Help! Daddy!

The more you blog, the greater the pressure to find new blogworthy items. But give Siena enough time, and she prompts an observation that's best shared, to wit: I realized this weekend that the most alarming thing that Siena could ever say is "Help! Daddy!"

That's a grammatically correct rendition of what she says, but it's obviously ambiguous. Does she mean "Help! Daddy!" like we might say "Help! Giant Spiders?" Or does she mean it like we might say "Help! Superman?" Actually, she means it like Daddy might say "You gonna eat that?"

It happened Saturday afternoon, when I began to empty the dishwasher. YinYang of course tumbles into the kitchen, sees the dishwasher door open, and screams "Help! Daddy!" What about helping Daddy with any household chore could so excite Siena? The prospect of death, of course.

How does Siena help Daddy empty dishwasher? By going for the cutlery first, of course. Then it's a race to snatch away the knives in her hands and stow them in the drawer before she grabs another handful and stabs something. Once we're through with the cutlery she moves on to the plates. Not that she has the arm strength to hold a dinner plate for long, mind you, though that doesn't stop her for a moment. So now it's a race to take away the plate in her hadn and sotre it before Siena can drop the next plate that she's grabbed. The thrilling climax is when Siena "helps" empty the top rack of glassware, since SIena can barely reach that high to begin with.

It all makes sense, I suppose. Anything that Siena's that exicted to do, even if it's nominally helping Daddy, can't be safe for her.