Cleaning and Showering

Poor Josh has been obviously bored this summer between me being too pregnant to take the kids out much and then having a baby making it even harder to get out much. It's been obvious through his behavior...getting into trouble a lot more, letting out ear piercing screams when in trouble, irritating his siblings more than usual, etc. I've been feeling bad about it; at 2, I don't expect him to be able to entertain himself appropriately.

I've also been worried. School starts on Monday. If he's having this much trouble now, what's going to happen when we are doing school and really don't have time for him? So, I've been wracking my brain on how I can entertain or include him in school (an upcoming post) and what I can do for him now.

I found a few things for him yesterday and it seemed to work. He didn't get into as much trouble and seemed much happier.

First, I convinced him to come down to the cellar and help me do laundry. He hasn't wanted to come downstairs before; I think he's afraid of the very steep and tall steps he has to get down. But yesterday, he flipped around and came down them backwards on hands and knees. It worked...and reminded me that I need to get out there and sweep up the spiders and their webs on the stairs so he's not crawling too close to them. Well, he helped put the clothes in the washer and dryer. I also picked him up and sat him on top of the washing machine so he could help me pour in the soap. He came down with me twice yesterday and insisted on helping me again this morning.


Later, I was in the kitchen trying to wash the dishes. I gave him our bottle of cleaner and an old hand towel. After showing him how to squeeze the trigger and wipe it up, I let him go. He "cleaned" some of the cabinets and parts of the floor. Here he's squirting a spot on the floor. If you can't see, he puts the squirt bottle so close to what he's squirting that it only gets a tiny spot wet. But that's ok. It kept him happy for about 20 minutes. BTW, that's not Windex he's using...just the bottle. I make my own cleaner that is pretty safe for him.

Later in the day, I found time to take him outside to ride his little trike. He's got a tiny one that is small enough for a 2 year old. He can peddle that thing all the way around the block. So, that's what we did. He peddled himself all the way around the block while I carried Madelynn in the sling around the block. Fortunately, only one trip around was enough for him yesterday. I'm still not up to a whole lot of walking.

Finally, I took the kids outside last night to try to see a Perseid meteor or two. It was partly/mostly cloudy so the odds were against us. However, I did see a rather bright one (before the kids came out) and Mika says she saw two of them. They spent so much time rearranging blankets and goofing off, I'm surprised she managed to see anything. Josh, on the other hand, spent the time point out the clouds, "One! One!"