Cardboard Box Lessons

Landon was taking his nap this afternoon while Riley and I had some play time together. There are a few empty boxes in the living room from recently shipped Christmas presents that both boys have been having a grand time playing with – one is large enough for Landon to fully fit in with the lid closed. Who needs fancy toys anymore. Cardboard boxes work out just fine.

This same box is roomy enough for Riley to crawl into and have a small amount of play room. The little monkey boy crawls in to the box bringing a small plastic ball with him and has a grand time throwing the ball at the side of the counters, getting the ball then crawling back in to do it all over again. At one point he also decides that I would make a great fetcher, throws the ball then looks at me with the eyes that say “please?”

During one of his climbs out and back into the box, it shifted just enough so the flap was up and stuck so that it hit the side of the cabinet rather than falling down toward the ground. This caused the box to continually come back at him and flap in his face. I didn’t intervene as I wanted to see how he would go about solving (or attempting to solve) the problem.

He gave it several pushes expecting it to fall down, but instead it continued to come back at him. This started irritating him and he began to fuss about it. I was just about to pull the box away enough so it would fall down when his fussing turned into a one laugh chuckle as the box lid thumped him on the nose. He pushed again, and again it came back and twapped him in the face. This time it was a giggle. He did it again – now not to try to get the flap to go down, but so it would come back and hit him in the face – laughing the whole time.

I watched him thinking about how my first intention was to see how he was going to solve the problem of the box being in his face; he solved his problem by making his problem his amusement. I wonder how many problems we face in life, particularly the more petty issues that really have no significance yet somehow manage to get us all riled up, would be much easier to handle if we tackled them the way Riley did. Don’t let it rub you wrong, laugh with it and move on.