Installations

Mr LSG and I were putting together The Baby's crib last weekend. The Toddler, who is not a Toddler any more but rather a Preschooler, wanted to help so badly that she even said "Please?". So, we gave her little jobs to do -- carry this sheet here, move that stuffed animal over there, put The Baby's diapers here. She soon realized that we were fobbing things off on her, and the important work was being done in the middle of the room where the nuts and bolts and crib pieces were scattered on the floor.

By this point, the only thing left to install in the crib was the support for the mattress. It's a metal frame laced with springs (little finger catchers) and metal side supports that scissor open and closed to raise and lower the mattress base. Yep, I said scissor. Little finger choppers. Luckily, she usually respects us when we say "this is a Mommy and a Daddy job," which we very quickly deemed this little project.

But she Really Really Really wanted to help. She held the bolts and wing nuts for us, handing them to us as we needed them and watching us hold the screwdriver to hold the bolt still while we turned the wing nuts. "Mommy, I can do it!" She proclaimed, anxious to try before it was all done. I reminded her that it was a Mommy and a Daddy job, not a Preschooler job due to the sharp edges on which Daddy had already managed to slice his finger (oh yeah, such a safe crib. Actually, this part of the crib is out of reach once installed).

She thought about it for a little while, and then piped up: "Only Mommies and Daddies screw."