Rewards

While I was changing Tory this afternoon, Abbie came running into the room. This is odd behavior for her. She obviously wanted something, but her usual tact for getting something is to stand next to it and whine. I’ve heard that some children will fetch their parents when they want something. I’ve also heard that parenting is life fulfilling, but I haven’t seen that yet, either.

My first thought was that she needs her diaper changed. I finished with Tory, walked to her, and saw that she had something in her mouth. Our housekeeping has fallen tragically behind, and I was afraid that she’d picked up something dangerous off the floor instead of something that’s simply disgusting.

I poked at her mouth, but she wouldn’t give it to me. I asked her to give it to me, but she refused. That meant that whatever she found, it was tasty. Possibly disgusting, but tasty nonetheless. I remembered I have a three-year-old capable of quasi-understandable speech, so I tried asking her what she was eating.

“Mmm, chocolate,” she replied.

I looked at her mouth, and recognized a heavily chewed chocolate Kiss. Abbie must have broken into the freezer and raided the chocolate stash that I keep not-so-hidden in there.

After I determined that she wasn’t ingesting anything more dangerous than saturated fat, I wondered why she ran into the room to get me. The optimist in me says she wanted to share with me the joy of the chocolate that she found. The pessimist says that she wanted to let me know that she raided the chocolate stash, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Maybe parenting is more rewarding if I always assume the best.