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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Why didn't I think of this sooner?

So Guy has this frustrating quirk, where whenever he eats, what ever he eats a good percentage of it lands on the floor. Now this wouldn't be quite as frustrating if it wasn't for a couple of facts:
  • We live in an apartment with carpet in the dinning room.
  • I am pregnant, and large enough that it is kind of hard to bend over and crawl under the table.
To combat this issue, we have put another rug under our table to try to keep the carpet clean, and we have plastic mats that go under each of the kids chairs. This saves our carpet, but the floor still gets really disgusting. Well today I had an idea. It was such a simple, and good idea, I wondered why it took until today to think of it.

Last night Daddy cleaned up the large pieces that had accumulated under the table, but I hadn't really had a chance to vacuum the small stuff yet. I was having people come to my house today, so I wanted the floor to look nice, and was trying to figure out how to clean up his breakfast mess off the floor so I could vacuum. Then I had the thought, "why not have Guy clean it up." He is old enough to understand if I ask him to pick something up and put it on his plate. So I suddenly decided at breakfast today, to have the kids clean up after themselves.

Cinderella has done really well, with me giving her basic instructions on taking care of her different dishes. Guy has also done well. I have him gather up his food pieces that are scattered on the table, and then put them on his plate. Then I get him out of his chair, and have his pick up the large pieces off the floor, and put them on the plate. Then I have him help me carry the plate over to the sink. Today it has required a little more stooping and bending than my belly wants me to do, but that's OK. I think if I can stay consistent in this long enough, it will become a habit, and the majority of the problem will be taken care of. Hey, he may even decide he would rather not throw his food on the floor.

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