This morning

This morning, much like every morning, we got up and went straight to the breakfast table to eat. After 14 hours of sleep Kaylee is ready immediately for something to eat. So we sit together, talk, and eat our breakfast, she usually eats much more than me. sometimes while she is finishing up I can use that time to sweep up the small dog Tahoe has left for me in the night. He is so kind to leave his yellow fur scattered throughout the entire house. And the thought of Kaylee walking around in that mess gets under my skin. So I have to clean it up immediately, sometimes the urge to clean it up is so strong I have to do it before I eat my breakfast. I have a friend who claimed she turned OCD after having kids and I used to laugh at her and joke about her cleaning habits. She always said "you just wait until you have kids." And she was exactly right! It didn't happen to me at first but when Kaylee became mobile, the thought of her putting her hands on the floor all day disgusted me. Which among other reasons was why I switched to cleaning with natural, green products! Anyways so back to this morning I didn't have time to clean the floor while Kaylee was in here highchair so I had to lock her and Tahoe in the dining/ playroom. Which she was not very pleased about this because whenever I am sweeping she wants to be sweeping too (*more about her sweeping later). So I quickly swept the kitchen, breakfast area, and living room then vacuumed up all the mess. In the middle of all this I hear her calling for my attention "mom, mom, MOM" she says until I answer and when I look in at her she has pulled up her shorts higher than shorts are ever supposed to be. And she is laughing at her new accomplishment. I just laughed and kept sweeping. A few minutes later I hear the same thing "mom, mom, MOM" and when I look she is trying to take her shorts completely off. I watch, as she has not been able to successfully remove her shorts in the past, and as I watch she takes them right off and starts laughing. Just to make sure I am still watching she calls my name a few more times when she sees that I am watching then she throws down her shorts and runs off bare butt to play. (she doesn't wear a diaper during the day and this morning I didn't bother putting panties on her). So she thinks she is so cool running around with no shorts "hinny loose pants" my mom calls it. So I let her enjoy her new found freedom until I am finished sweeping. When i am finished I ask her where her shorts are, and they are not where I saw her throw them down. She has tried to hide them in an effort to not have to put them on again. I tell her to go get them, she immediately complies with my request. I put them back on her and we go about our day as usual, with all of our clothes on!
Marcus has asked me many times in the past "when she will learn to dress herself?" I always respond by saying "when she figures out to dress herself she will also be able to UNdress herself." I guess that day has come. So the days of her picking out her own clothes and insisting on wearing what she wants to wear are in the near future. Oh exciting!!!

*More about the sweeping. About 2 months ago she decided that she would like to "help" mommy sweep. I would let her use the broom only after all the piles were cleaned up and she enjoyed experimenting with the broom. I decided after the broom handle hit the TV and walls 1 too many times that it was time to get her a small broom that she could control easier than my long handled broom. One Monday, a few weeks ago, we headed out for our family errands and ended up looking for a broom at Target. Much too our surprise they had nothing in the toy or pretend play department. So we looked with all the other cleaning tools and found ONE broom that fit our needs it was a regular broom just with a short handle, the PERFECT size for her and even big enough that she will be able to use it in the future. This broom had no tag on it, there were none like it and we couldn't figure out how much it was going to be. So I began looking for some help from an employee. I found a manager in the next aisle. By this time we had already given Kaylee the broom and she was thrilled! So the manager came over and we explained our problem. He tried to look at the broom and Kaylee began screaming and pulling it away from him. He jumped back and said "man she is really attached to that broom! I guess she really needs to have it." And we said "yes she loves to sweep." The man says "then I guess we will just have to come up with a good price. How does 2 sound?" We were both like great! Not only is that much less than we thought we would be spending it was actually a REAL broom and not a play broom. So he walked us up to the registers and told the cashier how to ring it up and told Kaylee to have fun sweeping with her new broom. In the meantime Marcus and I are placing bets on how long this love of cleaning and helping will last. Hopefully as she gets older she will continue to want to help mommy clean.