birdseed is for the birds

Greetings. I've been wanting to share the groans and chuckles of my life for a while, and now is as good as ever. I'll gradually add background to our family, but for now I'm just going to jump right in and share.

Today was Bug's Occupational Therapy evaluation. We hadn't even started when the teenage-looking therapist got beeped by her son's daycare, saying she had to come pick him up with Pink Eye. Not a good start since she was hurried after that. The only thing she had time to suggest to me while we were there (she'll call with more) was some deep pressure activities at various times of day. The handout seems to include a lot of heavy lifting, so when I came home and saw that I still hadn't filled the bird feeders, I decided to let him help me after preschool.

He carried the new 10 lb. bag of birdseed to the backyard. He carried another 10 lb. bag of birdseed to the backyard, and then the empty tub. He cut open the bags with his scissors and we carefully poured together. "I can do it." (ok... let him do it... he's doing fine....it's just birdseed.)

The tub is full, he scoops and pours into the feeders. They overflow. I try to scoop it off the patio. (It's just birdseed... let him do it...) We get the feeders hung. He wants to play ball. I insist that he help clean up the mess. I get the plastic bags to throw out and walk to the garage. "Uh oh! Mama!" (Crap, what happened?) I come back and see ten pounds of birdseed spilled out of the tub, into the plants. (take a deep breath... he didn't mean to do it... it's just birdseed.) I get a broom and dustpan. He gets a toy sand shovel. His shoveling sends seeds flying across the patio. (take a deep breath... maybe he'll get distracted and leave...) Seeds are everywhere and all I can see is me cleaning up what I can and me pulling out ten thousand sunflower plants in a month. So I ask him to leave, to stop helping. "Mama is feeling angry now and doesn't want to yell at you." I am no longer the patient, calm, life lesson teaching, therapy providing mom. I lasted about twenty minutes. Maybe that's a start.