The Trouble with Threes

“See you later, alligator.”

“In a while crocodile,” Jake giggled back to his mother. He lay in bed with his favorite stuffed banana. It was the middle of summer but Jake was tucked in with a reindeer blanket that he’s been obsessed with for the past six months. He was also obsessed with dinosaurs and would not go to bed without his dinosaur jacket. It made him look like a baby T-rex curled up in a nest.

“Bye hon, see you tomorrow,” said Leon as he waved at his wife on the screen and hung up. “And sweet dreams to you, little man, I’ll see you soon.” Leon gave his son one last kiss before leaving Jake to take a nap. 

Jake had been growing taller rather than rounder over the past year. He had finally been moved out of his crib and into a larger toddler bed. Now at the age of three Leon thought Jake looked more like a young child rather than a baby. It made Leon’s heart ache just a bit as he closed the door to the nursery. 

With Jake out of the way for a couple of hours, Leon was finally free to catch up on some house work. He thought he would start with mowing the lawn. The grass had finally reached a point that could not be ignored and Leon did not want to deal with another HOA note reminding him “our grass has got class” (but not if it’s over 3 inches). Then there was the laundry. Leon adored his son but the amount of dirty clothes that three foot tall creature can produce was enough to make him want to pull his hair out. Not to mention there was also picking up all the scattered toys, cleaning the weird sticky stain off the floor, and cooking dinner and back up dinner in case Jake didn’t like the first choice.

“Two hours. You’ve got this man,” Leon said as he patted himself on the shoulder. He opened the garage and started with the grass on the side of the house. He was about five minutes in when he heard the first giggles. Leon instinctively stopped everything and popped his head up. He was a deer who caught the first crack of a branch beneath a predator’s feet. 

The giggles got louder and was followed with a thunk. Leon caught Jake just in time before the wagon he was sitting on rolled all the way down the driveway. Leon didn’t even know how Jake had managed to get the wagon out of its position behind the car, let alone how he managed to get himself inside and roll it down the driveway. It was Jake’s giggles that brought Leon back from the shock of it all.

“Don’t do that again!” Leon yelled. Leon softened when he saw the scared look on Jake’s face. “It’s back to bed for you.”

For the second time that day Leon tucked Jake in for a nap. Leon finished mowing the lawn without a hitch. It was as soon as he got back inside the house, washed up, and plopped down on the couch with a sigh that Leon heard the scampering. It was coming directly overhead from where his office was and there was only one thing that could be scampering in there.

By the time Leon got to his office, Jake had already pulled out a handful of books from the shelves and was sitting on top of the desk dumping pens on the floor. There were scribbles on the knees of his pants and up his arms. He was laughing softly to himself but to Leon it sounded almost maniacal. Taking a deep breath, Leon walked over to his son, picked him up, and placed him on the floor. 

“Alright buddy, let’s have a chat. Do you think you can do Daddy a really big favor?” Leon asked him with begging eyes.

Jake nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh.”

“Help me out little man. I need you to help me clean today.” Leon picked up some pens from the floor and put them in a box to show Jake. “Just like that.”

Jake picked up some pens and clumsily put them back in the box. He immediately beamed at Leon and clapped his hands.

“Good job, buddy. Keep it up.”

Jake continued to clean up the pens as best as he could. When he was done he tried picking up one of the books he had dropped. It was too heavy for him and instead of putting it back on the shelf as he had intended, Jake ended up dropping the book and ripping some of the pages. 

“Good try, let me help you with that.” Together Leon and Jake picked up the rest of the books and put them on a shelf low enough for Jake to reach. 

“Can I help more?” Jake asked Leon after the last book was placed.

“I have a fun idea,” Leon said. “Let’s go put your toys in a box just like you did with the pens.” Leon led Jake downstairs and to the living room where Jake's toys were scattered around the floor. He found an empty box and put it in the center of the room. 

“Put your toys in the box,” Leon told Jake. Like the pens, he picked up a toy and put it in the box so his son could see. “Your turn!”

Jake scrambled around the room picking up all the toys he could see. He would take handfuls of them and throw them in the box. He didn’t always make it in but Jake would pick them up and try again. After watching Jake clean a few of the toys on his own, Leon stepped aside to the kitchen. He could see everything Jake did from the other side of the kitchen island. While Jake was preoccupied Leon began to take out some ingredients for dinner. 

Leon was in the middle of cutting up carrots for chicken noodle soup when he realized the house was finally quiet. Something was wrong. Leon’s anxiety shot up as he took suspicious glances around the house and Jake was nowhere to be found.

“Jake?” Leon called. No answer.

“Jake!” Still nothing.

“Jake,” Leon tried again more playfully. “Peek-a-boo!”

That’s when he heard the laughter. He followed it all the way to the front door where he saw a small puddle of water had pooled together.

“Peek-a-boo!” Jake shouted from behind Leon. He immediately wrapped his arms around his father - or rather he wrapped his arms around his father’s right leg, which was all his little arms could reach. “I watered the plants for you,” Jake said proudly.

Leon looked down at Jake’s excited face and back at the puddle. It was slowly spreading out from the houseplants and getting absorbed into the doormat, bringing along pieces of soil and leaves as it went. There were little footprints that splashed from the puddle and out across the floor. There was dirt caked on some of Jake’s toes and Leon was pretty sure he saw part of a footprint in the planter. 

Deep breaths, Lee, Leon told himself. He took a moment to calm himself down. The kid’s just trying to help. He forced a smile on his face.

“Thanks Jake,” he said. “But take a look at the floor. We can’t have dirty water on the floor, we can trip on it. Come on.”

Leon took Jake back to the living room. It was only then that he noticed that the dirty footprints went all the way to the living room and all over the rug. The toys on the other hand were all picked up and placed sloppily in the box like a bad game of Tetris. If Leon had been older he may have ended up with much higher blood pressure. As it was he was still young and in good health and so was his son, which meant they had years to go before Leon got stress induced hair loss. Leon turned on the TV and let Jake get distracted by some Mickey Mouse reruns. 

Returning to the door, Leon began to clean up the puddle with some rags from the kitchen. 

“I’ll help, Daddy,” Jake called out from next to Leon. Leon didn’t even realize he was there. Before he could do anything, Jake had taken off his jacket and threw it in the puddle. He wiped it across the floor as he watched his father do, but Jake did it so fast that he just spread the water around even more. Jake not only spread dirty water across the floor, he also got it all over his clothes and on Leon’s clothes. 

“Jake, stop it!” Leon shouted, all the pressure finally bursting out of him. 

Jake jumped back and froze. His little round face began to scrunch up and go red. It was like his face was moving in slow motion as a slow, deep frown began to form on Jake’s face. Just as all of Leon’s anger had burst out as he shouted, all of Jake’s emotions burst out in one long, loud scream. It was like a siren and Leon felt a ringing form in his ear.

This, of course, only frustrated Leon even more. Before Leon could say anything, though, Jake had already run off into the living room. Leon went after him. By the time he had gotten to the living, Jake couldn’t be seen but could still be heard crying very loudly. Leon followed the crying to the couch. Jake had crawled under it where Leon couldn’t reach.

The time it took to follow Jake back to the living room and look for him under the couch was enough to get Leon to cool his head just a little bit. He took some time before calling Jake again. He wanted to make sure his voice was calm so he doesn’t scare Jake again and coax him out from under the couch. 

“Jake, come on out and sit with me,” Leon said as evenly as he could. 

Jake only shook his head no.

“Why not? Are you scared of getting in trouble?”

Jake nodded.

“You’re not in trouble, I just want to talk to you. Sorry you got scared.” Leon paused to gather his thoughts. “Thank you for trying to help me out, I know you were trying to be good. I just didn’t like you making a mess with the water and your nice clothes. That’s a lot of work to clean up, do you understand?”

There were still tears in Jake’s eyes, but Leon saw him nod slightly.

“I’m not mad at you for trying to help, but I want you to ask me next time if you can, okay?”

Again, Jake nodded.

“Can you come out now?”

Jake gave a little wiggle before letting out another whine. “I’m stuck!”

Leon helped Jake make his way out, almost losing his composure again but this time with laughter. He gave Jake a tight hug to reassure him. “I got you, little man.”

For the rest of the day, Leon kept Jake close by his side. Part of the reason was to keep him out of trouble. If Leon can see him, he can keep Jake from doing anything he’s not supposed to. The other reason was to make sure he can teach Jake properly this time. Leon brought Jake back to the puddle on the floor and showed him how to wipe it gently and with which towel. Together they cleaned it up along with all the footprints. Next, they went to the living room to play with the toys Jake had put away earlier. This time when it was time to put them away, Leon showed Jake how to put the toys away one by one and to spread them out. By the time all the toys were put away, Jake was already tired of being ‘helpful.’ Leon turned on the TV for him again and Jake actually watched it long enough for Leon to finish making dinner. 

That night wasn’t without trouble. After all, that’s one of the things that toddlers were best at. Jake still made a mess of himself and everything around him during dinner. Leon had been so distracted with the day’s events that he forgot about the sticky stain on the floor he meant to clean. He only remembered it when he stepped directly on it while carrying a load of laundry. Overall the night went better than the day. Leon tried to be more patient and explain things to Jake, and on Jake’s end he remembered to ask for permission before doing something new - most of the time. 

Leon woke up the next morning on the couch. He and Jake had been watching a movie that night when he fell asleep. The TV was still on but nothing was playing. Jake was playing with his toys nearby and ran up to Leon when he noticed him stirring. Jake still did not understand personal space, so the first thing Leon saw that morning was Jake’s face breathing inches away from his own face. Leon noticed he was hugging Jake’s stuffed banana. Jake’s reindeer blanket appeared to have been thrown messily over his feet.

“Good morning sleepy head!” a voice called out from the kitchen. Diana, Leon’s wife, had just gotten home. Along with her wafted in the smell of pancakes and sausages. She placed a plastic container on the counter. “I bought you boys some breakfast.” 

“Mommy’s home!” Jake exclaimed gleefully as he ran over to his mother. 

“There’s my baby!” Diana scooped up Jake into a long embrace. “I missed you both. How did things go yesterday?”

“Pretty great considering we didn’t burn the house down,” Leon smiled and gave his wife a kiss. He recounted the past day to her. At the end of the day things did turn out pretty well. Leon and Jake got to spend some quality time together, and Leon made sure to share all the ways Jake had tried to help out around the house. He told Diana almost everything, except maybe about Jake rolling down the driveway with the wagon. Some things may be better kept between father and son.