How to Clean the Bathroom

Some of you may be familiar with Flylady* - one of the cleaning mavens of the internet. She has a theory that you can keep your bathtub clean all the time by simply washing one side of it every day as you shower.

I've tried her method. I think maybe Flylady doesn't have three dirty children that use her tub on a regular basis.


So I thought I'd share my method of how to keep your bathroom clean. With, of course, the help of your children.

Step 1. Choose the right time to allow your children to help you. Today we chose right before naptime because that's when I'm feeling most patient ... er, wait. Because that's when they're most cooperative ... um, never mind. Let's move on to ...

Step 2. Make sure to have a job for everyone. Benny used the tap to dampen his cleaning rag and then wash the mirror with it. This makes for a lovely streaky finish that is hard to duplicate. Alex used the spray bottle of (nontoxic) cleaner to clean the top of the vanity. Some might say that he was actually flooding the vanity, but the sink is right there anyway.

Step 3. Make sure you turn your back on the children to clean the bathtub. The demonstrates that you trust them, and allows for teamwork between them to develop as they unroll the toilet paper.

Step 4. Reflect on how important Step 1 is as you take deep, cleansing, breaths.

Step 5. Remove the toilet brush from the hands of any child who tries to scrub the floor with it. Remember, you have to clean the floor yet anyway.

Step 6. Explain to your curious three-year-old why it's yucky to splash in the toilet water.

Step 7. Pay close attention to what the children are doing. Otherwise, the one who had the spray bottle - who set it down while he went to the bathroom - will quickly take it back from the one who didn't have it. In retaliation, the one who had it taken from him may - just may, mind you - slam the toilet seat down on his brother as he finishes going to the bathroom.

Ouch.

Step 8. Put the children to bed for their nap.

Step 9. Clean the mess the children made.

Step 10. Clean the bathroom the way you did before you had children.

*Since I'm mentioning Flylady, I'll also say that one of my own family members (who shall remain anonymous!) has started her own homemaking website. You may want to check out The House Honcho.

Oobleck

We made oobleck today. It was fascinating - who knew that cornstarch and water, in the right proportions, would seem to be both liquid and solid? If you click on the link, it'll tell you how it works - something that Ethan was interested in.


Benny and Alex didn't care about the science; they just enjoyed the sensory aspect of the activity.


Aside from the scientific educational value ("Non-Newtonian liquid," anyone?) it was educational in other ways. Like "don't put too much food coloring in it, or your hands will turn colors". (See, we read the Suess book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck", so it had to be green!)


And "This probably isn't the best activity to try on a day you're leaving for a trip and have lots of other things to do. Aside from the obvious clean-up issues, you're going to want to blog about it."


But it was worth it anyway.

The Book Nook

This is the book nook. It's the area under the basement steps, and we've outfitted it with a beanbag chair and lots of books. One of the things I did this earlier this summer was rearrange our books downstairs so all of the storybooks are here in one place - in our crate "bookcase" system. I was pretty pleased with how it had worked. All three of the boys like to sit there and read or look at books. It's fairly easy for them to return the books to the crates. They like that it's cozy.


Then, the day after I did it, I walked downstairs and saw this:


As you could imagine, my heart sank. I didn't want to look in the book nook; I was afraid of what I'd find. But I did look. And sure enough ...



It was a huge mess. The first name that came to mind? Alex. So I calmly - gently - sweetly called him over and asked if he'd emptied out the crates. He was promptly told me yes, he had. But he had a perfectly good reason for dumping all the books.

"Me was playing with the crates, Mama!"

Life Lessons

Do you know what's worse than changing a poopy diaper?

Changing a diaper full of sand.

Do you know harder than changing a diaper full of sand?

Changing a poopy diaper that is full of sand.

These are the kinds of things they should teach in parenting classes.

Alex is 3!

Three years ... it's not a long time, really. And yet we can't imagine life without this little person who joined our family three years ago today. He was so excited about his birthday ... he got to go with Papa down to Piggly Wiggly and pick out donuts for breakfast (after he'd eaten his cereal and yogurt).


Then it was time for presents!


He must be growing up ... he graciously gave his little brother a turn on his new bike ...


It was a long wait, but Grandma and Grandpa came over for supper. They brought more presents, of course, but they also brought Uncle Luke and Aunt Trisha! Alex had been anxiously waiting for them all day. Grandma and Alex decided we should open presents right away, and then there was time to play with them before supper.


The best way to end a birthday evening? With cake, of course, preferably served outside.


Happy 3rd birthday, Alex! We love you so much, and are so thankful that you're part of our family!

Summer

Ahh, the lazy days of summer ... perfect for little boys! They can try to climb into the pool with their big brother ...


...splash around in the pool if they are the big brother ...


... mow the lawn ...


... or just rip the grass up and throw it ...


...play for hours in the sandbox ...


... ride their bikes ...


... fly down the slide over and over ...


... swing as high as the sky ...


... so much to do, such short summer months!

Funny Face

The boys got some funny glasses from Grandma and Grandpa. They've had a good time being strange with them ... although it is, of course, completely out of character for them to be so silly.

Or not.

Whichever.

Good-bye, Second Grade

We weren't scheduled to finish school until the first Friday in June, but as the weather got nicer Ethan got more and more motivated to just be DONE! So we doubled up on some lessons and this last Friday was his last day of second grade.


We celebrated with a Mexican fiesta (to cap off our final geography study). Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner, and Ethan made tacos almost all by himself. We also exploded the volcano that Ethan had made for our final science unit. I had his history, science, and geography binders completed so he could display all his hard work this year.

This was a good year in a lot of ways, but also a difficult year in some ways. Having two very active little people who love to ... um, let's go with *experiment* ... and who need virtually constant supervision has stretched me more than a little. We've worked out some changes, though, and I'm optimistic about next year!

Ethan has done very well in his subjects. He's discovered a love for geography, particularly mapwork. His handwriting has improved dramatically, and he's really enjoying cursive. He'll tell you that he doesn't like math, but he does well in that, too - he just thinks there are too many pages in each lesson!

He told me this morning that he loved summer vacation, and he's certainly been making the most of it so far! He is cheerfully doing the handwriting and math exercises that we'll keep doing all summer, though, because he's big enough to understand that will help ease the transition into third grade.

My goodness. Third grade. When did he get so old?

Alex's pet germ

The month of March was a sickly one for us. We ended up talking a lot about germs and why it was important not to share sippy cups and what makes us sick and so on. Apparently more of our "germ" talk stuck with Alex than I realized.


This is his pet germ. He's petting it.


If you're very careful, you can hold it this way. Now, in this picture, it may look to you like it's really just a tiny ball of wadded up toilet paper. Please don't believe that. This, my friends, is a GERM. And a treasured pet germ, at that.


And he loved it.



At least until he lost it.

I'm going through some of the pictures we've taken and haven't gotten posted, so these are from earlier this spring, too. Here is Ethan at swimming lessons.

When Dad dresses the boys

I've heard tales of horribly mismatched outfits when dads dress their children, but I have evidence that it doesn't always happen that way. This is a picture from earlier this spring.

All his ducks in a row

I recently helped my cousin Laura a little bit with a shower that she was throwing for her niece. The theme of the shower was rubber duckies, and Laura used a lot of them in her decorating. As we finished cleaning up after the shower, somehow I ended up with a whole bag of duckies to take home to my boys. They were absolutely thrilled! Alex decided to line them all up.


Well, he lined a bunch up, anyway. He does have the attention span of a two-year-old!


And what do you do after you have all your ducks in a row? You jump over them, of course!

The new living room

We've almost finished our living room makeover (doesn't that sound fancy?) so I thought I'd post some pictures. Since I know my readership (if you can call it that!) we'll start with the sleepyhead boys that came into the living room as I was taking pictures this morning.


Alex with a shaft of sunlight across his face, but an impish smile:

Without the sunlight or the smile:

Ethan pretending to sleep:

A shot that shows the furniture and floor, as well as the boys:

From the other direction:

And finally, one with no one on the couch:

We're pretty happy with the way it turned out. Luke is working on our end tables yet - he carefully took each of the old school desks off the runners, and he is going to make runners for each one. We'll then be able to set them around individually. The furniture arrangement may change when we have those finished, too ... we'll have to see!

Is it bedtime yet?

Benny was up a dozen times or so last night - he has a cold and isn't sleeping well.

He has shared his cold with me. It's only fair, though, since Alex shared it with him.

The dog pooped on the floor during the night, and I ended up cleaning it up at 5:00 this morning. Out of carpet. After he kicked it around trying to bury it.

Alex and Ethan were up shortly after 6:00.

Alex spilled an entire pitcher of juice on the floor.

We had company this morning that brought my boys lots of leftover Easter chocolate. (Very nice of them - also messy and sugar-buzz-inducing.)

Luke is painting and putting new flooring in for me (he's a great guy!), but right now I have my refrigerator in the mudroom and the dining room table and chairs in the living room. I can't find anything and nothing is where it's supposed to be.

Benny got into the candy coloring as I was working on making colored white chocolate duckies for my cousin's baby shower cake. He has it smeared all over his hands and face and shirt. I got most of it off ... it was blue. Can you see it in the picture? The worst part is I was right there next to him! I just didn't see him until he had a mess made. I should've taken a picture then, but I was more concerned with getting it off.

Some days bedtime can't come soon enough!

Ethan and April Fool's Day

Ethan really doesn't care much about Valentine's Day. Too much mushy stuff. St. Patrick's Day? Meh, he can take it or leave it. But April Fool's Day? An entire day devoted to tricking people? Now that he can get into! He recently asked me if he could decorate some cupcakes, so we decided to make a delicious April Fool's trick - spaghetti and meatball cupcakes!


He did most of the decorating himself; I just showed him how to work the piping bag. The meatballs are hazelnut truffles, and the sauce is strawberry jam. He even got to serve it to Dad for supper!

Alex figured out by looking at his messy fingers that chocolate cupcake crumbs look like beard stubble - or "pokeys", as he calls it. So he rubbed some on his face and said, "Look Mama! Me have pokeys too. Mmm, me eat my pokeys."

New Floors!

Luke and Ethan spent the day putting new laminate wood flooring in our living room; they'll be doing the kitchen/dining area and the hallway one of these days. Ethan was a big help to Luke - he fetched and carried boards and also held the back down as Luke tapped it into place. That's what he's doing here in this first picture.



Benny and Alex were supposed to help by staying out of the living room. Benny decided he'd rather help by making a mess of the boxes that were blocking the doorway.


Alex decided he'd like to be outside and carry off Luke's tools. In an effort to keep him inside and occupied, I decided to let him lick the beater from the chocolate cake I was making.


It worked for a while, anyway!