Magical Pip

Before I get into this post, I want to be clear up-front. Parenting life is rarely ... rarely ... full of the moments I am about to describe. That is why I am posting it as magical. I am hardly tooting my own horn, or Pip's horn, as it were. I'm still reeling that this happened and so I have to write about it.

This night started out fairly routinely. A Friday, we were unwinding after dinner. All of us sprawled on the floor, digesting dinners, playing with toys, running, jumping, talking. You can figure which of us was doing which. All of a sudden Phil and I noticed Pip was cleaning up toys. Not getting out new ones. It was about 15 minutes to bedtime. We exchanged glances. Pip continued with even greater zest. Silently, without drawing attention to himself, he walked over to the wipes, drew one out and now wiped down each toy before carefully putting it away. "Are you seeing this?", Phil and I seemed to say in unison to each other.

One by one, Magical Pip picked up every last toy downstairs. He scoured the place looking for stragglers, quietly returning them to their proper place. I whispered to Phil, "we gotta reward this." And Phil just as quietly slipped Magical Pip some M&M's as if to the maitre'd for a window table. Pip popped them in his mouth and continued his quested uninterrupted.

Next, Magical Pip announced, "Come on Vivie, it's time for bed." He turned and clomped upstairs telling Vivie to get her pajamas on. He went into his room, happily telling me he was about to get dressed for bed and inviting me to watch his undressing and dressing prowess. I watched in amazement. When finished, he announced, "Ok, now we brush our teeth" and marched into the bathroom where he led a instructional on teeth brushing for a one person audience.

Afterwards he waited for Vivie and then picked out the Thomas song book (with buttons to push for the songs) and climbed with her into her big bedroom chair. I was looking on with huge eyes, dumbstruck. Magic Pip proceeded to gently show Vivie which button to push on each page and let her push every one. We went through the book twice and every time he let her push the buttons. Once he accidentally pushed one while trying to show her which one. ... "Don't worry Vivie, when the song stops you can push it next time."

I was out of my gourd. I still am now looking back. Then Magical Pip slipped into his room for a song from Daddy. And hasn't been seen since.

Here are two clips of the cleaning part (and yes, that is me half asleep on the floor ... this Mommy stuff is tiring!!!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Etqf5bc-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5nWbJ7YVLw