One more thing I can't do with a toddler around. . .

If you haven't been around Abera, let me fill you in. The boy is active. In fact, he takes active to a whole new level. He climbs, runs, throws-sometimes all at once and always at a rapid pace. Grace was a busy toddler too, but in a much less destructive way. He also wants to be involved in everything I do-typing on the computer, talking on the phone, driving the car. However he has never indicated the slightest interest in cleaning the house, unless perhaps to strategize about how he will mess it up again. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I brought out the dust cloths and the Pledge. I will grant you that this is a rare occassion-I believe the housecleaner should be someone other than me. But we are trying to reduce living expenses and so the housecleaner went the way of the big house, massages and trips overseas. However, we still have both cable and satellite TV less we (he) miss a football game.

The dust buildup was bothering me so much I had to do something about it. And that is when I created a Pledge addict. Abera completely ignored me until I sprayed the Pledge. Then he wanted to spray the Pledge all over the place. So being the quick-thinking Mom that I am, I put him to work. I sprayed a table and gave him a rag and moved on. Perfect-except every time I would spray the Pledge, he would run after me yelling "hi! hi! hi!" He wanted to be in on the action. So I would go from one dust-laden surface to another with the screams of "hi! hi! hi!" behind me. After we were done, Abe would keep going back to the cabinet where the Pledge is kept and pointing and screaming for it. I had to hide the Pledge from him.

If only I could get him to vacuum.