One Man's Trash . . .

Recently, Wiley has taken it upon himself to be the cleanup crew on the station. There are not heaps of trash lying around, but it is pretty easy to look down and see something that needs to be thrown away. Our walks have grown longer as Wiley has taken note of these small pieces of rubbish. Each time he spots one (particularly candy wrappers), he identifies it as "rubbish" and then says, "bin" looking around for a place to deposit his find. Since he is too short to throw anything into the rubbish bins, he either has to be lifted up or hand his trash to Mommy or Daddy who can throw it away for him. This can really slow down a walk, but it has also drawn a lot of attention. We are hoping that as people around us see a toddler cleaning up rubbish that they pass by, or perhaps that they themselves throw on the ground, and as they see his great effort in getting it into the rubbish bin, maybe they will think twice next time, before carelessly tossing things on the ground.

Wiley's quest for a clean environment has also carried over into our home. This is helpful when it's time to clean up the toys. But sometimes we'll see him throwing something away and we don't know what he's found and declared to be "rubbish." When questioned, he only remains quietly focused on getting it into a trash can. So when he's done, we'll ask again, "Wiley, what did you have? What were you throwing away?" And he very practically responds, "Rubbish."