Experimenting with cause and effect

Today was a morning for the books.

It started out smooth, like a well-oiled machine. I preheated the oven, made and ate my own breakfast, and looked up a healthy smoothie recipe to whip up. I even got myself dressed and unloaded the dishwasher. Yes, today was going to be one of those scenes of domestic bliss that you only see in an Instagram ad.

Then my toddler woke up.

He got his diaper changed without a fuss and I brought him over to the couch where we could do our morning routine of snuggles, milk, and a little tv. Except he didn’t want to watch the show I put on. Or the second one. Or the third.

Finally, after an exasperated sigh from me that I wasn’t going to find a fifth show for him if this one didn’t work out, he settled on an episode of Winnie the Pooh.

After a few minutes, breakfast was ready and I knew that it would be a homerun. After all it was basically a plate of his favorite things: toasted English muffins with butter, turkey sausage, fresh blueberries and banana.

He ate half a sausage patty and then looked at me. “Is that all you got?” his eyes seemed to ask.

Not to worry! I still had the delicious chocolate, peanut butter, and banana smoothie up my sleeve!

Jameson oohed and ahhed as he watched the blender whir, mixing up all of the ingredients. I picked up his special mint colored cup with a little duckie on it (lidless, a big boy cup but miniature) and poured the smoothie in.

He ran to his seat with it and drank it down. So I poured him some more. He drank about half and then looked up at me with those big, brown eyes of his and asked for more.

He hadn’t finished the cup yet, but I was happy he liked it, so more he got.

Then I watched as he promptly flipped the cup upside down. Cold chocolate sludge poured over the edge of his little table and onto his bare legs.

He was shocked. He was cold. He was thoroughly pissed off.

He began to cry big, heaving sobs as he couldn’t believe what happened to his new favorite drink. Reminding him that he, in fact, had just been the one who dumped out said drink did nothing to soothe his heartache.

Did he want more of mama’s smoothie from her cup? No and how dare I ask him that.

So there I was: sopping up chocolate goop from the table and floor, holding a crying toddler.

It was no longer and Instagram worthy moment. It had now turned into a 90’s television ad for a roll of Bounty paper towels.

A quick add on: it seems that Jameson is squarely in the phase of experimenting with cause and effect. Just the other day he was home with D and poured a cup of water on his head. And not five minutes after that, fished a can of diet coke out of the bin and dumped the remnants of that on his head as well. He was just as shocked and upset the first time as he was the second. Ah, toddlers.