Now batting cleanup

He wouldn’t nap yesterday. We tried everything. Two hours after he should have started napping, we finally bundled him into the car and all went for a drive to a couple of other states. (This is New England, so we can do that.) Two minutes after we got on the highway, the burbling and mild protests from the back seat turned into regular deep breathing. An hour of nap in the car turned out to be enough for the day, replacing his usual two hour or longer nap in his crib.

On our break from the driving, we took David to a lovely toy store in New Hampshire, where he latched onto a toy broom and carried it all around the store. He would put it down to investigate other interesting objects, but kept picking the broom back up when he was ready to move on to the next area of the store.

This morning we gave David a Swiffer dust mop, and discovered that we now own a very quiet and slightly erratic Roomba. He is particularly interested in cleaning under furniture, follows a random pattern around the floor, and changes directions when he bumps into obstacles. He’s just missing the algorithm that stops him from falling down stairs, so he needs supervision.

It makes sense that David wants the floors to be clean, since he is far more engaged with the floor than we are as adults. The floor is where he learned to crawl around, and the floor is where he lands when Mr. Gravity suggests that David take a break from walking. The floor holds his toys, his books, approximately a third of his lunch, and almost everything that we try to put down on a table. Floors should be clean, but tables should be empty.