Hanging Out

Please don't call child services.

No really.

 I'm right there.

I swear. 

 Laughing my *** off...

Helping

Peanut is a helper.

Besides being in the monkey-see, monkey-do stage (which has led us to buy her a pint-sized broom, dustpan, and mop and simultaneously curbed our tendency to dump swept up ants out the window...), Peanut really likes doing things we ask of her. We are aaaalllll about taking advantage of this moment as my mother can (and will) attest to its impermanence. The challenge right now is not so much enlisting Peanut's help, as directing it; finding particular ways in which Peanut can be the helper that she is without having to pass her off to Papi while I gather all the hair I have recently pulled out of my own head. 

For what it's worth, here are some of my mental notes:

1. Toddlers (or at least Peanut) like to sweep.

• Toddlers do not actually see the dirt that needs to be swept unless it has been gathered up in a nice pile.
• When dirt is gathered up in a nice pile, it looks like there is a lot of it (and in all fairness there may be...).
• When you move a little broom back and forth through the nice pile, the dirt scatters everywhere.
• When the dirt scatters everywhere, there doesn't look like near so much of it anymore - SCORE!
• Toddler Lesson: Get rid of the big pile to be a helper.
• Mami Lesson: Make a little big pile at one end of the room and then make your big pile at the other. Sweep fast.

2. Toddlers (or at least Peanut) like to help in the kitchen.

• Toddlers have absolutely no concept of what is going on with the whole dish washing thing.
• Toddlers do reallllly like water.
• Given how much time is spent doing it, washing dishes must be the most important job in the house and therefore any toddler must be a part of the action. If this involves forcing one's body between Mami's legs and the sink and grunting/bawling...well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
• Most of the time (at least with Peanut) the dishes inside the sink are considered mine, while the dishes outside the sink are considered hers.
• After touching a given dish/cup/fork 4.5 times, it must go into the sink - even if Mami has already washed it...twice.
• And, just so we are all clear, holding a spatula is better than not holding a spatula.

3. Toddlers (or at least Peanut) like to put things away. Sort of.

• Okay, so we all know they like dumping things out more, but she does like to do some restoring.
• Asking Peanut to take shoes to a bedroom will buy you 43 seconds of sweeping in the living room unaided.
• Asking Peanut to take shoes to your bedroom is pointless. The will all wind up in her bedroom anyway.
• The first set of shoes generally makes it to the bedroom, and even into the closet.
• The second set of shoes may make it into the bedroom.
• The third set of shoes, if they even get noticed, and if they possibly make it back to the bedroom, will not likely be found for a day or two.
• Downside: Putting shoes away often means bringing shorts or a t-shirt back out. 
• Bright side: you figure the shoes made it to the room.

Warning

Bath water can get too hot when you make it on the stove.

Do not worry. No Peanuts were harmed in the making of this blog post.  

The duck was harmed though, that's for real.