Cleaning Machine Extraordinaire!'

Noelle is the oddest kid. Whenever she's not making messes (often), she's cleaning up other people's!

Let me illustrate. Our 3 cats are sloppy eaters. Their food never stays in their bowls but ends up all over the floor. This has bothered Noelle from day 1. She is always going over to kitty corner and placing the kibble, one piece at a time, back into each dish. (And yes, she has tasted the food on several occasions, much to our chagrin. The kitties' food is a no-no, but Noelle assures us she is merely doing a quality control check.) Now when mom has the broom and dustpan out, even better! Noelle grabs both in her little hands and tries to sweep up the mess. This task takes awhile since the kibble just spreads across the laminate floor even further with every awkward swipe of the broom.

Another time my little gal demonstrated her housekeeping skills was when mommy made a mess. I had set Noelle's sippy cup on the couch, failing to notice that it had turned over. I didn't notice that the water was leaking into the cushion, but Noelle sure did when I sat her down on it. She promptly slid off the couch, found a slightly used napkin somewhere, and began dabbing at the wet area on the seat. She dabbed, dabbed, dabbed until she was satisfied, put the napkin on a side table, and went off to play.

My last example is the cutest yet. After an afternoon stroll with Noelle around the block, I wheeled the stroller into the kitchen (we keep it in the garage usually - don't know where my mind was that day). Problem is, I forgot that the wheels were very muddy from our excursion. Noelle looked at me with reproachful eyes when she noticed what I had done. She began to inspect the damage to the floor, but I whisked her away before she could kneel in the fresh mud. Well, I left it there to dry and we went off to other things, including fixing dinner to take to daddy at karate classes.

When we entered the kitchen again later that evening, Noelle spotted the patches of dry mud. She immediately grabbed a damp cloth that had been left on a chair and kneeled down by the stroller. Before I realized what she was doing, Noelle had already scrubbed one muddy spot off the floor!! And she proceeded to do this to all the other messy areas around the stroller!! (By this time, I was stretched out on the couch with a box of bon-bons...) Within minutes Noelle was satisfied with her work, plopped the wet cloth back on its chair, and headed to the living room to play with her toys.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get her to scrub pans...