This guy sleeps and attends college under Max's bed.
The other day, we skipped church and opted to do some serious deep cleaning. A noble trade-off, I'm sure you agree. We vacuumed mattresses, for crying out loud. So, you know it was pretty intense. When we flipped the mattress and pulled up the box springs, I found 3 missing socks of my own, one of Lucy's hair bows and enough dog hair to stuff a pillow. Ricardo even polished our furniture. I cleaned out my nightstand. I found 16 ponytail holders, 13 pens, and an ipod shuffle I've been looking for for months.
While we cleaned, I explained to the kids they needed to clean their rooms as well. Apparently they didn't get the message from our actions that it was serious bidnez. Because once I finished my portion of cleaning our room, I went to vacuum. That's when I discovered that Max had taken all of his stuff on his floor and shoved it under his fort-like bed.
A few days ago, I was enjoying just hanging out with the kids. I'm trying very hard to be available. Because it seems they really don't want nor need me until I'm elbow deep in cleaning dishes or making sure my freshly minced garlic doesn't burn while sauteeing. Very important stuff like that that you just can't walk away from to get a knot out of a shoe. So, I've been trying to get all of that done and simply be available for them. It's been working, but the kids are on to me. "Why is mommy just sitting there?"
Max caught on and I think he was actually challenging me. But I went with it. He has a basketball hoop garbage can that we taped the hoop part to the wall so Bevo (his stuffed animal long horn from Texas, ofcourse) could play on his college basketball team. He choreographed all of his stuffed animals Texas versus Nebraska (Oh, you know Texas totally took 'em) to play some basketball. It was all set up so that the college was under his bed, but the game was out in this other area in his room. I sat on his bed and watched the game, cheering and hollering. Max took the stuffed animals under his bed to their "college" at half-time. I waited. It was fun.
But when I went to clean DAYS later, all of his stuffed animals were lumped under trash, clothes, 3 footballs, a poster, and I think I found a cup and a dirty band aid too. GROSS! By the time I'd discovered it all, I was trying to suppress the Mommy Dearest rage. The fact is, he "cleaned" his room and was watching tv, while I'm crawling under his bed to get all of this stuff out from under his bed so that I can vaccuum. I yelled for him to come back up. And then I found a wire hanger. It's a good thing that's all we use here. The rage was suppressed, and I thought I was really doing the kid a favor.
He found me in his room cleaning it all out, "Max, you shoved everything under your bed. This isn't okay. It's your responsibility to pick up your room so that I can vacuum. This is a health hazard. What was in this cup? Don't answer. Just clean this up babe. I need to vacuum."
Tears welled up and then he picked up a toy, said he was going to take it downstairs and put it away. He never came back up. Then I heard him talking to Ricardo,
"Mom just destroyed Bevo's college!"
Oh no! I just ruined his college. Dangit! I called him back upstairs. I have to fix this.
"Max, did I just ruin your college?"
He nodded. Completely defeated.
"Max, does a dirty sock, a hanger, a football helmet, a motorcycle helmet and a band aid go to your college?"
"No."
"I'm sorry I destroyed Bevo's college." Usually, that's when he says it's okay. But he didn't this time. Wow, he must be totally devastated. "Okay, I'll make you a deal. We'll put all of your helmets and your footballs up in the net. We'll take down all of your stuffed animals and they can go to college."
His face lit up. "Okay!"
"And then after we get it all set up, you're the official coach and custodian of the college, okay?"
"What's a custodian?"
Exactly.
"A custodian keeps the college clean so everyone can enjoy going to college. Can you do it?"
"Yep!"
And then, as we rearranged it all, out of nowhere, completely unprompted, "Thanks, Mom!"
I'm going to have to destroy more stuff and then fix it more often.
That's how I roll.
