Overloaded Mama

Recently, Cole has decided that he is incapable of carrying anything for any length of time...including himself.


So yesterday morning, I needed to do some laundry.  I loaded myself up with two (TWO!) laundry baskets, precariously balanced on top of each other.  And then my cellphone on top (because I KNOW Chris will call during the 3.2 minutes that I am downstairs - Murphy's Law). And a handful of other odds and ends that needed to be transported downstairs.


Basically, I look something like this:

via

(only, I'm not a car, and I'm only carrying overloaded laundry baskets.  But you get the idea.  It was a lot of stuff.)

And Cole is carrying a paper clip.  One, single green paper clip down the stairs.  No joke.


We get to the top of stairs, I balance the towering stack of laundry baskets on my hip and shift the rest of my things so I can use one finger to open the baby gate and hold Cole's hand.


Cole takes one step down the stairs and immediately hands me the paper clip.  Apparently, it's too heavy a load for him to carry.  And apparently I looked like I needed something ELSE to carry down the stairs.


So I was like, ok, it's a paper clip.  No big deal.  We're not going with a straw-that-broke-the-camels-back dealio here.


We take another two steps down.  Cole turns to me, holds his arms up, and says, "UPPA!" (up please).

I guess my hands just weren't full enough. 

(For the record, I managed to talk him into walking down the rest of the stairs [a feat that is of similiar significance to talking down a hostage situation].  Bribery in the form of giving the dogs a treat may or may not have been used.)