Just Wait

Abdullah got Play Doh this weekend. I've given up on play dough, the slightly overly gooey amalgam of flour, water, salt, and whatever else the latest mommy blogger said would make best "best play dough" recipe. After having to throw out the latest batch after it started to separate in the cabinet, I turned to the professionals.

But I digress. Abdullah was extremely excited about his new acquisition of "orange." He happily placed his two new containers into his cup holders for the long ride home undoubtedly imagining the moment he'd be able to crack open his new delicacies. After some errands and a play place run, Abdullah's anticipation was clearly growing.

Once we finally arrived home and got the week's groceries unpacked, he sat down to finally get a peek at the vittles that had been eluding him all day. Much to my surprise and his, however, we found that Play Doh is not easy to open. Perhaps that's intentional since I'm sure more than a few carpets have been ruined by the stuff.

Nevertheless, Abdullah pulled and tugged at the container from every angle offering a few "uff"s just to make sure that I knew he was having trouble. I let him try for about a minute or so. After informing me that it was hard for him to open it and asking for help a few times he placed the container on the table, looked at both cans squarely and calmly said "Just wait." Then he sat. Staring blankly at the cans for about 30 seconds before he picked one up and started to try again.

The incident made me think of this hadith:

Narrated Thabit Al-Bunani: Anas bin Malik said to a woman of his family, "Do you know such-and-such a woman?" She replied, "Yes." He said, "The Prophet passed by her while she was weeping over a grave, and he said to her, 'Be afraid of Allah and be patient.' The woman said (to the Prophet). 'Go away from me, for you do not know my calamity.'" Anas added, "The Prophet left her and proceeded. A man passed by her and asked her, 'What has Allah's Apostle said to you?' She replied, 'I did not recognize him.' The man said, 'He was Allah's Apostle."' Anas added, "So that woman came to the gate of the Prophet and she did not find a gate-keeper there, and she said, 'O Allah's Apostle! By Allah. I did not recognize you!' The Prophet said, 'No doubt, patience is at the first stroke of a calamity.'"

I don't know if being unable to get at your Play Doh counts as a calamity for most, but I'm pretty proud that Abdullah's got the wherewithal to remind himself to have patience when things are tough.

In general, I think he's crossed the milestones tracking mark since he can do pretty much anything that he needs to do aside from ride his bike long periods in a straight line, but that's probably more of a want than a need anyway.

KC has put a few more notches in her belt this month as she rounds the final turn to 1. Her first tooth finally came through and she started walking. I suppose stumbling would be a better word. She's got Abdullah beat again on that milestone.