Timeline

The Baby

I woke up and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I opened the door and froze. JJ was sitting in the middle of the floor with the whole tube of toothpaste in a puddle around him. The toilet paper was in the bathtub, the toilet, and all over the walls. "JJ! What on earth are you doing?!"

"Jungle!" He said with a smile and raised his hands above his head. I forgot he had entered the "terrible twos" stage. And let me tell you, it is as bad as or maybe even worse than people say.

JJ was obsessed with the jungle. He loves every animal in the jungle. When we're at the grocery store and he sees a book or magazine with a jungle animal on it, you can't pull him away from it and we almost always give in and end up buying it.

"Come here. I'll read you a jungle book but then you have to help me clean this up before Mommy gets home, OK?" My mom found a night job here in Florida and I told her that I'd take care of JJ at night while she was at work.

Every morning was something new. Last week, he put gorilla glue on his hands and feet and stuck them to the wall. He wanted to be an iguana. I had to pry him off of the wall with a spatula, water, salt, and windex. I have absolutely no idea where he found the gorilla glue. I didn't even know we had any! Yesterday, he decided that he wanted to make every animal he knew of... out of my mom's favorite blouse! I had to get a new one and clean it all up before she saw the mini jungle in the living room.

"OK" He got up and walked into the living room. I picked up his favorite jungle book and read it to him. When I finished and shut the book, my cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sam. I'm finished up at work. I'm going to run to the grocery store and then I'll be home."

"Mom, just come on home. It's Saturday. I'll take JJ and go to the store. Come home and get some sleep."

"Are you sure? You were with him all night? And don't you want to hang with your friends?"

"I'm stuck with him until you get home anyways. Besides, it won't take too long. Just text me the list."

"Alright then. I'll send the list." She kind of sounded relieved. I'm glad I'm able to do this for her.

"OK. If I'm not home by the time you get here, just text me and go to bed, ok?"

"Alright, Sam. Be careful."

"You too" We hung up and I turned to JJ. "Alright, little man." I picked him up and carried him to the bathroom. When I set him down, he tried to run away. "Oh, no you don't. You're going to help me clean this mess up. Start picking up the toilet paper and put it in the trashcan and I'll go get the mop."

"No" He plopped down on the floor and didn't move. He usually did this with my mom so he would get his way. But it wasn't going to work with me.

"JJ. Pick up the toilet paper." I looked at him so intensely that I tried to make him feel like I was looking into his soul. It must've worked because he looked scared as he got up and started cleaning. I went to get the mop. When I came back, all that was left in the bathroom was the toothpaste. I ran the mop over the floor and bottom of the walls really fast and dumped the dirty water into the bathtub. "See that wasn't so hard was it?" As we walked out the door, I cleaned up the jungle made of the shirt and threw that and the shirt away.

I buckled JJ into his car-seat and my phone dinged. I climbed into the driver's side and shut the door. I looked over the grocery list that my mom just sent me before backing out of the driveway.

In no time at all, I had a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk, a pound of cheese, a large onion, strawberries, and a package of bologna and was standing in the check out line. "And your total today is $30.19." I gave her my cell phone number for the Kroger card. "That brings you down to $24.97." I swiped my card to pay and my phone dinged. The cashier bagged my groceries and put them in the cart. "Have a nice day."