Vacuuming...

So today I had an itch to do some cleaning. Since the entire carpet was in dire need, that got my attention. My children tend to have a fascination with the vacuum. It might very well be due to the fact that when they were infants, I was known to turn it on just to quell their incessant crying. (It really does work. No joking.) Poor Moose was known to nap by it. I'm sure my neighbors thought our place was immaculate with how often the vacuum was on. I recall occasionally pushing it around and cleaning the floors since it was on anyway, but most often it just sat there, turned on, keeping my baby from screaming.

Anyhow, so I pulled out the vacuum, and as usual Monkey gets quite excited. She insisted on helping me. Now, I should say, she insisted on "helping", since really, what does does is not helpful. But since I was in no rush of any sort, I did my best to be patient and allow her to "help". Half the time she was literally hugging the vacuum, but most of the time, just making the work go really, really slowly. It was still semi-sweet I suppose. I'm all about letting the kids help out with the chores so they understand they will need to do them too, and hopefully they won't think of them as drudgery. (Like I did. For years.)

I realized today that there were so many chores I got in the habit of doing when Monkey was sleeping. When she was younger, she just wouldn't allow much to be done. She would either lose her patience with not being paid attention, or in the case of the dishwasher, she would attempt to climb it like Mt. Everest, putting the door of our dishwasher in serious peril. So many chores had to be done when she was sleeping or very well occupied.

However, Monkey is finally to the age where I can now do chores with her around. The last few days I've done the dishes in the morning. Always being careful to take anything sharp from the silverware holder first, I'll be left to put things away leisurely and she'll usually find something plastic to pay attention to. It's pretty nice.

She's still not a fan of letting me shower, unless she's being entertained by another person. I'm sure that'll get better in time as well.

Moose is quite wonderful at chores. A year ago when we moved into our apartment, we set up chores for him which included going potty when he woke up (we were also in the newly potty trained stage), making his bed, getting dressed, saying his morning prayer, combing his hair and brushing his teeth. Now I know for most people these are not chores, but things you just do, but for him they were chores. He now does them with relatively little pestering and nagging. And he's more than willing to help with chores around the house. Let's just hope I can help him maintain this "chores are so fun" attitude. (I can just hear my mom chuckling.)  :)