The Shark

If you have hardwood floors in your kitchen/eating area and you have children, you need a Shark. It is a "cordless sweeper." But here's the clincher: because there's no cord, and it's lightweight... even a 4-year-old can run it! This is a daily job four our 5-year old. She also can differentiate between all the charging cords in the kitchen junk drawer (crazy how many there are!) in order to locate the correct one for plugging in the vacuum to charge after it dies.

It all began because Emily decided she prefers her Rice Crispies with no milk, which results in rice crispies everywhere. (And also resulted in Abby prefering her cereal w/o milk). So as opposed to outlawing no-milk cereal, I decided the perfect solution was just to have her clean up when she was done. It was either cereal with milk, or run the Shark immediately after breakfast. Now she vacuums the hardwoods almost daily (regardless of cereal choice). It is also extremely handy for a quick once-over on the carpets or the entryway rug. Have you seen their infomercial? (I hadn't prior to buying mine at Target...I just knew I didn't like sweeping often). The little vacuum is really quite good. Cheerios, pine needles, dried rice, dried play dough bits... you name it :) I highly recommend it. That, or get a dog to clean your kitchen floors (which hasn't been completely ruled out yet).

LOOK, MA...

NO TRAINING WHEELS!

A day in the life

Alright, so these pics span a little more than one day... perhaps 2 weeks. And a very busy couple of weeks they have been! Here's a snapshot of life as a 9-month-old:

I'm Crawling!

I'm pulling up to standing...

... in many new places!

I'm chewing on things (gotta give my 2 new teeth a workout).

I love to jump and swing!

Did I mention I'm crawling to investigate new places?

...and learning persistence!


I got baptized:

on March 1st, my Grandma

Priscilla (McCarson) Cooper's Birthday!

Frozen fish (not a meal idea)

My mothering resume continues to expand each day. I never know what new skills I will add to my repertoire. Last week Abby's blue betta fish, Olivia, died. She was clearly not feeling well, so we weren't completely shocked to find her floating aimlessly on Wednesday afternoon. I did my best to break the news carefully and gently to my daughters. (Craig was gone for a 14-hour-er, so I was on my own). Emily's idea was then to bury Olivia and mark the spot with a giant blue X. Abby's idea was to return her to the sea. My idea... well, you can guess...which was deemed unacceptable to the fish's mother. Knowing that we couldn't dispose of the fish that day, I debated what to do with her. With all of Carson's baby food jars just begging for new uses, I thought it was brilliant to put her in one with a bit of water (it seemed too wierd to add no water). Well, it turns out that wasn't a fantastic idea. Long story short, we ended up with a dead betta fish, double-bagged in ziplocs, in the freezer. How was I supposed to know how to store a dead fish?! This is valuable life information that was not covered in any of my college courses. Also, what about "How to break the news of a dead pet to your child" or, "How to help a child deal with the loss of a pet" ...information you don't realize you're missing until seconds before you need it.

I am happy to report that Olivia has since been successfully and happily released into the wild; returned to the water from whence she came. And I now have several more skills and valuable knowledge to add to my resume.