A Heavy Load

This is what being out of town for a weekend, getting two bags full of clothes for Kate from her grandma, and being completely EXHAUSTED will do to a laundry room.

I have my work cut out for me today!!

Maybe some "after" photos will follow. :)

Cleaning with my girl

Seeing as how a recent post was titled, "Cooking with my girl", can you see what we do a lot of around here? Cooking and cleaning!

I got behind on the dusting in the living room, so last night, Kate and I went to work! Anytime I clean, I give her a little towel or something and she follows me around wiping the walls, the t.v., the carpet.

Last night was no different except that she was doing such a good job wiping the end table, I just went ahead and sprayed a little Pledge on it and let her go at it.

She was actually pretty good... she knows her way around an end table! She was very diligent. So diligent that half the pictures I took turned out blurry because she was wiping the table so fast.

She crawled up under it and scrubbed and scrubbed.

She would stop and fix her little dusting rag, then go on and dust some more.

Look at her still clinging to her dust rag... she takes her job VERY seriously!

She's very efficient, too. After she dusted the table, she dusted my foot. And the couch. And the Pledge bottle.

She's really into the broom right now, too. I need to get her a little broom and dust pan.

All I know is, this could be the start of something very beautiful...

The Girl Can EAT!

Kate has started eating mostly the same dinner we eat... and boy, is that a treat! When I say "treat", what I really mean is a big chore. Yea, I love to see what she likes (which is almost everything) and doesn't like (which I think is oh, peas- that's it!) and how cute she is when she eats, but the mess stinks!

The other night she ate some Mexican casserole (it was even a little spicy) and she had ground beef stuck in her ear.

Last night, she had some chicken and rice from the crockpot and it was coming out of her belly button when I got her out of the highchair. Speaking of, DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED on the high chair. And the sweeping, and the mopping, and the scrub downs in the tub when it's all over...

As I type, she is cramming fistfuls of leftovers into her mouth and then tossing some off the side of the highchair to plummet to its death on the kitchen floor, which I mop daily now.

It's tough work, I tell ya. But, would I trade it for anything in the world? No way.

Question

Question for all my blog readers (all five of you!):

Is it wrong to keep your baby in her doorway jumper for over an HOUR while you clean your insanely messy kitchen...

...because your husband cooked dinner last night and used three skillets, the Foreman, five bowls, two cutting boards, a mess of spoons, and emptied out all the leftovers from the refrigerator (i.e. lots of tupperware), and you had like 20 people over for dinner Wednesday night and you still hadn't swept and mopped from that shin-dig.... whew!

... even when she is fussing... and pooping... and chewing on the dust pan (ewwww, sick!)??? Not to mention you were listening to your ipod all the while, ignoring all of this?

Never mind, no need to reply... I think I already know the answer.