Pre-school procrastination

Procrastination is one of those horrifying traits that I'm hoping desperately not to pass along to my children. Scott seems to have an innate ability to schedule in even the most unpleasant of tasks so that they get done and it takes as little time as possible. Not so with me ... and it seems, not so much with Will.

A few weeks ago, I was on the phone with my dad when Will called from the bathroom, "I'm du-un!" I explained to my dad that this is Will-speak for, "I've just gone poop, now please wipe my bumper." My dad said, "I know, he was doing that when I was there in May and October." Scott and I haven't been too concerned about it, expect maybe once last May when his daycare teachers commented how they were impressed that he could wipe by himself. We sort of looked at each other and thought, "He can?" Then we quickly started figuring that he just didn't poop at daycare ... he must save those goodies for us.

Well, here we are, at least 8 months later and Will's still calling, "I'm du-un!" So, we've decided on a full-force, "Try to wipe your own bumper policy." Unfortunately, Will has a million excuses. We've heard everything from, "My arms don't reach" to "But I'll use so much paper!" Tonight was his grand-daddy excuse. "I'll wipe own bumper when I'm a big brother. I can't do it until then."

Wasn't sure how to respond to that ... it's probably pretty natural for him to want to hang on to a bit of his babyhood while he still can. Of course, that may be another trait he gets from me. Tonight, after his bath, he put on his own pajama bottoms and top ... it was me who covered him in Johnson's baby lotion first.