Saturday, March 04, 2006

My newest employee



"Mom, I'm your new upstairs maid"

I don't know if it is all the Cinderella we have been watching, but Lauren has become DETERMINED to be a servant in our house. She puts on her "working" clothes (a Juicy tube dress and kerchief? It must be Paris Hilton working clothes......) and asks me for jobs all day long. One day she begged to wash the car, the day I took these pictures she wanted to wash the cabinets and stairs. I forgot to remind her to wring out the wash cloth and as a result we had water sloshed all over the house. Now we just "clean" with baby wipes. The up side of this is that she really is doing a good job keeping her room clean and is getting pretty good with the man cub. She bosses him around better then I could. She is the best little Gestapo informant ever. "Mom, Jacob is eating garbage again" "Mom, JJ is drinking out of the toilet!" "MOM, Cubby is stuck in the fireplace and I can't get him out!". It's like I don't even have to be in the room anymore. Sweet.

Please don't tell me this is going to end. I didn't realize how much I NEEDED an upstairs maid until she showed up!!!

17 comments:

Sister Pottymouth said...

I got a video once of son#2 helping me clean. The sliding doors on our bedroom closet are floor to ceiling mirrors, and he decided he was going to clean them...with his tongue! He licked every inch he could reach, while I tried not to laugh too hard. It was great!

Island Queen said...

"I didn't realize how much I NEEDED an upstairs maid until she showed up!!!"

LOL... we had a Cinderella phase in our home too. Niece #1 (8) and Darling Daughter (4) were constantly helping and cleaning.

Hmmm... I think I may get that DVD out again! They've been slacking! ;-)

Bek said...

Cleaning with the tongue...that is a good concept. At least you won't soak the carpet...right?

The next question is "how do I nurture this phase?" Dishes? Laundry?

When did we decide that cleaning wasn't fun? Oh yeah, when I had to do it all day long! :-)

Lyle said...

My kid's desire to clean comes and goes in spurts and rarely lasts longer than a day.

On the flip side, I've had my oldest acuse us treating her like a servant.

Julie- That video has to be golden. I gringe when I think back to the surfaces my tongue licked when I was a lil tike. A mirror is probably one of the safer surfaces...I bet he had fun trying to watch himself in the mirror.

dalene said...

I for one won't tell you it's going to end, because not one of my kids has ever had a phase like that. Not remotely like that.

This is my life: teenage boy #1 comes home and the first words mumbled out of his mouth are "Gimme some food!" Yeah right. I look at him with that "Since when has that ever worked?" look and tell him to get his own food." (Not that I wouldn't be willing if he asked nicely.) But I try to be patient because I truly know that in just 2 1/2 short years he will rue every day he ever talked like that to me. He is going to miss me so badly...

So enjoy those Cinderella days and from my lips...I hope they never end.

La Yen said...

Sweet. Send her to El Paso for a vacation.

Lorien said...

Excellent! My daughters are pretty good at windows. I used to be all worried about them wasting windex (because, you know you have to use about a quart to wash one window!) so I'd spray for them and stuff, but that takes the fun out of it, right? So now I figure who cares!? Give them each a little spray bottle with an inch or 2 of windex in the bottom and let them go to town! (after they are old enough not to spray each other in the eyes, of course) If they keep the fingerprints and cat paws off the french doors, I'm happy! In fact, you just gave me an idea for tomorrow when I hear "I'm bored!" "Okay, dear, lets play Cinderella..."

Bek said...

She has even answered me "yes, stepmother" many, many times.

Hey, as long as I am not stepping on Polly Pockets, I am happy.

Lisa said...

Don't discourage it! Miles is just figuring out that's it's. . NOT. . . a . . . game,. . . is . . .it?! And it's amazing how much I can get them to do for a quarter. Thank goodness Day's has that nifty Shasta machine that will take their hard-earned money and turn it into the most delightful treat in the world!

Julie said...

How lucky are you? The question is: when are you going to start hiring her out? :)

Bek said...

hiring her out.....THAT is how we will pay for our next adoption.

Sweet!

Yen, you are first...then Julie is on deck...

wendysue said...

I love it when the girls do this. I do a little cringing wondering how much I'm going to have to follow up cleaning, but hey if I wasn't going to clean in the first place, it can't hurt too much right? right!!

Rachel said...

i can get leah to do this every once-in-awhile, but i think if i start using the cinderella tactic, she'd be all over it.

i usually have her unload the silverware holder thing from the dishwasher (thus alleviating some of your unloading hatred) so she can sort. i think sorting is supposed to be developmentally good for kids?

i love the "stepmother" stuff. leah has called me that a time or two, but now it's usually "my highness."

p.s. thanks for defending me against blog attacker. you're the best.

QueenScarlett said...

That's awesome... we should all indoctrinate our daughters with Cinderella...not only will they want a prince charming but dangit they will clean for us. ;-) I'm thoroughly looking forward to when I can just sit and eat bon bons... (where did bon bons go...I miss them)

Bek said...

I don't have bon bon's for you, but I have a darn good substitute....Dibs!! Has anyone else had these? Small chocolate covered bites of ice cream. Bring on the Dibs!!

Queen, every once in a while I think about the fact that in fairy tales they need a man as the end of the quest, but my kids will watch them and leave me alone, so I don't really care!!!

R--I wasworried that you would think that I was saying I thought you complained.....whew. :-) The trolls aren't worth your time. Trust me. That is what the delete key is for.

C. Jane Kendrick said...

Days Shasta machine!
Where Bek lives they have Grapes of The Valley Natural Carbinated Beverage Machines instead.
It's so posh there Bek, you may not want to tell your neighbors that you have a "in house" cleaning staff.
(And for heaven's sake don't let on that it's your own daughter!)

Bek said...

good one CJane! I won't tell anyone that I have a live-in nanny on staff(actually my sister living with me while saving money and occasionally works off her rent by babysitting!). I don't pay taxes on either of them so now Derek can NEVER run for office. ;-) Too many skeletons in my professionally cleaned closet.

Posh. Pshaw. I live in the ghetto compared to Paige's palatial home in the land of St. Matthew. Bliss.

I do feel that all this organic, vegan, diary free, glueten free, etc, etc stuff is wasted on me. I am still at McDonalds as often as Trader Joes and my children think that "nugget" is an actual cut of chicken. Sigh. You would be a MUCH better consumer here then I am.