Because she is her father's daughter, around age 2, Sam became obsessed with cleaning things. She would grab a paper towel and go around the house wiping things down. This would be awesome for me if she could reach things that actually get dusty, and wasn't, you know, a 2 year old. Mostly, she just knocked things over. When Peyton was born, she realized that his wipes were wet and could therefore "clean" better than her paper towel, and she went around stealing wipes and cleaning things, whether they should be wiped down or not. This made various items in the house (couches and throw pillows) oddly damp when they should not be, and left a streaky filmy finish on everything else in the house. Plus, I always seemed to be mysteriously out of wipes at the worst possible time! Sometimes, she would even run off with one or two I had set aside mid-change and I would be holding her brothers bum in the air while she scrubbed a floor tile with my last remaining wipe and said "But it's diiiirty!!! I need it!" What I was dealing with was always much dirtier, but what does she care if he sits in his own poo, she has to walk on that floor!
Of course, Daddy doesn't really clean everything with baby wipes, so soon Sam figured out where the Windex and other cleaning supplies were. We had a very serious talk about how they were out of her reach for a reason, and we didn't want her climbing on things to get them down. These bottles had poison in them, and if she sprayed herself in the eye or got some in her mouth, she could get sick.
Daniel is not one to discourage a budding clean-o-holic, however, and told her that when it was time to clean her little table or the fridge front or other pre-approved things, he would spray some Windex for her and she could wipe it up with a paper towel while he kept an eye on things. Part of me thinks this was really more about ensuring proper technique than actual safety, but hey, as long as I don't have to clean it...
Sam was a big fan of this plan. She combined our conversation about the danger of cleaning supplies with Daniel's promise to spray Windex for her, so now when she's in a scrubbing mood, she grabs a paper towel, points to the mess and yells "Hey! Can I get a squirt of poison over here!? I need a little poison!"
I'm sure that will play out really well in the real world. Teachers and other strangers are going to love hearing a little girl beg for poison. There's no way this will turn out badly for us, right?
2 comments:
None at all. :) Our kids all learned "chemicals". That worked with the pool too. So now when they want to clean, they ask for the chemical wipes. The other day Jordan yelled out that Sara had gotten the chemicals out. Comes in handy, I think, whehter its poison or chemicals!
Haha! The other day, Sam was looking at the fan blades going around and I thought of Karianna saying "OWWIES!" in that deep "scary" voice when she was super little. That kind of stuff is hilarious, but I always wonder how it plays outside my social group. I'm just hoping the phrase "But I always get poison at home" doesn't come out of her mouth, because with Sam, the likelihood is way up there!
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