Finally, after four and a half years, my son is starting to be useful (kidding, of course).
Today we ran errands in the morning while his brothers were at school. We got them home and fed and settled in with some toys and a movie (their favorite way to unwind after school), and then we headed outside to wash my truck. It's needed it for a while, and Connor likes to "help" with things like that.
Of course, you must take his help for what it is - that of a four-year old. His favorite part, of course, is to spray the hose. And he does pretty well. He gets most of the truck, occasionally the flowers that line the driveway, and pretty frequently his mother and even himself. Accidentally, of course. And he also takes the sponges and brushes and works his little heart out. All while talking in his usual non-stop, not even bothering to breath way.
We're outside maybe five minutes, and he suddenly tells me we're done. I haven't moved from the front bumper, which is covered in bugs from a recent long trip. I take a look at his "work" to see what he's talking about. Sure enough, there's a twelve-inch line of clean all the way around my truck, about three feet from the ground. He's taken his sponge and rubbed a clean line on every inch at that exact height. The rest of it, well he can't bend over and clean at the same time, and he's not tall enough to reach! Or so he tells me.
I convince him to keep working a while. He has a big time using the brush to scrub our relatively new tires (which are still very dirty from the warehouse, apparently). He also gets to use the brush on the floor mats. While he's busy with that and the occasional hose down (with my direction and often assistance), I finish up the rest of the truck.
We finish just as the movie is rolling the credits and the little guys are dancing (it's probably their favorite part of the movie). A little one-on-one time with the big boy while also accomplishing something that needs to be done. Just another day in the life . . .
Oh, and I have good news and bad news about the truck. The bad news is that it's back home but not exactly fixed. The second garage (the one that specializes in computer / electrical issues) couldn't replicate the problem. After three hours, it only refused to start one time, after which it started immediately on the second try. So, it's basically a ticking time bomb. It's just a matter of when and where it's going to do it again. Probably in the car pool line at school. Or in the garage on the way to pick the kids up from school. That's my luck. The good news is that the second garage didn't charge us anything for their time or effort. They just said to give them a call if (they were nice enough not to say "when" even though we all know that's the case) it happens again. And we will. Because we like the way they do business.
