Izzy learns to sweep ...

I have trained my kids to get their own breakfast in the morning.  Their favorite breakfast food is cold cereal, so why not?  Andrew and Izzy both take care of everything and as long as they get Alex a bowl of cereal too, I'm all for it.  They love feeling independent and I love being able to sleep in (or go back to sleep after feeding Calvin).  It's sometimes not a good thing cuz I've found myself to sleep most of the morning away at times, but ... o.k. I don't really have any good excuses.  But I'm trying.

One morning I got out of bed to see that they'd fed themselves and left the proof all over the kitchen floor.  Thank goodness it was just cereal pieces and not milk too.  I questioned the kids and found out Izzy was the culprit.  So Izzy and I had some bonding time and she got to learn how to THOROUGHLY sweep.  Now if you know Izzy, she's really good at the "I'm tired" or "I'm cold" so I can't do anything thing.  She says these lines and then curls up into a ball on the floor.  At other times, she'll go straight to her bed crying.  If the crying gets too loud, her door gets closed but if it's still disruptive, she gets to sit on the back porch so no one but the neighbors can hear her.  (That usually quiets her down.)  One time it was pretty chilly outside and she was wearing a dress (she loves dresses) but it was definitely not for cold weather.  She'd been led outside til she could get control of herself.  A few mins. later I came to check on her and she was just sitting by the door.  I asked if she was done throwing her fit?  Nope!  I almost laughed cuz I knew it was cold out there, but this stubborn girl did not want to give in.  I kept a serious face and went back to work somewhere nearby so I could keep an eye on her.  I think it was at least 5 mins. later before she decided she was cold enough and she'd better be all done.  Boy do I wish it were colder more often.  Maybe we'd nip these tantrums sooner?=)

After that, it took most of the morning for her to get the kitchen done.  It was a lot of pulling teeth, but she did it.  I think in the past she's known me to not be patient enough to wait for her to get it done right so I think she was waiting for me to do it for her.  But everytime I was showing her how to sweep, I would only sweep over sections she'd already done.  When she was finally finished, she was so proud that she'd swept the kitchen all by herself.  (It only took 2-3 hours.=)  But I do have to say that she's been a lot neater with her food since then.