First time Recycling

It finally stopped raining last week so I decided to let Ethan take his fliers around to the neighbors. We went at about 3pm last Tuesday and not many people were home. He talked to 7 people before deciding he was tired. Two people said no. The first was an old woman who came down the street wanting to know what we were doing at her neighbors house who wasn't home. He gave her a flier. After looking at it for a second she wanted to know what he was going to do with the money, found that part on the flier and said, "Oh. Well, don't bother going to my house." As I recall she doesn't participate in Halloween either.

The other woman who said no said she already gave her recyclables to her brother who was blind.

The other five people said they would participate. I must admit....today, a week later, I was nervous. What if they forgot? What if they ALL forgot? I play the "what if" game a little too much ( ...to my detriment)

When we first left the house he seemed more interested in finding snails and bugs along our path. I kept telling him, "Focus, honey, ...focus."

Every single person who Ethan gave a box to not only remembered to leave their "Recycling with Ethan" box out today... they were FILLED to capacity. All of them were displayed proudly on their porches with his label facing the street. A few people even put them on cute little stools to keep them off the ground. It was like he was on an Easter egg hunt. After only those 5 houses his wagon was completely loaded. We took it all down to the recycling place and he got $8.17.

He did it all himself. He pulled the wagon. He loaded all the bottles and cans.

From start to finish it took about an hour. I think if he wants to get more people to participate he'll have to come by another day so he doesn't get worn out or overloaded all on Tuesdays.

I learned something today. Despite all my personal fears, nervousness and "what ifs"... he did it. THEY did it. Everybody did their part and did it well. Ethan didn't ever doubt that he would find his boxes. His only question was,
"Why don't they have a box?" pointing across the street.
"You didn't talk to them, sweetie. They weren't home, remember?"
"Oh. Can we talk to them?"
"Sure! But, we'll have to do that later. Daddy's waiting for us"

I think next week I'll help him write a little note to the neighbors to leave in their recycle boxes.

I took the following pictures along the way with my camera phone.