Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Happy Birthday to Me

AND to my hopefully-almost-born niece, in Frigid Fargo...

This morning my two oldest brought me a cookie sheet lined with a towel, and atop it was half a mug of lukewarm tea, a handful of raw almonds, a nice, yellow (not bruised at all, which are the ones I usually end up with!) banana, an orange, "with the peel already started," and a handful of baby carrots. How sweet is that!

THEN, I asked the Little Artist if she would remove the toys from the laundry basket to the toy box, and then empty the dryer into the basket. I think I asked her this one time. Next thing I saw, she had the empty basket by the dryer. I was amazed! Usually there are a dozen requests/reminders, sometimes worse, before she complies. Other times she's a delight and delights in pleasing me. I thanked her for doing things as I had asked (it turned out the dryer was empty anyway), and went back to cleaning the toilet (I know, it's my birthday but I didn't manage to clean them all yesterday). When I emerged from the bathroom, the dryer was running and the washer was empty... The dryer was set exactly right, and there were no wet socks or other things left in the washer or lost between that and the dryer. My four-year-old can 'switch the laundry!' That is a wonderful birthday present indeed.

5 comments:

sariah said...

Happy Birthday! Are you doing any thing fun to celebrate? You know, besides cleaning toilets... :-) And I'm so glad to hear you have more laundry helpers. Good for you in teaching your children useful homemaking skills (I didn't learn how to do laundry until I went to college and I was the oldest child in the family!! What was my mother thinking?)

EllaJac said...

Sariah,

If I could just keep the laundry "helpers" from doubling as laundry "makers" I'd somehow get ahead of the pile, perhaps?

I made a cake for once (and forgot some ingredients)... I usually forego that, due to the holiday indulgence that I'm always trying to abandon this time of year. The girls loved it, and Baby grabbed a fistful or two right out of the side of the cake when her own bowl was empty!

annie said...

Happy (belated, now) birthday! If I'd known earlier (read my feed reader earlier), I'd have sent a card. Oh well. :) And congratulations on your niece. :) And how wonderful your daughters not only brought you a charming breakfast, but helped you with your laundry. Do you think a one year old is old enough to start with that?

Danielle said...

Happy Belated birthday! Congratulations on the child rearing...it is paying off!

Meghann said...

Yea! Happy bday to you...sorry I missed it...its been a little crazy around here and I've gotten way behind on my reading. Hope your day was wonderful! :)