Dirt

Boys get dirty. Little boys seem to make their top priority finding any kind of dirt or mess and covering themselves in as much of it as possible. It isn't to say little girls don't get dirty too. I never had a brand new pair of white tennis shoes that didn't find a huge mud puddle within days (sometimes hours) of purchase. If there was a puddle within a 100 feet of me, I would manage to fall into it. Craft time meant paint, glue and glitter on the elbows of my shirts and somewhere on my pants. But I would argue that my dirt interaction as a little girl was more a by product of my play or lack of attention on my part, where as with little boys (and specifically my son) dirt seems to be the aim from the get-go. Playtime is what happens when you busy making a mess.

Turns out I am a bit of control freak about messes. (NO! Say it ain't so- not you! Yeah yeah...) If going purely on instinct I would have a wet wipe always in my hand and my son would be playing outside wrapped in plastic. He would have come out of the womb knowing how to use utensils and place his napkin neatly in his lap. And I don't get it. I am not a super neat person. I am controlling and want to be the boss of many, many things- but I wouldn't consider neatness to be high on that list. I was a horrible slob as a child. My room was the stuff of legend. But somehow with the birth of this child, a switch has been flipped. I clean his toys up every time he lays down for a nap or goes to bed for the night (though to be fair he does help me clean them up- good habit rather than developing compulsion I hope). I had such a hard time making the leap to Will feeding himself completely that ultimately Eli made the transition for me while I was gone for a week. I will strip Will of his clothes whenever I think a meal is too messy.

It is a compulsion I suppose, because when I actually stop and think about things, I tend to take a deep breath and relax. His clothes will come clean, I know. Dirt won't hurt him at all, I know. And when I take that breath, we have SO much more fun. Playing in dirt is part of learning for Will. So I am working on it. Today we played in the park and he was playing with wood chips and sand and on his hands and knees on the jungle gym having a blast. And I had such a good time watching him that when he fell on his hands and knees in a big puddle, I just laughed and told him to get up and go on. Next thing you know I will be out making mud pies with him in the yard. But I will still pick his toys up multiple times a day. Compulsions must be dealt with one step at a time.