Recently Lucy has started trying to help me in all sorts of ways – she likes to pick things up, unpack groceries… stuff like that. I try to encourage this – you know because I’m so lazy. However last Friday I learned two very important lessons 1.) She’s a little too young to really be helpful and 2.) It’s important to pay attention.

 Last Friday morning we were out running errands trying to get supplies for my first book club meeting. Have I mentioned Susan & I started a book club? I think our nerd meters just clicked up another level. Anyway, I was out buying cupcakes and wine… standard book club fair. I stopped at a bakery, you know like a real bakery, not the one in the back of the grocery store. Look at me being all fancy pants.

 The bakery gave us a dozen individual desserts including handmade crème puffs and red velvet cupcakes in a cute pink I’ve-been-to-the-bakery box. I gently carried it to the car and set it on the floor of the front seat and Lucy & I made three more stops before coming home. Once home, hands full, I carried the bakery box and bags of groceries out of the car and set them on the table on the front porch while I searched for the keys that I had had in my hand not 10 seconds ago. Once I got the door open Lucy, being helpful grabbed the bag containing the bakery box and tried to carry it inside, she banged it on the ground, dragged it to the door, over the threshold, knocked it against the door jam, ran inside and in her excitement to be home did a little twirl which launched the cute pink box out of the bag spilling most of its contents onto the living room rug. The dog was instantly on the scene eating one crème puff in a single gulp and getting a honey bun stuck to his front paw.  

 Fast forward to 5:00 that evening, we were upstairs so that I could change my clothes and try to appear less ‘unemployed.’ Lucy was helping by bringing me things that I didn’t need out of the bathroom. I was standing in the closet; I knew she was sitting behind me playing with some treasure from the bathtub. I located the shirt I was searching for and turned to her to discover that the treasure she had found was her bath soap, and not the little one we use every day but the big refill bottle – you know the 48oz bottle? Somehow she had managed to pry the top off and poured the entire 48 oz of Johnson & Johnson head to toe wash all over her and the carpet in our bedroom.

 It’s super important to pay attention and in the future I’ll make sure to carry the cupcakes myself.