Making Messes

This has certainly been a busy week. I was just positive that once the holiday's were over I'd be bored with nothing to do, but that certainly hasn't been the case. It seems that every day brings it's challenges where time management is concerned and juggling everything is a quite a task. But, here I am tonight, making a little time to write, so that's good. I think.

After such a fun weekend cropping, it was back to business as usual. Kids had school Monday and I had the unfortunate task of shopping for groceries at Costco. Dakota was such a champ though and we were able to get in and out of there in no time. She's really a great little helper when she's in the mood to be. She likes running ahead of me and grabbing things to put in the cart. Most of the time it's what I've asked her to get but on occasion she'll grab something that catches her eye and toss it in. I just wait a minute or two until she's moved on and put it back; so far she's never asked about anything she's put in there. She does make me laugh a little though because girlfriend cannot resist a pretty dress. Whenever they've got the girls fancy dresses out, she's on it. She wants one of every color and she wants to put them on right there in the aisle. They've got some really cute dresses out for spring and I ended up getting two that she'll be able to wear this summer on the cruise. I got her size 5's because the 4's seemed snug...hard to believe she's getting so big.

Tuesday and Thursday Dakota had preschool and I was absolutely THRILLED when she didn't cry getting out of the van! I had already prepared myself for tears and pleading but as luck would have it, I didn't have to worry. She got out and walked in and had terrific days.

I got a new little hand held vacuum for Christmas and man I love that thing. I hate to even admit that, but seriously, when you have little kids in the house and there are crumbs/pieces of paper/bits from outside all over the floor 24/7, it's a handy little tool. Seems that I'm not the only one who loves it though because my little Kota uses it all the time too.

Part of me is happy to have a little helper but another part of me hopes she realizes that a clean house isn't really all that important. As I've gotten older I've certainly become more concerned with keeping things picked up and am known to get pretty cranky when the house is a mess, but trust me, my house is no museum. I don't even want it to look like one. I want the kids to remember having fun here and playing and making messes...not using the mini vac to clean them up! The problem isn't really that Dakota wants to use the vac either, it's that she's so concerned with keeping things picked up all the time now. She's always cleaning her room and is so proud of the job she does. I don't want to brush her off but I don't want her thinking that her job in life is keep things spotless and/or to clean up after other people. I want her ambitions to be higher than housewife/mother/maid...

I'm probably reading way into this considering she's only three but maybe I'll try to place less importance on cleaning and get back to making more messes...it's definitely more fun.