Jan 13, 2009

Vacuum Driving...

His Highness had his 2-year checkup with the doctor yesterday. He is healthy, and brilliant, and meeting all his milestones, and somehow he's really, really big. We have no idea where this came from, as both the Cat Daddy and I have always been on the small side. But no, our little beefcake is the size of many 3-year-olds, and has quite the melon to boot. We all know how important size statistics are at this age (in general, not at all), so it's really no big deal. Just kind of a funny thing to us. And awesome for maintaining upper body strength. If anyone needs to work on biceps come on over and we'll let you babysit for free.

One of the wonderful things about being two is that His Highness loves to help clean up. He has gone from terrified of the vacuum to asking every day to "keen-up." He's even getting big enough that he can "drive" the vacuum. Mostly though, he likes to sit while it's running and put the hose up to his mouth to feel it suck out his spit. Makes a mommy proud.

Don't tell the Cat Daddy, but this is a good reminder to me to at least attempt to keep tabs on the extent of the domestic disarray. I figure I might as well take advantage of this narrow window of time where His Highness will gladly help out with the chores. The house is far from spotless, but it does get picked up every few days or so, and vacuumed more than once a month. Oh yes, I'm awesome.

Anyhoo, it's also good motivation to keep the vacuum put away in its closet, so as not to arouse the keen-up monster unintentionally. Turns out, however, that I'm not really fooling him all that much. We were watching Sprout while I checked my work email, and I glanced up to see him wheeling the vacuum right over. I looked over and the closet where it lives was closed. This led me to deduce that he had opened the closet door (he can work knobs now--eek), pulled out the vacuum, shut the closet door (kudos to him--I forget that half the time), and wheeled the vacuum over in front of the couch where I was sitting.

HH, quite proudly: "Vonnie!" (this means vacuum)

Me: "Yes, that's the vacuum. Whatcha doing with it out here?"

HH: "Vonnie dwive!"

Me: "You're driving the vacuum?"

HH: "Yeah."

There you have it...

3 comments:

Amber said...

I can totally relate to the vacuum thing. Luke has been terrified of it and would cry until he was almost 2. (I had to vacuum while he was either sleeping or out of the house.) Then he became fascinated. Mine is too large for him to push, so while I vacuum with the large one, he vacuums with the smaller broom-vac. It's great! He also likes to help empty the dishwasher, and throw wet clothes into the dryer.

I'm relieved about your honesty in the condition of your house. We try to pick up the toys every couple of days so you don't break your neck, vacuum at least once every couple of weeks (or when the baby tries to eat crumbs off the floor), and run the dishwasher when we run out of cups or spoons. And laundry... well, I'm never caught up on that, and it only gets worse when you add another baby to the mix!

Thanks for sharing your great stories!

linda t said...

Here's my theory... if someone's home is messy, with dishes pilled, toys everywhere... they're a good Mom! A real good Mom!

And trust me, when baby # 2 comes along... you will look like an even better Mom!

Hangin with the kiddos is what matters.

Anonymous said...

I don't remember anyone being scared of the vacuum, although to this day the kids want to know who is coming to visit when I pull it out. My oldest son was terrified of Veggie Tales, though. Go figure.