Cleaning the house when a toddler is there.

When I switched to a part time schedule, of course it was to spend more time with Lily. But also, I wanted to spend a little more time with the poor, neglected house.

9.5 days out of 10, it looks like we've been hit by a hurricane, but we have not. (And you just keep away, Igor. I see you out there with your unfortunate name.) I really can't even blame the baby entirely; we just aren't in the neat freak category.

But surely there has to be a happy balance between hurricane aftermath and neat freak, right? So, in my effort to find said happy balance, I figured I'd be able to give the house a little love with my extra day. Lily is getting to an age where it is a little easier to do my own thing, too. Even still, if I were smart, I would clean during her nap. But I'm not smart; I like to nap too.

A lot of the time, she'll just play in her room or with her puzzles or something, and she'll give me some time. Many times, though, left to her own devices, she makes more messes than I can keep up with.

Like when she tries to feed the cat. In case you wondered, the perfect recipe to turn dry cat food into the mushy stuff, is one bowl of water, 1/3 cup of cat food, 2 tablespoons of cat food, and a Lily spoon, but that's just for presentation.

Or maybe she'll give the cat some treats. All of them.

Perhaps she'll stamp my pink ink pad all over the window sill.

Or serve herself some potato chips.

She was most pleased with herself.

So, it seems that the better strategy is to enlist her help. It seems there is a small window between being a newborn lump and an apathetic older kid during which kids actually want to help out around the house.

Who am I to squander such a golden time?

Lily is very good at taking the empty cans out for recycling.

She also likes to wipe down our (hideous) burgundy counters.

She wanted to do the whole thing, but she couldn't reach it. She impatiently demanded to be moved. Sigh.

She vacuums with me.
Then, I broke the dishwasher, and we had to wash dishes the old-fashioned way. I had this brilliant idea that I could wash and she could dry.




No, really, can you believe I was stupid enough to think I could put a toddler in front of a sink full of bubbly water, and she'd be content to just dry?

So I revised my plan and just let her fill her cup, empty her cup, fill, empty, and so on. It kept her busy while I got the rest of the dishes done, and all I had to do was wipe up some wet floors.
Her favorite household chore, though, is most definitely the laundry.
She fills it up, and then watches the water pour in.
And the soap!
Then she watches. And watches.