If that's not an inspirational quote, I don't know what is. You'd
be forgiven for thinking that quote was offered up by someone like Winston
Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, or Abraham Lincoln. I'd even forgive you for
thinking it might have been uttered by Phil Keoghan (Why yes, I am watching
'The Amazing Race'. Why do you ask?).
 | |
| No GIPHY, that is not Phil Keoghan. |
 |
| That one IS Phil. |
Ultimately, the originator of that quote is none other than
Vin Diesel. For the record, I like to assume he first said it while driving a car
out of an airplane. That's not true though as the rest of the quote had to do
with his personal journey to Hollywood stardom.
I bring up the idea of being resourceful because it
describes Ellie to a 'T' these days. Over the past couple of weeks she has
shown a tremendous aptitude for entertaining herself. It's not uncommon for her
to disappear into our subbasement for extended play sessions centered around
her slide, her tricycle, or filling random baskets with her toys. While Ellie's
resourcefulness can be a good thing, there are times that it can get her in
trouble.
Case in point, look no further than this morning. Ellie had
been happily playing by herself for most of the morning. Even better, she had
stayed out of trouble in doing so. As any parent of an infant would be doing in
this instance, I was focused on making sure Ethan stayed happy and content
until it was time for his next nap. Therefore, I really wasn't focused on
Ellie. At least that wasn't the case until I heard a mysterious scraping sound
coming from the kitchen.
As I walked into the kitchen, Ellie scampered to meet me,
proudly clutching a kazoo in her hand. Now, Ellie holding a children's musical
instrument isn't that out of the ordinary. However, it's not normal for said
child's musical instrument to be covered in a mysterious white powder. First
things first, I knew I could rule out anthrax as that just didn't seem likely.
It was also equally unlikely that she pried open our sugar or flour canisters
on the counter.
Once I had exhausted all of my potential guesses, I finally
just asked Ellie to show me what she had been doing. With that, she proudly led
me over to the bars in the kitchen overlooking our family room. Then, she put
the kazoo through the bars and began scraping it across our popcorn ceiling,
watching and smiling as the residue snowed onto our coffee table below.
The first thing I did was to immediately snatch the kazoo
out of her hand, placing it on a high surface. Then, I led Ellie downstairs to
the scene of the crime where I explained that she was breaking our house and
making a mess. Next, I headed back upstairs to the closet to get the vacuum to
clean up the house. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize just how terrified
Ethan was of the vacuum.
Once the mess was cleaned, I was then blessed with the opportunity
to attempt to calm both of my screaming children. Yes, I mean both. You see,
Ellie hates getting in trouble more than anything. Even if she doesn't get a
spanking, it's inevitable that she will throw herself on the ground, kicking
and screaming all the while. Eventually my only recourse was to send both kids
to bed for an early nap. Lucky for me, both kids obliged and took a good one
meaning that I got to eat lunch in peace. Nice little break if I
do say so myself. #DaddyWrite
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