Mama’s Tongs

I know this picture looks like Sam and I are fencing but actually it's us saying "chin chin" with what Sam calls "Sam's tongs and Mama's tongs."

I mentioned before the gift that started as a joke? I told my friend Emily I wanted to get one of those grabber things since I was past the point of being able to bend over comfortably, waaaaay beyond that point, and I have to do it a gazillion times a day to pick up little cars, tractors, trains, tools, legos, you get the picture.

So Emily shows up at my door with a lovely package for Baby Jake with a brand new Gopher tucked inside. At first I had a good laugh. Then, I started using it. Just for picking up a few blocks and cars. Then I realized I could pick up damn near anything with it, socks, the garbage after Lucy tore into it and before I knew it this handy little thing was an extension of my pregnant self. So much so, actually, that I have no intention of retiring it when (or if?) Jake makes his debut. 

I didn't realize quite how attached I was to this wonder tool until my darling child broke it. I have calmly handled most of his "Mama this fragile? … oops!" moments but when he broke my grabber I really did have to count to 10. Twice. The second Matt got home I hurried to Ross to get another. They didn't have one. Actually, it was worse than that. They didn't know if they had one. But I was welcome to walk around the store in the day-before-Christmas chaos and look around. 

I lamented my loss to Loretta who happened to have one she graciously gave me and I was once again content. Sam, meanwhile, got it in his head to start using his little kitchen set cooking tongs to pick things up as well and it's been a fun, albeit slow, way to start teaching him to pick up after himself.
  While Matt continues to mock my love of this grabber gadget, I keep telling him he'll want to use them himself one of these days. To which he replies: "But alas I am able-bodied."

Yesterday I dropped something behind the freezer and couldn't reach it because I am a) short and b) have this huge belly in the way. I called Matt in to help me.

"Oh my God, honey. I hate to say it, but I need your grabber."

Mmmhmm.