Pulling Strings (Present)

Arno LOVES string. He is forever asking me to buy him string. Sometimes you find he has tied up all the teddy bears in his possession, and everything is a mangled mess, and other times, you discover he had string in his pocket when they were on the farm - and he was able to help out with tying something up. Last week, I ended up washing his shorts - and out of the pocket came kilometers of string - AFTER it had been washed.

I have even taken to buying extra rolls of string and sort of hiding them in my own drawers - with the words - This is MY string - it belongs to ME. When he runs out of string, he eventually winkles out those supplies too, and comes asking for it. I look sternly at him asking - What is that for NOW, but eventually give it to him, because it was bought for him anyway!

This week, I get called into his room to look at his latest invention. He has discovered that every night, when he has climbed the long ladder to the top of his bunk bed, and wants to go to sleep, that he arrives at the top, only to see his curtains are not drawn. Then he has to trek all 5 rungs back to the floor - in order to close his curtains. That is way not on - and way too much effort for the little sausage! So - he made a plan. He STRUNG his curtains up, so that he can "draw" them closed when he is lying in bed. "When I am grown up, mom - I will get remote control curtains - you get those you know." Yes, I do know - SIGH - men and remotes - poor wife one day.

So, I am treated to a demonstration of a variety of things his new string contraption can do. The strings are even labelled - so he knows their functions!

They can close the curtains, close the window itself , open curtains (sort of - one opens and the other closes), etc.

In between these demonstrations, I get a huge giggle, because some of the stuff does not work quite like he had intended it to. My programmer brain translates this : your system has some bugs, you will need to find the bug, redo the design, and then TEST the whole system again. Briefly I wonder if I should use this as a lesson about "testing" stuff in life - but decide that is way too programmer like to be cool.

"This deserves a blog spot Mom", says Marinda in admiration. I have to agree, he did earn himself a blog spot!

As I walk out his room that night, he calls me back to switch off his light.
"Haven't you got a string to pull, that will do that for you?" I ask slyly.
"Moooooooom" is my only answer, and I wonder how long it will be before he designs a hammer falling from the roof, to switch off his light.