Keeping a clean house

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a tidy person. Though if you give anyone who knows me a chance to say it, there would be a race between who says it first.

Bottom line, I am not a tidy person. Never have been. I like it when things are clean and organized, but every time I commit to cleaning and organizing, everything usually ends up worse than it was before. I've come to rely on my beautiful wife, whose cleaning and organizational skills far exceed my own. But since she works full time, it isn't exactly fair for me to make her clean when she gets home. I'm a good husband like that, after all.

So instead, as a method of adaptation, I have learned to live with a certain level of messiness. I put in a certain amount of maintenance to make sure stray deer aren't grazing in my living room, but generally speaking, things are cluttered.

Adding a two year old to the mix has not helped. But that's just how it goes.

How are certain people so clean? What is your secret to a clean house? A clean kitchen? A clean bathroom? I ask, but I already know the answer. It's maintenance. and I'm too impatient.

Gramma's visit: day 3

Awesome day. Purely and truly great. Woke up to a blue sky, went to the zoo where we saw the animals bask in the 72 degree sunshine. The smell of spring was thick in the air, so we too our time through the entire zoo. Michelle fell asleep in the 10 minute drive home so we decided to all take a nap after I put her down. Woke up and made chicken pot pie for dinner and then went out to frozen yogurt. Truly great.

Gramma needs to come visit all the time.

Gramma's visit: Day 2

It's been exciting to have gramma around this week.

Not only did we get to try on some new glasses, but we were way too excited to take a nap today. 

 

We watched a late afternoon movie to try and have some down time.

Though there were cuddles, there was no nap. Will it be an early night? Or just a loud and fussy one. Only time will tell.

Gramma's visit: day 1

Movie/Snuggle time

My mom came to town this week. Since we live circa 3,000 miles away from our closest family, our visits are not as common as we would all prefer. So when she saw an opportunity to come for a couple of days, gramma took it!

Day one has been pretty great so far. Perfectly content to follow our regular routine, we spent the first day chatting, catching up, give Michelle a nap and of course getting frozen yogurt. Thank you Skinny Dip for providing such a delectable frozen yogurt selection. Now we popped in a movie, and it's time for gramma to adjust the jetlag. I'm only a little jealous to give up my personal snuggle time so gramma can get her fill.

I don't know what all we have planned for the week, but we will play it by ear. It will be a fun week regardless of what we end up doing.

Anyone out there have a suggestion for fun gramma-daddy-daughter activities?

Out of diapers, now what?

I feel rather foolish today because I set my daughter up to fail.

First off, I need to address that we are rather unflinching when it comes to cloth diapers. We've probably purchased disposable diapers three times in the last two years. We feel pretty special about it, until of course we don't have any clean cloth diapers on hand, nor any disposable diapers as a backup.

Today was one of those days where all of Michelle's diaper covers were in the wash, and the diaper she had on was, how shall I phrase this, soiled to the point where putting it back on her would have been abusive. So instead I thought it would be fine to have her run around without a diaper on until the diapers were clean.

To back up a little bit, we've been passively trying to potty train our daughter. Her little training potty is out and about, and when she expresses that she needs to "pee-pee" we encourage her to sit on the potty. She is great at sitting on her potty for about 2 seconds, but will never ever let out a drip until she has a diaper on. I marvel at her ability to hold her pee for as long as she does. She won't let out anything until she must.

Today, there was just too much time between removing my daughter's diaper and the diapers getting clean. She sat on her potty probably 17 times, but never let out a drop. She finally made her way to our bedroom and decided that would be a more appropriate place to relieve her bladder. I guess daddy deserved that one.

Someday soon, she's going to decide that peeing on the potty is actually much better than peeing either in a diaper or on the ground. I'm hopeful. Though I confess that there's few more satisfying things than peeing on the ground.

Turn that TV off!

I have a confession to make. I allow my daughter to watch more than the highly discouraged two hours of screen time per day. This is a humongous struggle for me.

I've seen many studies on children watching TV, regardless of the content, or playing on phones, or whatever the screen time is, and the detrimental effects it has on their brain development, attention span, etc.

The truth is, I have no good excuses for allowing my daughter this screen time. I simply use it to distract her when I need to be productive. Nicole uses it when she is getting ready in the morning because otherwise Michelle would never let her out the door. I turn the TV on when I wash the dishes. I turn it on when I need a quick break in the afternoon. I watch TV in the evening for my own entertainment. The list goes on.

I think one of the biggest problems with our TV is that it's the central focal point in our apartment. When you walk in, it's the first thing you see. The feng shui in our home leads you to the TV. Short of throwing it out the window, I'm a little at a loss for what to do with our TV. I am more or less addicted to it, and rely on it to babysit my child on short notice. When we are at home, the TV is a constant temptation.

Though I try to make sure we go outside every day, we still spend much time inside. Every day there is temptation. And of course, if we ever go anywhere, there is always the distraction of our phone in case the kid ever starts acting up.

Does anyone have any suggestions for things that can distract a 20 month old, besides turning on the idiot box in the corner? Or is it okay to regain some sanity couple times a day by distracting your child?

A double standard

Our daughter has recently begun telling us when she soils her diaper, which is a pretty exciting time for parents. So naturally, we bought her a training toilet. At this stage of the game, we aren't exactly trying to potty train, but we're just introducing the idea to her.

Silly me, yesterday morning I was cleaning the kitchen and I said "Michelle, let's take your diaper off, just to see what happens." I then pointed at her potty and asked if she was interested in sitting there. After a scorching glare, she tore off in the opposite direction.

Not five minutes later, she came running from her toy corner, screaming and panicking about the gross stuff stuck to her feet. (Insert the knowing head nod here). After throwing my distressed child in the tub and washing away all her troubles, I couldn't help but chuckle as I proceeded to clean up a stinky pile, and foot prints that fled from the scene. This was a great way to spend my morning.

It was then that I discovered the double standard of poop on the carpet. If my dogs ever have an accident in the house, I get mad at them, even though it is usually my fault for not taking them out when they've expressed adement interest. But the baby poops and I laugh at my own mistake. I really felt wise.

Later in the afternoon, I took Michelle out to play, and when I returned, the dogs had gotten into our garbage, and had shred stinky debris all over our apartment. I was livid, even though I knew that I had pulled the garbage bag out to take it outside, but forgot about it in the kitchen.

It's quite a double standard. I don't feel wise anymore. Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here: poop on the carpet stinks.