She's home!

Maddy is home from her two week trip over to her dad's. I picked her up and we went straight to the movies. We saw Kung Fu Panda. Which was so cute, by the way. I thought it was going to be kinda dumb... but it wasn't. The story was good. The scenery was beautiful. I was happily surprised.

Anyways, so I had told her that I had a big surprise for her when she got home. (Her room.) I was trying to get the suspense going... hoping that would work in my favor. It did. I got the reaction I was looking for. Her mouth hung open, her eyes were wide, she said Oh. My. God. as she spun around slowly.

Maddy is nothing if not dramatic.

Another change we made was to mix up the chores. Connor had been slowly taking over Maddy chores of unloading the dishwasher and picking up the toys at night. So I made those his official chores and gave Maddy the brand new chores of cleaning the downstairs bathroom and helping to clean up after dinner. Everyone was pleased. I have such helpful children and I feel that I'm doing everyone a disservice by not taking full advantage of this fact. So I'm trying to do better. I vow to take advantage of my kids.

So this morning the kids head downstairs while I get changed. While I'm puttering around in my bedroom I can hear the chores getting done. When I finally emerged from the bedroom I find that Dr. Seuss actually unloaded the dishwasher today. Maybe they had a Cat in the Hat adventure while I was brushing my teeth. I can't be sure.

I also find it odd that spraying a surface with a spray bottle and wiping it with a cloth is skill to be learned. I mean, I guess. But it's not something you think about. Here I am in the bathroom showing Maddy how to use a bottle of Windex. (Not so close!) And then how to wipe it down. (Don't just swipe it all around in bizarre circles, have some kind of system!) I'm also amazed how helpful it will be when Maddy masters this new skill. I had her wipe down the stove top yesterday after dinner. Granted it took her the better part of 20 minutes... but she did it. And it looked pretty good.