housekeepers

madelyn likes the vacuum cleaner and now we know that mason does too. matt was cleaning the bathroom and madelyn had been helping him, but then he wanted me to give her another task. after baking some cookies (before you get too impressed it was just refrigerated rounds, but madelyn thought that it was fun), i started vacuuming up crumbs from under the table because mason is now a scavenger - he is always hungry.

and then i put madelyn to work. i gave her the extension (i don't know what else to call it) and sent her hunting for crumbs in the kitchen. mason came over the check it out too. he helped by holding the cord for her. i think she spent a half-hour 'vacuuming' and it was really helpful. she did a great job! she kept hunting for crumbs after we put the vacuum away and when she found some we got it back out. how can i ignore such enthusiasm for cleaning?

mason gave me the opportunity to capture his love for the bathroom. a few days earlier i had to give madelyn a bath after she had been out helping daddy in the yard and came in filthy. mason just stood at the tub like he is in this picture trying to get the bath toys and madelyn's hair. he just loves hair - mine and madelyn's - and not just to pull, but to touch and play with. and, yes, pull.

he has added the bathroom to his selection of favorite places in the house. since he was a baby he loved bath time and having his hair rinsed so maybe that is part of the attraction. but this isn't really somewhere we want him to wander to unattended so we have been working with madelyn on keeping the door closed when it is not in use. especially that he has become more interested in toilets as a fixture to pull up on.

in the picture he was working around the edge of the tub pushing in all the toys. he was knocking them in and then seeing if he could reach them. but since the tub was dry he couldn't reach them - i don't think he minded though. love.