Why I love PBS

     I don't know about you, but I love it when my apartment is clean.  This pretty much rarely ever happens around here. As anyone with an 18 month old will tell you, it is nearly impossible to clean when they are awake!  There are only a few ways that I ever manage this feat.

 Method 1:  PBS.  Seriously, thank the Lord for a channel that shows educational cartoons at pretty much anytime during the day.  This is how I cleaned my kitchen this morning.  Hooray for Sid the Science Kid!  Hooray for Peep!  And most of all hooray for mommy knowing what these shows even are....

Of course, I can't just plop peanut in front of the TV all day long and still feel like a good mother. But I honestly do not feel bad about a show or two while mommy does the dishes, or runs downstairs to do laundry.  I know there are people who are totally against this, but I am not one of those mommies.  Although I have recently decided that Adam and I should not watch any of our shows in the evening before Peanut goes to bed because she is starting to understand a whole lot more and repeat things!!!  CSI or Family Guy may not be the best choice for her anymore....

Method Two:  Get her involved in the cleaning.  If mommy is sweeping, then Emma is swiffering.  If mommy is wiping the kitchen table, then Emma has a baby wipe in hand and is taking care of the cofee table.  Of course if mommy is vacuuming then all bets are off, and  Emma is standing on the couch screaming like I'm hurting her.  (We're working on this one...sigh)   Of course, this has it's drawbacks.  My neat little piles of dirt are often swiffered away all over the floor, and I have to summon a lot of patience in order to not scream and throw a fit.  After all, they're never too young to encourage cleaning right??? I'm really hoping to have a neat teenager some day. (Go ahead and laugh at me, I deserve it)

Method Three:  Food, food and more food.  And this one only works if she is buckled into her booster seat.  And if this happens to be mealtime then it does mean that I have chosen to clean over making myself any sort of good lunch, and will probably have to settle for either waiting for her afternoon nap or snacking on whatever I can grab while she's not looking.  Am I the only one who can't eat in front of her children without having to either share or endure full out tantrums in front of the refrigerator?

(this picture is from July of last year, so cute!)

And that's pretty much all I've got. Those are all the tricks.  And now you can see why my apartment isn't always as clean as it should be.  So how and when do you manage to get your cleaning done?  Let me know if I'm missing out on some good tricks!