I'm such a bad mom…

Today, I think I will win the award for bad mom.

Yesterday morning, I gave the Animal some Cheerios in a bowl — just to see how he’d do with handling his own bowl. I thought, “Let’s turn on Mickey Mouse and eat some cereal in front of the TV,” because every 10-month-old can do that without making a mess.

Within two seconds, he turned the bowl completely upside down, and Cheerios covered our carpet.

This carpet has seen better days. Our beloved cat, Ethel (yes, I know that’s a weird name – her sister was Lucy, work better for you now?), has used her still-in-tact claws to create awesome divots in the material of the carpet. There’s probably dog hair left over from Stan (yes, another good name, I know) the lab-mutt from seven years ago. We walk on it with our shoes. Ethel has been known to yak on it a time or two.

But, when the Animal dropped those Cheerios on the floor, what did I do? I picked them up and put them back in the bowl, certain that he wouldn’t make that same mess again.

Wrong.

We did this for a few minutes before I gave up — he was eating one or two happily as he laughed at Donald Duck or danced to the music on the screen. This was at 7:45 in the morning.

By 3:30, when Aaron got home from work, most of the Cheerios were still there. Some were ground into the ever beautiful carpet. And the Animal was making a snack out of those he could grab. I sat there thinking I should probably clean them up, but the baby was happy. Why ruin it?

This morning, I realized that the cereal was still on the floor. 24 hours later. And the Animal was testing several pieces.