"I vacuuming!!!"

Saturday morning...cleaning house...vacuuming with your little vacuum buddy. Makes a priceless picture. I can say this now because just a few weeks ago vacuuming turned instantly from a 15 minute job to almost double that.

See, what they don't tell you in the "Mother Manual" that every hospital sends you home with, *snicker*, is that once your daughter hits a certain age, she wants to help you......WITH EVERYTHING. And what it also fails to tell you is that her way of helping is not exactly what you would consider helping. I love that my daughter has an innate sense of wanting to help out and clean, but I'm not so much of a fan of the increased amount of time I spend doing the work. You know, like when you fold clothes and she comes up to you, unfolds a freshly folded towel and says, "Here, Mommy. I help". Somehow that one load of clothes feels like 2 loads when I finally get finished. Vacuuming turned into a similar situation. My little one wanted to grab onto the pole and "help". Only my normally long strides used to get the job done were cut into about a third since the little legs that were attached to the little arms holding the pole were about a third the size of mine. *Sigh*

A week ago, a dear friend of mine, Tina, passed down some of her daughter's toys to us. And in the batch of stuff??? A TOY VACUUM!!! WHOOOHOOOO! One that talks and everything. Bless you, woman! You have saved my vacuum sanity!!!! She LOVES that little thing. When she plays with it, I always hear the same thing. "I vacuuming". So this morning was the big test. As I began vacuuming, I see my mini-me appear beside me with???? Her vacuum!!! Not holding onto mine...but pushing hers and saying, "I vacuuming!"!! It was a really sweet picture, actually. And the best part? The whole job only took me 15-20minutes, not 30+.

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