As you may know with my frequent complaining about our three year old… he rarely plays on his own.  He is needy and clingy (and in the same breath I will use loving and attached).  He has the attention span of a breeze and is constantly changing direction, activity or his mind.

He doesn’t keep at anything and rarely “doggedly commits” to a project.

I know.. he’s 3. I get it.

BUT, our girls were so different. They were independent and committed. They focussed, and stayed at tasks far longer than expected.  My eldest’s biggest complaint of pre-school (and then elementary school) was that they wouldn’t let her work on projects long enough.

Our girls were overloaded with “attention span”

And what started out as attention span, has turned into an amazing work ethic!

And honestly, I have been worried about our little dude.  Will he ever play on his own? Is he so extroverted that he needs people around all the time, engaging and supporting him in everything?

Until today.

Maybe I finally found something he liked? Maybe it was just the right timing?

Whatever it was, it worked.

Our plan was to hit the overgrown garden and pull off all the pea pods that had dried out. Shell the peas and keep them for next years planting.

Little dude was harassing his sisters all morning, so I pulled him aside and we took this on as our project.

He started as scissor operator only because he never gets to use the scissors.  Unfortunately, being a lefty the right handed scissors were a bugger to operate.

So, he progressed (or was demoted) to pea sheller.

And he committed.

He shelled and shelled and shelled and shelled. A whole bucket. He worked away at it for 2 hours, sitting in the meadow, in dappled shade.

While he was shelling, he came up with his plan.

His (according to him) “amazing-awesome plan”

His plan is to package up all the peas and share them with his family the whole world for christmas.

He figures every one should have a chance at a few peas.

I liked this.. because there are way too many peas for us, and I am all over creative gift giving. Now, we don’t have enough for the “whole world” but we all know kids have a skewed sense of numbers anyway! I am sure 4 or 5 packets for family will be just enough!

So, with our peas finishing up their drying, and the envelopes being made, the only thing left for the little dude is to wonder when we will have more seeds to collect.

And those 2+ hours of awesome, independent play were exactly what I needed today as well. A bit of a break, and the sliver of hope that this little dude will be able to entertain himself one day.

Hopefully soon!