Random thoughts

I have become my Mother.  Last week, I told Madeline she needed to clean her room.  And after like three hours, seriously, of whining about it, she all the sudden announced she was done.  I went up to check it, of course, and it looked great!....Until I looked inside her closet.  She had just stuffed everything she needed to clean, in it.  So what did I do?  What my mom, and probably most parents would do.  Threw all the stuff she should have cleaned up, into the middle of the room.  She was crying and all that drama, when she saw I had figured out what she had done, and was still going to make her clean her room.  I remember when my sister Nicole and I were younger, every Saturday we had to clean, dust and vacuum our rooms.  And we also knew if we finished too quickly, then Mommy Dear would be up to check things out.  And her "checking things out" was literally dumping drawers into the middle of the floor if it wasn't clean and organized.  So, Nicole and I wised up, and just hurried and cleaned our rooms, and then if not enough time had passed, we would quietly sit and read or such, so mom would think we were "cleaning" the whole time.:)  Madeline will no doubt figure out that trick next.:)

In Madeline's defense, when she does finally clean her room, she does a REALLY good job.  She makes her bed as good as I could.  And she folds all her blankets well too.  She has also confessed to me that she LOVES to have a clean room. 

One more thought, when do kids figure out to eat from the sides first, before going straight to the jelly in the middle?:)