Little Kids Like to Push Buttons
I’ve had a rather interesting last twelve hours. Last night, I stayed up late to finish the sixth chapter in my web novel “Subterrania.” I didn’t get to bed until around 1 a.m. I was so exhausted I hardly remember making my way to bed. When I got there, I passed out within seconds. It was a deep, dreamless sleep. Then I heard a strange noise. It was an electronic beep coming from my kitchen. I tried to ignore it, hoping it would go away. It didn’t.
When I was finally awake enough to realize that I was actually hearing something, I sprung out of bed. The beep was unfamiliar to me. It sounded like an alarm. I worried that it might be a smoke detector. When I got into the kitchen, I flicked the light on. Everything appeared normal, but I still heard the beeping. I walked up to the microwave, but it didn’t seem to be the source. I scratched my head and investigated my fish tank. Not there either. It was one of those sounds that was easy to hear, hard to locate.
Finally, my wife came out to see what was going on. She must have been more awake than me, because she walked right to the source. It was our oven. I didn’t even know our oven had a timer. The thing is ancient. It would look more at home in a museum than in our kitchen. I messed with some of the knobs and successfully turned the beeping off. The clock on the microwave behind me let me know that it was six in the morning.
I don’t know for sure how the alarm got set, but I have theory. Yesterday, we invited some friends over for dinner. They have a toddler. He’s just over eighteen months old. The whole time we ate dinner, he explored our house. As anyone that has delt with toddlers before knows, they are exceptionally gifted when it comes to exploration. My wife and I laughed as we watched the kids dad follow him around to fix various things. He picked up pens, shut open cupboards and stopped him from getting into things he shouldn’t. You can probably see where I’m going with this.
During his exploration rampage, I think the toddler must have found the knobs on our oven and played with them. They are on the face of the oven and just low enough for him to reach. How could he resist? The funny thing is that I’m not even mad. In fact, I admire the boy. We all need to be a little more like that, though, admittedly, maybe with a touch more caution; we don’t have anyone to stop us when we do something stupid.
It really is incredible how much little kids live to simply experience life. I have a nephew that loves to climb into things. He has no reason for it, he just enjoys it. I can’t help but think these little toddlers have something profound to them. Maybe if I can learn to act a little more like they do, I can be as free and joyful as they are.
