What Tobin Did

First, I'll tell you that, at the ripe old age of nine, Tobin gave his first official haircut.  (Not to be confused with his first unofficial haircut which happened at the tender age of three!!)

Benjamin had been needing a haircut; and, since Josiah and David have each had a turn cutting his hair, Jeff had told Tobin that he could be the next one to have that honor.

Last evening was an opportune time, since Jeff was at home and could supervise the process.  Tobin did well with it (and of course, it's a very simple cut), but discovered one thing: cutting a toddler's hair is a lot harder than it looks.  I think Tobin was surprised by how much Benjamin moved around, and how hard it was to hit a moving target!  ;-)

I'm sure this was only the first of many haircuts Tobin will give in the future!

But what I really wanted to write about was something else Tobin did yesterday afternoon.

Every Sunday, I tell myself that I am NOT going to give in when the afternoon sleepies hit me.  Surely I could stay awake and use that time productively, right?  But nearly every Sunday, my resolve disappears when lunch is over and Benjamin is tucked into his crib for his nap and my responsibilities are over for the moment.  I lie down, and sleep quickly overtakes me.  It's the one day of the week in which I normally indulge in a nap.

Yesterday, the same old familiar scenario occurred; and I laid down on the couch and drifted off.  But as I slept, I had a vague awareness of peculiar noises coming from the kitchen.  Someone was cleaning up and doing the dishes!

When I awoke, I discovered that Tobin was the culprit...I mean, angel...who had worked so hard to transform the kitchen while I slept.  He had unloaded the dishwasher and put clean dishes away, loaded it again with the dirty dishes from lunch, handwashed some dishes, put the leftover roast and vegetables in a smaller dish in the refrigerator, covered the leftover applesauce with saran wrap, taken the scraps out to the compost pile, and even washed out some zip-lock bags like I always do.

I was floored.

Rather than awakening to a big mess (the mess I should have dealt with before I collapsed on the couch), I awoke to the sound of the dishwasher humming, and the sight of a cleared-off table, and the splendor of Tobin's beautiful smile as he waited for me to realize what he had surprised me with.

What a welcome surprise!  What a sweet act of service!  What a dear, dear, dear boy!!!