A Day in the Life of the Torbenator

Torben is a very, very busy little guy and he has many jobs that need to be done each day. As soon as he wakes up he gets to work. The first order of business is to pull all the books off of any shelves he can reach. When he finishes he gives a very satisfied squeal. Then he proceeds to the kitchen where he stands on tiptoe and can just barely reach the top of the table. He fishes around with his fingers until he finds someones cereal bowl with leftover milk or perhaps a glass with an inch of beverage left in it, and then he pulls it crashing to the ground. This is also followed with a "job well done" squeal. He then moves on to the TV room, where the girls are usually watching their morning shows. He knows that it is very important that he get that TV turned off, so he stands next to it and pushes the off/on button repeatedly, eliciting a very satisfying series of shrieks and wails from the girls which he responds to with his own squealing. This goes on until someone (me) can't take it anymore and goes in to extract him. His next stop is the bathroom, where every, single morning he carefully unscrews the toilet paper holder from the wall. Then he throws it to the ground, pulls the roll off and marches on. At this point he usually grabs his absolute favorite toy, the toilet bowl brush. He pulls it out of it's holder and inspects the bristles for anything of interest. Usually he energetically scrubs the bathroom with it as well. His next job is to find all of my shoes (only mine, for some reason) and put small objects of interest in them, such as LEGO's, marbles, or the wheels he has pulled off of toy cars. He is very thorough about this, even filling my slippers, so that I always have the excitement of putting my foot in a shoe and stepping on something small, hard and often sharp. Next he marches upstairs to see if I am at the computer and then distracts me with some charming chattering and cute smiles before quickly reaching over and turning the computer off. The fact that it is a "childproof" computer does not faze him in the least, he has learned to just push hard and hold his finger there for a moment while squealing excitedly as I make my own interesting noises. He usually has one "special project" for the day, which requires a little more planning than his usual route. Today for instance I was in the bathroom and he was puttering around innocently enough until he suddenly pushed the door hard and closed it. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but Mike has been painting the doors and therefore has removed all the doorknobs. So I was now locked in the bathroom. Abby came and peered in at me through the hole, "Mommy, you wocked in? Don't worry Mom, Daddy will get you out when he comes home from work" (it was 8:00 am). So I had the pleasure of climbing out through the very small bathroom window, clinging to the side of the house while I tried to get my other leg through the very small opening, failing, and crashing to the ground. The window is higher than I would have thought. It's 9:52 am, and that's Torben's day so far.

FHE

For FHE tonight we talked about journals and so everyone is posting a blog. I went for milk Saturday morning and there's nothing to make you feel secure when a blizzard hits like 20 gallons of milk in the fridge. When I got back Mike asked if there was anything we needed to get to be prepared, and I said that with all that milk, 70 pounds of fish, and a variety of chicken and beef products in the freezer I thought we'd be ok. Then I had a horrible thought, that if we lost power for any extended period of time we'd lose all that fish. That was scary, but luckily it didn't happen. I feel like a peasant in olden times, but instead of pulling out my can of gold coins from under a floor board, I count my salmon. Thanks again Casey! Church was cancelled, which was a wonderfully guilty pleasure, and school was cancelled today even though the roads were cleared. Not having to make school lunches is a beautiful thing.