What it Means to Clean Up - Three Year Old Style

I have an almost three year old - Stinkles. She is somewhat trying (what kid isn’t at that age), but cute & funny.

I bought a table & chairs for the basement playroom this past weekend. I wanted to get the Play-doh, crayons, markers, glue, etc. off my kitchen island. There is only room for two at the island anyway so when other kids are over, I didn’t have enough room to keep them all busy with these types of activities. With the table, they can play all they want downstairs.

Of course, as soon as I got it home, my girls wanted the table set up – they were ready for Play-doh! I surveyed the playroom and it was a disaster area. Babies, blocks, & dress-up clothes were strewn all across the 12 X 14 play area. The first order of business became cleaning up so there was room for the table.

I gave each girl a job and then started picking up the plastic food & mini cookware in the kitchen area. My back was to them and I heard Stinkles singing the clean-up song – “Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up everybody does their share.” But there was another sound - whishoo, whishoo, whishoo. I turned around and there she was on the Sit-N-Spin!! How that activity is cleaning up, I’ll never know. I guess I have to be a little more specific, “Now Stinkles, pick up the blocks. That means picking up the block and placing it in this box. Then, you pick up another one and do the same thing . . .”

Kids – argh!

Silver lining:
1. The playroom was clean for two hours.
2. I was able to clean the kitchen island off so there is NOTHING on it!