pride. She tried to do something nice, wanting so much to be a helper girl, and put it as close to away as she possibly could.
I was just so amazed. She hadn't come running back to me complaining that she couldn't open the fridge; she didn't bother brother with it since he was apparently "busy" playing a video game at the time; she simply tried to take care of it herself. At 2.
I know, I know, you're probably rolling your eyes and thinking, "Another bragging mom! So she put the bottle away, who cares?" Well, it's probably hard to understand if you haven't had kids, but moms are always proud and amazed when their kids demonstrate something that seems like it would be beyond them. It's one of the job requirements and it's one we perform with joy. :)
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